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Creative Labs Sound Cards Handbook
Part 1. Creative Game Cards

Reference book on modern sound cards from CREATIVE LABS. Extraordinary release.

Initially, I planned to finish the series of my articles on sound cards with this material. But the constant questions about the advantages and disadvantages of certain cards, asked to me in the newspaper forum, forced me to change my mind and release this material right now. Today we will take a quick look at the main features of sound cards released by CREATIVE in recent years. We will consider only those cards that are now freely sold in computer companies and have a price acceptable to most ordinary people.

Casually about professional sound cards.

In my review, I deliberately did not include professional sound cards from the CREATIVE EMU division, even though they provide very high quality sound recording and playback. These cards are not intended to be operated by the general computer user. One glance at the abundance of settings for the software supplied with them is guaranteed to cause<рак мозга>from a mere mortal unprepared for such a sight. Even if you manage, over time, to figure out the settings and even master the work with special software used in their work by professional sound engineers and musicians, it will not bring you much joy. The point is that everything<навороты>such cards are not needed for the daily work of a multimedia computer. They will not help you watch a DVD movie or play a computer game in any way. In the event that you are not a musician or sound engineer, you will most likely never need the capabilities of these cards. You will hardly be able to put these cards next to any other purely Creative gaming card especially for high-quality music reproduction. These cards conflict with CREATIVE gaming cards at the driver level and do not want to live with them in the same computer. Therefore, for the average user, these cards are completely useless. If you, on the other hand, belong to the pros in the world of sound, then my advice is useless to you, you yourself should know quite well what card you need for work.

For each sound card, in addition to its brief characteristics, I will give its approximate cost in Moscow stores, the number of audio channels output and the model of the digital processor (DSP) chip used.

DSP chip.

The DSP microcircuit is the heart of any sound card, it is it that determines all the functionality of a particular model. When choosing a new sound card for yourself, you should pay special attention to the DSP chip on which it is assembled. The DSP chip model is usually engraved directly on the very surface of the chip and can be easily identified by external inspection of the card. Like a motherboard chipset, a DSP chip is often the largest chip on a card's printed circuit board. You just have to find it and read the markings on the surface.

So in the attached picture, you see three different DSP chips. The first one on the left belongs to the CREATIVE SBLIVE-24 sound card. The CA106-DAT marking will tell us about this accessory. In the middle of the photo is the DSP of CREATIVE's most advanced sound card, called the Sound Blaster X-FI Elite Pro. Chips of this sound card model are marked with CA20K1-PAG marking. On the right side of the photo you can see the DSP chip belonging to the CREATIVE AUDIGY-4 card. The DSP of these cards is labeled CA10300-IAT.

As you can see, different chips have different markings, it would seem, with its help, you can easily determine which sound card you got into your hands, but, unfortunately, not everything is so simple. CREATIVE LABS marketers<наплодили>a huge number of different models of cards built on the same DSP chip. Often, these models are very different from each other in their consumer capabilities, and when buying, I would like to know which of these varieties we are dealing with here.

Model and revision.

So that you can easily identify one or another of the cards discussed in this article, I will give for each of them its model code number. On the card itself, the model number is printed on the face of the PCB (where the parts are located). Typically, the number is somewhere near the top edge of the card's PCB. It can be on the left, on the right, or in the center, there is no standard for this in CREATIVE.

Typically, the number is somewhere near the top edge of the card's PCB. It can be on the left, right or in the center - there is no standard in this regard for CREATIVE. The number of any modern sound card CREATIVE begins with a combination of letters "SB" followed by a series of four digits, which uniquely identifies the model of each of them. You can find an example of such a number on the attached photo - on it you can see the model code "SB0240" belonging to the CREATIVE AUDIGY2 6.1 sound card installed in my computer. In addition to the front of the PCB, the model number is also printed on a paper sticker located on the back of the PCB. If you can't find the model number on the front, look there.

It would seem that the model number is all you need, but this time too<не тут-то было>! In addition to card models, there are also various modifications of the same model. There are CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 ZS cards with metal connectors and there are CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 ZS cards with plastic connectors. There are modifications of cards with FIREWARE controllers and without this controller. There are OEM and RETAIL card options. And they all have the same DSP chip and they all have the same model number. To understand all this variety, the serial number of the card indicated on the discussed paper sticker will help you. The first four digits of the serial number, after the letters SB, are the modification code of this particular card. So in our case we are dealing with the SB0244 modification, which stands for model SB0240 revision 4. After you read the material of this article, you can easily determine that here we are dealing with the so-called "new" modification of the CREATIVE sound card AUDIGY-2 6.1. This modification has plastic connectors, a FIREWARE controller and a digital-to-analog converter with a DSP chip, which is used in the top card of the AUDIGY-2 ZS family, are soldered on it.

DRIVE block and external module.

Talking about the varieties of CREATIVE cards, one cannot fail to mention one more nuance associated with their packaging. Since the days of SBLIVE! Cards, the company has been issuing each of its top cards, in three different delivery modes. The usual, cheapest delivery includes only the card itself. In the next, more advanced delivery, the card plus external<блок с разъемами>, installed in a free compartment 5.25 of the computer case. This block is called "CREATIVE DRIVE". The attached photo shows the "DRIVE" block included with the CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER XFI FATAL1TY card. The blocks supplied with other cards differ from it in the number of connectors, the color of the case and other small details, but their common task is the same - to bring additional inputs and outputs of the sound card to the front panel of the computer.

In addition to the card itself, the third, most expensive delivery option comes with a so-called external module. This module looks like a large box, outwardly similar to a HI-FI amplifier. The module is installed on the table, separately from the computer. The internal stuffing of this "amplifier" is most often completely analogous to the stuffing of the DRIVE block, the main difference between them is that DRIVE is an embedded device, and the module is external.

By themselves, both DRIVE and the module are pretty stupid, especially if you take into account the price markup of the cards they come with. However, it should be noted that those who believe that there are wires, analog amplifiers, switches and volume knobs inside these "boxes", and CREATIVE demands a lot of money for them, are deeply mistaken. Both DRIVE and the module are quite legally quite expensive devices. Both of them are connected to the main card not with ordinary analog "laces", but with the help of purely digital interfaces. External blocks contain their own digital-to-analog converters inside themselves, the signal from which is subsequently output to the headphone and line-out jacks, as well as independently digitize the signal from their analog inputs and transmit it to the card in a ready-made, digital form. Thus, I repeat, the entire exchange between external units and the card inserted into the PCI slot of the computer is carried out exclusively via digital cables, which allows, for example, to avoid interference.

DRIVE units are sold separately, without a card, since they can be connected to a “simple” model of a sound card of their generation (with an external module such a number will not work so easily). If you decide to buy the DRIVE unit separately, then it will cost you about $ 100, which, in my opinion, is somewhat expensive for the ability to simply bring the connectors to the front panel of the computer. However, as always, it's up to you to decide, perhaps you will like these boxes.

Review of maps.

The above information is more than enough for you to be able to confidently identify one or another CREATIVE sound card lying in front of you on the counter in the store. Further, as I promised, I will briefly talk about the features of certain specific card models. I thought for a long time in what order to tell you about all this variety, and, in the end, I decided to arrange the cards in ascending order of their model code. So it will be easier for you and me to keep track of the chronology of the issuance of these cards by the manufacturer.

I'll start my story with the CREATIVE AUDIGY-1 card. I deliberately did not include the sound cards that preceded it in my review. These once popular models, for example, CREATIVE SBLIVE! Cards, are now completely outdated. They do not provide acceptable performance in computer games, and do not output sound quality enough to chase them all over the city. And if we take into account the fact that quite decent modern sound cards cost only about $ 25, then I personally don't see any reason to buy these outdated solutions. And I do not advise you to throw money down the drain

CREATIVE AUDIGY 1, CREATIVE AUDIGY 5.1 (CREATIVE AUDIGY ES)

Model: SB0230 (SB0160), CT0070, CT0072, SB0090 and SB0092
... DSP chip: CA0100-IAF
... Number of channels: 5.1
... Estimated cost: $ 20

Cards of the now outdated generation of AUDIGY1 cards. They are distinguished from modern models by a smaller number of channels, lower quality digital-to-analog converters and poor sound reproduction parameters.

