Creative Technology USB Sound Blaster X-Fi 5.1 Reviews

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Pros: Works exactly like it's suppose to. I had everything connected to a USB hub (mouse, keyboard, external drives, etc.) So when I plugged in laptop on my desk, all I had to plug in was my power cable, one USB from the hub and speaker plug which was awkwardly on the side of my dell laptop. Now I have this, I can just leave it connected to the hub and just plug in the power and USB cable from the hub and I am all set. from Newegg.com But, I bought this for my HP Vista computer which had not more internal slots for upgrades. This device destroyed my computer. It caused me to lose ALL my music files - I think because loading the Creative Music Manager crashed while it was indexing my music folder. I got a BSOD, rebooted, and my music folder was no longer recognized by either Itunes or WMP. from Newegg.com Pros: Super easy to install, just plug the cord into a USB port and the sound card. Done. from Newegg.com Pros: -none Cons: -DOES NOT DO TRUE 5.1 (it will not output dolby digital (or any other 5.1 codec)-Awful support, took me over a month of dealing with Creative's worthless support to find out that it doesn't support 5.1 from a source (like a blu ray or dvd), it just takes the stereo signal and "recreates 5.1" (which is not actually surround sound)So the long and short is, if you want surround sound, this doesn't do it. from Newegg.com Pros: USB, Dolby 5.1 from the laptop Cons: none from Newegg.com I purchased this because the onboard sound card on my notebook could never play audio at a high volume. The X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB solves that problem, but you have to hook up speakers and/or a headset to hear sound; it will not work with your notebook's built-in speakers. The X-Fi USB also comes with a similar X-Fi software console to the one that comes with higher-end X-Fi cards. from Amazon.com It's a nice adapter for a laptop that does not have optical out or digital out. On the other hand, this thing is the worst product every. Creative does not make any good sound cards whatsoever. The drivers were not very complete and it constantly makes cracks/pops when i play any sort of sound from my computer. from Amazon.com to be honest only bought this because my rear sound port was destroyed so i needed a new audio port and something with 5.1 speaker setting. it works well and i do notice some admazing advancements from my normal non-sound card setting. from Amazon.com I have several incarnations of Creative Sound cards on different computers. This X-fi Surround 5.1 is a great boost to the stock (high definition?) audio on most all laptops. from Amazon.com It is important to note that this sound device is not for everyone and it is less ideal for surround sound users than those of us just looking for high quality stereo. The sound quality is tremendous for 2 channel sound and generally reliable to a point. You have to understand the limitations of using a USB sound device. YOU MUST have a powerful enough CPU to process the sound information and because of the fact that it uses the USB connection whatever else shares that bandwidth like a wireless USB network adapter will impact the audio with possible hiccups and crackle when transferring large amounts of data. from Amazon.com

Released	1 year ago
Card Interface	USB 2.0
Output Mode	5.1 Channel Surround
Form Factor	External
Compatible Audio Standards	DTS Dolby Digital EX EAX
Bit Depth	24-bit
External Hub Connectors	1 x Headphone Out 1 x Microphone In 1 x Optical Digital Output
MPN	70SB10900000
Max. Sample Rate	96 kHz
Package Qty	1
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)	100 dB
UPC	54651146488

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