Who's waiting to buy the Creative Super X Fi AMP at 6.34PM?

[shinkuaku]

For information.

Go to media infomation or properties of your files to see if you should set it to stereo, 5.1 or 7.1

 

[ice888]

For information.

Go to media infomation or properties of your files to see if you should set it to stereo, 5.1 or 7.1

Great stuff!
---
If you are still on the fence, enjoy $20 off your purchase using this discount code at check out
FRIEND-X47B5SF
https://shop.sxfi.com/products/sxfi-amp

 

[turtlezhu]

collecting tomorrow.

 

[stoney]

Anyone still waiting for the delivery? I waited for coming to 3 weeks and no updates.

 

[ice888]

collecting tomorrow.

nice! going to buy the bundle?

 

[BernardATK]

I placed my order on 5th Oct. Still no updates. Emailed them n was told by last week, items should be shipped out.

 

[heng8888]

Hi, can anyone going for collection this week help me to buy aurvana trio @ $140 please??? PM me please, deeply appreciate your help!!

 

[Chukarzii]

Anyone still waiting for the delivery? I waited for coming to 3 weeks and no updates.

Based on email I received from Creative, should be receiving from this week onwards

 

[InnocentBlood]

I'm curious how much 'better' is the speaker positioning after in-mic calibration (pretty important because that's the whole point of this tech). Were you able to reference it against the Elac HTS with the same videos? Were you fooled? And before/after the in-mic calibration, testing is done with Emu Teak or personal gear? *think you mentioned emu later in your post, so ignore this.

I believe Humjipeng01 has already mentioned this, but it's inaccurate to say that lossy (codec) sources are what caused folks to be unimpressed. A lossless encoded, but badly recorded/mixed song will still sound like crap. And the SXFi is supposed to work with both native stereo and surround sources, so it's also inaccurate to discount people that tested with stereo audio. It may just mean that the SXFi engineers didn't do a good job with stereo sources. Creative is an international corporation with Singaporean roots. And who sued Apple successfully for $100 million. Let's evaluate their tech that way.

My own opinion is that there're only 2 ways to A/B test or review the device: Against the Elac HTS, or against existing virtual surround techs. And probably have subsections on stereo and surround sources.

I am a Mac user. in Audio MIDI setup page, when you setup the SXFI amp, it is possible to listen to how a 5.1 setup is supposed to sound like, using the amp. with my original app profile, I personally felt that the difference between the front speakers and the surround speakers were not very obvious. with the in-ear mic calibrated profile, i was able to differentiate between the front speakers and the surround speakers better. all this is based on my personal hearing of course. the rest of the speakers such as subwoofer and center speaker settings more or less sounded the same to me, especially the deep rumble from the subwoofer. the one that I could tell the difference was between the front L, front R and surround left and surround right, in terms of where the speakers are positioned when I close my eyes and am not staring at them on my screen.

in the mic calibration session that my boy and I attended, there were only test tones played to capture our profile. no further videos were played. however during my turn, I did request them to play a demo clip (not a movie or music clip but an actual sound clip meant to showcase surround sound) and I personally could not tell the difference as to whether the nature sounds - especially the twittering birds! - were coming out of the speakers or my headphone. so i left creative HQ feeling satisfied that it was worthwhile taking the time and effort travelling all the way from Sengkang to Jurong East just to get the mic calibration done

I honestly do not know if my ears were fooling me or not but I do trust my ears and I do trust what I am listening to your mileage may vary of course.

I do not have a Elac HTS at home. what I do have is a pair of Mirage floor standers, Mirage center speaker, Mirage surround speakers and Paradigm PDR-10 subwoofer. they have been serving me faithfully since 2003 when I got them from KEC Audio @ Adelphi. the SXFI amp has nothing on them - as can be expected. I also have a Samsung HW-F850 soundbar hooked up to my Samsung 75" TV in the hall and a Yamaha YAS-207 soundbar hooked up to my Samsung 46" TV in my bedroom. these are all 2.1 channel soundbards. in my personal experience, the SXFI amp beats a soundbar setup handsdown. this was the reason why I bought the SXFI amp in the first place - it is my personal opinion and personal experience that the SXFI amp replaces a soundbar setup very well. unfortunately you will have to contend with all that long USB-C cable running across your floor to where you are sitting. in my personal experience, that is a very worthwhile compromise.

with regards to lossy stereo sources, I did not mean to come across as an audio snob. I do subscribe to John Darko's philosophy of being a Music First, format secondary person. I subscribe to both Spotify Premium and Tidal HiFi. I know how good Spotify premium can sound - that's why I continue paying for it. I do realise that a well-mastered album will sound better in 320 kbps than a low DR album in lossless FLAC. having said that, i do not trust the audio sources in YouTube - again this is my personal opinion and personal experience. there is a reason why the audio bit-rate is never shown on YouTube but you can see what the video resolution is. Main attraction on YouTube is picture quality - not sound quality.

if i am not mistaken all the demo clips featured on this site are hosted on youtube whereby they are in stereo: https://superxfi.com/demo

what is this meant to prove? that the SXFI amp is best at taking stereo sources and "upscaling" them to 7.1 channels? wouldn't it be better if Creative could create their own stereo and multichannel clips that is meant to showcase how good the SXFI amp can replicate the sounds over a pair of headphones?

