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

[ghostjacker]

I would hazard it might be partly to do with the way the track recording was done because it's not always. E.g. saxophone didn't work in the Maravel track but did in some other. Violin didn't work in Vanessa Mae but the cello worked great in Tina Guo's Wonder Woman Youtube.

Progressive rock huh?
Kansas - Dust in the Wind (flac)
Guitars were clear. Violins though, like my Vanessa Mae track, lost a bit of the sound of the string. Vocals were clear and crisp.
Feels almost like listening to an unplugged performance with them in front of me.

Queensryche - Silent Lucidity (320k mp3)
Beautiful. 1 word. Lol. Vocals were smooth and enchanting. Instruments were clear. Backup chorus coming on at 02:17 was beautiful. Guitars were rendered nicely.

Electric Light Orchestra - Hold On Tightly (320k mp3)
The way it's recorded (with slight emphasis on reverb and echo) makes it sound overly "airy" on the SXFI. Sound of drums on original is deliberately muffled so when I play it over the SXFI, it's accentuated a bit more. This "airy" effect also kindda hid the piano accompaniment unfortunately.

Don't have many of these tracks in my library, sadly.. lol.

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

Thanks bro. Still on the fence in regards to SXFI. Don't watch much . Hopefully all the short comings with music will be sorted out. Then I'll consider getting 1. Again thanks for the song reviews.

 

[ice888]

Thanks bro. Still on the fence in regards to SXFI. Don't watch much . Hopefully all the short comings with music will be sorted out. Then I'll consider getting 1. Again thanks for the song reviews.

Honestly no jarring problems with music. Been enjoying it on the go and have let my friends tried SXFI on their favourite tunes - they were generally impressed and wanted to get one for themselves.
---
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

 

[LiLAsN]

Nice share. Sagu works in creative???

Looks like it since this information was not even shown on Creative or Super X-Fi's social media sites nor has there any link on the front page of SXFI website to point us in that direction.

But appreciate it Sagu for introducing this to us.
Know that I have good intentions in critiquing the SXFI Amp. Why stoop to a low standard when we can make Creative products great again by making a better product that fixes all the issues silencing all who dares to oppose them.


Like I recently made my way down to test out the Audeze Mobius. The guy says headphones can only drive 2 speakers mostly. There is no need to feed it more than 2 channels when I asked about whether the Bluetooth was restricted to 2 channels or 8 channels.
And he believes 6/8 channel DSP is a way for gaming companies to cash in on the clueless gamers.


So I simply showed the Overwatch video where everything is turned off so it was only a Stereo output to imitate how it will be like if the game can only output in Stereo to the Mobius. He said, "There, I can hear left and right."
But I said, you can't hear front to back. Even if the Mobius is making a 3D surround field around you, the source input is still Stereo. There's too little information to recreate exact positional cues that you can with 6/8 channel speakers.

Then I let him hear the Dolby Atmos for Headphones implementation of Overwatch and let him hear the game bot walk pass and he can hear that nice transition from front to back.

And that is the point. The game is receiving a 7.1 input and using the internal software DAC/DSP to process where the sound should be coming out of.

With an 8 channel input, the DSP has more information to work with to map out each speaker locations and cues.


Thus, the Mobius suffers from the same problem as the SXFI Amp where in Bluetooth mode, it is limited to 2 channels. If you want 8 channel surround, you will need to download the software and let the software do some DSP trickery where it outputs in Stereo with the virtual surround sound and feed it to the headset.


Problem is, this will limit its 8 channel input from a device to only the PC as well.

Some reviewers also compared it to the Astro wireless headset where thanks to the optical input, the DSP is done on that charging port/Amp combo and wirelessly transmit the virtualized surround Stereo to the headset. So all inputs will be actual surround be it TV, PS4, and all.


What I am hoping for this future generation of Amp/DACs is to have a HDMI input to get actual lossless 5.1/7.1/5.1.2 input. That would be a massive help to us. Looking forward to it in the X7 upgrade. Take note Sagu!


For those curious about the Mobius, 3D effect is convincing. And with the head tracking technology, it really feels like you are in a room with speakers where when you turn your head to the right, you will hear the sound more on your left ear as you were supposed to. Like there are actual speakers in front of you. There was a tiny amount of echo. Way less than SXFI. But the Ambisonics 'room' is customizable via the software to make it slightly bigger or smaller. Thus solving the "this room feels like a concert hall" issue with the SXFI.
Like for me personally, the default 'room' size in the Mobius 3D space is just right for me. Speakers are around you too. Like really good speakers too thanks to Planar drivers.
But if you compare it to the E-MU Teak, the EMU Teak scores more points for the trebles and especially that impressive bass even though the EMU is still a dynamic driver. It is still the driver used in the $1900 T1s. So.... it makes this $599 planar drivers look lacking. But it really stands out in the mids.

