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Creative launches pair of USB soundcards

by Pete Mason on 12 November 2010, 15:35

Tags: Creative

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There was a time when no high-end PC was complete without a Creative Sound Blaster onboard to deliver high-quality audio and free-up a few more of those precious CPU cycles. As computers have gotten more capable, it's become less important to have an add-in board dedicated to the sound, but for those who demand higher quality - especially on a notebook - a sound card can be invaluable.

To satisfy those people, Creative is introducing a pair of new USB soundcards that are perfect for providing high-quality playback and recording at home or on the move.

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro is designed more for use with desktops and can provide analogue or optical output to a full 5.1 surround-sound system. The box is THX TruStudio Pro and Dolby Digital Live certified, can play back and record at up to 24-bit/96kHz and comes with a copy of PowerDVD to enable decoding of DTS and Dolby Digital-EX. There's also a bundled remote to let you take control of your media from across a room.

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro delivers the same sort of quality but manages to cram it into a package the size of a large USB key. Obviously there's no room for 5.1 outputs, and the recording and playback credentials had to be been taken down a step to 'only' 44.1kHz. However, the more gaming focused stick does come with support for simulated 3D headphone surround-sound and EAX 5.0.

Both the Surround 5.1 Pro and the Go! Pro will be available from Creative's store starting on November 13 with an MSRP of £69.99 and £39.99, respectively.



HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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Sigh, this made me wistful. I remember reading an article in PC Zone (which also made me wistful, both for the magazine and for the idea of getting PC/gaming news from a paper periodical) that said you could improve frame-rates by up to 10% in some games using a discrete sound card simply because it took pressure off the CPU.

How times change.
You won't with these, unless they have made some under the hood changes neither features a hardware chip and uses CPU cycles…
USB sound cards tend to eat CPU cycles. But given that I am rarely, no, never impressed by onboard sound cards it could offer a slight improvement for not too much money compared to a few years ago. Then again, Creative have not done much for sound cards since the X-Fi :/