Creative offers up USB-enabled Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

Creative is stretching that X-Fi family once more, this time with its external Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1. The USB-powered device is apparently geared towards laptops (well, ones without ExpressCard slots) itching for surround sound, and aside from the unicorn-like 24-bit Crystalizer and CMSS-3D technologies, you'll find RCA outputs, an optical digital audio output, headphone out / microphone in jacks and all those X-Fi enhancements you're sure to end up overlooking. It's available now for the halfway respectable price of $59.99.

[Via CNET]

[Paulmichael @ May 13th 2008 1:24AM]

That's actually pretty cool, I could see it as being pretty useful for laptops without hi-def audio out...

[Kurian @ May 13th 2008 4:39AM]

The X-Fi is ONLY, I repeat ONLY meant for surround gaming with EAX5. I love gaming with my X-Fi. The effects and atmospheric effects are unprecedented in Battlefield 2142 compared to my Audigy 2.

The X-Fi is not exactly geared for Hi-Def and audiophile quality, as there are other cards that far surpass it. But for gaming effects, none can stand up to it.

[Christian @ May 13th 2008 1:43AM]

Tried the first X-Fi, and returned it within hours. The volume control alters the sound digitally, which results in unbareble noise levels, when listening to music at low volume. If you plan on using headphones/earbuds, you must go for a different product/setup, or add an analogue stage after the X-Fi.

Sound nice on speakers, though.

[Kurian @ May 13th 2008 4:40AM]

Read my previous post. You obviously didn't know what you were buying.

[Yakov @ May 13th 2008 2:18AM]

I put together a small PC to use as a media PC for my living room TV and everything is great except the audio. Currently using stereo for the input to the receiver since the audio card doesn't have SPDIF out, etc. nor does the motherboard.

This could be what I need to get that and the price is great too.

[Varuna @ May 13th 2008 2:23AM]

Thats so inexpensive !

Good going Creative :) ;)

Sweet product !
Nearly all the Goodies for so much less !

[Juaquin @ May 13th 2008 4:23PM]

Creative Fanboy? Troll? Or just generally really overexcited about things (see comment history)?

You decide.

[clockworkzen @ May 13th 2008 2:26AM]

I'm really curious about whether or not this will work on an iMac.

Right now, lack of 5.1 is the only thing deterring me from picking one up to supplement my windows machine.

[Danny @ May 13th 2008 2:45AM]

Clockworkzen- all macs have optical outputs, so you can connect them to any receiver/ standalone DAC with digital optical inputs and surround decoding

[Clockw0rk @ May 13th 2008 2:53AM]

I'm not so sure about that Danny. It's not listed on the current iMac's specifications page, nor is it visible from the pictures I've seen of the available ports. I'd be very happy to be proven wrong.

[broge @ May 13th 2008 3:06AM]

All Macs have digital audio ins and outs. It is not a standard toslink connector, rather a mini toslink connector in which a standard minijack can also be inserted. you have to purchase a separate cable from some place like monoprice:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022902&p_id=1571&seq=1&format=2
i have this exact cable for my Macbook Pro when I hook it up to my home theater setup

[Colin Potter @ May 13th 2008 3:08AM]

http://www.apple.com/imac/specs/

Audio
Built-in stereo speakers
Internal 24-watt digital amplifier
Headphone/optical digital audio output

I believe this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^is what you're looking for?

its the same jack as the headphone jack, standard optical cables just need a little end adapter, or buy the specific cable for not much more :)

[Colin Potter @ May 13th 2008 3:11AM]

dang, beat to the punch :(

[Clockw0rk @ May 13th 2008 3:13AM]

I see now. Thanks gents, took me a minute and a few clarifications for me to wrap my head around.

I still wonder, however, if this would be a cheaper alternative to hooking up an iMac to Stereo RCA or 6-channel direct Green-Black-Orange leads rather than purchasing a new optical receiver.

