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Sound Blaster X-Fi is a PCI sound card from Creative Technology. It is an add-on board for PCs.
Overview
The X-Fi (for "Extreme Fidelity") was released in August 2005 and comes in XtremeMusic, Platinum, Fatal1ty FPS, and Elite Pro configurations. The 130 nm EMU20K1 audio chip operates at 400 MHz and has 51 million transistors. The computational power of this processor, i.e. its performance, is estimated as 10,000 MIPS (million instructions per second), which is actually about 24 times higher than the estimated performance of its predecessor—the Audigy processor. It is interesting to note that the processor’s computational power is optimized for the work mode selected in the software. With the X-Fi's "Active Modal Architecture" (AMA), the user can choose one of three optimization modes: Gaming, Entertainment, and Creation; each enables a combination of the features of the chipset. The X-Fi uses EAX 5.0, which supports up to 128 3D-positioned voices with up to four effects applied to each. The X-Fi, at its release, offered some of the most powerful mixing capabilities available, and made it a powerful entry-level card for home musicians.
The audio processor on X-Fi was by far the most powerful at it's time of release, offering an extremely robust sample rate conversion (SRC) engine in addition to enhanced internal sound channel routing options and greater 3D audio enhancement capabilities. A significant portion of the audio processing unit was devoted to this resampling engine. The SRC engine was far more capable than previous Creative sound card offerings, a limitation that had been a major thorn in Creative's side. Most digital audio is sampled at 44.1 kHz, a standard no doubt related to CD Digital Audio, while sound cards were often designed to process audio at 48 kHz. So, the 44.1 kHz audio must be resampled to 48 kHz (Creative's previous cards' DSPs operated at 48 kHz) for the audio DSP to be able to process and affect it. A poor resampling implementation introduces artifacts into the audio which can be heard, and measured as higher intermodulation distortion, within higher frequencies (generally 16 kHz and up). X-Fi's resampling engine produces a near-lossless-quality result, far exceeding any known audio card DSP available at the time of release. This functionality is used not only for simple audio playback, but for several other features of the card such as the "Crystallizer".
The X-Fi-series has been criticized for the way it has been marketed. This criticism mostly centered on the optional "Crystallizer" functionality—a DSP function which colored the sound to make it seem more clear and vibrant. While there is nothing wrong with that in and of itself, Creative claimed that this crystallizer could turn 16-bit audio into 24-bit quality, which is technically impossible due to dither. Crystallizer is not unlike the many plug-ins for popular audio players and stereo systems which enhance audio through sophisticated analog/digital modeling. As always, whether or not the effect is beneficial is a qualitative measurement unique to each individual.
The 20K1 chip is able to utilize a significant amount of RAM to store sound effects for faster and improved processing, just like the previous E-mu 10K-series and E-mu 8000. This feature, now dubbed X-RAM by Creative, is claimed to offer quality improvement through audio processing capability enhancement, in addition to further reduction in host system CPU overhead.
It is worth noting that as of October of 2006, there is no Linux support whatsoever, and Linux users will be unable to generate any sound from the card. Creative has issued a statement that a closed-source Linux driver will be available in the second quarter of 2006.
Tuning the Sound Blaster X-Fi
The Sound Blaster X-Fi presents the following features:
- A 24-Bit Crystallizer:
It has two primary functions. The first function of the card is to modify the frequencies, e.g. raising a frequency of 25 Hz to 26-27 Hz. The second function alters the quantization (bit-depth) of all the input audio (which is usually set at 16-bits) to 24-bit "audio" (to enable higher calculation precision for the Crystallizer effect). For instance, the Crystallizer helps headphones and speakers that have substantial performance penalties to output audio at a better quality of sound. However, because it shifts lows lower, it will likely reduce some of the bass but this will reduce strain on a lower-end speaker and by shifting higher frequencies to even a higher frequency, the audio will appear to have a greater quality of sound. Higher-end speaker/headphone systems will not be affected by this effect.
- EAX Effects:
Environment Audio Extensions is designed to be enabled by game developers within a game to enhance the "simulated-reality" the user is modifying.
- CMSS-3D Surround:
This feature is a must for both headphones and speakers within games. If CMSS is disabled, most of the X-Fi's 3D audio technologies are as well (this is true for the entire Creative line). For a demonstration, put on headphones and click 'test' and see for yourself. If your speaker system is high-end, the CMSS effect may be displeasing but this again varies per user. With music and a multi-speaker surround setup, for example, the Stereo Surround option can be better.
- SVM: This is smart volume management. It basically is a compressor or normalizer that tries to keep the volumes of various audio sources equal. It does alter the original recording so it may or may not be a desired option.
See also
- Sound Blaster
- Creative Labs Model Numbers - Resource of all Creative model numbers. Good for board indentification.
References
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External links
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi - Creative's official Marketing and Technology page for the Sound Blaster X-Fi series
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