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Creative SXFI AMP Review (headphone adapter)

taudier

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Do you experience a little noise background with IEMs (16 ohm) when no music is playing on pc and smartphone ? For the sensibility of my IEMs 10/100 on windows is already loud. Also the jack TRRS is not detected sometimes, randomly... Thx
 

MCH

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Nothing audible for me with etymotic er2se (15 ohm I reckon)
 

MCH

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That is true, they are not super sensitive. The most sensitive headphones i have are the akg 371, no noise whatsoever, but those are not iem....
 

NewCoke

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Is there a way to get 5.1 audio with something like the Nvidia Shield (Android) TV with this amp?

I got the worst loud noise ever when I tried 5.1 on the Shield with this amp and I had to throw my headphones off immediately.

Stereo on the Shield TV with this amp worked fine before the latest Shield TV update. Getting no audio now.
 

Berwhale

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Some quick research indicates that Android only supports mono or stereo DACs...

Host mode​

Android 5.0 (API level 21) and above supports a subset of USB audio class 1 (UAC1) features:
  • The Android device must act as host
  • The audio format must be PCM (interface type I)
  • The bit depth must be 16-bits, 24-bits, or 32-bits where 24 bits of useful audio data are left-justified within the most significant bits of the 32-bit word
  • The sample rate must be either 48, 44.1, 32, 24, 22.05, 16, 12, 11.025, or 8 kHz
  • The channel count must be 1 (mono) or 2 (stereo)

I'd be happy to be corrected by someone with more knowledge of the matter.
 

sool

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There is something weird with this amp running on Windows when I connect it to external speaker amplifier. I tried on few PC and laptops and on some it outputs really loud (comparable to stationary DAC (I assume about 2V RMS) and on some max volume is much lower and comparable to built in realtek dac. Both hardware volume and windows volume mixer is set to max and the output seems quite low and there is audible difference in volume depending on the computer.
 

Guddu

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I have recently got this one, just to see if the multichannel thing is any fun and it actually is lots of fun (for me at least).
I don't think I am going back to my Hidizs S9 pro if I am watching movies on headphone. It may not be as huge as Creative claim, but surely feels like you are in room with 3D surround. I wasn't expecting this much TBH.
Music, however, isn't working for me with sxfi ON. With sxfi off, it feels like a decent dac/amp without missing anything by much but still not quite like S9 pro though. Measurements suggest more or less same.
iPhone and Windows apps both work well, no issues what so ever.
* Windows detects it as 7.1 capable device, by default.
** Max format supported is 24 Bits / 96000 Hz
*** sxfi app let's you choose stereo/5.1/7.1, which immediately reflects in windows sound device settings
**** sxfi Equalizer works very well, turns on/off from app
***** Many earphone/headphone models available, I am using AKM K371 which isn't there and so using unknown
****** Turn sxfi mode ON/OFF from app or with dac button, immediately shows you the differences
******* App let's you update the firmware easily, I've got ver 2.1.8 update.
Overall, worth trying.
 
Last edited:

Ufasas

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I have recently got this one, just to see if the multichannel thing is any fun and it actually is lots of fun (for me at least).
I don't think I am going back to my Hidizs S9 pro if I am watching movies on headphone. It may not be as huge as Creative claim, but surely feels like you are in room with 3D surround. I wasn't expecting this much TBH.
Music, however, isn't working for me with sxfi ON. With sxfi off, it feels like a decent dac/amp without missing anything by much but still not quite like S9 pro though. Measurements suggest more or less same.
iPhone and Windows apps both work well, no issues what so ever.
* Windows detects it as 7.1 capable device, by default.
** Max format supported is 24 Bits / 96000 Hz
*** sxfi app let's you choose stereo/5.1/7.1, which immediately reflects in windows sound device settings
**** sxfi Equalizer works very well, turns on/off from app
***** Many earphone/headphone models available, I am using AKM K371 which isn't there and so using unknown
****** Turn sxfi mode ON/OFF from app or with dac button, immediately shows you the differences
******* App let's you update the firmware easily, I've got ver 2.1.8 update.
Overall, worth trying.
have you tried in competitive games?
 

staticV3

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have you tried in competitive games?
Many competitive games nowadays do their own HRTF intended for stereo output to headphones or IEMs.
Obviously adding another HRTF processor or virtual Surround effect on top of that is a bad idea.
 

Ufasas

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Can anyone compare this SXFI to G3 usb-c model ? If not, i could probably buy SXFI soon, and one day send both to Amir, for measuring and comparing
 

MCH

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The G3 is an interesting device as it has toslink in and is very inexpensive. I would be also curious to see how it performs.
 

Ufasas

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Do you have a link to the different versions you're talking about?
As far as I can tell, there's only one version of the SXFI Amp and that version has a Type-C jack: https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/feature-what-s-next-creative-s-sxfi-technology-we-found-out-ces-2019

Edit: there are different generations of Creative's virtual Surround Sound tech with the SXFI Amp using Gen2
oh, so it's 3 generations, damn, i only see that bigger finger size amp, i guess it's gen1, and it's in creative web store, i don't even see gen2 on sale anywhere
 

staticV3

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oh, so it's 3 generations, damn, i only see that bigger finger size amp, i guess it's gen1, and it's in creative web store, i don't even see gen2 on sale anywhere
No, there's a misunderstanding here.
Only one hardware generation of the Creative SXFI Amp exists. It launched with generation 2 of Creative's surround sound tech built-in.

The ones you see on the website I sent are just proofs of concept which were never turned into a real product.
 
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The smaller version is an integrated part of the sxfi trio usb-c version, but I doubt amplification factor will be the same.

Have anyone here heard of mesh2hrtf?
Creative should go the way of genelecs "aural id" or dolby's new developer service and support real 3d scans for ear-mapping, the face id dephth sensor of an iphone x seems to give good results.

I think, that's the logical next step, 2d-photo based information is not sufficient to determine the personal hrtf and 3d scanning becomes more convenient.
 

amanieux

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i listened to the sxfi effect simulated in the app, it works well for lower frequency instruments having a sense of distance, airyness and openness but every instrument with high frequencies are pushed up in the trebble region and distorted, human voice is especially horrible to listen to
 

Jimbob54

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I got one of these recently. I cant say I am impressed . The SFXI is a gimmick (agree with @amanieux just above ). More annoyingly, when uses with UAPP on Android, the start of each song gets a few seconds of crackle. Migght well be a UAPP issue of course, but no other dongle does this. There are far better options for less . The Tempotec Sonata HD Pro being an obvious example.
 
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