[Colin Potter @ May 13th 2008 3:15AM]

No optical on your reciever? This is blasphemy! This is madness!!

[Clockw0rk @ May 13th 2008 3:16AM]

It is logitech! Great speakers, but the lack of optical is a kicker.

[Colin Potter @ May 13th 2008 3:17AM]

I'm actually rocking the logitech Z-2300 system in the bedroom due to space limitations :)

[Dan @ May 13th 2008 3:30AM]

I've got a MBP and i've currently got the audio output through USB to my receiver. Would using a minitoslink cable be better than USB?
My receiver is a JVC RX-D401S

[Colin Potter @ May 13th 2008 3:43AM]

having no experience using USB enabled recievers i can't say one way or another... but toslink cables are inexpensive online and i would assume the output would be a fraction of a second faster (and quite a bit more consistent) than USB, but as i said, I have no experience, i'd pick up the cable and give it a shot!

[adam @ May 13th 2008 6:03AM]

it sucks that this doesnt work with mac's. im still looking for a solution to connect my 5.1 surround sound kit to my macbook pro. is there any kind of optical convertor? that will convert the optical output from my mac, to the 3 audio inputs my surround sound kit uses?

[Cunthor @ May 13th 2008 2:34AM]

Now if only I didn't have a personal vendetta against Creative...

[Samo @ May 13th 2008 3:50AM]

I was wondering who was going to bring that up (assuming of course you're talking about their [lack of] customer service and the whole Daniel K fiasco).

Personally, this would only be useful for lappies or people to afraid of opening their PCs, no?

I'll never know first hand, though... I've boycotted Creative products

[Crusi @ May 13th 2008 3:53AM]

I have an Extigy from Creative. The driver support ended with Windows XP. I'm pretty sure this will the same with the new one and Vista ;-)

[lostmelodies @ May 13th 2008 7:35AM]

I currently use creative's xmod. I can't imagine this is any better than that for people with a 2 speaker system, but it would be great if I actually had surround sound. Any thoughts on this compared to the xmod?

[Wilson @ May 13th 2008 9:35AM]

I guess you would have to imagine a situation where you would be piping the audio out of your laptop to a surround amp with at least a 5.1 speaker setup.

[wickedpheonix @ May 13th 2008 10:03AM]

I'd think about it except for the following 2 problems:

1) USB soundcards are ripoffs.
2) Creative cards are (usually) ripoffs.

EAX5 isn't used in games anymore, the last few games that really took advantage of EAX were Battlefield 2/2142. And if you're going to build a computer for gaming and plan to play those games, you would be better off taking the money that you budgeted for a Creative card and applying it to your graphics card budget, it's not like EAX2 is all that bad or makes you do worse.

And besides, the EAX implementation in BF2 is FUBAR, you have to set the card to Gaming mode before the game starts or else the game doesn't recognize the X-FI card, tries to access it and fails, and you get audio problems. Most of the time I leave my card in Entertainment mode, because it pipes Teamspeak through the center channel leaving the stereo for my 360, so it's a pain in the ass to restart the game, change it, and then I have problems with Teamspeak anyways.... total ripoff. Just glad I got my X-Fi Fatal1ty on sale for $100 and didn't fall for the Elite marketing crap.

Oh and wait - that's just on XP! On Vista the drivers were so fucked up that they made it look like my graphics card AND my memory were fucked up as well so I almost filed RMA's on my entire new build before I reinstalled XP.

And that's beside the point that EAX5 is only supported on their internal cards, their USB cards only have their Crystalizer and stuff, which is OK but after a while you get used to it and it doesn't improve your experience long term (like a more powerful graphics card or larger/higher res monitor does).

[WilfordBrimley @ May 13th 2008 10:04AM]

I'd think twice before deciding to buy another Creative Labs product. Releasing feature-crippled, token functionality Vista drivers for existing hardware in order to push you to upgrade to new hardware is not the hallmark of a company that gives a damn about customer service. And remember the DanielK fiasco a couple of months ago?