Customer Ratings & Reviews

This is my second SoundBlaster X-FI card. I previously had the X-FI ExtremeGamer (PCI), which I bought 2 years ago from Best Buy, that worked great on my Vista 64 system. Then a few months ago, I upgraded to Windows 7 and had nothing but problems. That other card just didn't like Windows 7 too much. So I looked for another comparable card that would fit into my unused PCI-Express x1 slot and found this one on sale at Best Buy. To those of you wondering, based on my previous experience using the ExtremeGamer edition and the new Titanium version, they are both pretty much the same... and have the same features. But this one uses the newer slot instead of the older PCI. As for sound quality, hooked up to my 5.1 Logitech Z-5500 speakers, they sound great. I tested to see if I had any distortion, like when browsing... and so far I haven't had any... nor have I had any sound crashes... There is one bump I must say, though. This card has optical inputs/outputs. I originally was going to connect the card to my digital speakers using my optical cable. That was a huge mistake because when I did it that way and installed the drivers/software, I had nothing but problems... none of the apps would detect the card... and the sound only worked half the time... so I had to uninstall everything... then connect using the analog cables and no problems. I then tried to connect the optical cable after that... the software worked but not everything would play.. some times I had music.. sometimes no sound in movies... so I gave with the optical part and just have it connected the regular way. I have a 5.1 speaker setup.

The sound is great... when you have it on the right setting. The software does not automatically adjust itself for the application in the forefront. You have to manually select whether you want sound optimized for entertainment, gaming, or video/audio production. If you have it set on Gaming and you are watching Youtube videos, the audio gets choppy or cuts out all together. If you have it on Entertainment and are playing games, you don't get surround and things don't sound right. I recommend leaving the audio properties window open so you can go between settings if you need to. The card uses RCA jacks almost exclusively, so make sure you have compatible speaker system and wiring.

I bought this card to put in a three month old Dell 8300 with an i7-2600 CPU after realizing what truly poor sound the on-board chip produces. I will admit that I was hesitant to get this card after reading some of the reviews, but I have used Sound Blaster cards for over a decade and have never had a problem. Installation went well, and the software installation went smoothly, although slow even on a fast computer. After I started it up, the controls all worked and the sound was excellent. I did disable the on-board audio (did NOT uninstall), and moved the front-panel connector for mic/headphones from the motherboard to the new card (fit and worked perfectly). I will say, though, that I did not purchase this card to run a 7.1 channel theater or extreme gaming setup. I merely wanted a competent device to listen to clean 2.1 stereo. This card does that very well. It also works very well recording whatever is playing on the computer. Well worth the price.

I have been digitizing my vinyl collection. I was having problems with my Creative Audigy 2 ZS (apparently a driver issue) so, I bought this card. The sound quality of my previous efforts was phenomenal. My first album with the X-Fi was Rickie Lee Jones' first album. I knew right away something was wrong. There was this huge hole in the upper midrange. You could hear the sizzle from the cymbals. But, the artist's voice sounded muddy. In one song (Danny's All Star Joint) the artist snaps her fingers to the beat. You could hear a click, but it didn't sound like someone snapping their fingers. Just to be sure, I re-installed my Audigy 2. I re-digitized the album and compared the two resulting CDs. The copy made using the Audigy 2 sounded fabulous (perfect). The copy made using the X-Fi did not. So, the X-Fi Titanium may be great for gaming. But, if you are digitizing your vinyl collection, this is not the sound card to use.

this audio card by creative is awesome. great value for what i paid for it and it accents the creative t6160 speakerset i bought as well. supports 5.1 and 7.1 systems ..win 7 reconized it and installing the cd drivers is a snap. you cant go wrong with this card.

I'm no newbie when it comes to PC component upgrades. I have a brand new Dell XPS 8300 with Windows 7 64-bit and bought this card to upgrade the onboard sound. Windows will install its drivers, but the provded Creative software will not load. It keeps giving an error that no supported device is found. After much searching I found myraid others who were experiencing the same problem. Even the latest drivers from the Creative website won't work. It's sad, because I was really looking forward to using this card. But it's going back tomorrow after many 'creative' attempts to figure out a way to make it work. Creative shouldn't produce a product that doesn't have software to support it. Save yourself screams and headaches and find another card manufacturer, despite Creative virtually having a corner on the market.

