The product is a great disappointment. I bought it and sold it off on the same day. I wanted to support local products so bad but this is just not it.
Here's why:
1. Let's start with the packaging box. When I held the box, I didn't feel like I bought a premium product at all. The box is made with flimsy soft cardboard that you get buying China products years ago. But even China products nowadays come with good quality packaging. When I opened the box, I was shocked (again!) to see the plastic mould holding the pair of headphones is such low quality. It felt like I just bought a toy in a pasar malam. You can see they have absolutely put no thought in their packaging design.
2. The quality of the headphone itself is not too bad. The headband pressure is ok for my head. I wore it just long enough to test the sound so I couldn't really tell if it will be comfortable with long hours of wearing it. The buttons have a nice tactile feel so you know you pressed something lol.
3. Pairing and voice prompts: I was shocked the third time with this. The voice prompt has a strong Singaporean accent! It felt like Sim Wong Hoo just got one of his female staff to record the voice prompts. You can clearly hear the words "SD cud", "Bluetoof", "Your headphone is now pad" in full Singlish glory. I know it's made in Singapore, but can't they get a more professional voiceover? Why, Creative, why??
Taking pictures of my ears and face was not as difficult as some reviewers described it to be. I did it myself in front of the mirror and it went well.
The pairing process on my iPhone was not very intuitive. In the SFXI app, it could find the headphone and I could add it. But then nothing happened and there was no other information. I played some music from my phone but there was no sound from the headphone. I had to go into the iPhone Bluetooth setting to connect it before I could hear the music. The app should have explained that but nope.
4. The "holy grail" audio: Sadly, this is not it. I downloaded and tested some 7.1 samples. I closed my eyes to listen closely. There was hardly any difference between the surround and the rear "speakers". LFE was ok but not fantastic. Front left and right is easy to accomplish so no surprise there. Oh, the button to activate the effect is a small button on the left cup. When you press it to turn on the effect, the LED light ring will turn green and then back to the color you personalized. When you press it again to turn off the effect, the LED light ring will turn yellow and then back to the color you selected. However, there is no voice notification when you are wearing it. So it makes me wonder why the need for the green and yellow light if you can't see it when you are wearing the headphone. Why is there no voice notification for it?
As for the holographic audio, I was not impressed. It felt like the sound is coming from outside the headphone, but there is also the hollowness that came with it. The bass is weak although you can adjust the level in the equalizer. But out of the box, it tried but failed to mimic the 7.1. Perhaps (hopefully) the next version will be close.
So, to conclude, with the packaging, the voice prompts and the audio quality, I feel that Creative is so stuck in the 90s with this product. In this day and age, a well-known manufacturer like Creative can no longer just make a product and stuff it into a simple box and sell it to the masses like what it was doing in the 90s. Consumers today are pampered with well-designed products starting from the moment you touch the box. That's why there are youtubers making unboxing videos so interesting because every detail counts! As for the holographic audio, it is not there yet unfortunately.