Creative Returns with SB X-Fi Titanium HD
Creative is making a comeback with its new "audiophile" card.
Creative is set to launch an audio card sporting "audiophile grade" components and the E-MU 20K2 audio processor (aka the "X-Fi chip") possibly this year. The announcement came back in January during CES 2010, deemed as the first discrete audio card and USB digital audio system to include THX TruStudio PC audio technology. Since then, the card has been kept under wraps, however Creative's comeback soundcard isn't exactly vaporware, as a sample card is currently making its rounds.
For this PCIe card, Creative has ditched the polka-dotted cover seen with the Titanium Fatal1ty card with a tinted, slick version branding the Creative and THX logos. The device doesn't really look like a sound card until your rotate it around to see the gold-plated connections on the back: microphone input, headphone output, RCA output Left and Right, and RCA input Left (or Optical In) and Right (or Optical Out).
On a PCB level, Creative is no longer using electrolytic Jamicon and OST capacitors, but rather has moved on to use surface mount device (SMD) capacitors. By taking this route, Creative uses very few through-hole solder joints (that's a good thing--the less solder, the better). A hands-on preview noted that the X-Fi Titanium HD also has well-defined areas for its audio paths, however the design indicates that Creative initially planned to power the card via a 4-Pin Molex, but eventually ditched the idea.
"The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD is powered by the second-generation Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor for PCI Express slots," Creative said back in January. "The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD combines captivating industrial design with audiophile grade Digital to Analog Converters (DACs) and components to produce a 122dB signal-to-noise ratio, the highest SNR ever produced by a Creative sound card. A replaceable Op-amp is also a distinguishing feature allowing users to customize audio output with coloration that is refined to their personal tastes."
Although the vanilla version of Creative's Sound Blaster Titanium HD is already on the market, the X-Fi version is slated to be priced at $99.99 USD, however no shipping date was specified. The pricing also seems a bit off, so stay tuned as Creative delivers official dates and pricing sometime soon.
- Hardware,
- Creative,
- Sound-Blaster ,
- X-Fi ,
- THX
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Another product to a declining market, made by a company that NEVER update it's drivers.../golfclap
Waits for the first "I sold my first born and gave 2 pints of blood and my sounds drivers still don't work and support put me on hold for 6 hours before hanging up."
Most Audiophiles would go Asus, M-audio etc. depending on their uses. Too late Creative, the damage has been done by both your shoddy drivers and better competition.
seconded
Although having just read the VR-Zone review, this sounds like it could be a decent soundcard. quite looking forward to the listening tests!
Auzentech re-engineered an X-Fi card under licence and released it as an audiophile version (replaceable op-amps!) a couple of years back now - it's still being sold as the Prelude. It even has drivers that are updated and work! I suspect that Creative want a piece of the action now after seeing how well the Prelude sold. Let's hope they've sacked their driver team though. The X-Fi chip could is very capable if Creative don't mess it up. And in case you're wondering, there really is a need for these high end cards - onboard sound chips look good on paper but I've never heard one that comes close to a good add-on card. Mind you, pointless if you're not prepared to plug in a decent set of 'phones or speakers.
I run my PC through my Denon hifi amp and Mission floorstanding speakers. Onboard doesn't cut it for me, but the number of people I've seen with terrible speakers, I would agree completely with Rabid. While onboard is good enough for many, there must be a big enough market of the rest of us out there to make it worth the bother of making a product like this.
As I said, I'm looking forward to seeing how these perform.