Customer Reviews

Creative Labs Xmod Wireless Music System with X-Fi Technology

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

The Xmod Wireless comes in 2 parts, a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter connects very simply to your PC via USB and it functions as a USB soundcard, applying X-Fi sound enhancement to any sound or music that is passed through it. Compressed audio like AAC, WMA and MP3 files are upscaled to 24 bit quality and surround sound effects can be added.

You have to experience this to appreciate it. It really does make your music sound better. Sometimes the improvement is more subtle than at other times, but the quality X-Fi provides really shines when you connect the receiver end of the Xmod Wireless to a good set of speakers that you might have in your theater or family room.

So, on to part 2 of the package. The wireless receiver. This enables you to control and listen to your music anywhere you place the receiver in your house. Your PC music collection is streamed around the house with top notch quality and fidelity. I have my receiver connected to my theater setup and the sound is fantastic. You can purchase additional receivers if you'd like to play your music in multiple rooms.

Cool things about the package overall. The range is great and there is no lag. Plus, it just works. You don't need to have your own network or anything running already. Just turn on the receiver and transmitter and away you go, nothing to fuss with. If you do have a network running, this won't interfere with it at all. I think both units are stylish as well. They fit right in with high end equipment and they are pretty small.

You also get a remote for each side and there are inputs so that you can connect an MP3 player. With the remotes, you can skip tracks, pause tracks, turn on and off the X-Fi features, etc.

I don't really have any negatives other than the price, but I still think it's worth it. Sonos has products with similar features that cost up to $1000. Xmod Wireless gives you what you need with better audio technology for a lot less. It would also be nice to have a small display on the receiver unit so you can see what you are browsing.

Overall, Xmod Wireless is highly recommended. The unique combination of a driverless and simple to use USB soundcard with a high quality streaming device is an excellent way to introduce your PC to your home theater setup or to any room of your house.

This gizmo allows me to play the same music in several different locations at once.

With airport express you can only connect to one reciever at a time and only while using iTunes. I also tried Sondigo Siracco which not only has the limit of one reciever but is technically challenging. I would have to reboot the PC several times to get it to work and then it would have buffering issues causing the music to cut out.

The Xmod works great. Easy to set up in the control panel and so far I have been able to connect to three different receivers at the same time including one that is poolside - about 75 feet away out doors. (I believe the limit is 4 recievers at one time.) I am not sure what will happen if my neighbors start using a set.

I also can play music in my office at the same time by connecting my powered speakers to the audio out of the transmitter. This works great for when we have parties.

I don't have much use for the remote controls can't really do much with them other than adjust volume and their range is not very big. It would be nice to have digital audio outputs.

Finally, a wireless gizmo that allows me to play music through out my house and outdoors. It is extremely easy to use and sound quality is good.

None of the spec sheets mention mac and an email inquiry to Creative resulted in them telling me that it was not mac compatible, but I ordered it anyway and it works great. In fact you can plug anything into it to stream to a receiver--iPod, etc. I have a mac mini running leopard.
Make sure you use the remotes, so you can turn off the Crystallizer effect if you like. There is no software interface---again, making it OS independent.

Here is my set-up. The mac mini connects to the USB input of the transmitter (so then you don't need the separate power adapter--use this only for an iPod, etc). That's enough to stream to the xmod receiver across the room, which is attached to a set of powered speakers.

However, I also wanted to play through the speakers attached to my stereo tuner/receiver, which is near the computer. So I have the audio out from the xmod transmitter connect to one of the inputs on the stereo tuner/receiver---I use the VCR-input ports. (This was a mini to split RCA connection.) If you have a Phono input that is probably better since it accepts a weaker signal---if you go into VCR or CD you need to crank the volume. I tried using a pre-amp, but my pre-amp was causing distortion--I originally blamed the xmod, but that was not at fault.

Finally, I want to be able to stream the radio from the stereo tuner to the xmod receiver. No problem, I pluggeed the VCR-output ports on the tuner into the RCA audio-input port on the xmod transmitter. Just be careful switching the stereo tuner/receiver from VCR (playing, say iTunes on the computer) to radio, since the volume is cranked up to compensate for a weak input.

So far, I m very happy with this product.

This is the third product I've bought to wireless-ly transfer music from the computer, usually internet radio, through our 25-year-old receiver and Infinity speakers (hard to believe it's possible to even connect the two :)) First I tried a LinkSys wireless bridge, which didn't work at all despite hours of fiddling. Next I bought a Roku Soundbridge, which worked pretty well until I fried it by accidentally plugging in the wrong power converter. Unfortunately, they don't make the Roku any more. I read the many reviews saying this device was perfect for listening to internet radio on your home stereo and decided to give it a try.

It came beautifully packaged like an electronic bento, and set up was pretty straightforward. I plugged in the Creative Labs transmitter to the computer, plugged the receiver into the venerable Yamaha RX-485, and fired up iTunes. Music immediately began to pour forth. No futzing with adding the receiver to the network, no fiddling with remotely detected playlists, nothing.

The Roku did have the advantage of being able to play your music playlist separately from the rest of the computer audio. So for example, the kids could watch a hilarious YouTube video on the computer in the kitchen while I relaxed with "Baroque 24/7" in the living room. This device transmits all the computer sounds--email notifications, everything--to the stereo speakers. But I'm willing to put up with that for its simplicity of operation.

