Creative's X-Fi Audio Chip Reviewed

theraindog writes "The Tech Report has posted an in-depth review of Creative's new X-Fi audio processor. The 51-million transistor chip employs a unique audio ring architecture that pushes an apparent 10,000 MIPS, supports up to 128 hardware-accelerated voices for 3D audio, and can upsample and upmix stereo 16-bit/44.1kHz audio to multichannel 24-bit/96kHz. Creative says that the X-Fi's upsampling and upmixing capabilities can make MP3s sound better than the original CD, and although that claim isn't validated by listening tests, the X-Fi does sound better than other consumer-level audio cards. It also performs better in games, in part because precious few sound cards feature hardware acceleration for 3D audio."

Comments

Not Possible

[andrelix]

Dont believe the hype, because that is all it is. It is quite simple, you can not make an MP3 sound better than a CD. You can make it sound different, and different to you might mean better. But if you do math, there is no way to make something sound better than the original, only different. This always frustrates me when someone wants to explain why you should buy this or that because of special features. It just cant be done! Why not just advertise it as a kick-ass sound card that will blow your mind in video cames, or maybe it has great preamps that will help the sound, but please dont advertise that it will make your mp3 sound better than the CD. FWIW, if you want the best sound, get rid of the CD, the mp3, and get yourself a good analog turntable! Sorry, just my $0.02!!!

Bollocks

[Shanep]

Creative says that the X-Fi's upsampling and upmixing capabilities can make MP3s sound better than the original CD

Horse shit.