X-Fi and the Elite Pro: SoundBlaster's Return to Greatness
by Derek Wilson on August 30, 2005 11:59 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Quantitative Analysis: RMAA 16-bit / 44.1 kHz
RightMark Audio Analyzer is the best tool that we have right now for determining solid numbers that describe the precision and capabilities of sound hardware in our labs. We are able to measure many of the interesting electrical characteristics of the hardware by running RMAA, which captures the output of a sound card playing a test file and analyses the recording. Unfortunately, the electrical characteristics of the recording hardware come into play when using RightMark. By using quality recording equipment, we can still get a very good idea of the hardware's capabilities. For a more in-depth look at what we are looking for in our RMAA tests, check out this page on our electrical analysis of sound hardware.The best way to see what's going on is to dive into the numbers.
| Test | Echo Audio Gina3G | SB Audigy 4 Audio | SB X-Fi Audio |
| Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: | +0.04, -0.09 | +0.13, -0.36 | +0.01, -0.07 |
| Noise level, dB (A): | -94.3 | -94.5 | -94.7 |
| Dynamic range, dB (A): | 94.1 | 94.1 | 94.6 |
| THD, %: | 0.0057 | 0.0033 | 0.0008 |
| IMD + Noise, %: | 0.0079 | 0.0081 | 0.0054 |
| Stereo crosstalk, dB: | -94.9 | -93.3 | -97.0 |
Frequency response of the X-Fi is much better at 16-bit 44.1 kHz than the Audigy. In fact, we can see that the frequency response curve is even flatter than the Gina 3G here. The SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro posts better numbers any card we've yet tested in our labs at this very heavily used bitrate.
When looking at the graphs, note that the X-Fi is able to post these numbers while maintaining consistant performance in each test. The only tradeoff we see is in stereo cross-talk, which just shows a trade off at high frequencies rather than low.
Frequency Response
Noise Level
Dynamic Range
THD+N at -3dB FS
Intermodulation Distortion
Stereo Crosstalk
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
110 Comments
View All Comments
DerekWilson - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
we'll try itReflex - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Well said, SDA. And yes, I also appreciate the maturity of AT editors. I do feel a disclaimer needs to be added to the article, that said they could easily have overreacted(as THG editors tend to).Reflex - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Derek - The concern I have is that your review, as it stands, is a ringing endorsement for a product in a market you do not fully understand. The users who rely upon Anandtech as their only source for this type of reccomendation are likely to purchase something like this, even though there are a wide variety of competitive solutions out there for a quarter of the price. I feel you should at the least post a disclaimer that your audio review process is a work in progress and make it very clear that you do not fully understand the market that the X-Fi is being marketed to, nor have adequate experience with competitive audio solutions.More damaging, from my perspective, is the fact that Creative has not pledged to support future standards or alternative OS's. On a $400 product it should not be obsolete in the 14 months between today and the release of Windows Vista. You need to at the least get a solid statement on whether or not the X-Fi will support the new audio standard natively, or if they intend to only support it in legacy interfaces. This is a sound card, not a video card, a user should not expect to have to upgrade in a little over a year.
PenGun - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Try an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96. I used to run a TB Pinnacle which seriously kicked ass on all creative products including all the audigys I ran into.The M-Audio Audiphile is better. A very sweet card pushing the limits of what is possible with a switching power supply.
After what creative did to Carmack there is no way I will ever buy their stuff again. As they continually make crap as far as I can tell, it's no problem.
My card goes directly to Kimber braided, RCAs on the Audiophile, then to my Sonic Frontier's factory modded (mostly voltage control cicuits) SFL-1 Signiture preamp. From there we go to a pair of SFM-75 monoblocks, again not stock, running Svetlyna 6550B power tubes. That goes, biwired, on Tara Time and Space cables to a pair of BMW Matrix 1 speakers.
I do have a revealing system eh' ;).
PenGun
Eskimooo - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
would that be any good for games, too?PenGun - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
It's pretty awesome actually. No hardware acceleration of course, but it's not a problem on my new Athy 64.PenGun
Eskimooo - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
hold on, no non-Cretaive card does EAX 3,4,5 at present...So it may sound awesome but you do not get max out of the gameDoes this card produce surround sound over the headphones? Call it gimmicks, but I'd be much interested in that. For practical space reasons and occasional nite gaming.
PenGun - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Sound is what I care about. Positional audio in games is really not much more use than stereo. We can meet somewhere and see who walks away ... ;). Nexuiz is open source Quake,Quake2,Quake3 on steroids. Fun is back in deathmatch.I wonder why my account disapeared, I just recreated it but that is kinda strange.
PenGun
blckgrffn - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Where is it, dammit?!?!I guess I was unaware that the Intel solution had this ability. It may make sense to get a board featuring this ability to hook it up to my receiver, I can't believe creative can't figure out that we would really like to hook up a high quality card via a digital cable...
segagenesis - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
This is exactly why I got the HDA X-Mystique 7.1. I believe it is a licensing issue that Creative does not wish to bother with, or does not care to bother with. It's not a perfect card (minor control panel issues) but it does exactly what I want, and has great audio qualiy.It may not be as super ultra quality as this new card, but I would rather enjoy the fact it has DD 5.1 Live. The review kind of says it anyways, he mentions that using existing hardware compared... *ahem* this new "extreme" sound card doesnt really make an audible difference. If your onboard 5.1 sounds ok to you, why even bother upgrading?
One thing that I find troubling is that game performance is slightly less with the X-Fi and considering Creative's lack of promtness with driver updates I would feel worried about optimizations.
The last Creative card I owned was a SBLive! 5.1 and I don't really miss the brand.