Page 7 - DVD

DVD-Audio/Video

I have always maintained that Creative's DVD-Audio player function was crippled by the 10K DSP. It never did sound quite right and the X-Fi verifies it. Playing back my small collection of DVD-Audio discs with the X-Fi reveals a certain ease and detail not heard before.  Psychosomatic you say? Probably, but I have a good audio memory and an Audigy 2 for comparison. You can also play DVD-A with any sound card with PowerDVD, WinDVD, and WMP and still hear a difference. However, while the DVD-A player that Creative provides is certainly prettier to look at, it still doesn't show any of the enhanced features of the DVD-A discs, like photos. And it still crashes on exit, at least on my test machine, or when it reaches track 11. I have read other horror stories of users trying to get the DVD-A player to work.

I would love for the music industry to really start backing high-resolution formats like DVD-A.  I don't want to say DVD-A is the RIAA's Obi-wan, but it is a lot better than what they are doing currently.

Playing the Buena Vista Social Club DVD-A disc mildly blew the CD version away.  Most different was the nuance and slightly deeper sense of depth in the stereo field.  I dare say the sound is simply more elegant.  After that, I just enjoyed the music very much and started playing through my entire DVD-A collection.

For movies, we have several that we tested with. First, of course, was The Matrix. The first one. By now, we can safely say, the X-Fi has a character that is identifiable: crisp, warm, natural, and detailed. Even considering that we are comparing the X-Fi to a card that has more utility due to a breakout box, it is still better than the DMX 6-fire.

I did notice that the center channel disappeared from the analog output recently. I hear it is a Windows XP and WMP problem. This was not a problem with the 6-fire, as I used the S/PDIF optical output to the Logitech Z-680 control pod, but it uncovered yet another problem. Many Creative fans will tell you, to get digital output requires a special mini-DIN cable, which is hard to find. Not a Radio Shack item. For the XtremeMusic edition of the X-Fi, Creative changed the system again, thus making the X-Fi incompatible with a wide range of its own speaker systems using the mini-DIN cable. A simple S/PDIF output looks mighty handy now, doesn't it?

For this part of the review, personal preferences rule. But both cards are very capable in both playback and recording. The X-Fi definitely got me listening to my music collection. I just wanted to hear what the next song would sound like through the X-Fi. The last card to do that like this was the Santa Cruz.The X-Fi has better detail than the Santa Cruz or DMX 6-Fire, separating instruments better and bringing them out. It reminds me of the M-Audio Revolution 7.1, which has an abundance of that property, but the X-Fi is even more natural and detailed. Overall, the sound of an X-Fi is crisp, warm, natural, deep, and detailed. It is the best SoundBlaster to date, and the most fitting of the name!