The first cards in this line, called CREATIVE AUDIGY MP3 +, CREATIVE AUDIGY X-Gamer, CREATIVE AUDIGY Platinum and CREATIVE AUDIGY OEM, had model numbers CT0070, CT0072, SB0090 and SB0092, respectively. Different models of this family differed from each other only in the package bundle, while the cards themselves were completely identical. For example, disks with computer games were added to the CREATIVE AUDIGY X-Gamer model, and the happy owner of CREATIVE AUDIGY Platinum received a “Drive” block as a load on the card.

One can argue about the merits of 7.1 systems in comparison with 5.1 systems for a long time, just remember that the sound on the vast majority of DVD discs is encoded in 5.1 format, and the card thinks out the missing channels itself<на ходу>using its own surround sound algorithms called CMSS. As you can imagine, one should not expect any special quality from such an approach.

For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that in nature there are also DVD discs of DD EX 6.1, DD EX 7.1 and DTS-ES standards with more than 5.1 channels, but in our retail such discs are extremely rare, and they cost quite a lot of money. ... Personally, I think that chasing additional 7.1 speakers is not particularly worth it, in our ordinary city apartments, and sometimes there is no way to place five speakers correctly. Therefore, the benefits of 7.1 systems are very illusory.

Relatively recently, the CREATIVE company has reissued the next versions of these sound cards, called CREATIVE AUDIGY 5.1 OEM and CREATIVE AUDIGY ES. Unlike cards<первой волны>, which were initially expensive products, these cards, on the contrary, were developed as initially budgetary ones. According to the idea of ​​CREATIVE marketers, they had to resist the expansion of the built-in AC-97 codecs that were gaining strength. In order to make these cards as cheap as possible, simplified printed circuit boards were used for them, both cards lacked the FIREWARE block (a MIDI connector was installed instead), but in terms of their functionality, both of these cards, nevertheless, are full-fledged AUDIGY-1, since they are built on the same DSP chip as the original cards.

According to their official specification, CREATIVE AUDIGY-1 sound cards are able to reproduce sound in 16 and 24 bits with a sampling rate of up to 96KHz. But in reality, these kilohertz and bits turned out to be slightly<дутыми>! Indeed, the digital-to-analog converter installed on this card is able to produce a similar signal, but, even before the signal reaches it, it will be forced<урезан>the capabilities of the DSP card chip. Whatever signal you ask to play this card (for example, from a high-quality DVD 24-bit 96 KHz), DSP will first bring it to the 16-bit 48 KHz formula, and only then will it output to the line-out. It is impossible to bypass forced recoding on this line of cards. The card can record sound with a bit depth of 16 bits and a sampling rate of up to 48 KHz. For our time, this is very small, therefore, it is also not suitable for any serious musical creativity.

You will probably ask me, why am I telling you about such a "flawed" card then? The fact is that, despite all its shortcomings, CREATIVE AUDIGY-1 fully supports hardware acceleration of sound in computer games up to EAX 3.0 (as well as EAX 4.0 Advanced HD software) and is today the most profitable acquisition for a poor player, thanks to its very democratic price. For $ 25 you get in games a complete likeness of the top AUDIGY-2 ZS cards. And if you consider that the soundtrack of games is very far from the HI-FI standards in quality, then, in fact, you do not lose anything!

But if you decide to listen to music with this card, an unpleasant surprise awaits you. According to the subjective opinion of the cardholders, the AUDIGY-1 music does not play much better than the old CREATIVE SBLIVE cards! 5. 1, and much worse than the cards of the new CREATIVE lines.

Thus, if you do not have any special requirements for computer sound, watch movies in the MP4 standard and like to play computer games, this card can easily take root in your computer.

CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 6.1 / CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 Platinum / CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 Platinum eX

Model: SB0240 / SB0280
... DSP chip: CA0102-ICT
... Number of channels: 6.1
... Estimated cost: $ 35

The next generation of CREATIVE cards was named "AUDIGY-2". The new generation differs from the cards of the previous line in the support of the 24-bit audio signal, digitized at frequencies up to 192 KHz. Thanks to such high parameters, even newfangled DVD-Audio discs can be played, not to mention ordinary DVD-Video discs.

The card was produced in several modifications. In addition to the simplest SB0240 card, CREATIVE released a Platinum version with a DRIVE unit, as well as a model with an external module called CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 Platinum Ex (SB0280).

If the first two cards externally and internally did not differ from each other (they have the same model number), then the top card looks completely different from the outside. All analog connectors were removed from the card (except for the line outputs to the speakers), and instead of them a single connector for communication with the external module was installed.

With this generation of CREATIVE cards, the 24/192 stereo and 24/96 6.1 modes are truly "honest". However, with one small caveat, this time, about 24-bit. The point is that the "correct" 24-bit specification provides a dynamic range (difference between the quietest and loudest sound) of about 144 db. But Creative cards could not "jump" above 100db, so it would be more correct to call these cards not 24, but 18 bit.

To achieve correct reproduction of the specified sound modes, CREATIVE engineers added another functional block to the card, whose tasks include outputting sound with sampling frequencies multiples of "native &" "for 48 KHz products of this company (namely 48 KHz, 96 KHz and 192 KHz). codenamed "P16V" works in parallel with the main core of the DSP chip and sends a signal of the specified format as if "bypassing."

Let's talk about pleasant things first. For the first time since the days of the SBLIVE! Card, CREATIVE card users have the opportunity to get rid of the forced transcoding of the audio signal at 48 KHz. Common software music players, like WINAMP and FOOBAR, have their own algorithms for similar audio signal transcoding. These algorithms work<на голову>better than those algorithms that are included in the CREATIVE cards. Thanks to the existence of the "P16V" block, it became possible to programmatically process the sound material in advance and submit it to the card already<готовеньким>... The card, having seen the input signal 24/48 (24/96 or 24/192), will let it go along the shortest path through the P16V unit, which does not introduce any additional distortions and other "gags" into the transmitted signal. We will talk in detail about the problems of using CREATIVE cards that arise when listening to musical compositions in a separate issue.

As you know, each barrel of honey necessarily carries in its womb its own fly in the ointment. So it happened with the P16V unit. Due to the fact that this unit bypasses the DSP chip, it cannot additionally process the passed signal. EAX effects, equalizer, tone controls and other service capabilities of the main DSP chip are not available for it. In other words, the P16V is like another additional sound card in your computer. A very high quality card, but completely primitive in its functionality. She just plays music and nothing else. On the other hand, this is exactly what the CREATIVE cards lacked. By themselves, the effects of the DSP chip are still there. You can, for example, turn on the equalizer. But as soon as you do this, the card will turn off the P16V unit and go to work.<по - старинке>through the main DSP blocks. You, in addition to the equalizer, will get all the delights of forced transcoding of the signal at 48 KHz. Namely, increased intermodulation and harmonic distortion of the signal.

On the other hand, the vast majority of computer users are not avid audiophiles who can hear the discussed transcoding distortions at all. A huge number of people calmly listen to different music on CREATIVE cards, and do not even suspect the existence of this problem itself. Perhaps you will be one of such users, and the sound of the card will suit your taste. In any case, using these cards, you can choose whether you prefer increased functionality or increased quality.

About setting up AUDIGY cards for<правильного>we will talk again about sound playback in a separate issue, but now let's not get distracted and continue with a quick overview of the card's capabilities. We have already talked about the playback parameters, now let's talk about the rest of the card's capabilities. The recording parameters were brought by CREATIVE engineers to the level of 24 bit 96 kHz. One more channel has been added to the ability to output 5.1 channel sound. An additional speaker is located between the two rear speakers and is designed to reproduce sounds located directly behind you.