I agree with the reviewer who said the manual was inadequate. I went to their website and there's not a whole lot more information there. Without my previous experience with the other devices, I might have had problems getting this set up.

Haven't figured out what the remotes do yet. The sound quality does seem to be better than with the Roku, but that could just be my enthusiasm for the fact that it actually worked. I'll add to this review if I experience any problems with reception or otherwise.

I'm attaching this review to both the transmitter and receiver of this wireless music system.

I bought 1 transmitter and 2 receivers as a gift before trying them -- big mistake. The marketing materials claim you get crystal clear audio wirelessly at 100 feet. That is absolutely not the case. I put 1 receiver 30 feet away from the transmitter and the audio quality was so poor as to be completely unusable (and the signal sometimes dropped out completely). I also tried turning off the wireless network to see if that would help (which was an unacceptable compromise) but that didn't fix the problem. I even tried re-arranging furniture to bring the units closer together, but I simply couldn't make the units work as advertised. (More info in case this helps you: the building had concrete exterior walls, and there was at least one other wireless network over which I had no control that had low signal strength where I tried to use this system.)

Besides the fact that this system doesn't work as advertised, here are some additional complaints:

* They units don't come with all the audio cables you'll need.

* The units are needlessly big and bulky. The receiver units in particular should be much smaller because they have no dock.

* The remotes are overly complex for how little you can do with this system.

* You must know your way around the iPod menu by heart in order to use the remote controls from a distance.

* You really need your music well-arranged in playlists in order to use this system to its fullest. Otherwise, you're left scrolling through a giant list of random songs, and because the remote control doesn't have a scroll wheel, you have to forward through the songs one at a time.

I've had the Creative Labs Xmod Wireless Music System for about four months now & it works fine. I previously had my pc hard wired to my stereo receiver but after moving things around the house, I did not want to re-run all the cables again. The system works a lot better then an older Logitech system I used for about a year. No interference at all. I use three receivers throughout my house - in the living room, garage & basement & I'm very happy with the way they work. The only "issue, if you would call it that, is that the volume for itunes is alot lower when using this system, then when I use Windows Media Player, or listen to internet radio, but that's most likely an itunes issue. I'd recommend this setup to anyone who wants to listen to audio from their pc anywhere in the house.

I purchased this product with the assumption that other reviewers that left negative comments did not know how to change their wireless broadcast channels. I should have listened to them. This system interferes with everything wireless in my home. My WiFi, My Logitech G7 cordless gaming mouse, even my Wiimotes for my wii. When I unplug this unit, all devices instantly start working normally. The product does not even work that very well requiring line of sight with no obstructions to prevent all "sound hiccups". Also, I thought they would have some way to mount this unit to the wall... NOPE. I am very disappointed in the quality of this product. I don't really feel like dealing with the hassle of returning it so I'm just going to turn it into a big science experiment and take it apart to see how it works, maybe if I'm lucky I can make it work as it should.

I'm having so much fun with this system and enjoying it so much, I can barely take time to stop and write this review.

This is a great sounding, wireless, simple to hook up and operate, inexpensive, glitch-free way to pipe your pc-based music through the house. I hooked the "Receiver" box up to an available input on my stereo, plugged the "Transmitter" box into an available USB slot and pressed "Play" on my pc 2 rooms away, and there was great sounding music. In an instant, my entire massive pc music collection available to play any way I want through my main stereo. A dream come true.

There are other products available such as Squeezebox or Soundbridge. However, all of them I have seen hook up to an existing wireless home network, and cost much more.

Creative should be given a lot of credit for this product. The built-in Crystalizer effect transforms highly compressed 320mbps MP3 files into quality sounding music, even through my high-end audiophile system.

You can buy additional "Receiver" boxes, and pump the music to additional rooms, garage, or even outside.

All of this for just $99. True magic. Thank you Creative.

This is a truly plug and play solution. No drivers, no software, no special media players, nothing. Plugged them in - one to my laptop via USB and one to my old Bose 501 system via 3.5mm stereo jack. Boom - everything works, everything sounds OK. Played my Yahoo Launchcast, played my Windows Media Player, no problems. My only complaint is why aren't the remotes RF? Why would you use IR remotes on something that you should be able to tuck away and never see again? That said, the RF remote on my Bose stereo is all we really need. After playing with it a while, I broke out the instructions to make sure I wasn't missing anything cool. Nope, nothing to miss, the whole process took me about 5 minutes and 4.5 of them were to unpack the thing. I use this system for the Muzak in our showroom, and to rock out when we are closed. I'd highly recommend this system to anyone wanting to broadcast your computer music to your stereo remotely.

First off, this product is incredibly easy to setup. Everything just worked right off the bat. About the only hitch was I had my transmitter placed to close to my lap top which caused interference, but Creative did a great job of communicating this limitation. Sound is crystal clear and the device is attractive and compact. I plan on buying additional receivers for the bedroom, the kitchen and den. BTW I plan on using 2.1 computer speakers since they give great sound and are very affordable. I strongly recommend Logitech speakers since they always have great sound and build quality.

I've owned these for a year and a half now and it's not transmitting anymore. Creative has no tech support on this product at all and have been totally unresponsive to my inquiries. It was very disappointing to find this out.