Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Sound Card Family Review --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

October 2005 was remembered due to a remarkable announcement made by Creative Labs on the 7th day of the month: they proudly launched the new SoundBlaster X-Fi sound card. In our current annual Reader's Choice 2005 poll available here, this solution has so far been voted the best sound card of the past year 2005.

So our today's review is going to tell you all about the new Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi card. Let's get started.

Technical Specifications

First of all, let's check out the functional peculiarities of the SoundBlaster X-Fi sound card according to the manufacturer:

24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 96kHz sample rate
24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 96kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output
24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources at 192kHz to stereo output
ASIO 2.0 support at 16-bit/44.1kHz, 16-bit/48kHz, 24-bit/44.1kHz 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/96kHz with direct monitoring
16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates: 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz
Digital SPDIF interface support with 24bit/96kHz quality format
Signal-to-Noise ratio: 109dB
Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz = 0.004%

I am not sure that all of you really need to go through the entire detailed specification list here. However, if you are still missing some data, then check out the official company web-site where the detailed specification is available.

Package and Accessories

The box with a pretty attractive eye-catching design contains the following items:

SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS PCI sound card;
X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS I/O Drive (commutation unit);
Quick Start poster;
Infra-Red remote control unit;
Two MIDI cables;
3.5mm-to-6.35mm stereo converter;
Two batteries for the remote control unit;
Fastening screws;
A CD-ROM disk with the software that includes the following tools and applications:
- Windows XP drivers;
- Creative Software Suite package;
- Doom 3 patch with the new SoundBlaster EAX audio functions;
- Detailed user's guide.



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