Nowadays, you most likely will not find the original SB0240 cards on sale. On store shelves, there are SB0240 revision 4 cards. As I wrote above, these cards are built on the same element base as the cards of the next line AUDIGY2 ZS. The card has a built-in FIREWARE controller, instead of gold-plated metal output connectors, ordinary colored plastic ones are soldered on the card. In my opinion, the AUDIGY2 6.1 card is the most profitable inexpensive sound card at the moment. I personally bought just such a card, which I advise you too.

CREATIVE AUDIGY LS

Model: SB0310
... DSP chip: CA0106-DAT
... Number of channels: 5.1

The cards based on the 106 DSP chip are a cheaper alternative to the AUDIGY-2 cards. They coincide with AUDIGY-2 in almost all respects, with the exception of two very significant things. The card does not support 6.1, but only 5.1 channels (the chip itself is capable of working according to the 7.1 scheme) and the DSP CA0106-DAT chip does not have hardware support for EAX. In general, it does not, in games these cards "slow down" just like the AC-97 sound cards integrated into motherboards.

The AUDIGY LS card is the progenitor of the new budget CREATIVE card family. If you are planning to play computer games this card is not for you. But if you are not interested in games at all, then these cards can be useful to you. They bring out the music quite tolerably. Due to the lack of a hardware effects processor in the DSP, they suffer from the problem of forced transcoding at 48KHz to a much lesser extent than full-fledged AUDIGYs. At least there is something like a P16V block in the insides of the chip, since the card can easily be made to work without re-encoding at frequencies that are multiples of 48KHz.

Also, this card is quite suitable for listening to the soundtrack of DVD movies. The number of channels reduced to 5. 1, in my opinion, is not a significant drawback, we have already talked about this. Therefore, this card is quite good for purely budget solutions.

CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 ZS Platinum Pro

Model: SB0360
... DSP chip: CA0102-ICT
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 200

The AUDIGY 2 ZS line is a minor modification of the previous line of AUDIGY-2 cards, Another rear channel was added to the card, thus bringing its output circuit to 7.1, DSP chips and a digital-to-analog converter of slightly newer revisions were installed on the new cards ( the model itself has not changed) and ... that's it! All the innovations between the two lines were largely limited to this.

CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 ZS Platinum Pro (SB0360) is the "top", most expensive card in the AUDIGY-2 ZS line. The card comes with an infrared remote control and an additional external module (the one that looks like a full-fledged HI-FI amplifier). The module contains input-output connectors, headphone output, etc., while the card itself does not have these connectors, but there is a connector for connecting an external module. Based on these signs, you can immediately recognize the top revision if you suddenly see it on sale. Also, the absence of analog inputs on the card has led to the disappearance of a lot of small "loose" (capacitors and resistors) from it. This makes the sound card PCB look<голой>... In all other respects this card is no better and no worse than the cards of the previous line. Due to the extremely high price, it is unreasonable to buy it in our time, in my opinion.

CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 ZS and CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 ZS Platinum

Model: SB0350
... DSP chip: CA0102-ICT
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 60 / $ 160

The most widespread and popular sound cards in our time.

AUDIGY 2 ZS is a card in the minimum configuration, and the Platinum package includes a "Drive" block and an infrared remote control. By themselves, these two cards are no different from each other, if you buy a Drive unit (sold separately), you can easily convert one model to another on your own. In terms of their characteristics and functionality, these cards are similar to their older<топовой>the sister I described above.

CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 ZS OEM (for HP, Compaq, Dell etc)

Model: SB035x
... DSP chip: CA0102-ICT
... Number of channels: 7.1

Recently, cheaper revisions of AUDIGY-2 ZS began to appear on the market, in which the FIREWARE connector is not soldered, and instead of gold-plated connectors, ordinary plastic multi-colored ones are installed. Sometimes the card also lacks connectors for communication with the DRIVE unit. The main problem with these cards is related to the fact that, most likely, these are specialized versions of the card for some of the large OEM customers of Creative. In order to install native drivers from the CREATIVE site on it, you have to "tinker" a little. Without this shamanism, the drivers claim that they have not heard anything about such a card and simply refuse to install.

Shamanism consists in entering the code of your card into the list of acceptable cards in the driver installer (he really knows nothing about these cards). After you enter your code, the installer takes the card model data as native, and, in the future, everything is installed and works without any problems. On the WWW.OVERCLOCKERS.RU forum there is a special FAQ section on AUDIGY-2 ZS cards. There you can download a utility that will do the job for you.

CREATIVE AUDIGY 4 Pro

Model: SB0380
... DSP chip: CA010200-ICT
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 230

Perhaps the most interesting card in the AUDIGY-2 family (do not confuse it with the usual AUDIGY-4 (SB0610) card, as they say in Odessa - these are two big differences!). In fact, AUDIGY-4 Pro is another incarnation of the CREATIVE Pro Platinum ZS AUDIGY-2 card. Better digital-to-analog converters were installed, the name of the DSP chip was slightly changed. All the functionalities of the progenitor card are kept intact, no new features seem to have appeared.

Certainly, the name AUDIGY4 was assigned to the card for marketing reasons, it has no special differences from the usual AUDIGY-2 ZS card. This card would cost about 50 dollars, it would be a hit of the season, and so, for this money, it's better to buy CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER XFI.

CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 Value

Model: SB0400
... DSP chip: CA0108-IAT
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 42

Another "cheaper" analogue of the AUDIGY2 ZS card, assembled on a fundamentally different DSP chip (in jargon, the chip is abbreviated as 108). And this time, the card was deprived of the FIREWARE controller and gold-plated connectors, instead of which the usual colored plastic ones were installed. In all other respects, this is a full-fledged hardware sound card that supports EAX 4.0 in games. Despite the fact that the card uses a different DSP chip, its capabilities are completely similar to the chip used in more expensive ZS cards. It even has a similar P16V unit (here it is called P17V), due to which high-quality music playback is possible on this card without forced internal recoding at 48 KHz.

Due to its low price, the card enjoys well-deserved love among users. In terms of its tactical and technical characteristics and price, it is in the same consumer basket with the CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 6.1 card. In favor of A2-Value, it is worth writing down the wide availability in stores (AUDIGY-2 6.1, nowadays, it is no longer so easy to find) and the presence of an output according to the scheme 7.1. In favor of the "old" AUDIGY-2, the well-known and long-run DSP chip speaks to developers. For DSP AUDIGY-2 6.1 chip there are alternative professional drivers "KXPROJECT". As usual, you choose. These two cards are practically equal in their capabilities.

CREATIVE SB LIVE! 24bit

Model: SB0410
... DSP chip: CA0106-DAT
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 25

Hit of the season, "killer" of AC97 sound and popularly loved card, the popularity of which was mainly due to its extremely low price. In fact, SBLIVE 24 is quite a peculiar<нишевая>map. Due to the 106 DSP chip installed on it, it is practically not suitable for computer games. Remember we already looked at this chip when we talked about the AUDIGY LS? Everything I said then about LS applies to this map as well.

At the same time, SBLIVE-24 is able to output sound according to the 7.1 scheme, and is equipped with high-quality digital-to-analog converters. This card uses microcircuits completely similar to those installed on the AUDIGY 2 ZS series of cards (except for the DSP chip itself). The analog amplifiers themselves in it, perhaps, are even better than those of the AUDIGY-2 ZS cards, since they do not have pass-through capacitors between different amplification stages. The presence of these capacitors in all other CREATIVE cards seriously spoil the quality of the reproduced sound.

All of the above, together with the low price of the card, makes it an ideal solution for watching videos and listening to music for a poor computer user. If you are not interested in computer games, and at the same time, the sound built into the AC97 motherboard is not satisfying, this card is your best choice.

CREATIVE AUDIGY SE

Model: SB0570
... DSP chip: CA0106-DAT LF
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 25

Creating a new generation of "top" SOUND BLASTER X-FI cards (we'll talk about them later), CREATIVE hasn't forgotten about ordinary unpretentious computer users. Those users for whom the sound in the computer is not the main thing. The AUDIGY SE card is designed to replace the penny AC97 sound found in most motherboards. If you look at the markings on the DSP chip, you can easily recognize this "new / old" card. Yes! Yes! This is a new incarnation of SBLIVE-24 built on the same non-gaming 106 chip. Apparently, CREATIVE marketers decided that the name SBLIVE! is already outdated, so we renamed this card, attributing it to the AUDIGY family (which itself is now rapidly sliding into the low-end).

