Home > Consumer Reviews > Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

There is a lag with the sound in Vista when using 5.1. Creative are aware of this, but have not responded or given any indication when it will be resolved. Check the Creative user forum before buying this product.

I bought this for £39.99 from our local Argos store (as it was £20 cheaper than on Amazon), as I wanted an external sound card to play back music from my computer
Listening to MP3s through reasonable powered stereo monitors, it's sound really is offensive. You can really hear the poorly implemented psycho-acoustic treatments, ('X-Fi audio enhancements') in operation - boosting/compressing/expanding all sorts of frequencies - which totally screws the equalisation and balance of the original recordings to create a complete mess!
I now think these must be aimed at gamers who want everything to fizz, whizz and bang in their game of choice on cheap computer speakers, while they concentrate on the visuals. However, for any kind of music fan who wants a realistic reproduction of their music, listening on reasonable stereo monitors (as I was), the sound would be laughable if you had not paid for the privilege.

Firstly this product does work in vista and windows 7, however it is likely that when it first came out there were compatability issues preventing it from working properly or at all, hence the reviews about vista incompatability, creative arent exactly quick to release up to date drivers for things but the x-fi surround 5.1 works now.

I bought this as sort of a side-grade, i got into using a headset as well as my Z5500s and the xonar U1 as cool as it is dosent have enough ports for both, i just got fed up unplugging/replugging stuff into it so i figured i would check this sound card out since it can have everything plugged into it at once. Overall i found the following pros and cons.

PROS:

- Stylish, this was the first thing that struck me when i opened it up, it looks good, better than its precessor the audigy 2 nx which looked a bit retro.

- Multiple ports, it can support the typical 3.5mm cable in stereo or 5.1 (comes with an adapter for the large red/white ports found on the back), it has an optical output, it also has seperate headphone/mic ports on the side and a "line out" port between them. So its got plenty, it lacks the coaxial and optical out found on the audigy 2 nx however it has large red/white ports in place of the usual green 3.5mm one which the audigy 2 nx had, i dont know what to make of that to be honest i imagine it allows hi-fi systems to be plugged into it to use the crystalizer or something? Im just guessing, i dont know what those plugs are about or why they put them there instead of a green 3.5mm.

- Remote that actually works. Never got the audigy 2 nx's remote working, you can play/pause and mess with the volume and crystalizer settings from far away :) However i cant skip tracks/movies, i managed to get WMP to fast forward a song but not skip, this is likely due to the windows 7 beta drivers im using from creatives website because with the drivers on the CD the remote never worked at all.

- Sounds decent, i cant tell if theres a massive difference between this and my old xonar U1 or even audigy 2 nx but theres no loss in quality thats for sure. MP3's do sound a bit better with the crystalizer but i could probably achieve the same effect by messing with any other sound cards graphic equalizer settings. For the record im using logitech Z5500 speakers.

- Runs off the USB cord! Hoorah! The audigy 2 nx needed a power cord with a small brick in addition to the big fat USB cable to hook it up to the computer, the x-fi surround 5.1 has a smaller mini usb port on the back and is powered by that.

CONS:

- Creative software is a bit sluggish, same as the last time i used it, you have to use this in order to get the most out of the card, although it will work with windows drivers without any of the creative software but you wont get the crystalizer or anything doing that just basic sound. Im used to the xonar U1's quicker more lightweight software.

- Only a small complaint here, it was mentioned earlier but the remote wont skip in WMP, it will do everything else except skip, it can actually even close WMP or switch between programs but it cant skip. I put this down to the beta drivers for windows 7 i assume it will be fixed when the final release comes out.


So overall its a pretty good product, a few niggles but its good stuff. It should be noted that i had some interference with the headset when the card was positioned near my phone, a wireless BT verve specifically, took me a while to figure this out but i moved the phone away from the card and its fine now. Thought i would mention that here since it dosent really qualify as a "con" as other cards would probably experience the same thing, and it might save someone some time.

Contrary to other reviews,i have used this card on multiple laptops and pcs with Vista and it DOES work. In fact it works brilliantely, there is no lag and the quality of the sound is greately improved. A must buy for all laptop owners who want to improve the quality of music, games and video!

Bought this last week, arrived 4 days after by royal mail. I am running Vista on my laptop with this kit. Initially I had a little problem how to set it up, but I followed the install CD, updated all the software online and then disabled my on board speaker output. The sounds is good from all of my speakers. Definitely worth the money!!

One thing is that the remote only works with the Creative Entertainment centre (which is like the Windows Vista one), (functions like play pause next etc) except volume up and down, mute, crystalliser and the 3d setting which i dont know really how its works.