| | |  | Sound Blaster | Home » » Creative Xmod | | | | | | | Description: | | Your Music. Way Better. Made Easy.
 |  | | Make your MP3s sound better than CDs | | | | Turn stereo music and movies into virtual surround | | | | Truly Plug and Play—no drivers or software to install | | | | Works with PC, Mac and notebooks |
 | Make your MP3s sound better than CDs
MP3s and other digital music are great because they are small and fast to download. But because this music is compressed, your songs sound squashed and lifeless. Xmod intelligently restores the highs and lows for rich, crystal clear music playback. |  | Turn stereo music and movies into virtual surround
Music and movies just sound better in surround sound. Xmod features smart technology that turns your plain stereo sound into rich virtual surround sound by centering vocals and moving ambient sounds all around you. | Truly Plug and Play—no drivers or software to install
Installing is as easy as connecting a USB cable and plugging in desktop speakers—no drivers are needed. Start enjoying Xtreme Fidelity music in seconds. | Works with PC, Mac and notebooks
Since the Xmod is truly plug and play, it just plugs in a works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X systems. If you don't want to use it with your PC, it even works standalone with an optional USB power adapter so you can get great Xtreme Fidelity sound from your MP3 player, TV or even your home theater. |
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 7.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 3.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 9.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.1 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.8 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.1 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 79 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 better than on-board sound, but X-Fi effects are lo-fiFeb 03, 2010
I purchased the Xmod to use at work since I cannot install any internal hardware or software on that pc and have been stuck living with the very mediocre sound provided by the on-board sound (not strong enough to drive some earbuds, buzzing sound with some speakers).
I have used the Xmod with two different sets of earbuds, the Etymotic 6i and the Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10 Pro. I have also listened with a very inexpensive pair of computer speakers that doesn't even have a brand on them.
With either set of earbuds as well as the speakers, the Xmod provides much better sound: more clear, ability to play louder, fuller bass, and clearer treble. That's the good news.
The bad: Both of the X-Fi effects substantially deteriorate the sound quality when listening to the UE earbuds (recently available for a steal here at Amazon but usually priced over $300). The CMSS effect adds a lot of distortion and phase errors. The Crystalizer effect has an impact similar to jacking up the bass and treble controls on a stereo (i.e., an old-fashioned loudness switch). Given that the UE already has ample bass and, in fact, has quite a nicely balanced sound, the Crystalizer merely serves to muck up the sound quality. The results with the Etymotic earbuds (which normally sell for less than 1/3 what the EU's cost) were more mixed. I still preferred the sound with both controls off, though the Crystalizer did add some bass region warmth that's missing from the typically lean sounding Etys. With the cheap speakers, I didn't much mind the impact of either effect but I cannot say that I thought they offered much of an improvement, either -- just a change in the sound.
My opinion, based on this limited amount of experience with different ancillary equipment, leads me to believe that the people who will be most pleased by the effects included in the Xmod will be those using very inexpensive speakers and/or headphones.
The Xmod is in no way worth the suggested retail price. It's currently available from many Marketplace sellers for approximately $30, which seems a little expensive but isn't too out of line for a device that's this easy to install and use and that does, at least, provide an improvement in the most basic function it serves.
Ps. The manufacturer's claims for this device are simply ludicrous. You cannnot take a lossily compressed mp3 file and add back what's missing to even approach much less exceed the sound that existed in the original studio. I guess Creative Labs is VERY creative with their marketing hype.
mrJan 30, 2010
The product is fine and performs well but it is difficult to install and configure, nevertheless it produces good sound.
 I'm impressed !Jan 21, 2010
By my own mistake, I burnt out my desktop Mac sound card. Since it is imbedded in the motherboard, I was reluctant to repair but wanted a quick and easy replacement at a good price. After a lot of research on the internet and reading multitudes of reviews, I settled on this unit. Just like promised, I just plugged it into an open USB port, plugged in the power cord supplied and a couple of speakers. My Mac automatically switched over to this sound card for me - just like promised. Wow! Easy! Instant music again! I could have spent more for really high-end sound but this one sounds great enough for me with 5.1. Admittedly, I was reluctant to order something this inexpensive - afraid I'd "get what I paid for". I took a chance - and I am very happy.
very, very nice.Jan 06, 2010
just got this in the mail about 5 minutes ago, first thing I've ever felt compelled to write a review for.