That head tracking audio technology if done right, will actually be best implemented for AR where you are seeing the real world with an overlay on top. And this headset's 3D surround will make you hear sounds coming out of that overlay. That is the best execution for this technology.


The Mobius software has a setting for pitch, yaw and roll. Pitch is actually the height element. So by right, you can hear sounds above you. But as I did not have a 5.1.2 audio source or game to test that with, I can't say for sure if it is a good implementation. But since there is 3D head mapping, imagine looking up or down and you can hear the enemy on the 3rd floor above you and another enemy looking for loot on the 1st floor below you. Wow. It does seem impressive if done right.

But as I said for the SXFI and now the Mobius, I'll believe it when I see it. As of now, the software doesn't work on a Mac. So no way to test the 8 channel algorithm.

 

[gregory_choo]

Like I recently made my way down to test out the Audeze Mobius.
.........

For those curious about the Mobius, 3D effect is convincing. And with the head tracking technology, it really feels like you are in a room with speakers where when you turn your head to the right, you will hear the sound more on your left ear as you were supposed to. Like there are actual speakers in front of you. There was a tiny amount of echo. Way less than SXFI. But the Ambisonics 'room' is customizable via the software to make it slightly bigger or smaller. Thus solving the "this room feels like a concert hall" issue with the SXFI.
Like for me personally, the default 'room' size in the Mobius 3D space is just right for me. Speakers are around you too. Like really good speakers too thanks to Planar drivers.
But if you compare it to the E-MU Teak, the EMU Teak scores more points for the trebles and especially that impressive bass even though the EMU is still a dynamic driver. It is still the driver used in the $1900 T1s. So.... it makes this $599 planar drivers look lacking. But it really stands out in the mids.

That head tracking audio technology if done right, will actually be best implemented for AR where you are seeing the real world with an overlay on top. And this headset's 3D surround will make you hear sounds coming out of that overlay. That is the best execution for this technology.


The Mobius software has a setting for pitch, yaw and roll. Pitch is actually the height element. So by right, you can hear sounds above you. But as I did not have a 5.1.2 audio source or game to test that with, I can't say for sure if it is a good implementation. But since there is 3D head mapping, imagine looking up or down and you can hear the enemy on the 3rd floor above you and another enemy looking for loot on the 1st floor below you. Wow. It does seem impressive if done right.

But as I said for the SXFI and now the Mobius, I'll believe it when I see it. As of now, the software doesn't work on a Mac. So no way to test the 8 channel algorithm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqTZn8dW7Y0

 

[Humjipeng01]

Thanks bro. Still on the fence in regards to SXFI. Don't watch much . Hopefully all the short comings with music will be sorted out. Then I'll consider getting 1. Again thanks for the song reviews.

No problem. These are songs I hardly listen to despite having them LOL, so good that I had a chance.

For me, the device has the potential for a lot. But there are a few tweaks that seem to be needed to bring it to a higher level. By default (which would be the masses), I think they're gonna experience a 6/10 or somewhere around there.

Some tweaking is likely still needed (whether player or equalizer settings) to get the most out of it for maxxing out its potential.

A product that works? Yes.
A product that hits the ground running in 1st place? Not yet.


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

 

[Asure7]

after reading this thread. sgreans really can be insurance agents.
the distance people go to make others use their promo code

wait till u visit the iHerb thread...

 

[delceer]

Nice share. Sagu works in creative???
---
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

Is good to have Creative staff here.

 

[marc-x]

Is Monday 22 Oct the last collection date?

 

[InnocentBlood]

i was back @ creative HQ on wednesday to do the in-ear mic calibration for myself and my boy. we met Mr Lee Teck Chee and i had a whole bunch of questions and feedback for him. one of the things that he confirmed is that most media players - especially ones which run on android - are only limited to stereo via the USB audio output. they also have a nvidia shield in their testing lab.

my positive experiences with the amp continue. there is NO day and night difference between the calibration using the android app and the in-ear mic calibration, as reported by others online. from my personal hearing, what I can make out is a better "speaker positioning effect" using the in-ear mic calibration whereby i can better sense where the sounds are coming from, especially in a 5.1 setup. i still have not played any material which are originally encoded in 7.1 channels since getting this amp. i've just been testing this exclusively using material that was originally encoded in 5.1 channels.

