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HOLOGRAPHIC AUDIO
Super X-Fi brings the magic of holography into audio, for headphones.
By mapping the listener’s head and ear shape, and transforming audio based on those parameters via Super X-Fi technology, audio is experienced as though it is coming from outside of the headphones - and the headphones disappear.
Think of the magic of holography, but for audio, and for headphones. Super X-Fi Spatial Holography is real and is now.
This is the holy grail of headphone audio.
OUR STORY
FOR MANY DECADES, since the invention of headphones, there has been an unending quest for the holy grail of headphone audio. The challenge has been to make headphones sound as natural as what we experience in the real world around us, rather than sound confined inside our heads unnaturally. We started this pursuit more than twenty years ago, with the dream to bring this life-changing experience to the world. Through the years of this quest, involving countless seemingly insurmountable challenges and dead-ends, we’ve finally found Super X-Fi!
GOOD HEADPHONE AUDIO IS A FALLACY...
Do you know headphone audio has been deceiving you all this while? The vast majority of audio tracks created today are meant for external speakers. As headphone users, we listen to such tracks all the time. This means sound is pumped directly into our ears, creating a claustrophobic audio soundstage, where sound seems unnaturally trapped in our heads. Acoustically, this is wrong. Good headphone audio is a fallacy. It’s time for a change.
Normal Headphones:Audio made for external speakers but unnaturally pumped directly into your ears
SUPER X-FI: HEADPHONE AUDIO SOUNDS NATURAL AGAIN
To get a natural, magically expansive audio experience that is truly tailor-made for your individuality, audio has to be produced in headphones based on how YOU perceive sound in real life. We use a complex inverse computation on the headphone audio signal to reverse the claustrophobic effect, bringing the source of the sound outside again – so that it sounds natural, just like in the real world.
We call this: SUPER X-FI
Furthermore, Super X-Fi personalizes the headphone audio experience based on your unique listening profile, accounting for the complicated pathways of how external sound travels to your ears. The response to Super X-Fi has been nothing short of phenomenal.
This could be more revolutionary than black and white TV being replaced by color TV.
and it was NOTHING
SHORT OF AMAZING.
– GEEKCULTURE
it sounded GLORIOUS!
– MobileSyrup
made straight forward stereo
music tracks sound MAGICAL!
– TechHive
Creative’s Super X-Fi could
be the GAME CHANGER!
– The Neo Dimension
MESMERIZED BY THE MAGIC
“FRIGGING MIND-BLOWING” “MAGICAL!”
“IT JUST FLOORS YOU” “IT SOUNDED GLORIOUS”
Those are just some of the superlatives used by those who have been mesmerized by the magic of Super X-Fi Spatial Holography.
With Super X-Fi, headphone audio is magically moved out of your head, as if the headphones disappear. Everything sounds natural again, like in the real world. This mind-blowing audio technology uses acoustic mapping and holographic sound to create a headphone experience that’s indistinguishable from a dedicated set of surround speakers!
Isn’t it time for you to experience Super X-Fi for yourself?
HOW IT WORKS
Super X-Fi is computational audio; it uses complex algorithms and computationally intensive techniques to custom fit audio, for every individual, through a sophisticated Head and Ear-Mapping process. This is done by simply taking three photos of your face and ears with your phone.
Hundreds of anthropometric parameters are extracted from the features of the head in high precision using real-time image detection and analysis. An artificial intelligence (AI) engine then uses these parameters along with the dynamics of the targeted headphones, and synthesizes them with a multidimensional map of the desired room acoustics.
Using the synthesized map, Super X-Fi recreates the natural expansive audio soundstage, for headphones, to give a magical listening experience custom made to each individual’s unique physique.
Creative's new Super X-Fi audio
tech is Frigging mind-blowing!
SUPER X-FI: TECHNOLOGY IN MANY FORMS
The first incarnation of this is a custom UltraDSP chip specially developed for Super X-Fi.
This SXFI chip is specially designed for Super X-Fi processing, and packs 5x the computing power of Creative’s most powerful Sound Blaster chip – while consuming less than half the power.