When the package arrived, i took the sound card out, which popped out with a pair of headphones and a usb cable.
Read the manual, which was very straight-forward and easy..
so i switched all the "effects" (xfi and virtual surround) off and plugged it in to my computer (hp pavillion dv2000 laptop) which instantly recognized it and installed drivers before my eyes.
PROS:
initially i tried an mp3, played it without anything special. then mid song turned on the Xfi crystallizer.
WOW
really sweet audio. the bass came out clear, hi's were loud, mids came through well. sounds louder, yet clearer. gets louder than the point which my speakers starts getting distorted with mp3s without any kind of distortion. which is nice because i like blasting music. then i turned on the virtual surround.
WOW
i feel like i'm in the middle of my speakers. its not like i can hear drums behind me, guitars to my side or anything. but i do feel like i'm right in the middle of a cloud of audio. its pretty cool, makes music sound much nicer to me.
then i played a .flac (uncompressed lossless audio file) through it, with the xfi off, sounded normal. with it on, actually sounded better. that doesn't make much sense to me, since its lossless audio, but believe me i can hear a noticeable difference in quality. the back of the box it comes in has a graph showing that it makes CDs sound better, which it seems to do..
CONS:
the volume knob is actually just a control of your PCs or macs volume through the USB, so in my case the HP quickplay interface interfered with the XMODs volume control and screwed it up. simply disabling the quickplay interface fixed this, but still was a hassle. I guess this is HPs fault, but a good thing to keep in mind when buying this.
some EQ work might be necessary as i found in some songs the XMOD brings out highs a little too well, and for some speakers that can sound unpleasant. I've only found one or two songs where this applies to, and its an easy fix, but still something to look out for if you own cheap speakers.
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ALSO: for everyone complaining about it not coming with a power chord for IPODs etc.. all it requires is a powered USB outlet (other than from a computer) so if you take your ipod wall charger, car charger or whatever and stick the XMOD usb cable in the usb port on the charger it'll work just fine. Ive never met any ipod owner without some kind of wall charger so keep in mind that works just as well.
 Doesn't work as advertised on a PCJan 05, 2010
The Creative website says "Installing is as easy as connecting a USB cable and plugging in desktop speakers--no drivers are needed. Start enjoying Xtreme Fidelity music in seconds." Well Windows Vista DID install drivers and it took about 2 minutes to complete. Even after all that, it did not work. The manual says in a note on page 5 that "When you connect Xmod to your computer, audio output from your computer is channeled to Xmod." That did not happen on two different computers -- different brands, different sound cards. The lights and switches all worked, and I was able to change the settings with the controls. But that was all useless, as no signals were coming out of the headphone jack or the output jack. Nor did the Xmod turn off the computer speakers when plugged in.
I did succeed in using an external audio source -- playing my iPod through earphones and my stereo system. So I can report on the two sound processing features of X-Fi.
The Crystalizer worked well through both headphones and my Yamaha sound bar. The manual warns that if you turn it up too far it can introduce distortion noise. That happened with my iPod files at the highest settings. Turning it back down still leaves a pleasant boosted feeling to highs and lows. I did not get any of the white noise that some others have reported. But my Yamaha has a boost feature for media files that works just as well, so for me the Crystalizer was only useful with the iPod and headphones together.
The CMSS-3D also worked well with headphones. It did place sounds outside the center of one's head, and give some directionality. The overall effect was much more pleasing than just plain stereo sound. If only the headphones would work from the computer thru the Xmod!
CMSS-3D thru the stereo was a different story. I got no sense of expansion of the sound field, or surround effects, or directionality. Every sound came from the center. And what they call ambient, I call intrusive echo -- like hearing the music coming out of a long tunnel. I have a 25-year old audio gadget, a Carver C-9 Sound Hologram, that does an infinitely better job. I will be sticking with that and returning the Xmod.
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