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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
Reviewed by
Rich Brown
on 08/29/2005

See all products in the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series
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$99.99

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  • Quick specs
  • Audio output interface type: PCI
  • Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP SP2
  • Sound output mode: 7.1 channel surround
  • See full specifications

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Creative's new Sound Blaster X-Fi cards impress with their audio quality and feature sets, but they don't come cheap.

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CNET editors' review

  • Reviewed by:
    Rich Brown
  • Reviewed on: 08/29/2005

Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 series was not exactly lacking in quality, but that hasn't stopped the venerable audio card manufacturer from unleashing a whole new line of Sound Blasters. Creative's new Sound Blaster X-Fi series features four different packages, all with the same audio card at its core.

The X-Fi card itself has a number of new features aimed at improving audio output. The most highly touted is the 24-bit Crystallizer, a digital-processing technique that improves the quality of digital music to near that of the original master recording. The various packages range from the spare to the extravagant. The most basic is the $130 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music, which includes just the card. The $200 Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum includes the card, a drive bay plate with headphone and other inputs, and an IR remote control.

At the more expensive end of the X-Fi spectrum, you'll find the $280 Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty, named after the pro gamer Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, who's parlayed his competitive gaming success into a licensing deal. That version of the card comes with the same port plate and remote as the Platinum and also has 64MB of memory on the card for added performance. Finally, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro costs $400. That card includes the 64MB of on-card RAM, the remote, and a gigantic external port hub with even more inputs and outputs than the drive-bay port plate.

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Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

  • alaTest.com

    Summary: alaTest collected and analyzed 264 reviews of Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music from international magazines and websites and compared these to 7484 reviews for other Sound Cards. Experts rate this product 84/100 and users 81/100. The amount of rated reviews for this product is too low to calculate a reliable alaScore™.

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  • pcmag.com

    Editors' rating: 90

    Summary: The XtremeMusic boasts a huge feature set and terrific 24/96 output. It doesn't offer the advanced I/O options provided by the other X-Fi models, but it still delivers great performance and outstanding sound quality for the money.

    Read full review

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music

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