What is Creative X-Fi

On August 2, 2005 Creative conducted a conference in Germany, where it presented sound cards of the new generation to the European press - SoundBlaster X-Fi.
Even before that date, on May 13, 2005 Creative had announced the Xtreme Fidelity technology, or simply X-Fi, and an audio processor of the same name.





The new processor is more or less clear, but what's the Xtreme Fidelity technology? According to the manufacturer, it consists in supporting 24-bit quality, stunning audio clarity with a minimum of 110db SNR and the new CMSS® (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) 3D headphone and surround speaker technology. According to Sim Wong Hoo, the founder and CEO of Creative — "Xtreme Fidelity is the result of our vision of a new audio standard which would provide a dramatic improvement in MP3 music, PC game play and digital movies, thereby setting the stage for a whole new platform for digital entertainment in the home”.

Speaking of Xtreme Fidelity, the manufacturer emphasizes two new technologies: 24-bit Crystalizer and CMSS-3D. Creative designed these technologies to re-master, enhance, and re-mix the existing compressed 16-bit stereo data in real time into 24-bit quality surround audio with speakers of any configuration as well as in headphones.
In order to support features of the new standard, Creative created the X-Fi processor with a logotype "Xtreme Audio Needs An Xtreme Fidelity Processor!".

Retrospective Review

The previous sound cards, starting from Live! 1998, have been based on the EMU10K processor modifications. This processor was designed mostly for synthesizers and E-MU production modules as a hardware MIDI-synthesizer with a built-in effect-processor. The EMU10K was a progressive chip for the time, when the main requirement to a sound card was hardware MIDI with a maximum large memory bank, wide range of features and high-quality effects. But it's quite clear that this processor is currently obsolete. Despite the 32-bit audio processing, programmable high-quality professional effects, support for 8 digital I2S or SPDIF interfaces, its disadvantages (its key flaw is stiff architecture) brought everything to nought.

Audio interests of users have changed considerably since the appearance of the EMU10K. In fact, the audience split into three camps: 1) office and other users, who are