for those of us who feel very underwhelmed by the amp, i would recommend that you ensure your sound settings are configured properly in the OS level. creative have updated their FAQ where they explicitly state that if you are playing material which is originally encoded in stereo then please set your OS sound setting to stereo. if you are playing material which is originally encoded in 5.1 channels, then please set your OS sound setting to 5.1 . the amp is just not intelligent enough to automatically detect what you are feeding it. you need to manually specify in the config page of your OS. also, using the matching headphone profile helps a lot. for myself i am using the E-MU Teak.

most of the folks who seem unimpressed with this device continue to listen to lossy stereo sources such as spotify and youtube. especially with youtube, you never know what resolution you are listening to. i believe youtube only contains audio in stereo - not 5.1 . there are proper online resources with demo material encoded in surround sound in the proper resolution such as https://www.demolandia.net and http://www.2l.no/hires/ - i would recommend you download the free clips from there and test your amp with it. if you still feel underwhelmed then i hope you still qualify for the refund period

 

[Maggitango]

Looks like it since this information was not even shown on Creative or Super X-Fi's social media sites nor has there any link on the front page of SXFI website to point us in that direction.

But appreciate it Sagu for introducing this to us.
Know that I have good intentions in critiquing the SXFI Amp. Why stoop to a low standard when we can make Creative products great again by making a better product that fixes all the issues silencing all who dares to oppose them.


Like I recently made my way down to test out the Audeze Mobius. The guy says headphones can only drive 2 speakers mostly. There is no need to feed it more than 2 channels when I asked about whether the Bluetooth was restricted to 2 channels or 8 channels.
And he believes 6/8 channel DSP is a way for gaming companies to cash in on the clueless gamers.


So I simply showed the Overwatch video where everything is turned off so it was only a Stereo output to imitate how it will be like if the game can only output in Stereo to the Mobius. He said, "There, I can hear left and right."
But I said, you can't hear front to back. Even if the Mobius is making a 3D surround field around you, the source input is still Stereo. There's too little information to recreate exact positional cues that you can with 6/8 channel speakers.

Then I let him hear the Dolby Atmos for Headphones implementation of Overwatch and let him hear the game bot walk pass and he can hear that nice transition from front to back.

And that is the point. The game is receiving a 7.1 input and using the internal software DAC/DSP to process where the sound should be coming out of.

With an 8 channel input, the DSP has more information to work with to map out each speaker locations and cues.


Thus, the Mobius suffers from the same problem as the SXFI Amp where in Bluetooth mode, it is limited to 2 channels. If you want 8 channel surround, you will need to download the software and let the software do some DSP trickery where it outputs in Stereo with the virtual surround sound and feed it to the headset.


Problem is, this will limit its 8 channel input from a device to only the PC as well.

Some reviewers also compared it to the Astro wireless headset where thanks to the optical input, the DSP is done on that charging port/Amp combo and wirelessly transmit the virtualized surround Stereo to the headset. So all inputs will be actual surround be it TV, PS4, and all.


What I am hoping for this future generation of Amp/DACs is to have a HDMI input to get actual lossless 5.1/7.1/5.1.2 input. That would be a massive help to us. Looking forward to it in the X7 upgrade. Take note Sagu!


For those curious about the Mobius, 3D effect is convincing. And with the head tracking technology, it really feels like you are in a room with speakers where when you turn your head to the right, you will hear the sound more on your left ear as you were supposed to. Like there are actual speakers in front of you. There was a tiny amount of echo. Way less than SXFI. But the Ambisonics 'room' is customizable via the software to make it slightly bigger or smaller. Thus solving the "this room feels like a concert hall" issue with the SXFI.
Like for me personally, the default 'room' size in the Mobius 3D space is just right for me. Speakers are around you too. Like really good speakers too thanks to Planar drivers.
But if you compare it to the E-MU Teak, the EMU Teak scores more points for the trebles and especially that impressive bass even though the EMU is still a dynamic driver. It is still the driver used in the $1900 T1s. So.... it makes this $599 planar drivers look lacking. But it really stands out in the mids.

That head tracking audio technology if done right, will actually be best implemented for AR where you are seeing the real world with an overlay on top. And this headset's 3D surround will make you hear sounds coming out of that overlay. That is the best execution for this technology.


The Mobius software has a setting for pitch, yaw and roll. Pitch is actually the height element. So by right, you can hear sounds above you. But as I did not have a 5.1.2 audio source or game to test that with, I can't say for sure if it is a good implementation. But since there is 3D head mapping, imagine looking up or down and you can hear the enemy on the 3rd floor above you and another enemy looking for loot on the 1st floor below you. Wow. It does seem impressive if done right.