 

[Humjipeng01]

if i am not mistaken all the demo clips featured on this site are hosted on youtube whereby they are in stereo: https://superxfi.com/demo

what is this meant to prove? that the SXFI amp is best at taking stereo sources and "upscaling" them to 7.1 channels? wouldn't it be better if Creative could create their own stereo and multichannel clips that is meant to showcase how good the SXFI amp can replicate the sounds over a pair of headphones?

Yup, this got me scratching my head as well. Why they'd do a demo page with movies hosted on Youtube?

Here's an example:
(set your Sound to 5.1 for this)
DTS 5.1 Test playback on Youtube:

LS and RS just basically sound like FL and FR. Anyone who is testing it this way will basically just say - Cheh, the SXFI doesn't work. It's all gimmicks.


But same sample, downloaded:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4nYAKUiVpepY1NuQW5ER3l3SXc/edit

On WMP-HC, the separate channels test correctly.

So, Creative has some ways to go to really think about how to showcase the device properly.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Super X-Fi $20 Discount code:
FRIEND-M286X4P
https://shop.sxfi.com/products/sxfi-amp

 

[turtlezhu]

I waited 2 weeks and I texted them on fb. They told me they could slot me in for 22nd for self collect. So heading down tomorrow.

Anyone still waiting for the delivery? I waited for coming to 3 weeks and no updates.

 

[turtlezhu]

Nope Low on cash.

nice! going to buy the bundle?

 

[ice888]

I am a Mac user. in Audio MIDI setup page, when you setup the SXFI amp, it is possible to listen to how a 5.1 setup is supposed to sound like, using the amp. with my original app profile, I personally felt that the difference between the front speakers and the surround speakers were not very obvious. with the in-ear mic calibrated profile, i was able to differentiate between the front speakers and the surround speakers better. all this is based on my personal hearing of course. the rest of the speakers such as subwoofer and center speaker settings more or less sounded the same to me, especially the deep rumble from the subwoofer. the one that I could tell the difference was between the front L, front R and surround left and surround right, in terms of where the speakers are positioned when I close my eyes and am not staring at them on my screen.

in the mic calibration session that my boy and I attended, there were only test tones played to capture our profile. no further videos were played. however during my turn, I did request them to play a demo clip (not a movie or music clip but an actual sound clip meant to showcase surround sound) and I personally could not tell the difference as to whether the nature sounds - especially the twittering birds! - were coming out of the speakers or my headphone. so i left creative HQ feeling satisfied that it was worthwhile taking the time and effort travelling all the way from Sengkang to Jurong East just to get the mic calibration done

I honestly do not know if my ears were fooling me or not but I do trust my ears and I do trust what I am listening to your mileage may vary of course.

I do not have a Elac HTS at home. what I do have is a pair of Mirage floor standers, Mirage center speaker, Mirage surround speakers and Paradigm PDR-10 subwoofer. they have been serving me faithfully since 2003 when I got them from KEC Audio @ Adelphi. the SXFI amp has nothing on them - as can be expected. I also have a Samsung HW-F850 soundbar hooked up to my Samsung 75" TV in the hall and a Yamaha YAS-207 soundbar hooked up to my Samsung 46" TV in my bedroom. these are all 2.1 channel soundbards. in my personal experience, the SXFI amp beats a soundbar setup handsdown. this was the reason why I bought the SXFI amp in the first place - it is my personal opinion and personal experience that the SXFI amp replaces a soundbar setup very well. unfortunately you will have to contend with all that long USB-C cable running across your floor to where you are sitting. in my personal experience, that is a very worthwhile compromise.

with regards to lossy stereo sources, I did not mean to come across as an audio snob. I do subscribe to John Darko's philosophy of being a Music First, format secondary person. I subscribe to both Spotify Premium and Tidal HiFi. I know how good Spotify premium can sound - that's why I continue paying for it. I do realise that a well-mastered album will sound better in 320 kbps than a low DR album in lossless FLAC. having said that, i do not trust the audio sources in YouTube - again this is my personal opinion and personal experience. there is a reason why the audio bit-rate is never shown on YouTube but you can see what the video resolution is. Main attraction on YouTube is picture quality - not sound quality.

if i am not mistaken all the demo clips featured on this site are hosted on youtube whereby they are in stereo: https://superxfi.com/demo

what is this meant to prove? that the SXFI amp is best at taking stereo sources and "upscaling" them to 7.1 channels? wouldn't it be better if Creative could create their own stereo and multichannel clips that is meant to showcase how good the SXFI amp can replicate the sounds over a pair of headphones?