In fact, AUDIGY SE is not AUDIGY at all, but the usual SBLIVE-24 7.1. A card that does not have hardware acceleration of effects in games and is only suitable for playing music and watching videos. It differs from the old SBLIVE-24 by a lower-quality digital-to-analog converter, and a slightly degraded circuitry of the output amplifiers (the notorious pass-through capacitors have been added, apparently due to a different DAC). In all other respects, the cards are very similar, but if you have a choice, it is better to take the old SBLIVE-24, it will be of better quality.

CREATIVE AUDIGY 4

Model: SB0610
... DSP chip: CA10300-IAT LF
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 50

The new card, the task of which is to occupy the niche of sound solutions of higher quality than the AUDIGY SE card, but less advanced in its capabilities than the X-FI Music Extreme card. The card uses a DSP CA10300 chip similar to the AUDIGY ZS 2 DSP chip in its capabilities. As you hopefully remember, the AUDIGY-2 ZS used the CA102 chip. The AUDIGY-4Pro card showed us the CA10200 chip, that is, a couple of zeros were added to the ZS chip number, and the functionality remained the same as before. The AUDIGY-4 card demonstrates the further development of this chip, now it is called CA10300. And again, no visible innovations appeared in the chip, except that the FIREWARE controller was gone. At the same time, the chip has a lot in common with the 108 DSP used in the AUDIGY-2 Value card. Apparently, here we are dealing with a new "budget" chip CREATIVE, which in the near future will replace the 106 chip used by AUDIGY SE cards

By the way, there is one more curious moment connected with this card, it uses a digital-to-analog converter of the same revision that is installed in the lower-end CREATIVE XFI cards. The CS4382-KQZ converter is installed in X-FI and AUDIGY-4, and CS4382-KQ was installed in all previous AUDIGY-2 models and in SBLIVE-24.

Thus, to summarize, CREATIVE AUDIGY 4 is a full-fledged gaming card, similar in capabilities to the AUDIGY-2 ZS or AUDIGY-2 Value cards, but built on a different element base and a different DSP chip, which apparently served as a development, and not<боковой ветвью>DSP chip AUDIGY-2 ZS.

On the AUDIGY-4 card we are with you today and will finish the review of popular sound solutions from CREATIVE LABS. Outside of this review, we have, perhaps, only the cards of the new generation CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER X-FI, all the rest we have reviewed today. We will definitely talk about CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER X-FI in one of the upcoming issues. There are a lot of ambiguities and advertising hype around them, we still need to sort it out with them. Looking ahead, I will only note that this card is quite good, and if you plan to spend $ 120 on sound, it is quite worthy of being your choice. Although personally I will wait until CREATIVE releases its OEM version with plastic connectors and costs 50 dollars. That's when I'll think about upgrading my AUDIGY-2 6.1 card, but it's too early.

(c) German Ivanov, March 2006.

Sound cards CREATIVE X-FI. Computer sound.

Introduction.

This review of mine is purely speculative, and is based on an analysis of publicly available information on the Internet and reviews of the owners of CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER X-FI, published on the pages of various forums on the network.

Not that they were asking for absolutely incredible money for this card, I can quite afford such money spending. It's just that I, as a person without European upbringing, hate to throw away a lot of money just for a brilliant wrapper and "novelty". I will gladly pay for the good work of a competent engineer, but I do not want to pay out of my own pocket for the work of a marketing specialist who managed to sell me the same thing as before, but wrapped in a new package.

The composition of the line

According to published press releases, the lineup of new CREATIVE LABS cards currently looks like this:

Creative X-FI Extreme Music

Model: SB0460

... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 120

CREATIVE X-FI EXTREME MUSIC is the cheapest XFI card. The card contains 2 megabytes of integrated RAM. The set of the card is very simple - you will only be given the card itself and that's it. There are two types of cards on sale, with and without a heatsink glued to the DSP chip. According to unverified data, the versions "with a radiator" are slightly "overclocked" by the manufacturer itself. The power supply voltage was slightly raised to the chip in order to increase the stability of its operation.

Creative X-FI Platinum

Model: SB0460
... DSP chip: X-FI (under the paper chip CA20K1-PAG)
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 180

The "PLATINUM" variant differs from the "EXTREME MUSIC" only in the additional configuration. In addition to the card itself, the package includes an infrared remote control and a "DRIVE" module. By themselves, both of these cards are completely identical to each other, have the same capabilities and the same model number.

Creative X-FI Fata1ity.

Model: SB0466
... DSP chip: X-FI (CA20K1-PAG))
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 210

This card differs from the CREATIVE X-FI PLATINUM only in the amount of RAM installed on it, which is soldered on the FATAL1TY as much as 64 megabytes. Additional marketing "cheating" of the product is provided by the nickname of some network player in the name of the card. According to the official version, this small addition was made at his request. What exactly was "his request" I do not know, the materials available to me are silent about this. This card is no different from the PLATINUM version. The same card, the same remote control and the same DRIVE block.

Creative X-FI Elite Pro

Model: SB0550
... DSP chip: X-FI (CA20K1-PAG)
... Number of channels: 7.1
... Estimated cost: $ 310

This card already differs significantly for the better from its fellows in the X-FI series. The SB0550 has better quality digital-to-analog converters and operational amplifiers. In addition, instead of the "DRIVE" module, the card comes with an external block, which is similar in functionality to a similar block from CREATIVE AUDIGY 2 ZS PLATINUM PRO. The block is very large in size, outwardly it looks almost like a HI-FI amplifier. At the same time, the inside of the block is almost empty. A small number of radio components are scattered across the huge printed circuit board.

Apparently, the huge body of the external block should add solidity to the top-end card of the new line.

What's new here?

Many journalists of various electronic editions, hurrying to release "hot" material in the light of the very first, reprint CREATIVE brochures almost word for word, thus, inadvertently confirming in the eyes of the reader the correctness of the provisions expressed in them. The second group of journalists, having got their hands on "live" samples of the cards, are more careful in their statements, not finding many of the miracles promised by the prospectuses on these cards. The third group of journalists, having previously read the reviews of the first group, and did not find the promised "miracles", write devastating materials, pouring out a sea of ​​bile on the innocent piece of iron. As the hero of one famous TV series used to say, "the truth is somewhere nearby." Let's try to figure out whether we should buy this new card, or is it dear to its current owners only as a memory of the money spent on it?

The promotional materials available on the CREATIVE website are full of stories about dozens of improvements and innovations in the XFI series cards. In their press releases, the company's marketers sometimes go as far as outright curiosities, in the manner of promises to restore low-quality MP3 to the "original" level of quality. Moreover, the "quality" is not only equal, but even, in some mystical way, exceeding the original quality of the CD. A person who is familiar with the technique of the processes occurring during recording and compression of sound may have the opinion that inside each sound chip there is a small Chinese orchestra, independently playing out the notes lost during compression.

It is very difficult to break through this triumph of PR over common sense, nevertheless, I got the opinion that CREATIVE X-FI cards have only one, but a very serious innovation compared to the cards of previous generations. The CREATIVE X-FI has a powerful DSP processor chip capable of very sophisticated audio processing. In other words, the CREATIVE developers have again followed an extensive development path, unable to get rid of the problems inherent in their cards, they have built up the "muscles" of the chip, due to which it will now be able to shove these problems "under the blanket" much deeper than it has been able to do before. day.

"The curse of the Baskervilles" - forced transcoding to 48 kHz.

