Product Description

The ideal versatile sound card to suit all digital entertainment experiences, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum sound card includes an internal drive bay with additional, convenient front-facing input/output connectivity for headphone listening, PC gaming and audio creation. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum includes the X-Fi IR remote, for easy access to the Entertainment Center software console, which enables access to music, movies and picture slide shows through a slick, streamlined interface. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum also includes all of the standard features, application software, power and performance capabilities of the Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic.

Product Details

• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: 70SB0460000001
• Dimensions: 4.00 pounds

Features

• 24-bit Crystalizer enhances MP3s and movies to sound better than they do on their original CD or DVD
• CMSS-3D allows you to upgrade your MP3 music and movies into surround sound with headphones or multichannel speakers
• SuperRip allows you to rip your CDs into Xtreme Fidelity quality
• Delivers the fastest gaming performance ever seen, providing more than a 15% performance boost over motherboard audio solutions while simultaneously delivering full audio effects
• THX certified quality and unbeatable movie sound with DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX decoding

From the manufacturer
Sound has never been so satisfying

Treat yourself to a Creative sound experience with Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum. Whether you are into music-listening, movie-watching or PC gaming, Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum promises a sensory delight for your ears. Versatile enough for home digital entertainment, X-Fi Platinum is also ideal for all your audio creation needs. This feature-rich yet value offering from the X-Fi line of sound cards surpasses Creative's already famous Sound Blaster Audigy series. CMSS-3D and EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 build a surround sound world around you so immersive, and a game ambience so real, that you really have to hear to believe. And it works even if you are using headphones! 24-bit Crystalizer expands the dynamism of audio, so you can sit back, relax and enjoy the bliss of hearing Xtreme Fidelity quality sound. Music enthusiasts will appreciate Platinum's 109 dB SNR playback, 3DMIDI surround sound enhancements to MIDI files, new 24-bit SoundFont support, plus ultra low latency ASIO for the most precise recordings. Super-Rip CDs via Creative MediaSource intuitive interface, and give your MP3s a DVD-Audio quality makeover. Turn your home PC into a full-fledged entertainment hub. Enjoy cinema quality ambience in your own room with Sound Blaster X-Fi's THX certification and support for Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES. Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum has something for everyone. There's even a convenient and comprehensive front-facing internal I/O bay and IR remote control for easy access. The future of audio has landed.

Harness the full power of Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum by selecting one of its 3 usage modes:

Entertainment Mode

• X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer enhances MP3s & Movies to sound better than they do on their original CD or DVD.
• X-Fi CMSS-3D allows you to upgrade your MP3 music and movies into surround sound with headphones or multichannel speakers.
• SuperRip allows you to rip your CDs into Xtreme Fidelity quality.
• Enjoy the latest cinematic technologies for the ultimate PC movie experience! Experience incredible audio with THX certified quality and unbeatable movie sound with DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX decoding!

Audio Creation Mode

• Highest quality, most feature-rich recording available in its class
• Advanced Audio Conversion Engine
• Lowest Latency ASIO Recording
• Advanced Features and Effects for Music and Audio Creation

Gaming Mode

• Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro delivers the fastest gaming performance ever
• X-Fi CMSS-3D delivers the most realistic surround sound experience with headphones
• EAX ADVANCED HD delivers the most realistic gaming audio ever! Features like 128 voice support, EAX MacroFX, EAX PurePath and Environment FlexiFX set a new standard for EAX and realism available in gaming audio.
• X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer automatically upgrades existing games to Xtreme Fidelity

Customer Reviews

Do not buy this card if you have NVidia chipset
Pros: Perfect sound, solved resampling issues

Cons: famous popping/crackling noises makes it useless for gaming, especially in BF2 (which use OpenAL by Creative). Crystallizer is useless.

This card has the most advanced sound processor which does not work on at least 20% of high end systems, not only NVidia NForce 4 chipset, but also with other AMD and Intel CPU motherboards: see Google for "X-Fi popping/crackling". Even if you do not have in game crackling immediately, you have a good chance to get it after any memory or HD upgrade or driver configuration change. For long time Creative denied existence of this problem. Eventually it was recognized (see official CL forums) and a new driver (since November 2005!) was promised at the end of May 2006, but beta version published 05/30/06 did not solve my problem. In the case of old audigy 2 zs the problem was solved with unofficial "hacked" drivers. I suspect that X-Fi crackling is an architecture design flow, which cannot be completely solved at software level, because PCI bus cannot provide sufficient memory access for the "the fastest sound processor" simultaneously with high end graphic card, HD controller, and other devices.

Bottom end: I have to stop playing games, or go back to low quality integrated sound. Do not take risk, wait for working drivers, or buy a working card from different manufacturer. With fixed drivers I would give this card 4 or 5 stars.

UPDATE 06/12/2006
I found that many desktop motherboards (MB) have really slow south bridge (south bridge is connecting PCI, USB, Firewire, and HD to CPU directly or through north bridge), especially MBs with NVidia chipsets (and even with some Intel MBs). New beta X-Fi driver and MB BIOS updates solved the problem in many cases (but not for my MB Asrock K8NF4G-SATA2, nVidia 6100 / 410 MCP chipset), but situation is still marginal and X-Fi might go unstable again. I contact CL customer service, they did not solved the problem, but pointed out that ATI chipsets (Athlon 64, ATI 200 or 3200) have no problems with X-Fi. I decided not to return SB to seller, but save it for a new computer with ATI based MB. I guess that majority of workstation class MBs with upscale south bridge and PCI-X (even NVidia based) also should be fine with X-Fi. The trouble is that majority of X-Fi buyers have generic NVidia based MBs like me. So I can give X-Fi two stars instead of 1 (but I cannot change the rating), and even more stars if it will work well in my new computer of after new driver release (if it will work).

Blown away by the change in sound
So, after 7 years of long (and worthy) usage, I've decided to replace my antiquated SB Live. This card was a perfect follow up, because I watched the Audigy and Audigy 2 platinum's prices their whole life and they rarely changed, so I figured I'd pull the trigger now because I doubt the price will fluctuate much in the coming year.

Let me say this: the sound on this card blows away my old SB live. You really have to hear it to believe it. And, as the reviewer below mentioned, BF2 performance is amazing, as well as taking strain off my CPU.

The I/O drive on the front of my PC is the reason I bought this card actually. I use the MIDI I/O to program my gutiar amp, the mic/headphone ports are handy, the remote makes watching videos from my bed a breeze, and the other I/O ports will someday come in handy.

A great investment, and unlike a video card, it won't be outdated in 2 years to come.

Amazing
I am probably one of the most musically/sound impared people on the planet. I rarely notice the difference between my onboard sound systems and my sound cards. I only notice substantial jumps in sound technology. I am very reserved about getting soundcards, as I dont think I ever notice a difference between 16 channels and 40000 channels of sound. I have gone from a adlib, to a SB, to SB16, to Audigy LS and now to this card. That being said, this is probably the last card I will even pick up or need. The sound is a subsantial leap ahead of my other cards, and is amazing clear. I love the front panel for adding my headphones if I need them. I couldnt be happier with the price I paid or the product itself.

Amazing buy. I cant say enough good things. I dont speak geek about the improvements, its like art.. you know what you like, and I love this card.