This SoC is a highly integrated chip, includes a large cache of fast memory to decode and process up to 8 channels of high-resolution 24-bit 96KHz audio simultaneously. It even has audiophile quality DACs built-in.
The SXFI chip can reside in headphones, headphone amps, and any suitable hardware devices such as dongles, set-top boxes, and TVs. Super X-Fi can also exist as a software technology in an app, a streaming platform, and even more excitingly in an OS.
We aim to work with all audio brands and manufacturers to bring Super X-Fi to the whole world.
SUPER X-FI CERTIFIED HEADPHONES
Although you may use any headphone, we recommend that you use headphones that have been certified for use with Super X-Fi for the best possible experience. Super X-Fi processing with certified headphones accounts and compensates for changes in audio output caused by the headphones to ensure audio reaches your ears as intended.
SXFI APP
The SXFI App is a FREE app that lets you personalize your Super X-Fi profile. This personalization needs to be done only once, across all your Super X-Fi devices.
It also allows you to sample Super X-Fi magic by playing songs that reside locally on your devices. No purchase required!
After downloading the app, you can enjoy your favorite songs, with the full glory of Super X-Fi, in 3 simple steps:
1. Personalize your Super X-Fi audio profile via a simple one-time capture of 3 pictures—right ear, face and left ear.
2. Select what headphone you’re using.
3. Browse your music library and play!
Turn off and on Super X-Fi and compare how life-like your audio becomes!
...it suddenly sounded like I
was in the music recording
room with the artist!
...and that's some of the
best sound I've heard. And
the price IT'S OBSCENE!
The SXFI AMP delivers the best of two worlds in advanced personalized headphone audio.
It incorporates the all-new ‘mind-blowing’ and award-winning Super X-Fi technology which is miniaturized into a dongle no larger than a finger. The SXFI AMP is also a premium high-performance headphone amplifier that is capable of driving even studio-grade headphones.
The SXFI AMP connects to your devices via USB Type-C. You can also add-on appropriate converters to connect other port types.
With a USB connection to your PC or Mac, the SXFI AMP can support an advanced feature that lets you enjoy 5.1 and 7.1 cinematic audio content from movies and games, with the magic of a holographic Super X-Fi sound stage that sounds as good as the real thing!
The on-board SXFI chip processes digital audio in accordance with your Super X-Fi profile, and the output goes to your headphones via a 3.5mm jack at the other end.
SXFI AMP delivers 3X amplification gain for exceptionally powerful audio performance. It supports headphones with high impedances of up to 600 ohms, powering even studio-grade headphones with your mobile devices.
It uses a separate 128dB high-end high-precision AKM 32-bit DAC. This provides maximum audio fidelity and pristine quality yielding up to 120dB SNR, and 0.0003% THD – easily beating some of the most expensive headphone amps on the market today.
Use the SXFI AMP with headphones that have been Super X-Fi certified for the best possible experience.
The SXFI AMP sports an attractive unibody aluminum chassis that makes it slim yet amazingly strong.
I thought it was a trick... when I
took the cans off to find myself
listening to nothing but silence.
I was completely blown away!
-CNET
SXFI AIR heralds a whole new generation of advanced headphones that incorporate Super X-Fi technology right into the heart of a wireless headphone with the built-in Super X-Fi UltraDSP processor.
With a USB connection to your PC or Mac, the SXFI AIR can support an advanced feature that lets you enjoy 5.1 and 7.1 cinematic audio content from movies and games, with the magic of a holographic Super X-Fi sound stage that sounds as good as the real thing!
The comfortable, high-performance, over-ear headphones with large 50mm drivers have been precision tuned for the best possible experience with Super X-Fi.
Super X-Fi Built-In for Breathtaking Audio Holography
The headphone comes with a built-in Super X-Fi UltraDSP processor, which means that all you need is a Bluetooth connection to your smart device to enjoy the magic of Super X-Fi with any of your content sources.
Customizable Ear-Cup RGB Light Ring with 16 Million Color Options
The RGB light rings on each SXFI AIR ear-cup is customizable with 16 million color options. Use the accompanying SXFI AIR Connect App to select your color of choice.