For what reasons CREATIVE allowed until recently the mode of playing music with the help of its cards on its own, I can only guess. Most likely, their engineers simply got too carried away with creating sound cards that are optimal for watching DVD movies and creating effects in computer games. I cannot explain the fact that in their consumer cards they rigidly set the 48 KHz frequency used in DVD movies as the working frequency of DSP sampling. All other audio streams coming to the card were forcibly recoded by the internal processor of the card to the specified format before being processed further. And everything would be fine, but the standard for the sampling frequency, both for ordinary music CDs and for MP3 files copied from them by pirates, is not 48KHz, but 44.1KHz. But CREATIVE's cards really don't know how to play this frequency honestly! In their professional cards of the EMU series, CREATIVE engineers work around this problem by installing oscillators with two switching crystals on the cards, or by using oscillators that can change their frequency. for game cards, the 48KHz frequency is fixed and cannot be changed.

In principle, it is quite possible, even with almost no distortion of the original signal, to recode one type of signal into the second, but for the previous processors of CREATIVE sound cards this turned out to be an overwhelming task. Their performance was simply not enough to keep up with this operation in real time. The obvious decision to install a more powerful processor on the card was rejected by CREATIVE engineers and instead took and simplified the conversion algorithm itself so that the card processor could still cope with it. Such a bold "knight's move" led to the fact that all sound cards manufactured by CREATIVE, starting with the "SB LIVE!" and ending with the "AUDIGY4-PRO" model, reproduce music with a high level of intermodulation and harmonic distortion at high frequencies. Consumers of their products got their hands on very good cards for outputting noise effects in games, watching DVD movies, but, alas, it is impossible to listen to high-quality music on them.

This arrangement soon led to the appearance on the market of sound cards from alternative developers. Cards that can honestly reproduce music from CDs without introducing additional distortion into it. We, as consumers, could only welcome such an initiative, if not for a couple of unpleasant moments. Firstly, the cards of the alternative developers are quite expensive compared to the CREATIVE cards. Second, they are practically unsuitable for playing 3D sound effects in computer games and DVD movies. True audiophiles who value high fidelity of reproduction in music, and at the same time do not play computer games at all, will be quite satisfied with such cards. It remains unclear, but what can we do, ordinary users who listen to music, play games and watch movies? This question remained open until the sale of a new line of sound cards from CREATIVE, which is the subject of this article.

Playing music

The audio path of any modern sound card consists of three functional blocks.

1) Sound processor - DSP, whose tasks include transcoding sound from one format to the second, imposing effects, mixing different sources with each other.

2) Digital-to-analog converter (DAC), the task of which is to convert a signal from a digital sequence of bytes into a regular analog audio signal similar to that produced by, say, a household tape recorder.

3) Filtering buffer amplification stage. The task of this unit is to match the DAC output with your headphones or speakers, as well as to remove high-frequency noise components from the audio signal spectrum that the DAC introduces there due to the peculiarities of its design. In modern sound cards, ordinary inexpensive amplifier microcircuits act as this unit.

All three of these blocks, each in its own way, distort the reproduced sound and have a direct impact on the quality of music that you hear from your acoustics. Let's take a look at exactly how these function blocks are built in CREATIVE XFI and what capabilities they have.

Card processor (DSP)

As I wrote above, the X-FI cards use a new high-speed sound processor chip. The architecture of this processor is fundamentally different from the DSP chips used in SB LIVE! and AUDIGY. That is, this is no longer "development", and not "correction of errors", but a fundamentally different chip. For an audiophile, the "novelty" of the DSP chip was expressed, first of all, in a very competent implementation of transcoding of digital streams other than 48 KHz. As a matter of fact, his main power was thrown at this, and the result was, nevertheless, achieved. X-FI was the first CREATIVE card that is able to reproduce qualitatively not only effects in games, but also music from ordinary CDs. The 44.1 kHz sampling rate problems that were the curse of CREATIVE cards for many years are now a thing of the past. With the advent of XFI, users seem to be able to purchase a universal sound card that is equally suitable for playing music and creating effects in modern games. Time will tell whether this is really so. As I wrote above, the DSP is not the only block in the card that is capable of "cutting to the root" of the quality of its sound.

Another pleasant surprise in the family of new cards is the ability to disable transcoding altogether, albeit at the cost of losing the ability to apply effects to the sound. Many owners of AUDIGY2 ZS sound cards have already used this mode. By installing the alternative KXPROJECT drivers (WWW.KXPROJECT.ORG), it was possible to "catch" a kind of "back door" in the EMU2K chip, bypassing the DSP processor effect directly. The limitation of this "move" is to output only a 24-bit stream with a sampling rate of 96KHz. The card user could send to the input of this block a signal already recoded by some external high-quality encoder. The card, having received this signal, did not try to recode it back to 48KHz.

In XFI cards, this feature is available quite legally and for all supported sampling rates. The DSP of the card is simply turned off, and the sound is output as it is, the card no longer introduces additional distortion into it. In this mode of operation, XFI correctly reproduces music of formats "inconvenient" for it, without introducing noticeable distortions to the ears and measuring instruments. The graphs obtained using the RMMA test program demonstrate the absence of the characteristic signal distortions inherent in all previous CREATIVE cards.

At the same time, upon careful examination of the printed circuit board of the new card, we will not find on it a quartz resonator setting a frequency that is a multiple of the notorious 44.1 KHz. Apparently, the DSP receives the desired frequency from 96KHz, carrying out the arithmetic operations of multiplication and division inside itself. We can be convinced of its very fundamental ability to form 44.1 kHz by detecting the specified frequency at the digital output of the SPDIF card. Thus, the card seems to have "honest" work in this mode. Thanks to this innovation, CREATIVE regained the palm, which had previously been taken away from it by the "second tier" card manufacturers. Their new cards not only reproduce music with relatively high quality, but also support three-dimensional effects in games, which, unfortunately, the cards from competitors cannot boast of.

In addition to getting rid of forced transcoding, the new DSP chip has pleased buyers with some purely software know-how, to which I would like to draw your attention.

Different modes of operation

The first thing that catches the eye of CREATIVE XFI cardholders is the changed principle of working with the card. An innovation is such a concept as "card modes". With the help of drivers, you can switch the card to either "entertainment mode" or "game mode" or "music creation mode". I will not dwell on a detailed description of each mode, they are described in detail in the user manual and in many articles about XFI in various computer publications. I will only note that purely in hardware, the chip is reoriented to different tasks in different modes, and thus all the resources of the chip are optimally allocated depending on what you are currently doing. At the same time, many XFI users are already tired of switching the card from mode to mode manually, but no means of automating this process are provided in the XFI drivers.

24 bit Crystallizer - "Upgrade MP3 to DVD-Audio"

Translated from the language of CREATIVE marketers into a universal technical language, this means raising the "highs" and "lows" by the equalizer plus the so-called "compression" of the signal, which is simultaneously turned on. A forced 24-bit card is needed in order to be able to overclock the amplitude of the audio signal without overloading (wheezing). Of course, there is no real 24-bit audio signal here. The essence of the operation comes down to some kind of adaptation of sound to low-quality acoustics and, in addition, the forced addition of an effect called "sausage" by modern youth. Both quiet and loud sounds seem to "pull up" to a certain average high level.

Any music, after such an operation, "thumps" and "tsks" and at the same time with a uniform constant volume. Of course, there can be no question of any "improvement" here, and this effect itself is available as a plug-in to common music players. If you use the CYBERLINK POWERDVD software player to watch DVD movies, you are probably familiar with it. In the advanced AUDIO settings, you can specify the conditions under which you watch a movie, if you turn on the "night" mode, then you will get the discussed "enhancer". He helps to watch some films, the same "Day Watch" without him "yells", then "is silent". You turn on the "night" mode, and you can watch a movie without fear for the integrity of your eardrum and, at the same time, you can hear all the quiet sounds well.

CMSS-3D - "Stunning realism when working with headphones."

As far as I understand, I mean the improved CMSS mode (CREATIVE MULTI SPEAKER SETUP), which has long been present in the AUDIGY-1 (CMSS) and AUDIGY-2 (CMSS-2) cards. CMSS technology is designed to generate multi-channel 5.1 sound from stereo sources and, on the contrary, reverse conversion of multi-channel sound into two-channel if you use headphones. Thus, in CREATIVE XFI we have not something "revolutionary new", but something that has evolved to version 3.0. CMSS-2 differs from CMSS-1 by the imposition of EAX effects. To be honest, I did not understand what new CMSS brought with it to CREATIVE XFI. Everything that is discussed in the press releases is also on my AUDIGY-2 card.

