Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card

X-Fi extreme music is fantastic

By Fanny  Sep 19, 2006

Pros: Extreme hi-fidelity sound quality & 3D soundstage

Cons: You'll get addicted to it

I have been using it for 2 weeks, upgraded from Creative 5.1, to Audidy Value and right away to X-fi ExtremeMusic. To keep this review brief, the sound quality is crisp, firm, open, and transparent, everything you want from great sound, but you need ...good speakers and good sound sources -- good CD or HDTV. Needless to say the CMSS 3D is great, it creates great 3D sound from CDs and HDTV. Some viewers do not like the Crystaliser, but I particularly like it. I play the guitar, piano and played in a band and did some recordings in a studio, when listening to a sound system I always look for the sound of musical instruments / or studio output that I am used to listen to. Many sound system could not reproduce the punch of each sound note and the ambience (fine echo) produced by real musical instruments. With 24 bit crystalizer activated, I can really hear such sounds, in a more expanded and more realistic 3D soundstage. The effects on a good headphone is also fantastic, when I use the headphone to listen to HDTV, I can hear so much more surrounding sounds,and they are extremely hi-fi. All in all, I could not love this soundcard more. I recommend this to anyone who want to hear ultimate hi-fidelity sounds, and have good speakers, headphone, CDs and HDTV. Well worth the money -- not expensive at all. Hope this review is helpful. Herman Read more Less