Built-in MicroSD Card Music Player for Lossless Music
Supports popular formats like MP3, WMA, WAV and FLAC audio files to play music with a microSD card*, directly from your headphone, and enjoy your music in magical Super X-Fi! Use FLAC and WAV formats for lossless, ultra high-quality, and an even more awesome Super X-Fi audio experience.
*microSD card not included
Touch-Control Ear-Cups for Navigation and Control
Adjust your volume levels by simply sliding a finger vertically on the SXFI AIR’s left ear-cup. Tap the ear-cup to Pause/Play, or slide Left and Right on the ear-cup to switch track. You’re in control.
Removable Ear-Pads
The comfortable breathable mesh-fabric ear-pads are designed for long listening sessions, and are easily changeable so you can replace them, or remove them for cleaning.
Super X-Fi Your Phone Calls
Experience the mind-bending holographic reality of the caller being in the same room as you. And with SXFI AIR’s highly sensitive NanoBoom mic, your friends will hear you loud and clear.
The SXFI AIR GAMER delivers low-latency USB-C gaming audio and wireless surround sound for movies in a single headset. It comes with 11 hours of playtime and debuts GamerChat where you can listen to both game and chat audio simultaneously with Super X-Fi.
The SXFI GAMER is engineered with one main goal in mind—to be the perfect companion for gamers, including hardcore gamers who demand for more. Equipped with Super X-Fi technology and a pro-grade CommanderMic, SXFI GAMER is truly a game changer.
Creative SXFI CARRIER heralds a new dimension in Dolby Atmos® soundbar technology with built-in Super X-Fi® Spatial Holography to create a new multi-speaker cinema experience on headphones. The SXFI CARRIER carries on the engineering marvel of the award-winning Sonic Carrier which has been dubbed by industry experts as the “soundbar of the gods”.
Jointly developed by Creative and Dolby Laboratories, SXFI CARRIER has the same sound signature as the 15.2 Sonic Carrier at less than half the size and at a fraction of the price. Even with a scaled-down size, SXFI CARRIER can transform your living room to provide a full-fledged cinema experience.
Powered by USB-C with digital audio for superior sound performance, the all-new, in-house engineered Creative SXFI TRIO features our award-winning Super X-Fi Spatial Holography, and is fitted with the same hybrid triple-driver system as its predecessor, Aurvana Trio, so you can hear all the details in your music with amazing pristine acoustics performance.
Creative SXFI THEATER delivers low-latency wireless audio for PC, Mac, and consoles. Enjoy seamless audio and video sync with Super X-Fi’s award-winning audio holography and hear as if you’re at the cinema theater. Designed for the binge-watcher, Creative SXFI THEATER is the perfect companion headphones for movies with up to 30 hours of battery life.
Sporting a fresh new look, the Sound Blaster X4 supports up to 7.1 discrete and virtual surround with three different surround delivery options—Super X-Fi Spatial Holography, Sound Blaster Acoustic Engine’s Surround Virtualization, and Dolby Digital Live Encoding.
It’s also extremely versatile, featuring seven I/O connectors that works across different platforms, from external microphones and headsets to PC, Mac, gaming consoles, and even AV receivers. This audio card not only features convenient direct controls on the device itself, but also smarter ways to communicate online using our SmartComms Kit, a suite of smart communication features—VoiceDetect and NoiseClean—designed to simplify the way Windows 10 users take online work calls or in-game chat.
Plus, you are free to personalize your audio settings, including EQ adjustments, microphone settings, and Acoustic Engine effects like Bass for bigger audio punch and Crystalizer that helps improve the dynamic range of your audio.
Raising the bar for your desktop movie experience, Sound Blaster X3 comes packed full of features that promises the best cinematic experience at home, regardless of your preference for speakers or headphones.
It is the world's first external multi-channel USB DAC and Amp to feature our award-winning Super X-Fi technology, as well as 7.1 discrete surround on speakers, 7.1 virtual surround on headphones, and Dolby Digital Live.