The CMSS mode is a rather curious, sometimes useful, although very controversial thing. If you are the owner of 5.1 acoustics, then you have probably come across the fact that when a stereo signal is fed to your system, the rear and center speakers are simply silent. This silence is quite logical, because the stereophonic signal does not contain information about the rear and center sound signal, operating only in terms of "left" and "right". The discussed technology is intended to correct this drawback. With the help of certain proprietary algorithms, CMSS “bites out” certain frequency components from the signal, as well as signals of a certain volume, redirecting them to the rear (“surround”) and center (“voice”) speakers. This creates a pseudo quadraphonic effect in all 5 speakers. We must pay tribute, this is not an extension of the stereo base and not a quad, with their panning in the same plane. This technology works quite interestingly, be sure to play it on your sound card. I myself used it for quite a long time when listening to the radio and watching TV from my TV tuner.

As an episode that helps you to better understand the essence of technology, I will tell you a funny story. Once I was listening to the FM tuner in stereo headphones, while doing something on the computer. After a while, I noticed that the station had not broadcast news or advertisements at all for about two hours, but only broadcast music. I was interested in this phenomenon, usually there were quite a lot of advertisements on it, and I climbed to figure it out. It turns out that I had 5.1 and CMSS speakers enabled, but I was wearing regular stereo headphones on my head! The CMSS engine cut out the announcer's voice in news and advertisements from the station's signal, and redirected it to the central channel. And the headphones were included in the front channels, so I did not hear any advertisements with news at all. But the CMSS lacked intelligence to cut the soloist's voice out of musical compositions, so the music was transmitted almost without "cuts".

From my own experience, I note that CMSS is best suited for use when watching videos, enlivening their sound with unexpected spatial effects. In music, CMSS greatly spoils the spatial arrangement of instruments inherent in the creation of a musical composition, so it is better to turn it off immediately. In games, this technology is even less useful, since most modern games do an excellent job of outputting sound to 7.1 systems without outside help, CMSS will only interfere with them.

However, if you play with headphones, the new version of CMSS-HEADPHONE announced in XFI cards may come in handy. CREATIVE marketers, as usual, talk about "amazing sound of games in headphones" and it is almost impossible to understand what they mean specifically. As far as I understand, here we are talking only about slightly improved capabilities of the AUDIGY2 card, and not about something particularly revolutionary. This operating mode is also present in AUDIGY2, it is enough to install headphones as an acoustic system, turn on CMSS, and then start the game in 5.1 mode. For example, DOOM3 in this configuration offers the player to choose either the usual "stereo" or "surround" sound. This mode of operation of the AUDIGY-2 card is an analogue of the "new" XFI CMSS-HEADPHONE technology, so CREATIVE failed again.

Digital-to-analog converter (DAC)

Having dealt with the capabilities and innovations of the DSP chip, let's look at the rest of the sound path of the card. As a digital-to-analog converter, the younger three CREATIVE X-FI cards use the CS4382-KQZ chip, which is also used in the CREATIVE AUDIGY 4 sound cards.

The cards of the previous CREATIVE AUDIGY-2 line used the CS4382-KQ chip for this purpose. As you can see, the only difference in marking is the last letter. Having rummaged through the documentation, I did not find from the spot how one microcircuit differs from the second. Most likely, from a user point of view, nothing at all. So, for example, the CS4382-KQ microcircuit differs from the CS4382-BQ microcircuit only in the operating temperature range. Most likely, the last letter is responsible for the type of case, or, even more likely, for the newfangled absence of harmful substances in Europe, such as lead.

The senior card of the CREATIVE X-FI ELITE PRO family compares favorably with its younger sisters with completely different digital-to-analog converters. Instead of one eight-channel CS4382, the card is equipped with four CS4398-CZ stereo converters.

The exact same converters are installed by CREATIVE on their professional cards EMU 1820M, E-MU1616M and EMU 1212M, as well as on the AUDIGY 4 PRO game card. At the moment, these are the most "sophisticated" converters produced by CIRRUS LOGIC. You are probably wondering how exactly these microcircuits differ from the microcircuits in the younger models? Let's take a look at their specification.

As you can see from the attached table, the happy owner of an ELITE PRO card pays around $ 150 for just a slight improvement in dynamic range, and an equally insignificant improvement in THD-N. By the way, both of these parameters directly depend on the third, recently considered outdated parameter - the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Apparently, it was he who was improved in CS4398.

On the other hand, any audiophile knows that technical parameters are by no means the ultimate truth. Often, the chip with the worst parameters "plays" the music better than the more advanced model. There is only one criterion, the perception of a particular listener. Unfortunately, the high price of the card prevents its wide distribution, so we can only speculate about the sound quality of this card.

Analog filters and amplifiers.

The junior cards of the X-FI line are doing very badly here. It uses the same penny operational amplifiers that are used in the AUDIGY-2 and AUDIGY-4 cards. An operational amplifier JRC 4556A is installed on the front channel, a JRC4558 microcircuit is used on all other channels. The use of the JRC4556A microcircuit on the front channel is determined by the fact that this microcircuit has an increased load capacity. In the documentation for the JRC4556A, we can read that this microcircuit is capable of working with 150 Ohm headphones, and the JRC4558 is designed for a higher impedance load (line out). The sound of both microcircuits is more than mediocre, although the JRC4556 is slightly better in its parameters than the 4558. Both of these operational amplifiers are practically unsuitable for audiophile purposes, although they will do quite well for a consumer multimedia card.

The senior card of the CREATIVE X-FI ELITE PRO family differs for the better from its "products" here as well. Instead of the JRC4556, the JRC2114 operational amplifier is installed, and instead of the JRC4558 operational amplifiers, JRC2068 microcircuits are soldered on the board. Both of these microcircuits are much better in their characteristics than the microcircuits installed on the other cards of the family, however, with one very significant exception. The output of the JRC2114 operational amplifier is less powerful than that of the JRC455A, so the headphone output of the X-FI ELITE PRO should sound quieter and "overload" (wheeze) at a much lower volume than the analogous output of the cards of the previous line.

Thus, summing up the story about the "musical" capabilities of CREATIVE XFI cards, we have to admit that the lower three models of the card are not of particular interest to audiophiles. By the nature of their sound, they should not differ much from the $ 50 CREATIVE AUDIGY-4 card. The only advantage of the new cards is the absence of low-quality transcoding (48-> 44.1KHz).

The older card of the family is more interesting in this respect than its "products", but at such a price that they ask for it, you can buy a much better card for music and ... an AUDIGY-4 card for games.

What about games?

Everything seems to be fine with games, the dramatically increased performance of the new chip will come in handy. Due to it, in the future, it is theoretically possible to realize much more complex effects than now. I deliberately made a reservation "about the future." Modern games are focused more on the sound cards of the previous generation, and any noticeable differences in sound between the old and new cards, in my opinion, should be expected not earlier than in another year. Of course, if the engineers of CREATIVE themselves do not put their hand to these or those games, in order to show us the enormous advantages of their new cards. Something similar has already happened with the Unreal Tournament and Quake-4 games.

On a large scale, XFI has brought us only two significant innovations in games. EAX technology has advanced in its development from version 4.0 to version 5.0, and sound cards have their own RAM.

