Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB Audio System with Phono Preamp

That's the best way I can describe this external soundcard by SoundBlaster. It may not be "audiophile" in the way that "audiophiles" demand, but it doesn't cost thousands of dollars either. For a mere $80, it delivers amazingly good sound. I bought this box mainly to archive all my old vinyl records, and for that purpose it really shines.To my regret, I had gotten rid of my turntable many years ago, figuring I would never play records again, but lately I'd been staring at all the boxes of records I never did seem to get rid of, including many from my wife's collection, and thought, "Hmm, I wonder what those would sound like after listening to CDs all these years?" I kept hearing how vinyl is superior to CDs in sound, so I decided to embark upon an experiment and hear for myself.Most of my albums are 30-40 years old, and it seemed only fitting to play them on a turntable from that era (the build quality back then was much better than the schlock you can buy today at a reasonable price.) So I picked up a vintage, 38 year old refurbished Technics SL-1400 turntable off eBay for under $200, slapped on a Shure M97xE cartridge ($70), and then used the SoundBlaster X-FI HD to convert all my old records to digital, recording them at 24 bits / 96 kHz, the max the SoundBlaster can handle.The result? If you have records that are in mint or near mint condition, or at least very well maintained, I can attest that, yes, indeed, the vinyl records sound better than their CD counterparts. I have CDs of some of these old albums that I've purchased over the years, and compared to what I recorded of off vinyl at 24/96, the CDs sound a bit dull, a bit harsh. In contrast, some of my old vinyl albums sound refreshingly smooth and sweet. They are great to listen to. As CDs are a step up in quality from MP3s (which I can't stand to listen to more than ten minutes), recordings from vinyl sampled at 24 bits / 96 kHz are likewise a step up from CDs. The best way to describe the difference is that the hi-def recordings are "more alive", "pleasant" and "easy to listen to."Not all my albums sound that good. Many were well played back in the day, having been ground down to just the semblance of their original tracks, and many have lost their highs. Recording at a high-definition like 24 / 96 is a bit of a waste for them. Even so, at least the digitization isn't adding any more noise and distortion to these old recordings.The X-FI HD comes with software that you can use to help record your albums, and it's passable. Many people alternatively use the free, open source software package called Audacity to do their recordings. But beware, Audacity can't really record and play back at 24 bits / 96kHz on all Windows systems. It depends on your setup. Worse still, it may look like you are recording/playing back at 24/96, but underneath, you are really getting 16 bits / 44.1 kHz (CD quality!)The software that comes with the SoundBlaster does not have this problem, but I found it a bit hard to use, especially when splitting up tracks. The waveform window for this task is simply too small to make this anything but cumbersome and tedious. Also, I found the click repair functionality a bit too heavy handed, degrading the sound too easily. Likewise, I found Audacity's click repair to be marginal.Do yourself a favor. Bite the bullet and spend $30 on Vinyl Studio, (google it). I've tried lots of different products, but Vinyl Studio is hands down the best, and it's only $30. It's click repair functionality isn't as good as that offered by another product -- Click Repair (google it), but it's adequate for most records. And unlike Click Repair, Vinyl Studio does more than just remove clicks. It's a complete solution to the problem of digitally recording a large collection of albums. It makes the task as painless as possible.If you've got a lot of albums to archive, the above setup: A vintage turntable, a good cartridge, the SoundBlaster X-FI HD, and Vinyl Studio will leave you smiling, and won't bust your wallet (comparatively speaking.)By the way, I have downloaded numerous hi-def digital files from places like HDTracks, and ProStudio Master, and these 24 bit / 96 kHz files derived from studio masters sound awesome on the SoundBlaster X-FI HD, especially when played through yet another software package -- JRiver Media Center, ($50 hi-def media player software). The first time I heard "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues through the X-FI HD and JRiver, I was completely blown away. It sounded that good -- and this is through budget headphones (I paid a mere $70 for the cans I use.) Likewise, hearing "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" by the Allman Brothers sent chills down my back. Imagine what these songs would sound like through a good amplifier and a good set of speakers (or at least a good set of headphones). Is it "audiophile quality?" Depends how much you want to spend.People say that 24 bit / 96kHz files are overkill. Not to my ears! Even through a pair of $70 headphones, I can hear the difference, mostly in the form of: "pleasant, clear, easy to listen to." You won't necessarily hear this difference using any old sound card that supports 24/96 samples. But the SoundBlaster X-FI HD is good enough to deliver that difference, and for $80, that makes it a bargain.The SoundBlaster X-FI HD is not for everybody. It's not a true "standalone unit" -- it has to be plugged into a running computer to work. But if your goal is to digitize your vinyl collection on a budget -- and still have quality sound, it's just the ticket.