Nah. Don't think they meant to imply that SXFI AMP is good for upscaling audio. I think the purpose is to show that even for stereo content, it has a perceivable enhancement.

Definitely agree with you that SXFI AMP beats a soundbar setup.

 

[ice888]

Just went through this awesome movie on Netflix with the SXFI AMP.
No listening fatigue, and great audio-visual experience all round. Beats my 2.1 desktop setup any day.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80239666

---
If you are still on the fence, enjoy $20 off your purchase using this discount code at check out
Promotion ends 24th Oct!
FRIEND-X47B5SF
https://shop.sxfi.com/products/sxfi-amp

 

[shinkuaku]

Found this... https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/...ound-sound-vlc-player-hardware-4151365-2.html

Using xbmc, haven’t tried it yet.

 

[lxXXxl]

I am a Mac user. in Audio MIDI setup page, when you setup the SXFI amp, it is possible to listen to how a 5.1 setup is supposed to sound like, using the amp. with my original app profile, I personally felt that the difference between the front speakers and the surround speakers were not very obvious. with the in-ear mic calibrated profile, i was able to differentiate between the front speakers and the surround speakers better. all this is based on my personal hearing of course. the rest of the speakers such as subwoofer and center speaker settings more or less sounded the same to me, especially the deep rumble from the subwoofer. the one that I could tell the difference was between the front L, front R and surround left and surround right, in terms of where the speakers are positioned when I close my eyes and am not staring at them on my screen.

in the mic calibration session that my boy and I attended, there were only test tones played to capture our profile. no further videos were played. however during my turn, I did request them to play a demo clip (not a movie or music clip but an actual sound clip meant to showcase surround sound) and I personally could not tell the difference as to whether the nature sounds - especially the twittering birds! - were coming out of the speakers or my headphone. so i left creative HQ feeling satisfied that it was worthwhile taking the time and effort travelling all the way from Sengkang to Jurong East just to get the mic calibration done

I honestly do not know if my ears were fooling me or not but I do trust my ears and I do trust what I am listening to your mileage may vary of course.

I do not have a Elac HTS at home. what I do have is a pair of Mirage floor standers, Mirage center speaker, Mirage surround speakers and Paradigm PDR-10 subwoofer. they have been serving me faithfully since 2003 when I got them from KEC Audio @ Adelphi. the SXFI amp has nothing on them - as can be expected. I also have a Samsung HW-F850 soundbar hooked up to my Samsung 75" TV in the hall and a Yamaha YAS-207 soundbar hooked up to my Samsung 46" TV in my bedroom. these are all 2.1 channel soundbards. in my personal experience, the SXFI amp beats a soundbar setup handsdown. this was the reason why I bought the SXFI amp in the first place - it is my personal opinion and personal experience that the SXFI amp replaces a soundbar setup very well. unfortunately you will have to contend with all that long USB-C cable running across your floor to where you are sitting. in my personal experience, that is a very worthwhile compromise.

with regards to lossy stereo sources, I did not mean to come across as an audio snob. I do subscribe to John Darko's philosophy of being a Music First, format secondary person. I subscribe to both Spotify Premium and Tidal HiFi. I know how good Spotify premium can sound - that's why I continue paying for it. I do realise that a well-mastered album will sound better in 320 kbps than a low DR album in lossless FLAC. having said that, i do not trust the audio sources in YouTube - again this is my personal opinion and personal experience. there is a reason why the audio bit-rate is never shown on YouTube but you can see what the video resolution is. Main attraction on YouTube is picture quality - not sound quality.

if i am not mistaken all the demo clips featured on this site are hosted on youtube whereby they are in stereo: https://superxfi.com/demo

what is this meant to prove? that the SXFI amp is best at taking stereo sources and "upscaling" them to 7.1 channels? wouldn't it be better if Creative could create their own stereo and multichannel clips that is meant to showcase how good the SXFI amp can replicate the sounds over a pair of headphones?

Many thanks for the elaboration! I mentioned the Elac HTS only because that's their reference equipment, but comparing it with your personal HTS serves the same purpose.

Seems then to milk this device to the fullest potential, the in-mic calibration is still a requirement. So far those who had it all reported noticeable improvements, albeit to varying degrees.

 

[Humjipeng01]

This was fun to watch

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Super X-Fi $20 Discount code:
FRIEND-M286X4P
https://shop.sxfi.com/products/sxfi-amp

 

[ice888]

Looks like only 3 days left till the end of the promotion

 

[Humjipeng01]

Looks like only 3 days left till the end of the promotion

Wonder how many they've sold (or refunded..).

Anyway, a classic that sounds great over the SXFI:

The drums, vocals and guitars from this sound really good:
(drums at 03:58! wow...)

I think I'm gonna start showing my age... LOL

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Super X-Fi $20 Discount code:
FRIEND-M286X4P
https://shop.sxfi.com/products/sxfi-amp

 

[marc-x]

How do you guys arrange for the mic calibration?