New in EAX 5

1) Increased to 128 the number of hardware voices. The AUDIGY-2 series cards support 64 votes, thus doubling the number of votes in XFI cards. Now you can enjoy in the game the simultaneous sound of 128 shots or the rumble of 128 simultaneously falling barrels. I'm kidding, of course. The field of application of additional sound voices is very wide. For example, I am writing these lines in the silence of the night sitting in the kitchen with a laptop. A gas water heater hisses in one corner, coffee is boiling on the stove, the keyboard briskly taps under my fingers, hot ash falls from a cigarette into a wet ashtray, the background noise of a never-sleeping city is heard from the open window. See how many sounds surround me? In order to program each of them in the game, it would be necessary to select a separate channel. In a typical musical composition, this job is taken over by the sound engineer when mastering the album. It is more difficult with games, because the player, say, could open a door or not open it. He could have put the kettle on the fire, or he might not have put it. The interactive world of the game lives by its own laws and its sound image cannot be programmed in advance. Therefore, in theory, the more hardware voices in the sound card, the more natural the sound background of the game "Matrix" surrounding you.

2) The next innovation is EAX VOICE technology. The essence of the technology, as I understand it, is as follows. In the event that you play a game over the network with live opponents, and at the same time talk with them through a microphone, then their voices will now sound against the background of the sound environment in which they are themselves. So if your interlocutor is standing near a waterfall, you will hear his voice against the background of the waterfall, if he is crawling along the pipe, then you will hear an echo characteristic of the pipe. In the previous version of EAX, the voice sounded with the sound of the environment of the place where you listen to it. In my opinion, this technology is certainly funny, but very far from the needs of our mass gamer.

At this point in time, in order for it to start at all, three conditions must be met.

a) All players must have CREATIVE X-FI cards installed

b) The game must support 3D audio over IP and EAX-4 HD.

c) You must play on a local network, not over the Internet.

3) EAX PURE PATH. Everything is simple here. The developer was able to indicate from which particular speaker he wants to hear this or that sound. This mode is needed mainly for a subwoofer. Thanks to it, we will hear much more low-frequency sounds than before. At least I hope so.

4) ENVIRONMENT FLEXI-FX. The point here is the ability to output additional complex built-in effects such as reverb. Previously, there seemed to be only 4 possible "slots" for effects, of which two were already forcibly occupied by reverb and Chorus, now all four slots are free. This technology is not very useful for games, but for creating music it may well be useful.

5) EAX MACRO-FX. But this technology is already something interesting. She came to EAX from the SENSAURA API. We are promised a very painstaking and accurate reproduction of sound sources located at a short distance from our head. Now the bullets will whistle very excitingly right past our ears. It turns out that previous versions of EAX well localized sounds only at medium and long distances, and near "freebies". Isn't it surprising that this circumstance was hushed up in press releases telling about the advantages of the previous version of EAX 4.0? One way or another, but in version EAX 5. 0 this annoying oversight was fixed by CREATIVE.

6) ENVIRONMENTAL OCCLUSION. In the previous version of EAX, it turned out that only the sound itself was handled through the obstacle. Now the passage through this obstacle of the "echo" of the environment in which this sound arose is being worked out. In simple terms, if a faucet is dripping in your bathroom, then, having closed the door to the bath, you continued to hear the drops falling, but you no longer heard the characteristic echo of the "bathroom" from their falling. You open the door, an echo appears, like a devil from a snuffbox. Yes, whatever you say, today we have just a day of discovery! Honestly, I am amazed at the ability of the CREATIVE marketing department to pass off the know-how of working on the mistakes of the previous version of their chips!

This is where all the innovations in the gaming capabilities of XFI end. Of course, the card also supports all three-dimensional sound technologies existing in previous versions of EAX.

RAM on the card.

Another curious nuance of CREATIVE XFI cards is the additional RAM soldered on the card (the amount of memory is different on different XFI models). As far as I understand, it is used as its own buffer of the DSP processor, intended for faster output of sound samples, pre-decompression of MP3 sounds in the game, and overlaying complex multi-pass environmental effects.

To say anything about the benefits of such a solution, in my opinion, is still premature, in theory, of course, this is a useful thing, let's see if the game developers can somehow use it properly. onboard memory, there is only for games created with the help of the CREATIVE developers themselves, and even then, not so much because of the presence of memory as such, but because of the preliminary unpacking of all sounds in the game, that is, the guys openly cheated with a demonstration of its merits. Let's leave these statements on the conscience of CREATIVE engineers and IXBT reviewers. And also on the conscience of the same network player who "asked to add memory" to the card that later received his name. I can’t resist and be sneering. Interestingly, in what games did he lack this most notorious RAM on a sound card when the XFI cards themselves did not exist in nature yet? After all, even now games, taking into account this onboard memory, can be counted on the fingers of one hand, at the time of designing the map they did not exist at all in nature.

Output.

In general, CREATIVE has turned out to be a pretty decent universal card. The card is equally suitable for listening to music (at the level of AUDIGY-4 cards, but without forced re-encoding), as well as for watching movies and playing computer games. Despite the fact that it is not a "revolution in the world of sound", nevertheless, it can be recommended for purchase to a wide range of computer users who are thinking about buying their first full-fledged sound card. In the same case, if you already own a card of the AUDIGY-2 level, you should not be in a hurry with the purchase, in terms of its capabilities, XFI does not differ much from it.

TPA6120A2 ADCCA0132CS5361PCM4220CS5381 Number of playback channels 5.1 7.1 5.1 7.1 Dimensions, mm125 x 125170 x 70170 x 125170 x 125

advertising

All SoundBlaster cards support only 5.1 versus 7.1 for ASUS models. But on the other hand, the elemental base of Creative products (especially ZxR) is generally better, and the only passport parameter - the signal-to-noise ratio looks extremely impressive.

For all cards, the widest range of reproducible frequencies is declared and, of course, each supports the 192 kHz / 24 bit mode.

Testing methodology

The stereo signal was output in 16 bit, 44 kHz, 24 bit, 48 kHz and 24 bit, 192 kHz mode. The professional audio interface E-MU 0404 USB was used as a recording device.

Subjective listening

During the listening, professional active Dynaudio BM15A monitors, as well as Sennheiser HD650 and Denon D2000 headphones were connected to the sound cards. The latter, if the card is equipped with a dedicated headphone output (for example, amplified), were connected to it.

Except for direct rivals, during subjective listening I compared all the boards with the semi-professional external card E-MU 0404 USB. Like all new SoundBlaster, it is equipped with headphone amplifiers. This means that a full-fledged comparison is possible here as well. Your humble servant does not think of himself as a great connoisseur or an inveterate audiophile, but he tried to formulate some impressions. Of course, only in addition to the results of objective measurements.

SoundBlaster Blaster Z

We will consider the cards in order - from the lowest to the highest.

The SoundBlaster Z comes in a medium sized cardboard box. The latter is impressively decorated: gold inserts on a black and red background. On the front side, through a transparent window, you can contemplate the board itself.

The rest of the box is dotted with all sorts of information about the product, and most of the data is provided in several languages ​​at once. There is also Russian among them.

But the manufacturer indicates a little real technical characteristics. And the carrying handle is definitely not enough here.

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Inside the board is fixed in a soft plastic stamping.

The bundle, in addition to the expected documentation and a CD with software, is only a Creative Crystal Voice microphone.

It is well-designed; such an accessory is nice to see in the delivery of a sound card. If only its price did not increase too noticeably.

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The audio board itself, bearing the SB1500 index, although it is made in a standard rather than a low-profile form factor, is quite compact - less than 13 cm in length.

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But on it we managed to implement a full set of necessary connectors:

• Two separate 3.5 mm mini Jacks for microphone and headphones;
• Three more are for 5.1 acoustics;
• And also two digital ports.

Most of the board is covered with a metal casing painted in bright red. Alas, it is highly doubtful that it will somehow protect sensitive components from interference - with such and such a healthy round hole in the center. And for heat dissipation, the casing does not come into direct contact with any components (however, the latter is not needed here - the board does not require external power supply and heats up very moderately during operation).

Apparently, the casing here is more "for beauty". For the same - and a transparent window through which you can see some of the electronic components and the main microcircuit, covered with a decorative overlay.

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Under it is the Creative Sound Core3D (CA0132) sound processor. We will meet him more than once in the future. Here he is not only responsible for all calculations, but also performs the functions of ADC and DAC for all channels, except for the front ones.

