Creative Labs SB0950 ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook Audio System

by Creative

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 2.2 x 6.3 inches ; 8.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001BS3A3E
• Item model number: 70SB095000004
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #24 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Internal Sound Cards
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 27, 2008

Product Description

Experience high quality sound...from your notebook. The ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook sound card features X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity technology that restores detail and vibrance to your MP3s and other compressed music. Watching movies on your notebook with X-Fi headphone surround technology will sound like you're in a room full of speakers. Plus, games are more immersive with support for realisticEAX sound effects that make you feel like you're actually in the game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am still struggling to understand the negative reviews..., December 28, 2009

By 

Kate Stokes (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Labs SB0950 ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook Audio System (Personal Computers)

Unfortunately, the mixed reviews on this product--mixed here on Amazon and elsewhere--delayed my purchase of this product and almost stopped me from purchasing it altogether. Fortunately, in my experience the less than stellar reviews were incorrect. This product has, quite simply, solved all of my audio issues.

My issues were poor volume output and popping/crackling. Sadly, dropping over $1K on a new higher end laptop was not sufficient to avoid having to deal with these annoying audio issues. Both issues were solved immediately with this product. No more popping/crackling and now the volume gets as loud as I want it with plenty of room left to spare. In addition, the quality of the audio is crisper/clearer and more room-filling.

I had also planned on setting up a wireless link to my stereo with the use of an Apple Airport Express module but I just found out that this item works wirelessly with a Creative receiver which costs about $20 less so I will be making that purchase soon as well.

Bottom line I couldn't be happier with this product and I couldn't be more disappointed with my laptop manufacturer for making me purchase it.

p.s. this does work with Windows 7 but I had to download the latest software for free from the Creative site.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Understand the limitations of this product, March 2, 2011

By 

Alex Valverde (Yokosuka, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs SB0950 ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook Audio System (Personal Computers)

I bought this card after upgrading to a new laptop which only had an express card slot which prevented me from using my FANTASTIC Audigy 2ZS PCMCIA card also made by creative. I was very disappointed to find that this card does not include ASIO drivers or perform hardware acceleration in music DAWs. That was a huge letdown for me since I used to love using the ZS2 in conjunction with FL Studio at very low latency settings, unfortunately this is not the case with the SB0950. The only real advantage that you get by having SB0950 card over a traditional laptop is the software bundle, and the ability to output multi-channel audio. The SB0950 comes with Creative's standard software that it ships with most of its cards including support for EAX effects, CMSS3D (simulated surround sound similar to Dolby Pro Logic), Crystallizer (improves mp3 audio quality through up-sampling). That's all fine and dandy but doesn't make me see how the software merits purchasing this piece of hardware. The one cool aspect of the hardware is that this card can stream music wireless to a set of speakers, which is something that really makes sense on a laptop. All in all I would advise everybody who thinks this is a uber quality product to steer clear as the card doesn't even support 96khz playback. Having said that if you want a device with which to connect to speakers wireless or are just looking for something because your laptop's internal sound card sucks or is malfunctioning, then this can work for you. It just pains me to see how Creative took a once great product line in the Audigy ZS2 and watered it down this. I guess that is why ZS2's cost over 200 dollars today. I suggest that everybody interested in this card should also look at USB or Firewire Audio interfaces or something like the Echo Audio cards or maybe a Nu Force USB DAC or something comparable.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a beauty to hear, November 5, 2009

By 

Michael L. Nistler - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Labs SB0950 ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook Audio System (Personal Computers)

Some laptop devices (like my Dell XPS 1530) use an "inferior" sound chipset that will not allow the Vista O.S. to record "What You Hear." This sound card will not only fix this SNAFU, but also generate excellent high fidelity sound on your laptop. The price may seem a bit steep but once you hear the awesome sound, you'll be happy with the investment.