Creative SXFI Gamer

[Inle]

The Creative SXFI Gamer is an amazing USB gaming headset, offering excellent sound and microphone quality, intuitive controls, and an advanced Super X-Fi technology with the addition of their so-called Battle Mode, which will give you a competitive edge in multiplayer shooters.

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[Anymal]

Removable cusions, exchangable? Forward to HyperX and Kingston.

 

[Randomoneh]

Before it was gamma boost, removal of vegetation and shadows, crosshair where it shouldn't be (Tarkov). Now we add real-time audio compression to that list. Yeah I know it was a software thing before but usually not marketed as a feature.
It's sad that you have to pick between immersion and being competitive in an online game. In future, certain 'fair-play' devices like digital headphones and monitors could have security features that make it very hard to do these kind of tweaks. Then video game developers who really care about immersion and not chasing kills can divide online experience into standard and 'fair-play'.

 

[BArms]

I've used creative's Scout Mode (sounds like the same as Battle Mode) with Tarkov but the game has built in measures to make it not very attractive. For one it amplifies your own foot steps along with the background/wind noise, so the whole time your ears are getting bombarded with white noise and your own movement actions. Even and especially inside buildings there is a constant white noise drone that forces you to raise the volume higher than you'd like to. It's hard to describe what this does to you but basically it ramps the already high tension scale of 9/10 up to 11 because you become hyper aware of the sounds you're making. This hyper awareness tends to make you think everyone else can hear you even when they can't, so it was basically just ramping the paranoia up to 11 along with the general tension.

It also completely destroys the natural range of sound where you have soft footsteps on one end and loud footsteps on another, instead of that you have basically loud noises and louder noises making it almost impossible to determine how far away something you heard was. It's just not worth using IMO unless you already have damaged hearing. I highly recommend everyone stay really far away from it because it will make you think you're getting an advantage when all it's doing is making you extremely paranoid and slowing you down.

 

[tomfuegue]

I've used creative's Scout Mode (sounds like the same as Battle Mode) with Tarkov but the game has built in measures to make it not very attractive. For one it amplifies your own foot steps along with the background/wind noise, so the whole time your ears are getting bombarded with white noise and your own movement actions. Even and especially inside buildings there is a constant white noise drone that forces you to raise the volume higher than you'd like to. It's hard to describe what this does to you but basically it ramps the already high tension scale of 9/10 up to 11 because you become hyper aware of the sounds you're making. This hyper awareness tends to make you think everyone else can hear you even when they can't, so it was basically just ramping the paranoia up to 11 along with the general tension.

It also completely destroys the natural range of sound where you have soft footsteps on one end and loud footsteps on another, instead of that you have basically loud noises and louder noises making it almost impossible to determine how far away something you heard was. It's just not worth using IMO unless you already have damaged hearing. I highly recommend everyone stay really far away from it because it will make you think you're getting an advantage when all it's doing is making you extremely paranoid and slowing you down.

I really appreciate your comment because I feel almost the same way after trying EFT today for the first time using these headset (I have Sennheiser Game One too), or maybe I didn't set up the sound quite right as Inle says.

 

[Randomoneh]

I really appreciate your comment because I feel almost the same way after trying EFT today for the first time using these headset (I have Sennheiser Game One too), or maybe I didn't set up the sound quite right as Inle says.

Whole EFT sound system is almost irrepairably broken, even after many updates. There are many videos about it on Youtube. I like this one where you can hear several different scenarios.

 

[RainingTacco]

EfT sound system is specifically designed to prevent sound whoring by audio compressors or highlighting certain frequencies. You have a droning, environmental sound almost everywhere that will make it impossible to apply aformentioned measures. I think it's an excellent choice and actually forces you to use the ingame headsets.

 

[tomfuegue]

@Inle

Good evening from Spain,

According to your opinion, which headset is better for listening music and gaming between the Cooler Master MH751 and Creative SXFI Gamer, but mostly for music?

 

[tungt88]

@Inle

Good evening from Spain,

According to your opinion, which headset is better for listening music and gaming between the Cooler Master MH751 and Creative SXFI Gamer, but mostly for music?

I have the CM MH751, and just ordered the Creative S-XFi Gamer today: it's supposed to arrive in a week or two.

Once I try it out, I'll repost here.

For reference, my daily drivers are:

• AKG N90Q : Used at home for work, due to noisy neighbor's landscapers)
• Audeze LCD-GX : Used for gaming/music
• AIWA ARC-1 : Used when on the NY subways/walking around (not the best, but actually works quite well w/NY background noise)

 

[tungt88]

@tomfuegue

Sorry for the big delay: I don't have time for a exhaustive review, but here's my impressions on the S-XFi Gamer (compared to the CM MH751) -- as I don't have testing equipment, this review is totally subjective (so, feel free to take what I have to say with a grain of salt).

Basically, what the S-XFi Gamer is doing, is a much cheaper way to do what the AKG N90Q already does: the N90Q has a "self-tuning mode", where hidden microphones in each earcup register a signal that is broadcast to both ears simultaneously, and the resulting microphone data is then used to create a custom DSP filter for your ears (the filter will naturally be different for each person, as everyone has a differently shaped ear canal).

What the S-XFi Gamer does w/its software, which @Inle covered in more depth, is to use photos to "attempt" to do the same (create a custom DSP filter), but the issue is, that photo-based data will naturally have less contextual data than microphone-based data, due to the inherent limitations of a photo (for example, why people look several pound/kilos heavier in front of a camera, than in real life).

In my testing w/the S-XFi Gamer, this came out a number of times: I had a roommate take photos of my ears using the S-XFi Gamer app on my smartphone, uploaded said data, then used Creative's software with the photo data. The results were always a lot less pleasing to my ears, than the AKG N90Q (which, admittedly, is a very good headphone): even when I tinkered around with the EQ settings, or used some of Creative's own settings (which did improve things significantly), it was still not nearly enough.

Going down a "tier" in terms of sound quality, my Audeze Mobius also blew away the Creative S-XFi Gamer in sound quality, whether it was gaming, music, or movies/TV shows.

Going down another "tier" to the CM MH751, it's pretty close: the CM MH751 has a bit more bass & sub-bass, while the Creative S-XFi Gamer comes off as having more soundstage & echo. The CM MH751 also seems to be a bit better with detail. I definitely enjoyed listening to the CM MH751 more, overall (not by a lot, though).

Conculsion: I'd go for the CM MH751 for music/movies/TV shows, while the Creative S-XFi Gamer would be my pick for FPS gaming. The S-XFi Gamer also seems more sturdily built than the CM MH751.

Note: I do plan to have more photos taken of my ears using that Creative app on my smartphone, in hopes of getting more accuracy (and thus, better performance), since the S-XFi Gamer's custom filter seems to be heavily dependent on the accuracy of the photos.

Hope this helps!

 

[Rustty22]

@tungt88
When you use the Battle mode was on stereo audio, 5.1 or 7.1?
I want to know how do you used this headsets because I'm trying to use the Sxfi or Battle mode on games and the sound is very confusing. I use them on stereo and Battle mode or Sxfi off, then I can say they are good for pointing enemies clearly.