Creative sxfi air headphones

Dr.Vijay

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They'll surely have it in future editions.

That's how you roll out products. Never whip out your best when you know you can sell lesser editions first.

For now, the best is to get the amp and your personal headphone of choice.

SXFI Air is just an easy way out for most users.

But if you've been pampered by NC benefits, that's when you'll feel SXFI Air is lacking.

Using amp and wired headphone effect is better than the sxfi air.

Overall between noise cancelling and surround sound super XFI, I will still go for noise cancelling.

If creative can have noise cancelling and super SXFI then it’s a game changer. Otherwise, hard to convince myself to get Super xfi without noise cancelling.
 

bigdog

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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.
 

Ed.YEO

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I cant get it to work via bluetooth with my Mate 20 Pro. Wired connection is ok.
一日之内太多人試用,架耳機無做恢復原厰設定,“洗”記錄,就會有咁嘅問題。
我尋晚試聼,同你一樣都有連接問題。。。連接后,無聲添!要搞到兼職推銷必須搵創意科技真職員嚟搞掂連接問題。

最終。。。我對喱款耳機失去興趣係音質問題。
SXFi聲質處理應該係“後期添加”嘅處理過程,就好似你飲黑咖啡可以選擇性加上一片牛油嚟為“味道”增添“色彩”。如果無啓動SXFi,至少聲源音質應該唔受影響。有低音就有低音,有高音就有高音。。。唔係完全嗮!

無SXFi應用程式就無基本“味道”。
200幾蚊買架無“味道”嘅耳機。。。實在。。。悲哀!:(
 

Ed.YEO

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They'll surely have it in future editions.

That's how you roll out products. Never whip out your best when you know you can sell lesser editions first......
:eek:一開始就用高售價“試水”。。。唔係呱???:s22:
 

yattan

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Tried the wired version at the booth, truly find it amazing with the right music.

Unfortunately, the demo BT set was buggy. Disconnected and had a buzzing sound. Staff was not able to get it working in the couple of minutes i waited. Does not inspire confidence for a 200+ bucks product.

While the product is amazing, there is perhaps quality issues that need to be addressed. Will wait for the next gen product to hop onto the bandwagon.
 

samwangsi1986

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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.
Have you tried another headphone profile on the app? I bought the dongle and using it with DT990 pro, found out that by using DT990 profile, the mids completely disappear and sound is hollow and awful. Then I chose unknown headphone profile (also tried others tagged as "sxfi certified") and the experience is what it is supposed to be (at least my opinion).
 

10ansonroad

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Bought the headphones at Challenger at $209. Wired connection (with any device) and bluetooth with my Samsung S9 turns out fine. But if I were to try to do bluetooth pairing with my LG Smart TV, it just cannot scan the existence of the headphones. One of the intent is to use the headphones to watch TV when everyone is asleep. My LG smart TV has no issue pairing with other devices, including Creative woofer. Anyone might know how to overcome this?
 

PC-User

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Bought the headphones at Challenger at $209. Wired connection (with any device) and bluetooth with my Samsung S9 turns out fine. But if I were to try to do bluetooth pairing with my LG Smart TV, it just cannot scan the existence of the headphones. One of the intent is to use the headphones to watch TV when everyone is asleep. My LG smart TV has no issue pairing with other devices, including Creative woofer. Anyone might know how to overcome this?
I paired it with my Philips Android TV no issue. By for movies Bluetooth latency is there after watching for some time. I ended up connect with a 15ft AUX cable.
 

VoodooKing

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Got the AIR C. I'm pretty impressed with it. Playing games, the audio positioning such as bullets flying past you and hearing footsteps behind you was really great!

Tried songs on Apple Music and was really impressed at how the vocals seem to keep from in front of me.

After watching Captain Marvel and noting how the sound was like, I went home to watch Avengers Infinity Wars with the AIR C and noted that it was very close to mimicking the cinema feel. Pretty impressed with it.

The one thing I felt was strange was the ear profiles, I took 4 head profiles, one with a colleague helping and 3 ownself with 2 mirrors. 2 sounded exactly the same and the other 2 profiles had some differences, these were the ones I self took. Not sure exactly how the algorithm works, could it be because camera not level or not enough lighting.

Also the ear cushion caused a bit of itchiness, although they were comfortable.

So far I'm happy with it.
 

PC-User

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For me I don't play games or watch movies in front of the PC using USB. So I won't be able to experience fully the SXFI effect. In stereo mode (watching movies from TV), the sound does expand outside the head with SXFI on but the stereo effect is reduced. They go in front, slightly upwards and more centralized. When SXFI is off, the sounds from left and right are more obviously separated. At certain moments it does feel like the sounds are 'from' the speakers in front but not always.

When listening to songs on PC using AIMP with EQ adjusted, sound quality is superb.

But battery life really really sucks!
 

trans168

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The quality of the SXFI Air is poor. Bluetooth keeps dropping off/disconnecting (even after reconnecting). The slider on both sides to adjust the headphone is also very loose and keeps sliding off by itself when moving the headphone. The volume for the "Connected to Bluetooth" response is also super soft. Their staff told me it's a setting but apparently is an 'undetected QC' problem.
 

PC-User

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The recent firmware update seems like got rid of the (very little bit) echo effect. Sound with SXFI on now is totally the same as off, just widening effect.

But the voice prompt is... shake head. They added the word 'input' after 'USB/BT/SD Card' but it sounds like it's recorded separately and join together. Is it making voice prompt with a more decent accent that difficult?...
 

samuelk

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I believe the CEE at suntec will have offer again.

at 219 now. most likely show price will be much lower
 

occifer

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The quality of the SXFI Air is poor. Bluetooth keeps dropping off/disconnecting (even after reconnecting). The slider on both sides to adjust the headphone is also very loose and keeps sliding off by itself when moving the headphone. The volume for the "Connected to Bluetooth" response is also super soft. Their staff told me it's a setting but apparently is an 'undetected QC' problem.

The dropping off/disconnecting occurs randomly even when i connect to computer via usb to my computer. Need to fix this. Everything else is ok.

Hmmm firmware update?
 
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occifer

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Anyone managed to upload your sfxi profile to the sfxi air successfully via bluetooth? Mine keeps failing so far.

And where is the firmware update located?
 
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