 - Make your MP3s sound better than CDs with Xtreme Fidelity. Enjoy headphone surround that sounds like a room full of speakers. Hear immersive EAX® sound effects in your games.
- Play DVDs and enjoy cinematic movie sound with PowerDVD®. Connect to multichannel speakers with the Surround Sound Upgrade Kit (sold separately).
- X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio technology intelligently restores the highs and lows for rich, crystal clear music playback.
- Restore detail and vibrance to your MP3s. Hear headphone surround that sounds like multichannel speakers.Turn stereo music and movies into surround.Enjoy Realistic sound effects in games.
- Experience cinematic surround sound from DVD movies
Lowest Price: $72.35 
Product Description: EXPRESSCARD SOUND BLASTER X-FI XTREME AUDIO NOTEBOOK Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-13
Works Great
I bought this card for one reason - I use my laptop for games, and I am running Windows Vista. The onboard soundcard in my laptop doesn't support any EAX-alike (hardware 3D sound) features, even for only 2 channels. This card supports every last one. If you use Creative's ALchemy software, you can run old EAX titles with full hardware sound, in Vista, when using a Creative card. For games, an absolute must-have.
For music, it's decent. It has the "X-Fi Crystalizer", which is essentially a compressor. It can make some songs sound great, and I'm sure I would use it a lot more if I didn't know how to tweak my music manually. Same goes for movies.
For music production, well, it's a little bit lacking. I can get down to 5 ms delay using ASIO4ALL, but it doesn't seem to have native ASIO nor that one Vista sound interface nobody uses ;-). This is kindof a bummer, but it has more support than my onboard card, so it's good enough.
Overall, the card is very nice. I'm not sure about the value - the current going price is kinda steep - but I don't regret the purchase at all. Rating: 
Date: 2008-04-17
amazing
I got this sound card and the optional surround sound upgrade kit for about 80 used here from a seller at amazon and its terrific. I haven't written a review in over a year but I felt that I had to for this product.
I had the Creative Notebook ZS soundcard that worked well for my XP machine and when i got a new computer with Vista and installed it, the sound was never the same.
With Xp the sound is rich and detailed, with Vista, it always sounded as if it was a "copy of a copy" -- sort of a washed out sound. The ZS's drivers weren't made for vista and the vista updates for it never worked as should.
The X-Fi card's drivers are engineered for Vista and you can hear it. The sound is rich, detailed and LOUD. Installation went extremely smoothly and there is an built in update engine so you don't have to go to the Creative website and manually update it.
The interface is very user friendly and there are heaps of features that come along with the superb sound.
I highly recommend this product to anyone who is interested in excellent sound. Rating:
Date: 2008-01-07
Unbeatable Practicality in Notebook Sound
I raise an eyebrow at reviews that contain statements like, "I'm pretty sure they are all defective." My experience with this card has been nothing short of stellar, and others share the same experience.
This card is not marketed as a gaming soundcard, although it will handle games. The main purpose of this card is to give you unparalleled sound for music and movies, and it definitely delivers on both fronts. I am very particular about sound, and couldn't tolerate the electronic noise contamination from my HP Pavilion's on-board soundcard, thus I bought this card.
Using very sensitive in-ear monitors, I could not detect any electronic buzz at any volume level. The card really isolates your sound from all the other electronic fluctuations going on in your computer, and delivers great sound. The software interface is very intuitive, and even has a button that toggles playback through your notebook speakers--a tiny feature, but it shows that real thought went into the product design.
People are already familiar with Creative's EAX and Crystallizer technologies, so I won't review them here, suffice to say they work just fine.
What won me over was the fact that this tiny wonder has -both- optical inputs and outputs, enabling one to connect it to a Dolby Digital decoder (for multi-speaker setups), an external DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter), or any permutation of such devices! Furthermore, sound quality output is versatile with both 48Khz and 96Khz master outputs, in 16 or 24-bits.
Besides the optical ports, the dock provides a multitude of connection options.
When considered from a price-to-performance/features point of view, the Xi-Fi ExpressCard is a real winner. Products in this category are already rare, but Creative has put some real thought into this, and it shows.
Please note that this product is incompatible with the following notebooks:
* 1. Fujitsu Lifebook E8210*
* 2. Fujitsu Siemens Amilo A1667G*
*As listed on Creative's Website
Rating: 
Date: 2007-12-02
Disappointing
I assumed the docking module was included, but it is not. It was pictured on the box (I guess Creative has since changed it), and just the sound card is not much use to me. The docking module cost another $35 or so directly from Creative. And the Docking Module seems like a relatively simple thing that Creative could've tacked on to the card for a lot less.
I wanted it to this product so I could set-up my Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 7 Piece THX 7.1 Speaker System with my laptop. I'm running Windows Vista, and it was tricky to find the right settings to make everything work correctly. It was especially tricky to find the settings because the speaker system, which I had long before this card, came with a 4-3 multi-channel cable (no gray "side" plug on one end) instead of a full 4-4 cable. (Another big thumbs-down to Creative.) So I have it set-up as a 7.1 and upmix from 5.1 to 7.1 from the speaker hardware/control pod as a compromise, as no setting can give me the side channels with a new cable.
I don't know much about the subject, but after not finding the docking module in the box, I thought I would be able to use the card's optical-out to connect to the remote/control pod and pipe the multi-channel sound out that way. I don't remember if it was even possible, but it didn't come with a cable to try it.
It would be nice if this was a USB thing I could plug into the back so I don't have another thing sticking out the side on the machine. Rating:
Date: 2007-11-11
Great Sound Card For Music
I liked the sound on this Expresscard so much that I bought 2 of these for my Dell 1520 and Dell 1705 laptops, running Vista Ultimate. Set up was simple. I just inserted the ExpressCard into the slot and then loaded the CD. Downloading time took over an hour as there were many auto updates to install. There is very little documentation and no user manual for this product so one must be free spirited and discover which settings are right for you based on the kind of music you listen to and the way you intend to use this card. Unfortunately, there is very little discussion as to which stereo earbuds (or headphones) work well with this ExpressCard. The best music player I've ever listened to, the Creative MediaSource Player 5, is bundled with this product. A pair of comfortable white earbuds also comes enclosed.
This is a high end product which requires that you invest more money in either a high quality stereo earbud, headphone or stereo speakers (along with Creative's speaker docking module, which is now available on their web site)) in order to fully take advantage of the features this card offers.
I found the sound of music to be far superior using the enclosed Creative earbuds in this ExpressCard to my USB Jabra 5035 stereo headset. But when I tested the Sony MDR-EX90LP stereo earbuds in this ExpressCard, the sound clarity and bass improved tremendously so I bought 2 pair and now use them exclusively in this ExpressCard.
I chose this ExpressCard because when I custom built my Dell 1520, this was offered as the best option (of 3) for the sound system of the notebook. However, Dell sent the card 2-3 days after I received my notebook so I had to install it on my own. Once I was able to fine tune this ExpressCard to suit my penchant for 60's Rock Music, I then bought another one for my Dell 1705. When I listen to "Paint it Black" and "She is a Rainbow" from the Stones, I feel like I'm in the front row of the old Phillmore East Auditorium in New York City.
I have no intention of buying the speaker docking module at the present time since it sort of defeats the purpose of having a laptop to begin with. But if I ever decide to move out to the country (or suburbs) and do not live near anyone, perhaps I'll buy the speaker docking module and the Logitech Z-5500 Digital speaker system.
Bottom Line:
The sound of music is taken to another level with this ExpressCard. I now enjoy listening to my music more than ever.
I now give this Expresscard 5 stars.
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