But as I said for the SXFI and now the Mobius, I'll believe it when I see it. As of now, the software doesn't work on a Mac. So no way to test the 8 channel algorithm.

The more i see your reviews are more like from Creative competitors than true review of the product.
Same goes to jnasville, gregory.

 

[Humjipeng01]

i was back @ creative HQ on wednesday to do the in-ear mic calibration for myself and my boy. we met Mr Lee Teck Chee and i had a whole bunch of questions and feedback for him. one of the things that he confirmed is that most media players - especially ones which run on android - are only limited to stereo via the USB audio output. they also have a nvidia shield in their testing lab.

my positive experiences with the amp continue. there is NO day and night difference between the calibration using the android app and the in-ear mic calibration, as reported by others online. from my personal hearing, what I can make out is a better "speaker positioning effect" using the in-ear mic calibration whereby i can better sense where the sounds are coming from, especially in a 5.1 setup. i still have not played any material which are originally encoded in 7.1 channels since getting this amp. i've just been testing this exclusively using material that was originally encoded in 5.1 channels.

for those of us who feel very underwhelmed by the amp, i would recommend that you ensure your sound settings are configured properly in the OS level. creative have updated their FAQ where they explicitly state that if you are playing material which is originally encoded in stereo then please set your OS sound setting to stereo. if you are playing material which is originally encoded in 5.1 channels, then please set your OS sound setting to 5.1 . the amp is just not intelligent enough to automatically detect what you are feeding it. you need to manually specify in the config page of your OS. also, using the matching headphone profile helps a lot. for myself i am using the E-MU Teak.

most of the folks who seem unimpressed with this device continue to listen to lossy stereo sources such as spotify and youtube. especially with youtube, you never know what resolution you are listening to. i believe youtube only contains audio in stereo - not 5.1 . there are proper online resources with demo material encoded in surround sound in the proper resolution such as https://www.demolandia.net and http://www.2l.no/hires/ - i would recommend you download the free clips from there and test your amp with it. if you still feel underwhelmed then i hope you still qualify for the refund period

Glad to see another user who confirms similarly that the mic-calib doesn't result in a day/night experience. A good app-mapp can be pretty close.

Anyway, I don't agree that lossless music = good and lossy music = bad. I found a few of my flac tracks didn't sound good over the SXFI but, as I mentioned previously, could be down to the way the track was recorded.

320k mp3s (being lossy) are pretty usable as well if lossless isn't available and in most casual listening situations, come very close to lossless quality.
However, if you listen to poor quality audio, you shouldn't be expecting good quality sounds.


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

 

[daisuki]

The more i see your reviews are more like from Creative competitors than true review of the product.
Same goes to jnasville, gregory.

Singapore got other competitors making surround Amps in our homeland? Im curious to know.

Afaik, sxfi amp still not shipping overseas. He give a neutral review about the Audeze both good and bad but you say like its a Creative product like that.

You got contribute your input like giving step by step sxfi instructions on Windows to help "competitor" product like him meh? Promote emu teak = creative competitor. Makes sense.

Your first post is sxfi, your last post is sxfi. Ya. trusting you is much better.

 

[iAHBEE]

The more i see your reviews are more like from Creative competitors than true review of the product.
Same goes to jnasville, gregory.

are u one of the smelly creative cso who blackface when the early adopters went in to get the emu teaks? how are their reviews worded in any way from a competitor?

....


The Mobius software has a setting for pitch, yaw and roll. Pitch is actually the height element. So by right, you can hear sounds above you. But as I did not have a 5.1.2 audio source or game to test that with, I can't say for sure if it is a good implementation. But since there is 3D head mapping, imagine looking up or down and you can hear the enemy on the 3rd floor above you and another enemy looking for loot on the 1st floor below you. Wow. It does seem impressive if done right.

But as I said for the SXFI and now the Mobius, I'll believe it when I see it. As of now, the software doesn't work on a Mac. So no way to test the 8 channel algorithm.

jskm, since lisasn poisoned by emu teaks, he's exploring planar magnetic cans now

going one step higher on the quest for headfi nirvana

 

[Maggitango]

are u one of the smelly creative cso who blackface when the early adopters went in to get the emu teaks? how are their reviews worded in any way from a competitor?




jskm, since lisasn poisoned by emu teaks, he's exploring planar magnetic cans now

going one step higher on the quest for headfi nirvana

Your mouth is wrongly placed with your a.s.s?

