Hello Everyone,
I am posting the following article not because it is directly linked to
Apple but because I feel that this could be a significant breakthrough for
the future audio accessories for Apple products.
Mark
Creative's new Super X-Fi audio tech is frigging mind-blowing, CNET
Creative's new Super X-Fi audio tech is frigging mind-blowing
The company known for Soundblaster finally has a new killer product, and
you'll probably want one too.
By Aloysius Low, March 2, 2018 3:08 AM PST
Creative's Super X-Fi chip aims to open up your ears.
When Creative called me up to ask if I was interested in hearing something
incredible, I was skeptical but curious.
After all, this was Creative we were talking about, the creator of the
SoundBlaster, the default standard for audio in PCs in the '90s and early
'00s, but the company as a whole hadn't really had a major hit since.
The company felt like it was in a death spiral after releasing a string of
uninteresting products, and while it made a brief splash with its $5,800
Creative Sonic Carrier, that didn't exactly revive the company's fortunes --
no thanks to the crazy high price tag.
That's all about to change, it seems. Creative's CEO and founder Sim Wong
Hoo claims to have found the holy grail of sound for headphones: The
company's new Super X-Fi technology can turn ordinary headphones into
wondrous surround-sound setups. And having tried out the demo personally, I
think Sim may be on to something.
Magical sound
The name Super X-Fi may make this product sound like an upgrade to the
Creative's existing X-Fi tech, but it's a whole new ballgame for the
company. The tech is a result of $100 million invested over 20 years of R,
all with the aim of figuring out how to make earphones sound natural and not
feel like the sound is "trapped in your head."
"We sold tons of headphones but I don't use them. It doesn't feel natural. I
can't stand the sound. It's constricted in my head and I don't want to
stress myself," said Sim.
Over the two decades of R, the Creative CEO would reject the prototypes
that made their way to him every other year. Even when the team finally
thought it had cracked the puzzle last year, Sim had the design sent back
five times. He wasn't even sure if Creative had anything ready to showcase
at CES 2018.
But 20 years of effort seems to have paid off. The result is a the Super
X-Fi chip, located on a $150 dongle, similar to the more expensive portable
amplifier for earphones you'd find in the market. The dongle can turn the
sound from your single-driver headphone into a device capable of delivering
7.1 3D surround sound that's natural and realistic.
The $150 dongle will sit between your phone and headphones.
It's not just a case of pumping out 3D sound out. Everyone's ears are
different and this affects the way audio is received. To make sure it sounds
right for every individual, Creative spent time scanning ears, collecting
data on how sound is received and training an AI to predict a custom sound
map. Once that was done, Creative was able to work its Super X-Fi magic.
And it really is magical.
First I took photos of both my ears and face with an app to get my custom
sound map. Then I sat down in a home theatre equipped with expensive
up-firing speakers for Dolby Atmos effects. Finally I had to take another
measurement of my ears by inserting two microphones while a test track
played.
The additional calibration wasn't exactly needed, but Creative wanted
another profile to show how close it could come to mimicking an actual room.
The default sound profile for Super X-Fi is taken in a smaller room, which
sounds slightly different as well.
>From there, Creative started playing a Dolby Atmos demo video, with sounds
coming from the left, right and above. I was then told to put on a headset,
and Creative repeated the video. I assumed I would have been able to tell
the difference, but the audio coming out of the headphones sounded exactly
the same as what I'd previously heard.
I thought it was a trick -- the headphones weren't playing anything, but the
speakers were still blasting away. So when I took the cans off to find
myself listening to nothing but silence, I think I swore out loud. I was
completely blown away.
During the subsequent demos, I switched between the calibrated profile and
the one the AI picked for my ears, and found that there was a difference
between the two. Creative told me that in the future you'll be able to
switch to different sound stages. When you play music tracks, it expands the
sound space, making it seem like you're attending a live performance.
"It's like a short-sighted person putting on glasses, everything becomes
much clearer," said Sim.
It will be free (sorta)
If this all sounds too good to be true, you'll have to try it out for
yourself when Creative releases a free app next month. The app will let you
play music you already have on your phone, but if you want it to w
