Customer Reviews

Creative Labs Xmod USB Sound Card for PC and Mac

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I've had my XMOD for over a week now and I've been very pleased with my purchase. I saw a demo of this at my local Best Buy store and was immediately impressed by how simple it was to use. I mainly purchased it to improve the sound of my MP3 music on my Dell notebook and it does a great job of that. There are settings you can tweak, but I just turn both sound improvements on and leave it alone. Every song I play through it sounds better. I kept turning it on and off at first to hear the difference, but after a day or so I just left it on all the time. It's hard to describe what it does exactly, but basically my music sounds cleaner. The songs have more punch and crispness. I mainly use headphones and I especially like how it makes the headphones sound like a speaker a few feet away from your ear. I've also played one DIVX movie (Matrix)that I have and it sounds really cool too. You get a real sense of surround audio. When you go back to the movie with XMOD turned off, it sounds flat and boring.

Installation couldn't be easier. I plugged it into my USB port on my notebook and it just worked. You play your music from your PC with XMOD on and it just sounds sweet. It would be nice if Creative included what you need to use this with a portable MP3 player, but for the price I guess I can't complain. I wish the control knob was a bit flatter also. It would fit in the carrying bag better. The one nice thing about the knob being large - it does make a great easy to reach for mute button for when you need to quickly mute your audio.

Overall, XMOD is highly recommended if you listen to a lot of music. It would also make a nice gift. My nephew already came by to check it out and he wants one. Give it a listen and you'll get it.

To qualify, I recently purchased this yesterday for use on my notebook since interference was killing the onboard sound. I planned to use headphones exclusively for this device since the interference isn't as obvious with speakers. I was excited from all the reviews and the fact this was x-fi and all that marketing hoopla.

Let's start off with the good stuff:
I really like the crystalizer - it really made the music sound better. Now the 3D stuff it's iffy. I liked the way it looks and the size. I'm a big ipod fan, so it also helps it was packaged similarly.

The bad stuff:
White noise... I'd describe it as a quiet hiss that can be clearly heard even if nothing is on. Since I use headphones with it (Shure's), the white noise was immediately apparent and helluva annoying. When the music is sparse and quiet, boy oh boy does it get annoying. This is only marginally better than onboard sound since it does get rid of interference, but in the end, that's all it did for me.

I have another older creative usb soundblaster device I'm listening to now since although the sound is flat and less dynamic, it is *much* *much* cleaner. When I'm not playing anything with the old usb device, I can't tell the difference when the earphones are plugged in or not. I'm going to return the xmod and try the soundblaster live 24-bit external usb device, since the one i'm using now only supports 16-bit.

I bought the xmod for home since I use the 16-bit device at work.

Earlier this year I bought a Creative X-Fi sound card for my desktop computer, and it made the sound quality exponentially better. Therefore, I began looking for a portable one for my laptop and iPod. It does EXACTLY what it says it does, it makes sound quality increase beyond belief. Not to mention, my laptop didn't get very loud through headphones, now I can't turn up past the third bar (out of over 10)! I only listened to my music (other than on my desktop) occasionally, now I listen to it all the time through headphones just because of this device. Personally, I only use the Crystallizer for music, but both for movies.

Now for the bad, I picked this up at Best Buy for only $34.99, not $71 like Amazon's current price. The ONLY other downside is that with iPod use, you have to be near a power outlet. However, I'm considering trying a USB Battery Pack such as this one Apple iPod / iPhone Portable Battery Starter Kit to see if the X-Mod can draw power (through its USB cable) from it so that it can be fully portable. It sounds like a lot of equipment but, personally, I think its worth it to listen in the highest quality possible.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY A A/C POWER ADAPTER TO HAVE THIS WORK WITH AN IPOD
The USB cord that comes with the X-Mod can be used with an iPod's A/C charger such as this one: Apple MA592LL/A iPod USB Power Adapter

I was looking for an external sound card for use at work (since I don't want to install anything internal) since my onboard sound has a humming background noise effect+probably doesn't deliver the sound quality that I could get from a dedicated sound card. I realized it would be too cumbersome for a full blown external and came onto this device.

I think I paid around $60 shipped for it. Worth every penny. Let me elaborate.

I run these through a great set of Sennheiser 280 Pros, and previously HD590s. The 3d effect does not do this device any wonders; when you listen through good headphones, you hear high pitched noises since they pick up all the detail.

However, the x-fi crystalizer effect is EXCELLENT. Although slightly harsh at times, it does wonders to open up and make music sound "full". Again, if you don't have quality headphones, you aren't going to notice as much. I listened to the same music through one of my co-workers crappy cans and it sounded NOTHING like it did on my audiophile grade phones, and it did appear to make little difference when on or off. Additionally, I hear complete silence when I mute my sound, no static or noise whatsoever so I know I'm getting a good quality signal.

So, to that effect, I would say pass on this if you are expecting wonders out of your $15 set of headphones; you will probably be very disappointed. But for those that are serious about getting a very portable improvement to their sound, and have the headphones to back it up, this device will awe and amaze you.

