SXFI Amp Setup

Unless you took part in the private demo sessions in the Creative suite at CES 2019, you will need the SXFI app on the Google Play Store. This is a free download that takes up ~166 MB on your Android device, so keep that in mind. It is compatible with just about every Android phone running Android 7.0 or newer; however, Creative did list a compatibility chart indicating there are indeed some Huawei, Sony, and OPPO phones that did not work well and are thus not supported. So please do check out this page before deciding whether this is for you.

The app, once installed and run for the first time, asks you to register for an account which helps keep track of all Super X-Fi profiles regardless of how and where they were created. The terms of service feel fine, and there is a pop-up that comes up each time the amp is connected to the phone, ensuring you give permission to the app to access the device. This can be slightly annoying and is really more an Android permissions issue, but I don't really mind and would rather my phone continue to be skeptical of USB-connected devices.


The app gets access to local audio files stored on the device, and that is the main source of audio output from mobile phones since the app can't access, say, Netflix and add to the audio experience there. The personalize option takes you through a quick tutorial before prompting you to go about with the head-mapping feature that is the main way to generate custom profiles here. There is also a detailed YouTube video overview that goes through all you need to get ready.


Head mapping is the way nearly everyone will generate their specific profiles with the app, and it uses the primary camera on the phone to take photographs of both ears and the face. There are guidelines on the phone display to help align the ears/face, which then matches your specific features. This part has such a large effect that I can't state it enough: be sure to have someone with steady hands take the photos for the profile in a well-lit environment, and also be sure not to have anything blocking the ear and facial features. This includes hair, glasses, and so on. In fact, I would say get multiple different people to help generate multiple different profiles, all of which get saved to your account, and try them out to see which profile works best for you.


I did have something better as an option as far as personalized profiles go, however, thanks to the Creative demo of Super X-Fi at CES this year. In their own words, if head-mapping is the equivalent to a "small/medium/large" form of customization for, say, your shoes, then the inner-ear canal measurements done at CES are more like a "size 8/9/10/11/12/13" form of customization. We were taken into a sound-dampened room with microphones measuring my individual ear canals to generate a profile that is far more custom to me than head mapping would be. On the next page, I will describe how this compared to the other generated profiles. Creative also sent along another profile that maps my profile to their high-end audio studio in Singapore, which ends up being another customized profile to try out for those who attended their CES demo sessions.


As such, I have multiple profiles under measurements and head maps as seen above. You may ask why I have so many different measurement profiles, and that was a result of their output mechanism having an issue when sending out the same audio signal to multiple people being recorded and generating profiles. It had nothing to do with the Super X-Fi app or SXFI amp, and I believe them since sessions before and after my first one were flawless. Indeed, they asked me to come in again later that week, and I got through a perfect demo session involving recording and comparing the Super X-Fi experience on headphones to a true 7.1 speaker setup in the same room.

There are also certified headphones to complete the customization experience and, at the time of this review, ~40 headphones from some of the popular headphone makers are included, which, as expected, also includes all of Creative's own offerings. There are some default profiles to use with unlisted over/on-ear and in-ear headphones that will do the job in a jiffy, but ultimately, it is up to Creative to add support and certify more headphones. I will say here that the custom profile for the amp generated either by measurement or head mapping is more important than a certified headphone, but you would ideally want a combination of both.


When listening to audio from the app, there is an option to customize the equalizer settings to your preferences. This includes some preset options, as well as sliders for bass and treble levels on a scale from -9 to +9. You can also just use the touchscreen or a mouse, as compatible on your Android device, to easily change the EQ graph as seen above.


Those on the PC, which would include most of us, have an extra option to use that will make use of Super X-Fi on all audio outputs. Indeed, connecting the amp to your motherboard will bring it up as an audio playback device. Make it the default option if you plan on using it with headphones and be sure to configure it to the audio source such that, if you are playing native 7.1 audio, the amp is set as a 7.1 surround device. This makes for the best experience possible irrespective of what you are listening to, but be sure to switch it to stereo in case of stereo audio as well.

What about those on the iPhone or other iOS devices, you ask? Well, I imagine many of you are already used to buying and carrying around adapters galore, so Creative's tutorial will not be as much of a surprise to you hopefully. This is, again, to do with permissions granted by iOS vs. Android, and you will still need an Android device on hand to set up the amp for a more optimum experience. There are ways around it, however, as shown in that video, including bypassing the SXFI amp entirely in favor of Creative's SXFI Air or SXFI Air C headphones that come with the technology built-in. I can't blame Creative here for nerfing their technology to be compliant with iOS permissions at the risk of a worse experience, and hopefully, they can work with Apple on a solution sooner rather than later. Indeed, Creative tells me there is an upcoming iOS app for the SXFI amp, and also an SXFI Air Control app (for both PC and Mac) for their SXFI AIR series, such that the former can enable head mapping and the latter can be used to transfer said custom profile to the SXFI amp. So, while not natively supported yet, this multi-step process will enable an equivalent experience for iOS users.

Finally, for those wondering why there is no mention of Microsoft's XBOX platform in the compatibility list, Creative tells me this is primarily because the XBOX consoles do not support USB audio, unless certified under their "Made for XBOX One" program which means it is not a native USB client. Indeed, many aftermarket USB DACs end up using the USB port for power only, and use optical out for data connection. Creative plans to support the XBOX primarily via their upcoming SXFI TV media box, which houses the SXFI DSP in it, and has HDMI + USB for I/O.