Coupled with high-quality audio components that power hi-res 32-bit / 192 kHz playback at 115 dB DNR / SNR, you can be sure that audio is delivered with studio-level precision and clarity.
The Sound Blaster GC7 is the first in its series of premium gaming audio solutions for experienced gamers, content creators, and streamers. Packed with both Super X-Fi and Sound Blaster audio technologies, the Sound Blaster GC7 offers more than just audiophile-grade audio. Enjoy quick and fully customizable control access with programmable buttons, and gain a competitive advantage against your opponents with superior battle tools like SXFI BATTLE Mode and Scout Mode.
SUPER X-FI™ SPATIAL HOLOGRAPHY WON BEST OF CES AWARD 2018
GAME-CHANGING SUPER X-FI BLOWS THE MINDS OF EXPERT REVIEWERS, BAGS PRESTIGIOUS AVS FORUM BEST OF CES AWARD 2018
On its maiden outing at the world’s largest consumer electronics show in Las Vegas in 2018, Creative’s all-new Super X-Fi technology won the prestigious AVS Forum Best of CES 2018 Award.
“Super X-Fi has been a dream of mine since the 1990s, and has taken over twenty years of engineering sweat, tears and grit to realize this feat. And now to see how many have been blown away by its magical performance is something truly fulfilling for me on a personal level. I’ve never been so excited before in my whole life. As the creator of the Sound Blaster, which has sold over 400 million units worldwide, the excitement that I felt then doesn’t even come close to what I feel now with Super X-Fi. What we are seeing here is life-changing.
We are on the verge of a universal game-changer in the way people experience audio in their headphones, where the audio experience is so expansive, immersive, and life-like, that it’ll be the new norm of headphone-listening. Once you experience Super X-Fi, you won’t want to go back to the old headphone experience. It’s like after watching color on TV, you won’t want to go back to black-and-white!
This is the ‘Holy Grail’ of headphone audio which the whole industry has been searching for. I believe this is what every headphone should sound like. This paradigm shift will elevate mankind’s appreciation of audio through this gift we call Super X-Fi.”
Sim Wong Hoo
Creator of Super X-Fi and Sound Blaster,
CEO of Creative Technology
Innovation Award Winner at HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2019
“Creative has managed to do something incredible by personalizing the way headphones play sound to perfectly match the individual make-up of our ears. By doing so, they're able to use your personal head-related transfer function to give you a cinematic audio experience that's independent of source.”
HardwareZone.com
“Humanity reached the peak in its appreciation for music with the creation of professional orchestras playing live in large sophisticated musical halls. This produces music of the purest fidelity - the holy grail of audio. People had to resort to using multiple speakers to try to recreate this same natural sound. When they tried to do the same for headphones, all they got was sound that was unnaturally constricted and congested.
Super X-Fi is a new renaissance in headphone audio; a technology where the science of sound brings the human listening experience with headphones to a whole enlightened level of realism, so amazing, it’ll be akin to magic. Super X-Fi is like capturing lightning in a bottle. We have found the holy grail of headphone audio, making headphones sound as good as the real thing!”
Lee Teck Chee
Chief Architect and Inventor of Super X-Fi
Mark Henninger (Senior Editor, AVS Forum -- the world's largest AVenthusiast forum site) was so impressed with Super X-Fi that he awarded it Best of CES 2018.
He spoke with CEO of Creative Technology, Sim Wong Hoo, and shared that he was blown away by the Super X-Fi demo, and that it was the ‘Holy Grail’ of headphone audio. The demo involved listening to a high-end 5.1.2 multi-speaker system in a room, then when Super X-Fi-enabled headphones were put on, listeners experienced the exact same audio soundstage as they had heard a few moments before, this time just from two plain headphone drivers.
What the F***?!! . . . It was really something else I think, all of us, there was a collective gasp when the technology was demonstrated to us . . . its feels like big leap forward
Creative’s new Super X-Fi audio tech is FRIGGING MIND -BLOWING. The company known for Soundblaster finally has a new killer product, and you’ll probably want one too.