I bought this product and was a little skeptical at first becuase I didn't think that it would make that big of a difference. However, when I got it and plugged it into my Logitech 2.1 Z-2300 (which are phenominal speakers by the way), the sound quality instantly became 10 times better. I discovered that my computer had a program that came with it that was supposed to do the same thing, but there was absolutely no comparison. This thing is phenominal. The crystalizer really does make thing much clearer, especially the treble(since that is easier for people to hear). The 3D sound capability not only makes it sound like you have a 5.1 system, it also makes music much fuller sounding. The only problem I see with this is if you are going to use this mobily, it is kind of an inconvenience because you have to buy a seperate device that plugs into your USB to supply it with power. Overall, I would say that if you are a huge music buff and are looking to buy something that would make your music sound phenominal, I would recommend this. After all, you can return it if you don't like it!

I've had this since last December. It is going into an IBM t43 laptop. It is connected to an input of my preamp, going thru my stereo (which includes $2000 PSB speakers.) I subsribe to Rhapsody and Live365. I'm not a kid, and I'm not into hyperbole...but the xmod makes these appys sound almost like cd's. I don't use the 3D at all (it justs adds distortion.) But the Crytalizer is unbelievable. I agree with other folks who say that it doesn't do anything for music above 128k, but for typical 32-128 streams, I couldn't live without it!

This device really does what it advertises. I was really impressed with how it actually makes the music sound clearer and more pronounced. I wouldn't think it possible considering what I understand about information upgrading, but somehow it makes the music sound more pristine without totally distorting it or even just mixing it up with an equalizer. The only downside is that it is not easily portable. Also, as people have mentioned here, it doesn't come with an AC adapter so you can't use it with portable mp3 players until you get one. Creative sells one for like $40, but I got a generic one on ebay for $5 (including shipping) that does the trick.

This is an ok product, not great. I like the product design and it seems fairly well made. Very easy to set up.

I got it mainly to try to improve sound for music I listen to from online radio stations (mainly pandora) at my desktop PC at work. I can't install software solutions on my work PC and it has a crappy soundcard so this seemed like a good solution.

I have decent (although older) ears and have high quality studio monitors (M-Audio brand) hooked up for speakers.

X-Mod has two separate enhancements: Crystallizer and 3D Sound.

I cannot honestly say that I notice much improvement in sound from the Crystallizer.

The 3D effect works well to "widen" the sound. It doesnt' do anything different than a separate software program for this purpose would do. For example, if you use Windows Media Player, a limited version of the "SRS Wow" effect is built in. If you turn that on, it does the same thing as the 3D effect on X-Mod.

I'm not disappointed with X-Mod because it does actually improve the sound of Pandora (mainly due to the 3D effect).

The first reviewer who said you could probably do all this with software for less money is probably right. But, if you don't want to hassle with it and/or can't load software on your machine for whatever reason, this might be an ok option for you.

I picked up the Xmod this week, based on a recommendation from a techie friend. He knows I don't have time to learn complex products. I just want something that works with little maintenance. The xmod does that, and does it well. I just plug it in, flip the two switches-crystalizer and cmss, and I'm done. I have a ton of MP3s, and I like hearing the subtlety of the instruments. I can hear so much more of the instruments with the Xmod turned on. I never turn it off now, there's no need to.

i'm a music freak w 10K Cds and a really nice sound system. i've got a lot of songs ripped to AAC so that i can enjoy jukebox capabilty, though i still much prefer cds if i'm going to listen to a full album for audio quality reasons. i'm an audiophile but not a technically savvy one (in other words, good sound is important to me but i dunno much more about it than what my ears tell me). i bought this after hearing about it and reading some good reviews here. first thing to point out is this is not a device that will work well wired into a conventional audiophile stereo component system, it just doesn't hook up that way.

regardless, i thought i'd test it out for ipod/headphones use since i certainly would appreciate better fidelity there. After A/Bing the device for a few different types of songs (i tried to go with songs that had a lot going on and were good headphones tracks - Mercury Rev, Phil Lesh and Friends, Steely Dan, Yes), i'm going to return the device. I didn't like the "3D" option at all-it just made the songs sound unnatural. the "crystalizer" i liked to some degree. it definitely makes the highs crisper. but i didn't feel strong enough to decide to want to have this additional device dangling from my ipod cord on a plane or beach.

at the end of the day testing this device just reminded me of the way i used to like to use an Equalizer when i was younger. it was often hard to decide if i really liked something better Equalized or if it was just because equalizing rock tends to make it a bit louder and when you a/b you respond to the volume, and decide that the equalized sound is better. as i got older i stopped using eqalizers because i felt it was making the sound unnatural.

other things to note- i did notice a difference more when testing 128kb rips vs 192's. i think a case could be made that the 128s were improved - but at the end of the day i can just set my ipod or itunes Equalizer to do the same thing. Still i can't slam this product. it's not for me, but i have the feeling a lot of less-audiophile music listeners will end up liking this. i could see it punching up pop and hip-hop the way a lot of people like to listen to it etc.