I had for many years an external Audigy 2 NX that finally stopped working. This was a great unit for the DVD-Audio support and 192/24 support for headphones (96/24 for 5.1), and so a requirement was that any replacement could support playing all my ripped lossless archives at 96/24. Since the NX had permanently migrated to my desk at work, I didn't really care about the 5.1 support, and my main focus was on headphones (since I use it at the office). It also had to be USB, as this is replacing the crappy internal audio on my work computer and I like to be able to use it on multiple systems.First place I checked was creative.com to see what was new, and started doing research on some of the offerings. I looked at the X-Fi Go! which would have been my choice if ultra-portability was my priority but I liked the extra features of the X-Fi HD: everything I need and nothing I don't. I really loved the 1/4" jacks which make perfect sense for an audiophile targeted item, and the split line-in/phono-in and line out is just excellent. I've been using this for about 2 years now so have a pretty good idea on the pros and cons.I agree that setup can be a pain, though it seems to mostly be a driver issue and poor ability to control the mixers and mute what you need to through logical software menus. Ironically I have more trouble with Win 7 than I did on XP. A few things to note: The phono-in and the line-in is a shared connection, though it's very difficult to tell through the software which was it's configured. I wish instead of controlling this through software there was a physical toggle switch on the rear of the unit to select. If you plug something in through the line-in and it sounds awfully distorted, it's running through the phono preamp and you need to mute this input (good luck finding it in the windows mixer and the creative version, it's terrible to hunt for and not obvious at all). Once you get that sorted out, you'll be able to enjoy HD AM/FM radio from your Sony XDR-F1, at least until you undock your Win7 computer and then redock. At this point, everything will look like it's configured fine but you just won't hear anything. The solution is to go into the windows mixer and disable the line input and then re-enable, and you're back in business. I did not have this issue in WinXP.So how about quality? Well it's really quite incredible, and the dedicated headphone amp is all the more impressive considering it gets its power from the USB 500mA connection rather than an external power source (like the NX did). How powerful is this you ask? Well let me tell you I did some back to back testing using some heavily modded AKG K340s (which are said to be notoriously difficult to drive) through the X-fi HD headphone jack, and compared that to the line-out feeding through Transparent Audio interconnects into a Darkvoice 336SE (which is also said to be an excellent pairing for the K340s at a relatively bargain price) and I honestly could not tell the difference between the two, as far as ability to drive the headphones. I tested using several lossless MFSL and Hoffman DCC albums and some DVD-A recordings with a variety of music styles, and the $100 X-Fi sounded JUST AS GOOD as a system 5 times the price. Very very impressive. I've also done the same with a pair of Grado SR80i to the same effect.Originally I dismissed the THX stuff but have found myself using it lately. Since I also listen to a AM/FM radio through the line-ins, I mix a little of the "surround sound" into it to make it a bit more comfortable to listen to (and generally use a foobar plugin to do the same for my archived music). Depending on the quality of the station, the "crystalizer" and "speaker" options can give a little more punch, and the "dialog" option is nice for static-filled AM stations if you're listening to talk radio. Even Pandora streaming audio sounds really good (I was afraid the K340s would reveal all the MP3 artifacts but at the HQ setting I generally don't notice anything, though I am working usually rather than critically listening).This has been an excellent bargain purchase and in truly an excellent addition to any audiophile's desktop arsenal. I'd really rate this 4.5 stars if I could because frankly the software/driver support is clunky and could be much improved. A physical toggle switch to select between line- and phono-in would go a long way to reducing the problems people have reported with crappy audio through the line-in. And despite the excellent powering through the USB port, I do wish it had an external power option that would allow you to use the unit as a standalone receiver, for example with the XDR-F1 I could listen to the radio independent of having a computer available, but that's pretty minor. This is a really excellent unit and I feel as if I should buy a few spares so that when this one gives up the ghost down the road I'll have a fresh replacement ready to swap in. Excellent job Creative!