The news
Creative makes an
astonishingly big claim for a
new little device - the Xmod - due to arrive this
month. The USB-powered gadget is said to make MP3s
and other digital music files
sound better than the original CDs!
The Xmod, £60 in the UK and $80 in the USA, is used
in-line
- the output from a music player (or to PC's speakers) being
fed
onwards to headphones or to the speakers.
It's ability to wrought this magical improvement in audio
quality is
put down to the use of
Creative's
X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio
technology, with music being converted in real time to
24-bit virtual surround sound.
In the process, the Xmod is said to enhance the low and high
frequencies while improving audio dynamics for cleaner, richer sound.
There are two sides to the X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity technology
- X-Fi
Crystalizer and X-Fi CMSS- 3D.
X-Fi Crystalizer is said to upconvert music by
analysing and identifying which parts of the audio stream have been
truncated or damaged during compression. It's reckoned
to intelligently and
selectively restore the highs and lows - such as snare drums,
basses, cymbals crashes and guitar plucking - that are damaged
during compression.
X-Fi CMSS-3D is what creates
virtual surround sound - through speakers or headphones. It's reckoned
to use "advanced
techniques" to place specific audio elements, such as the voice of a
movie character, in a virtual centre channel while ambient sound is
heard through virtual surround channels.
The gadget can't be used out and about - it's normally powered
from a USB socket. So that also means you'll
need an optional mains adaptor if Xmod is going to
feed audio from your portable music player to a hi-fi system
that's not nearby a computer or another device with a powered
USB output.
Xmod is, though, supplied with a suitable USB cable, along with
earphones and, kind of perversely, a carrying pouch.
Smoke and mirrors? Maybe. But we've asked Creative for a
review
sample (not due, though, for a couple of weeks) and will tell you what
difference the gadget seems to make to
our cloth ears.
Check out Creative's press release on page two and share your thoughts
with us in
this
thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum.
HEXUS.links
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External.links
Creative -
Xmod home
page
Creative -
Xmod animated demo page
Creative -
X-Fi
Xtreme Fidelity home page
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