The device also made straightforward stereo music tracks sound MAGICAL, as if you were in the room with the musicians playing live.
.. no one in the industry could solve this decade’s-long problem. Creative’s Super X-Fi could be the game changer.
Hands down, this was the best demo of CES—and it’s the product I’m most looking forward to reviewing this year.
Creative has the demo to beat at this year’s CES. The company is showing an early prototype of a product it calls Super X-Fi Headphone Audio. And it blew my mind.
Creative … looks to have finally cracked the issue of fitting full sized speakers into a pair of portable cans... I heard it through the earphones in exactly the same way I heard it via the speakers, and it was nothing short of AMAZING.
The Atmos system used by Creative featured ELAC Uni-Fi speakers and physical height channels (not reflected sound) and it was well-tuned. So, getting the headphones experience to come close to real Atmos surround-sound with a system that is mass-marketable is a commendable feat, enough to justify a Best of CES 2018 award.” “it really bring the sound outside of your head and it does sound like the real stereo system ...to bring this to a dongle that would just work with any headphones and be super affordable, that’s really the HOLY GRAIL of headphone processing technology.
I could not believe how separation came out of an old set of headphones, and then all the mid-tones and highs came out like someone pulled the drapes open, it was an amazing experience totally! I’ve been in the business for 40 years, and that’s some of the best sound I’ve heard. And for the price point you’re going to sell it for, IT’S OBSCENE.
I just finished the best demo of the show. It’s not a curved TV, it’s not 8K, it is, wait for it, Creative Lab’s new Super X-Fi technology...And it just floors you ... it’s gonna be a steal at US$150.
Well the fact that it’s going to be everyone’s hands, you know, a product that everyone can afford, and it’s something that is literally going to change the way people listen to things by that one little dongle.
For a while there, I actually thought that the speakers were on, and that there was nothing coming through both cans, until I took them off to hear nothing emanating from the speakers.
This Holographic-Sound Headphone Dongle BLEW MY MIND. This mind-blowing audio technology uses acoustic mapping and holographic sound to create a headphone experience that’s nearly indistinguishable from what you’d get out of a dedicated set of surround speakers.
You can take the headphones off, listening to again; a three— or four—thousand Dolby Atmos system, and put the headphones on, and it will sound just as good. In fact for my ears, I gotta say, it sounded better.
I listened to the demo and it was MIND-BLOWING! The surround sound I heard from the headphone was amazing and I even took the headphones off just to confirm that I wasn’t hearing the sound from the physical surround speakers. Judging from the guests’ reactions, they were equally or almost as impressed as I am.
If you’re curious about what ‘audio holography’ is, Creative Labs has the goods with its Super X-Fi technology. I gave it a good listen at CES 2018, and it sounded glorious! After hearing the results, I was simply blown away. Even with all the audio products I’ve tested over the years, my ears were never subjected to anything quite like this.
During the audition, the Super X-Fi system created a realistic sense of space as I listened to a soundtrack. It took the audio that would have been usually stuck between my ears and projected “outside” the confines of my head. I was able to pinpoint the sound sources in a room as well as gauge the distance between them.
I know, it’s unbelievable that the little ‘dongle’ above can give you sound as good as a 5.1 dolby digital surround sound system (Dolby Atmos 5.1.2), but it absolutely does! If you have never been an audiophile you will be after using this device. Having used the device I finally understood what was meant by flat sound. When the device was turned on it suddenly sounded like I was in the music recording room with the artist.
As an audio engineer I readily claim that most ‘virtual’ surround sound applications are junk—until now. Creative Lab’s Super X-Fi blew me away. The company’s technology makes a stereo headset sound like a surround sound speaker set up in the room with you. This is an important technology used by professional applications, made into an easy-touse consumer product. This demo stole the show for me, and had my colleagues floored as well!
What impresses me the most is how Super X-Fi managed to turn a standard 2.0 music track into a realistic live surround effect, it is done so well that as if the artist is singing RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and it doesn’t have that fake echo effect that virtual surround sound speakers and headphones tend to produce.