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X-Fi and the Elite Pro: SoundBlaster's Return to Greatness

 by Derek Wilson on August 30, 2005 11:59 AM EST
110 Comments | Add A Comment
110 Comments

SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

The major aspect of the SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro that separates it in price from the cheaper cards in the X-Fi series is sound quality. The utmost care was taken in selecting components and building a very clean and clear sounding product. To that end, 4 Cirrus Logic CS4398 stereo 24bit / 192kHz DACs are used on the board.

The CS4398 DAC is capable of 120dB dynamic range, -107dB THD+N, and even direct decode of SACD data. An NJM2114 and 3 NJM2068 dual LNAs provide good gain characteristics with very little distortion and noise. High quality components are also used in the breakout box with more Cirrus Logic components and a few Burr Brown parts. It all comes together to bring excellent sound to the listener. When we get our hands on one of the more mainstream SoundBlaster X-Fi parts, we will be able to talk better about the differences in components used and what we can expect on the quality front.

The SB X-Fi Elite Pro also has 64MB of SDRAM onboard. This block of memory, which Creative calls X-RAM (which is a marketing only play on X-Fi and not a technology reference), enables games to store sound data out of main memory and on the sound card. Not only does this free up system memory, but it can allow developers to store frequently used audio uncompressed. This could potentially free up CPU resources that would otherwise be used to decompress audio.

Supporting 127 hardware accelerated voices and the latest in Creative's EAX Advanced HD spec, all the features mentioned that are part of X-Fi, including one heck of a hefty price tag, make the SoundBlaster X- Fi Elite Pro. But is the latest (and greatest) from Creative worth the $400 premium? The best way to find out is to listen. And listen, we did.

New Features, Possibilities, and Modes Quantitative Analysis: RMAA 16-bit / 44.1 kHz
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  • tayhimself - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link

    XTREME Yawn!!

    It is Xtreme Fidelity with Xcellent Xquality for XTREME music and XTREME gameZ!!!!
    No thanks! When will this XTREMEly stupid marketing stop??
    I'm still using the nforce2 soundforge because my audigy didnt ship with Creative Mediasource which allows output of music to 5.1. Newer Audigys did ship with MediaSource and could handle 5.1 music output just fine. Needless to say I am XTREMEly pissed and creative and wont be buying something from them again.

  • Googer - Thursday, September 1, 2005 - link

    http://sonicfocus.com/help/help_page.html">http://sonicfocus.com/help/help_page.html

  • dejerez - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    media source is available for download from creative site. It is a few files all together but this software is for free if you have Audigy. 5.1. upmix option is not in media source but in the card settings that install with the drivers. I had Audigy and used Playcenter and than upgraded for free to Media Source. No problem. I used Audigy with tweaked driver for Audigy 2 to get more features and then eventually bought Audigy 2 ZS and used that with Software availble from their site. I had no problem with an upmix option. I cannot see your point here. Which version of the card do you have?

  • flexy - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link

    yeah those "extreme gamez" are actually just TWO, namely doom3 and bf2..which (i THINK) support x-fi....if at all. Was not clear in the review. The point is that they even said they did not hear ANY diff between this and "older" hardware.....

    I think it's ironic that (at elast for gaming and occasional music listening) a $42 Audigy 2 OEM (which has 5.1 output btw) is AS GOOD as a card 10x the money.....and, in all honesty, i do NOT think that my ears are good enough to "notice" a 4db better SNR ratio or similiar nonsense....not to mention someone would have a hard time selling me this card :)

  • DerekWilson - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    The coloration from the poor frequency response and IMD sweep at 16-bit 44.1kHz really deadens cd auido and mp3s on the Audigy 2 line. Its not about a slightly worse SNR or a little less dynamic range. It's about poor sound reproduction and bad sample rate conversion.

    Of course, gamers won't care as much about this problem. And we can help get around some of the issues by bypassing windows kernel mixer on Audigy hardware.

    I wouldn't buy an X-Fi Elite Pro either. The price point is hard to swallow.

  • dejerez - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link

    Sample rate conversion does not seem to be an issue any more, right?
    X-fi audio processor has SRC engine that converts to and from any resolution at 136dB THD+N. Check the review on digit-life. They say
    "Judging from our measurements, the problem with a lot of distortions is a thing of the past now. The 44.1 kHz mode in X-Fi cards is no different from 48 kHz"
    They also compared the quality of the new hardware SRC X-Fi vs the wide-spread real-time SSRC WinAmp plug-in, "notable for its relatively high quality and decent CPU load"
    They conclided by saying
    SRC of the X-Fi outperforms the SSRC plug-in and it causes no distortions - audible or visible on the diagram.

  • xpose - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link

    i was so close to first :(

  • vijay333 - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link

    Thanks for the review. Was looking into maybe getting one of these soon but I'll stick with onboard for a while until I get one of the Audigy boards.

  • InuYasha - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link

    first!

  • Phantronius - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link

    1st!!! Yes!!!

    Seriously, looks like I have no reason to part with my Audigy 2 quit yet.
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