Quick Look: Creative Sound Blaster X1 Portable DAC/Amp

[VSG]

Creative introduces the budget-friendly Sound Blaster X1 that takes the portable DAC/amp form factor and pushes the feature set further beyond the mobile space. The X1 runs with the desktop Sound Blaster drivers for enhanced customization and audio controls, in addition to support for Creative's unique Super X-Fi headphone holography too!

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[tvshacker]

 

[bob3002]

This whole rebrand/ software lockout thing reminds me of how my six-month-old Creative webcam didn't get drivers for Windows Vista (until Microsoft themselves wrote some basic compatibility drivers a couple years later). In the meantime I had already bought a different brand webcam.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

The rebranding.

 

[lexluthermiester]

What is likely happening is that they are using surplus device chassis's from the other model to fit the new model board. It's not like this is the first time we've seen such a situation. I couldn't care less about that label. I care about performance. The X1 seems to offer a quality experience for a good price. Of course, I prefer PCIe cards, but for a laptop this might be a good option. A phone though? Why?

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

What is likely happening is that they are using surplus device chassis's from the other model to fit the new model board. It's not like this is the first time we've seen such a situation. I couldn't care less about that label. I care about performance. The X1 seems to offer a quality experience for a good price. Of course, I prefer PCIe cards, but for a laptop this might be a good option. A phone though? Why?

I prefer external for my desktop as well but too each their own. As for the phone here's my usage case as I own more than a few dongles.

I'm frequently on the plane, subway, or train. I cannot install or do listening on my laptop as it's extremely secure due to the nature of our work. Even though I'm a sysadmin I'd have to be on the network, request an unlock to another sysadmin (you can't unlock your own) this would be documented, and then as soon as I got my music and stuff on it and it was relocked alarms would go off and I'd be stuck explaining. So I use my phone. Now I do have access to high res on my phone and a large library of lossless (and paid through the teeth for storage) so what to do? Well that's where the dongle comes in! I can listen to everything in high res on my commutes, I can do it at work and it's nice with movies as well! I could also plug it into my Nintendo Switch to get some extra oomph out of my headphones. I can do this in the office as well!

For a lot of people the choice for good audio on the go is either dongle, larger DAC/AMP (ifi hipDAC), or a full blown DAP. The dongle can be had for about 300 and under, plugged into other things, and are small and easy to deal with. The larger style can get up to a grand, eat their batteries quick, and are clumsy. A full bown DAP can be thousands and is another device you have to carry about.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

@VSG have you ever reached out to Chord Electronics about their products? The Mojo and Hugo (both on gen 2 now and I have both) are both award winners. They're unique looking and they use FPGAs and go about things in a different manner.

 

[VSG]

@VSG have you ever reached out to Chord Electronics about their products? The Mojo and Hugo (both on gen 2 now and I have both) are both award winners. They're unique looking and they use FPGAs and go about things in a different manner.

Chord never got back to the contact form reply I used a few months ago, so can't do anything without any direct person to talk to.

 

[Aenigmatista]

A year or two ago, I bought the SXFI Amp for the purpose of using my IEMS with my desktop. Indeed, it requires a mobile phone to correctly set up the device (with SXFI etc). However, it works just fine with a desktop, albeit lacking dedicated software to tweak sound settings in the desktop environment (e.g., Soundblaster), which I knew before I bought the SXFI Amp.

In fact, I asked around at the time to understand if the (well received) G6 would soon get a revamp to offer IEM users like myself a solid IEM Dac with gaming features (e.g., mic support and equalizer settings), as the X3 (and later: the X4 and the GC7) clearly do not tick all the boxes for IEM desktop gamers. Because no such perfect Dac existed, I looked at various dongles (lacking gaming features) instead, soon arriving at the SXFI Amp because it was relatively cheap and offered mic support. Besides, I was interested in trying out SXFI, which in my opinion is a fun setting to play around with (although difficult to set up well, as making pictures of your own ears and face consistently yields mixed/varying results).

After purchasing the SXFI Amp, I learned that you don't need Soundblaster software to tweak equalizer settings etc, as much more powerful (as well as less buggy and demanding) software can be downloaded freely from the internet (which I did, using Peace Equalizer now). This requires some time to install and set up according to your preferences (which is what equalizers are about anyway). The only thing missing is a proper Gain setting, because my windows volume is always at 14 and I don't ever want it to be higher, and I wonder if the Soundblaster software offers a Gain setting or anything to max out the volume at certain parameters.

Bottom line is that I am not disappointed with the SXFI Amp for desktop IEM use. I already took the time to install and set up superior free alternatives to Soundblaster, so the lack of Soundblaster software is irrelevant for me (although I'd like to have a proper Gain setting). However, I would have appreciated that Creative offered the same support for the SXFI Amp, which is identical to the X1, also from a matter of principe and fair and transparant marketing. I think, in the long run, it would benefit Creative more to say that they've increased support for an already existing (great) device instead of faking the existence of a completely new device (quod non), harming its reputation.