The board is not too oversaturated with elements: the installation is not as tight as in top solutions. But still, according to the latest fashion among sound cards, a separate digital-to-analog converter is used for the front channels. In this case, this is the older Cirrus Logic model - CS4398. For example, ASUS Xonar D1 is equipped with the same DAC, and many E-MU products are very worthy. The harness uses NJM2114 and 4556A operational amplifiers. Their replacement is not provided: if you wish to do this, the DU will have to be unsoldered.

However, for this class of device their capabilities are more than enough.

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Another Creative chip - CA0113 - is responsible for working with the PCI-Express controller.

Above and below the processor, the manufacturer installed LEDs.

During operation, they provide a red backlight for the board, and at the same time for all the insides of the system unit.

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Disabling them without losing the warranty will not work.

That, in fact, is all that can be said about the board. It's time to move on to testing. The first step is the measurement results.

We will compare with the main competitor of Creative SoundBlaster Z on the market - ASUS Xonar DX:

16 bit, 44 kHz:

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Parameter	Creative SoundBlaster Z		ASUS Xonar DX
	+0.09, –0.09		+0.01, –0.03
Noise level, dB (A)	–94.1		–96.3
	94.0		96.2
Harmonic distortion,%	0.0026		0.0009
	–87.1		–89.7
	0.0049		0.0043
	–93.9		–95.1
Intermodulation at 10 kHz,%	0.0041		0.0046

24 bit, 48 kHz:

Parameter	Creative SoundBlaster Z		ASUS Xonar DX
Frequency response (in the range 40 Hz - 15 kHz), dB	+0.06, –0.10
Noise level, dB (A)	–103.5		–113.4
Dynamic range, dB (A)	103.7
Harmonic distortion,%	0.0028		0.0007
Harmonic distortion + noise, dB (A)	–88.2		–100.1
Intermodulation distortion + noise,%	0.0039		0.0010
Interpenetration of channels, dB	–96.6		–97.6
Intermodulation at 10 kHz,%	0.010		0.0009

24 bit, 192 kHz:

Parameter	Creative SoundBlaster Z		ASUS Xonar DX
Frequency response (in the range 40 Hz - 15 kHz), dB	+0.01, –0.09		+0.00, –0.04
Noise level, dB (A)	–104.4		–113.2
Dynamic range, dB (A)	104.5		113.0
Harmonic distortion,%	0.0028		0.0007
Harmonic distortion + noise, dB (A)	–88.0		–99.6
Intermodulation distortion + noise,%	0.0048		0.0010
Interpenetration of channels, dB	–99.3		–96.8
Intermodulation at 10 kHz,%	0.010		0.0010

Considering the stated characteristics, better results could be expected.

If, when measuring ASUS Xonar D1, I simply "rested" on the capabilities of the recording path of my already middle-aged E-MU 0404 USB, then I could not even get close to the signal-to-noise ratio of 113 dB. However, the overall RMAA score of "excellent" in 24-bit 48 and 192 kHz modes speaks for itself. Creative SoundBlaster Z provides excellent sound quality, which will be enough for the vast majority of even the most demanding users.

This is confirmed by subjective listening. On studio monitors priced at several thousand dollars and in a room with initial audio preparation, you can “hear” the difference between the Creative SoundBlaster Z and the best representatives of the tribe of sound cards like E-MU 0404 USB, ASUS Xonar DX or the top “entertainment” board of the same line (ROG Phoebus ) is very difficult. On the most complex and rich compositions, there is a feeling that Creative SoundBlaster Z plays a little dirty, and the sound lacks detail. But there is not the slightest desire to compare it with the same M-Audio Revolution 5.1 - and it is clear that the new product plays better.

It's not that simple with a headphone output. Apparently, the use of the same DAC, albeit through a different harness, had an effect. Headphone playback quality is inferior to the front output. Of course, when used with budget and mid-range models, the difference will not be so noticeable, but many owners of expensive high-quality headphones are probably eyeing sound cards for $ 100. And they may be disappointed with the degradation of detail and the increased distortion of the local dedicated output. But there could be an obvious advantage over ASUS Xonar DX, which, in principle, cannot boast of having a headphone amplifier.

Now, alas, we have to admit, albeit small, but the loss of SoundBlaster Z to its main competitor in terms of the main parameter - sound quality. And this is at a slightly higher cost. At the time of writing the review, ASUS Xonar DX could be bought in Moscow retail for less than 2,500 rubles, while prices for the new Creative product were just starting at 3,000 rubles. In addition to this, the ASUS card is a low-profile one and comes not only with a PCI-Express slot, but also with an old PCI one. And the big question is - how many people in such a situation will be seduced by more functionality, a long list of supported technologies, a bright design, a microphone in the kit and a more convenient driver?

As for the software, we'll talk about it in the corresponding section. And for those who care about the package, you should definitely look at the next model - SoundBlaster Zx.

Creative is a recognized leader in digital entertainment products. It was founded in Asia, in Singapore, at the beginning of the 80s of the last century, when in our country, the former USSR, there were no thoughts about modern multimedia devices. The manufacturer became famous all over the world for its Sound Blaster sound cards, they made a real revolution in the world of sound and even served as a standard for some time. Today the device developer has laboratories in Asia, America, and Europe, and is not limited solely to the production of boards - on the contrary, he is actively expanding the product line in accordance with the needs of consumers.

Modern Creative - the guarantor of perfect sound

The company today is the development of advanced audio solutions, wireless amplifiers, high-performance solutions for improving the sound of headphones and speakers, working with computers, laptops, portable devices. Creative's innovative equipment, unique patented technologies, modern applications allow consumers from all over the world to experience the joy of high-quality sound reproduction, anytime, anywhere: at home, on a walk, visiting friends, at gaming competitions.

Sound Blaster sound cards developed by Creative have become the benchmark for PCs; before the widespread distribution of Windows OS, many PC manufacturers focused their products on compatibility with such sound cards. Back in 1989, this product line attracted over 400 million fans. Today this army is only getting bigger. It is almost impossible to meet someone with even a little computer technology or music who would not admit that Creative's Sound Blaster is the best solution for them.

Currently, the company's assortment includes products for optimizing sound from smartphones and tablets, sound cards for laptops and computers, and solutions for improving sound for Xbox and PlayStation.

Advantages of Creative Sound Cards

The company is customer oriented. Creative's modern products are not only a delight for the ears, but also for the eyes. If necessary, the devices provide touch control, the size is made optimal - moderately compact, but without sacrificing functionality.

Strengths of Creative sound cards:

1. unsurpassed sound;
2. continuous improvement of technologies;
3. customer orientation;
4. always clear interface;
5. multifunctionality;
6. support for users around the world.

While playing or watching a video, you will hear everything from the quietest breeze, the rustle of leaves under your feet, the quiet squeak of snow to the roar of explosions, incredible thunder, the roar of a jet plane. Creative sound cards will allow you to experience a previously unknown volume of sound, experience the shock of music.

In this category of sound cards you can find a driver for the Creative model - Windows 9X. Like any other sound card, this model requires an installed driver. Download Creative Sound Card Driver - Windows 9X Free You ...

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The driver for the popular sound card from the manufacturer Creative, this sound card is considered professional, and its quality is one of the best. Like any other sound card, this model requires an installed driver. Download driver ...

Assembly of drivers for SoundMAX sound cards, this assembly supports a huge number of Analog Devices SoundMAX sound cards. Also, with the help of this driver, you can eliminate a large number of problems associated with sounds on your computer ...

Creative SOUND BLASTER X-FI sound card driver that allows Windows to detect the card and make it operational. The driver installation process is automatic and simple enough for virtually any user ...

Creative Sound BlasterX G1 external sound card driver that allows your computer and Windows operating system to detect and activate the card. Often this sound card is used to connect headphones and ...

The driver for the Creative Audigy2 sound card, which will provide a real opportunity to play music discs of the next generation DVD-Audio. Thanks to this driver, you will help your computer and Windows operating system ...

A driver for the Creative Sound Blaster sb0570 sound card, which will allow you to fully get all the features from this card. After installing the driver, the Windows operating system will determine the card, and the installation process itself is extremely ...