Customer Reviews

Creative Sound Blaster X-fi Elite Pro

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This card and module are just what is needed. Easy to use, easy to install, easy solution for connecting optical lines to your Home Theater Receiver. Module is a bit large though. Bit pricey but worth the money.

This is an awesome soundcard, to put it short. It provides incredible sound quality, and the external box allows you to connect a myriad of sound devices. I did have issues with installing the software on XP. If I would install the software provided on the included disc, it would all install, but I would get no sound. Finally I contacted creative and they told me to download the driver off their website. Doing that, I got sound and everything is good. Except I now can't use all of the other software that was included, on XP that is. I'm running both XP and Vista on the same PC. Installing the software onto Vista was a breeze. No problems whatsoever. I have yet to find the proper setting to make my headset's microphone work in games.

This sound card has everything you expect from it. The clarity of sound is amazing, and all the controls right at your finger tips, nice! It's very easy to install, just make sure your system meets or, preferably, exceeds the minimum requirements. It is a little bit expensive, but it's worth it. Great for musicians and recording enthusiasts, as well as gamers. It's the best there is...

This is a great product. Sound quality is excellent; very clear and rich. All of the features and software included are awesome. Controls are all up front and extremely accessible. Very attractive and quality built. An exceptional upgrade for any music, video, or gaming enthusiast.

If you still use Windows XP, you may still buy this top soundcard of Creative. It offers an excellent sound quality and a very useful external I/O box where you can easily and comfortabely change settings.

BUT: If you moved to modern system software like Vista or Windows 7, forget this soundcard and all soundcards of Creative! You cannot use the very expensive I/O box anymore, you will hear a lot of hiss and sound disruptures and ... the worst ... Creative seems to be absolutely unwilling to update their non-working soundcard drivers, in spite of the fact that this soundcard is their top product. The cybernet is full of stories of deceived customers of Creative who cannot use their Creative equipment any longer after moving to Windows 7 or Vista. Creative may not be considered a brand name any more for you cannot rely any more on getting a top product when buying Creative items.

So if you intend to move to Vista or Windows 7: buy a product from another producer. They update their functioning drivers every month, Creative only published a non functional driver nearly one year ago without any sign that it intends to care for their existing customers. I will definitely never again buy Creative products due to the non-existing customers service.

I bought this card as an upgrade for my machine running Vista SP1. I'd heard Vista was funky with sound cards, but this worked right out of the box. The stand-alone box is on the large side, but comes with a bracket so it can stand upright. The sound quality is excellent, but be sure to change digital output to 96khz if your speakers support it since the default is 44. The remote control works as advertised, but since I'm sitting at my P.C. I don't think I'll use it much.

Ive had this soundcard for a few months now and im definitely happy with my purchase! Way better than onboard audio and so many more abilities! Installation went fine for me (Vista). I did a little studying beforehand though, the only thing I had to know beforehand was how to disable onboard audio in the BIOS screen. The Crystalizer is great, except it noticeably distorts if you have a good or loud recording and try to set it above 50%. But it really makes standard music sound A TON better! Bass is a lot tighter and punchier. Also makes the highs a lot crisper. And this soundcard is really cool with headphones! It really gives a ton of power to my headphones, equal to, if not more than my reciever. CMSS on my speakers is ok, but I feel it REALLY shines on headphones. This soundcard is definitely a great buy in my opinion. The only problems ive noticed was that sometimes I have to switch modes because of a hiss that sometimes comes up in audio creation mode when trying to record. After that it usually goes away when I go back into audio creation mode. And it lags my computer when I want to log off or shutdown. But its well worth it for having this awesome soundcard.

Brilliant bit of kit but unfortunately very rare to get hold of now. Creative don't seem to be advertising it now and maybe not available anymore which is a great shame. I manage to obtain 2 second hand from Ebay but as for buying New I'm still searching. Creative please bring back this amazing bit of kit. Absolutely Ideal for keyboard players with soundfont support etc as well as other facilities.

Why can't Creative make software that doesn't require a reboot for every little update or part of their suite? I ordered a refurbished card and external unit off of Creative's site, big mistake. After spending several hours installing software, new updates and drivers, it appears the external unit is DOA. This was bought to replace my Audigy2 that died after less than a year. I'm done with Creative. My Turtle Beach soundcard has outlasted 3 of them. At least they make returns easy.

I've been in computes since 1978. I can honestly say that this was the WORST installation nightmare EVER! After phoning Creative to determine that this card would work with my computer and getting the "OK" I ordered it along with an accessory they said I needed. They said I should do a total UNinstall of all audio devices. I did. Took an hour. Then the installation of this product took THREE hours due to the necessity of rebooting after every web update to their software. After all that 50% of the programs and features would not work. Would not even recognize that the card was there! After another day of fiddling around with it I then got an email from a "Technician". He said NOT to install any update and only to use the original CD installer. Ok... Did the clean removal AGAIN and then the install. SAME PROBLEMS! Now they tell me it is Service Pack 3 causing the problem!!! A SP that has been out for many months now. I GIVE UP! NEVER again a product from Creative. The "technician" didn't even know what "Ground loop hum" was. I will say that the s/n ratio was/is awesome and what did work sounded great. Hated to return it but back it goes. Sad. AVOID all these heartaches and buy something else for sure.