 

[LiLAsN]

jskm, since lisasn poisoned by emu teaks, he's exploring planar magnetic cans now

going one step higher on the quest for headfi nirvana

Truly a blessing in disguise going to the SXFI event and discovering this Teak. Like what someone else mentioned, had a low expectation of it when compared to other bigger brands. But something just clicked. It has superb mids like Beyerdynamic's DT 880 and the Audeze Mobius but it also excels in even the highs and especially the bass. The Audeze Mobius use of the Planar Magnetic Drivers is slightly a step down in terms of quality compared to the E-MU Teak for sure.

And yes! I am poisoned to discover better HiFi devices and accessories because I've been poisoned by the Teak. What are the chances. But my shopping is more around getting better lighter cables so it doesn't create the rattling noise. Another word for it was microphonics. How interesting.

But since the Audeze was there, might as well give it a test spin comparing and contrasting and making the audio expert who only believes in Stereo for headphones discover how DSP does work and not just a gaming gimmick. Now he's a believer.

 

[gregory_choo]

The more i see your reviews are more like from Creative competitors than true review of the product.
Same goes to jnasville, gregory.

If you are from creative, go back and tell him his greatest mistake is his decision to rule out head tracker. May be you will be promoted.

 

[Hadouken]

If you are from creative, go back and tell him his greatest mistake is his decision to rule out head tracker. May be you will be promoted.

Got headtracker how to be portable and 200? /rolleyes

 

[LiLAsN]

Zzz... I hope you guys don't take my words and experiences to mean like it is a must.

As suggested, the head tracking thing may be more viable for AR. For VR, the moment we turn out heads, our vision moves and so will our sound positioning. There is no need for the headphone to also try to move too. If you understand what I mean.


For games, if done right, can give you a slight advantage in a way that you don't need to use your mouse or right stick to move your character in that direction which may or may not expose your weapon to the enemy as your character can continue to lie/stay still.

Like in PUBG, BlackOut or Fortnite when you are proning on the ground, the enemy can't see the upper body of your character shifting its body left and right as you move your mouse making you harder to spot while you can just move your head left, right, up or down to try to pin point where the enemy is coming from and then adjust your aim in that direction.

I suppose that is the only advantage of head tracking for games.


As for the SXFI, the price is only $219+-. It targets in bringing surround/ambience/atmosphere in a way that it encompasses you. In a way, Creative has achieved that.
But how well it executes that, I have my opinion, you have yours.

It works for some and not for others can depend on what has been fed to the AI. If you have a common head shape and earlobe/canal, the AI can easily use that reference and feed you an algorithm that comes close to a mic calibrated one. If they have not had a head or ear shaped like yours or mine in their database for the AI to learn from, then its algorithm may be wonky. Who knows. These are my guesses.

Execution of a Holography technology like the SXFI is different from the Ambisonics implementation. For Ambisonics, the Audeze Mobius has a software where they ask for your head circumference and all. So it could map out where your ears will be in 3D space and map out how the sound will bounce of this room before it reaches your ear in that room. They give you a sound similar to Binaural where mics are placed a few centimeters apart like where your ear will be in real life.

Both different approaches, different implementations, different results. But ultimately trying to achieve the same goal of a next level immersion through headphones.
Whether they achieve those goals though is a different story.

What I do like is getting to experience these next generation technologies now. That is why I am excited but also realistic in what it can or cannot do now.

These are exciting times after all.

 

[Maggitango]

you will be disappointed.

you have to keep your head still while watching movies, if you turn your head slightly left, then the voice will come out from the left of the actor's mouth.

Should get realiser A16 instead. It comes with head tracker, to take care of the problem, also to give a more realistic 3d effect

Seems that you already disqualified the product on 27Sep even before it was launch and keep on promoting head-tracker.

Good job

 

[iAHBEE]

Your mouth is wrongly placed with your a.s.s?

jialat kena exposed for having shitty mouth

Truly a blessing in disguise going to the SXFI event and discovering this Teak. Like what someone else mentioned, had a low expectation of it when compared to other bigger brands. But something just clicked. It has superb mids like Beyerdynamic's DT 880 and the Audeze Mobius but it also excels in even the highs and especially the bass. The Audeze Mobius use of the Planar Magnetic Drivers is slightly a step down in terms of quality compared to the E-MU Teak for sure.

And yes! I am poisoned to discover better HiFi devices and accessories because I've been poisoned by the Teak. What are the chances. But my shopping is more around getting better lighter cables so it doesn't create the rattling noise. Another word for it was microphonics. How interesting.

But since the Audeze was there, might as well give it a test spin comparing and contrasting and making the audio expert who only believes in Stereo for headphones discover how DSP does work and not just a gaming gimmick. Now he's a believer.

wah bro cable rolling another can of worms dont fall too hard into the poison LOL