Wednesday, October 4th 2006
Creative Introduces Xmod - the First External Device that Improves Music Playback Quality
Without requiring to install any software, it takes just seconds to connect to a PC or Mac, allowing users to instantly improve the playback quality of their music to the X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity experience. For connecting iPod, ZEN or any MP3 players to the Creative Xmod, an optional AC power adaptor is required.
"There are more than 100 million people who listen to MP3, WMA or AAC music on their PCs, Macs or iPod or ZEN players, but the quality of these compressed music are highly compromised. The Creative Xmod enables them to listen to their music with audio that sounds even better than CDs." said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. "Now with Creative Xmod, all your music is instantly upconverted to Xtreme Fidelity standard in realtime through a simple and compact device!"
There is no need to re-purchase music in a new format to experience X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity. Just connecting the Creative Xmod enables Mac users to experience award-winning X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio for the first time, and PC users can now enjoy it for the first time on the notebook. The Creative Xmod does not require cumbersome or time-consuming conversion of files - it literally connects in seconds to play back existing music files in X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity.
X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity provides two important audio functions, X-Fi Crystalizer and X-Fi CMSS-3D, which improve and enhance music listening experiences. The X-Fi Crystalizer upconverts MP3 music by analyzing and identifying which parts of the audio stream have been truncated or damaged during compression. It intelligently and selectively restores the highs and lows such as the snare drums, basses, cymbals crashes and guitar plucking that are damaged during the compression of MP3s.
Ideal for movies or an immersive audio experience, X-Fi CMSS-3D creates virtual surround sound through speakers or headphones. It expands audio for superior headphone listening so music completely surrounds the listener like a multi-channel speaker system instead of sounding like it is stuck between the headphones. X-Fi CMSS-3D also uses advanced techniques to place specific audio elements, such as the voice of a movie character, in the virtual center channel while ambiance is played through virtual surround channels.
Pricing and Availability
The Creative Xmod will be available in October at a suggested retail price of US$79.99. For more information about the Creative Xmod and X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity, please visit www.creative.com/.
14 Comments on Creative Introduces Xmod - the First External Device that Improves Music Playback Quality
i hardly think it can recover that...
nice idea though... i'd love to read a detailed review on one of these... see exactly what it can or can not do...
Yeah. Lets add information WE DONT HAVE to the music to make it "better".
You know how you convert 16-bit audio to 24-bit? Fill the blanks with 0s. I'm sure thats going to make it sound a whole lot better...
trog
Interesting to see what they believe people will spend money on.
Then again, they probably will...
Hello All nay sayers. Being the proud owner of an X-FI for months now I must say that 1) the technology does improve the sound quality beyond the original cd quality! 2) The 3D sound technology is utterly fantistic. 3) you don't need 100+ "cans" to listen, as it will make even cheep 10 cans sound better (I know because I had those too, yes I was poor but now I have Sennheisers!) 4) Sound information is not like regular data. When sound is converted from Digital to Analogue it usually comes out as a square wave of sorts, and 16 bit sound is more square than 24 bit sound. So technology designed to "smooth out the wave" is entirly possible. If the XMod is anything like the X-FI card then I know it will rock!
While I'm not denying the fact that it may sound better, it's just that, to you it sounds better.
It's all about subjective perception.
If you are contend with that, fine.
However, be aware it might not sound the way the artists intended it to sound.
And that is what High Fidelity (HiFi) is about.
Also, I do have to admit, having experienced several studio recordings myself, mastering the samples to CD immediately means a loss of a lot of audio quality!
I couldn't believe it myself at first but compared to the HQ recordings, a CD sounds really, really "flat".While it may be possible to "smooth it out", you cannot restore information that is no longer present.
It simply does not work.
You can try to guess it and based on the algorithm you use your try can be more or less successful but you will never be able to restore it 100%.
Granted their isn't anything that can restore the stuido quailty, all i'm saying is that it sounds better than the original cd quality. In the end it's all about the end user's perception of the music, so if the technology makes it "appear" to sound better then why not. Also it's not like it 100+ dollars!