Same card as the X-Fi Fatal1ty Professional except it doesn't have 64MB of x-ram (only 16mb) and it doesn't have the X-FI light. For 12% off with my RZ discount this was a great buy. Moved up from the old X-Fi Fatal1ty professional and can tell there's a big difference with using the dts dobly decoding. I would recommend this in a heartbeat!

The card itself is great, and once you wrestle with Creative's installers, the experience is pretty good. I plunked this card into a Windows 7 machine that was running a PCI X-Fi Extreme Gamer, removing that card because my new video card needed 2 slots and the X-Fi, which was right below the second slot, was suffocating the fan. So I went with a different card to go in a different slot. Plugging int the card wasn't quite as plug-and-play as I'd hoped; I had to completely remove all Creative Labs software, and still use Driver Sweeper to clean everything out, and then reinstall the software completely. I had expected the switch to go like an from an older ATI card to a newer one; as long as the drivers are up to date it SHOULD be a piece of cake. I use this card not necessarily as designed; I'm not a big gamer, but instead have an audio production hobby. This card offers great ASIO performance at the $100 mark and it handles Sonar 8.5 great.

i tried to go cheap and get the rocketfish version. But it was dead. So i got this one and couldn't be happier. Went from and audigy 2 se to this. Get surround sound using the spdif connection. You must remove all sound card drivers and software from old card before installing this.

For those having problems.....if you are replacing an existing sound card with this one, make sure to uninstall the old drivers before installing new ones!!!. Also make sure to go into your device manager (computer/system properties/device manager/sound) and disable your on board sound!!! One other thing, when you install this card and boot up, it will automatically want to search for drivers online, make sure you decline and instead install the drivers off the cd it comes with. You can always update drivers later if needed!! Hope that helps because this card rocks and is very versatile!!!!

I checked the specs for a device that would allow me to digitize my long time record collection. The sound blaster audio card was the best value between ten different devices including a few pro level devices. I have recorded 15 LPs so far and I can't believe the sound quality. Also the direct connect headphone/speaker connection has enough power to handle the loudest part of any of the songs I have recorded,

I installed it at the same time that I upgraded to Windows 7. It doesn't filter noise as much as I would like.

This is my first review, why? Because i had to come on this web page and just explain to others the frustration behind this card. I will start off with this - i work on computers, it is my CAREER, i do it for 40 hours a week - for the pass 5 years. I work with all kinds of audio sound cards , mother boards , you name it. This card (not creative , cause in the past i have .. been very satisfied with them) is a huge headache. If it is not crackling, or not "Decoding" devices, it is playing sub - par quality sound. I'm going to be level with you on this, i tried to use trittons optically to this card - in the result , 7 hours later i decided to say screw it - im trying my on board card - cause SOMETHING did not sound right about the sound quality - at first i thought? These things do not sound as righteous as everyone says they do.. what gives.. well , this sound card gave. After that i got curious, and purchased 2 others from different companies. I.E. Newegg, Tigerdirect, including returning mine and getting a new one from Best Buy. All 3 cards , resulted in the SAME exact thing. To top it off, i did not just use Tritton's to see if it would decode, i tried multiple things - i tried Turtle Beachs - i tried my Speaker bar which is designed to be Decoded by sound cards, or used with a TV. I tried different surround sounds... now i got REALLY curious - and tested a new MACHINE thinking it was my motherboard PCI slot perhaps? Same results. If you want my two-cents, take it. If not, buyer beware. :) What did i end up purchasing instead? Well, this card did help me one way - my on board sound card still is not going to be replaced cause its 5.1 surround sound is glorious. Best of luck to you all.

ok so i currently have this card i didnt actually get it from best buy i bought it off a friend but there is a severe problem with my card the main output has a large HUM to it on any volume setting and it locks up most of my applications i wish i knew what was wrong with it because it would be better than my old soundblaster pci 128

Recieved item in a timely matter and product well packaged.

After two years it stop working had to buy a new one.