Creative fidelity: Does the Super X-Fi deliver?

FOR folks with long memories, Creative Technology was a byword for innovation, affordability and somewhat-national pride. It had a certain pluckiness - scrapping with the big boys many times its size with well-priced, quirky offerings.

That reason alone made me a long-time fan of the company. I've owned multiple Creative products and loved them all, and in fact am right now typing this review with two Creative T40 Series II speakers nestled on either side of my desk.

But, after a series of rather niche products, it was not until the announcement of a new, transformative product earlier this year which seemed to break it out of its funk, and it appeared to herald the return of the Singaporean David, which would rise again to battle the Western tech Goliaths.

Fast forward and Creative has unveiled its Super X-Fi Headphone Amp, a little dongle which aims to give your music life by making it more natural and expansive, just as if you were in the room with the musician. The company wants each amp personalised to the listener, so that it can bring the sound "out" and put it on a wider soundstage, instead of simply being projected into your head via headphones.

Creative's marketing department appears to have been given free reign in selling the product, because the Super X-Fi website is liberally strewn with bold phrases like "holy grail", "magic" and "phenomenal". It also has a hyperbolic animation showing a child listening to ordinary music, but has his world totally transformed with Super X-Fi.

The Super X-Fi (SXFI) dongle, no bigger than a finger, comes sheathed in a black, handsome aluminium case, upon which lies the on/off button for the SXFI effect and a play/pause button, tucked between the volume controls. A 3.5mm headphone jack lives up top, and below a USB-C connector for plugging into your Mac, Windows PC or Android phone. iPhone users have to buy the SXFI Air, a pair of Bluetooth headphones launching later in the year with built-in SXFI smarts (you can use a workaround to get the dongle working with your iPhone, but Creative is keeping mum about its effectiveness).

Using the accompanying SXFI Android app, you first scan both your ears and your face to map your head. Creative's algorithms, backed up by an artificial intelligence engine, then create your optimised sound profile. The app then writes that profile to the SXFI dongle plugged into your phone, where it is retained, and you can thereafter unplug it and use it anywhere else.

Series of tests

At a demo at its headquarters, Creative billed the little SXFI amp as being able to recreate the effect of a multi-speaker room set-up. Speakers were positioned around the demo room, and we were put through a series of tests designed to showcase how closely matched the amp was to the speaker set-up.

Following instructions, I pressed the button on the amp to turn on or off the SXFI effect at different moments in the demo. However, it was at this point when I realised I was beginning to prefer the sound produced when the little light on the dongle was amber, which I clarified later to mean "off" (green means the SXFI effect is on, amber means it is off). Uh-oh.

But I wanted to give it a chance, so I took the dongle home and ran it through a battery of tests. I used a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones as my main set during testing, as well as Beyerdynamic's DT880 and DT990 headphones. The M50s were not on Creative's list of "approved" headphones (the other two are), but are known for accuracy and balance. I also wanted to test Creative's claim that the amp should still work with the multitude of headphones out there, despite many not being SXFI-certified.

With Tracy Chapman's Fast Car, activating the SXFI effect definitely lifted the track to a wider soundstage, moving the sound away from my head and out from my ears. It demonstrated the SXFI's aim of livening up your music and making it sound less clinical, and I enjoyed the overall effect.

It did the same thing with Oasis' Wonderwall, pushing Liam Gallagher's soulful vocals and tambourine jingles further away, giving the music less of a claustrophobic feel and more of an open one.

Jazz tracks were a particular highlight too, with the SXFI effect making convincing work of a double bass being plucked somewhere in my room.

However, it was with movies that the SXFI amp really came into its own, putting in a strong performance with viewings of Black Hawk Down and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. With the effect on, the amp produced a less-fatiguing sound, making it easier to watch movies for longer periods. It added to the "cinematic" experience while watching Rogue Nation's car-chase scene, giving the roaring BMW M3's engine the richness it deserved.

Losing detail

But the expansive sound comes at a cost. Although the SXFI effect pushes out the sound and presents a more "airy" feel on an expanded soundstage, it then robs you of detail in the highs and muddies the lows. The tambourines in Wonderwall were barely present with the SXFI effect on, and poor Gallagher seemed to be singing out of a tin can. Similarly, the low thump of rotor blades of the Rangers' helicopters in Black Hawk Down were mushed into a throbbing mess of beats. Actors' speech also lost some timbre with the effect on.

Therein lies the rub - to me personally - of trying to add smarts to a pair of headphones or earphones. People wear headphones to eke out detail from music, and it becomes polarising when audio algorithms are thrown into the mix. To be fair, Creative never said the SXFI amp was aimed at the (notoriously finicky) audiophile crowd.

Someone described the SXFI sound as "fun", which is the closest to my own opinion. At S$219 (with a free pair of Aurvana SE headphones thrown in at time of print), the SXFI amp is just outside of impulse-buy territory, but presents great value if you want something pocketable to bring some "oomph" to your music, and if you couldn't care less for audio accuracy. It's just that the effect it produces might not be to everyone's tastes, and sometimes even hurts the music being played.

Creative's high-profile shot at putting magic in your pocket shouldn't be discounted, however. The device's ability to be written to means Creative could potentially release firmware updates to improve it, and I'll be watching this space for the plucky company that can.

Read more: Creative Technology's Super X-Fi for sale in US on Nov 1