This is a review and detailed measurements of the Creative Super XFi headphone amplifier and DAC "dongle." It was kindly sent to me by a member. Unfortunately it is discontinued but from what I can tell, it cost US $149. Its claim to fame was multi-channel virtualization customized to your face and ear shape. My review is focused on its audio performance and not this feature.
I liked the nice buttons on the SXFI:
They have a very positive action. The top button turns on its eq/virtualization.
The class driver in Windows recognizes it as an 8 channel DAC. That way, it can receive multi-channel content in order to down convert it to stereo. Alas, as with other dongles, the class driver only works in 16 bit mode with my Audio Precision software. So for testing, I had to use my Roon player to stream content to it which means no sweeps (other than power). In addition, it only supports maximum of 96 kHz sampling so I could not run my 192 kHz multitone test.
Creative SDXI Amp Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard:
This is with the output adjusted to 2 volts. Performance is pretty good with distortion below threshold of hearing at -115 dB. Signal to noise ratio/dynamic range falls in the same bucket:
Ditto for Jitter:
Most important test for a headphone adapter is amount of power so let's get into that starting with 300 ohm load:
Not bad:
Power was more impressive using 32 ohm load:
Headphone Listening Tests
There was good amount of power and lack of distortion with both my Ether CX and Sennheiser HD-650 headphone.
Conclusions
If I had tested the sXFI back in 2019, it would have landed at the top of the class. Even today it holds its own. You can get more though for less money than it retail so not as impressive now. Not sure you want to go and hunt one down (I see a used one for $110 on ebay). But if you did, it would be fine. I put it on my recommended list.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I liked the nice buttons on the SXFI:
They have a very positive action. The top button turns on its eq/virtualization.
The class driver in Windows recognizes it as an 8 channel DAC. That way, it can receive multi-channel content in order to down convert it to stereo. Alas, as with other dongles, the class driver only works in 16 bit mode with my Audio Precision software. So for testing, I had to use my Roon player to stream content to it which means no sweeps (other than power). In addition, it only supports maximum of 96 kHz sampling so I could not run my 192 kHz multitone test.
Creative SDXI Amp Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard:
This is with the output adjusted to 2 volts. Performance is pretty good with distortion below threshold of hearing at -115 dB. Signal to noise ratio/dynamic range falls in the same bucket:
Ditto for Jitter:
Most important test for a headphone adapter is amount of power so let's get into that starting with 300 ohm load:
Not bad:
Power was more impressive using 32 ohm load:
Headphone Listening Tests
There was good amount of power and lack of distortion with both my Ether CX and Sennheiser HD-650 headphone.
Conclusions
If I had tested the sXFI back in 2019, it would have landed at the top of the class. Even today it holds its own. You can get more though for less money than it retail so not as impressive now. Not sure you want to go and hunt one down (I see a used one for $110 on ebay). But if you did, it would be fine. I put it on my recommended list.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/