Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD 24-bit 96KHz USB Interface Sound Card

Pros: Good Base, Decent impedance, smooth sound, semi-portable.

Cons: Bad on Highs(frequency responce is around [8-10Hz to 15Khz]). I bought these for my Sennheiser HD 380s, and their okay, But for the price maybe $20-$30 dollars more you could get better.

Pros: A very nice card if you have nothing to start with and need an 1/4 inch jack. I upgraded from an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum with terrible drivers. This card is very user friendly. The drivers work with Windows 7 64 Bit no problem, and it produces nice sound. It's very portable and convenient.

Cons: Although it's listed at 96 KHz which some would argue is better than the 192 KHz and it's probably more than I will need, it seems almost a downgrade from the 8-year old Audigy 2 ZS in that sense. 2.1 Audio is also a downgrade from the 5.1 Surround Sound on the 8-year old card but that was also explained in the description. I'm using this with Sound Forge 8.0 and I can't get my KSM 27 condenser microphone to record both stereo channels now through the 1/4 inch jack. It seems to only be recording mono. I don't know what to think of this card yet.

Other Thoughts: I will keep it around just because it beats having to reboot the OS from Windows 7 to Windows XP 32 just to use the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum, but the specs seem kind of disappointing, and I really would like to be able to record both channels on my condenser microphone. Hopefully there is a way, and I just haven't figured it out yet, but the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum seemed to do it fine. I will probably still revert back to the Audigy 2 ZS for professional music recording :(, but use this for voice overs.

Pros: -Awesome 1/4 jacks on the front for use with my guitars/basses
-Optical in AND out (haven't got to test much yet)
-Simple usb makes it portable and easy
-Small

Cons: Not the EXACT color of my speakers, but I'll let it slide since it's barely big enough to be noticeable ;)

-I can't seem to get the LINE/PHONO-IN to work properly, but I won't blame that on the device since my computer crashed during driver installation. Will try re-installing later to see if it fixes

Other Thoughts: Just got it a few days ago, and it's already came in handy. I've used it to use my computer as a second amplifier for my guitars and basses, and record everything.
The main reason I purchased it was to use the optical in for my Xbox, and I've had so much fun with the other features that I haven't used the Xbox to test the optical ports!

Pros: This product fills the gap of low and high end 2ch audio devices. I bought this product to drive Bose QC15 headphones and studio speakers. All of the features are great, but I'm more impressed by the unfiltered clean sound produced, along with the headphone pre-amp. The headphone amp built in this device drives the QC15's with no problem. The headphones do have their own amp built-in, so I tried them with a pair of Beyerdynamic MMX 300 headphones that are 300ohm. They still drive great!

Cons: The audio cable provided was a 1/8" male to RCA male. The cable that it is pictured with and should have been supplied is a 1/8"female to male RCA.

Not removing an egg for this because it was a minor inconvenience.

Pros: Great external audio interface/DAC. Gives me much more response at the high and low frequencies. Line out works perfect with powered studio monitors (using with KRK Rokit RP6's + 10S subwoofer, fantastic speakers as well). Line in allows un-amplified inputs (perfect for hooking up a DJ mixer and turntables). Excellent SNR (114 is on par with much costlier DACs).

Cons: Volume control could use some feedback- it's a smooth knob with no clicks when you turn it. Not a huge thing but pressing the button mutes the sound, but also flashes LED which is annoying. A little bit of USB noise- added an in-line RCA ground loop isolator and all was well. No dedicated ASIO driver and ASIO4ALL isn't great with this. Turn off EQ and crystalizer for more accurate sound (though some enjoy it). No 192KHz support.

Other Thoughts: None of the negative reviewers seem to know what this product is or did their research. It's a shame too- this is a really great card. While Creative's drivers aren't the greatest, they've always worked for me. For the so called DJ who said that this couldn't drive his speakers- yeah of course not- the line out is unamplified. You have to send it through an amp or use powered speakers. For those complaining of no front panel connectors, USB mic, or 5.1 surround, do your research. This is an external card, so obviously your case isn't going to plug into it. No USB mic port- are you kidding me? That goes into your PC USB port. No 5.1 surround or 3.5mm output? This is not a gamer's card- its for studio work and audiophile critical listening. Most pro audio uses RCA or full sized TRS. Take your games elsewhere and buy like a Recon3d or something.

Pros: Does a fantastic job with my turntable as a source. Haven't had a chance to use a tape deck (line in) input. With Audacity as the capture program the WAV file from a classical recording was outstanding. In the very quiet sections I can hear the tape hiss from the original recording (via my pro headphones).

1/4" headphone jack is a plus for me as my pro headphones have that size plug.

Volume control is a nice feature -- I can control my headphone or speaker level without having to adjust the computer level. Twisting a knob is much easier for me than clicking and chaning the slider and hearing the resulting ping. Also a quick push on the knob mutes the unit.

Cons: I had to return the first one because the volume control didn't work.

Set up is weird. I've got W7 64 Pro and after installing everything it still took several reboots before the unit started working. Once running it's great.

I use a Logitec USB headset for when I don't want to play through the speakers or pro headset (lighter and good for calls, etc.). Sometimes my computer won't use the USB headset, even with everything else disabled. I think that's probably a Windows problem though.

Other Thoughts: Great value for anyone who wants to convert records to digital -- provided you've got a turntable.

You will want a good click removal program and I've made digital files that you cannot tell were from an LP.

I assume the line input will be just as good and look forward to converting some old tapes when I can borrow a deck from a friend.

Pros: Small compact, usb power, adequate inputs and outputs, control software fine.

Cons: Not acceptable for the mobile dj b/c the outputs are not loud enough to give any bass. I have a 250W amp and tried to drive my powered 15" subwoofer. Woefully underpowered, I thought my powered subwoofer had went bad until I plugged my cd player into the same inputs as the sound card. The sound card is only .25 the power as the cheap run of the mill cd player

Other Thoughts: returned for credit

Pros: Works out of the box on Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04. This is extremely important for me as I intend to use it in an embedded linux application using an ARM board. If the drivers weren't in the kernel it would be near impossible to make it happen. Extremely pleased.

I've only tested it with the no-name computer speakers I had next to me to see if it worked on linux. The sound quality is definitely an improvement over onboard.

The build quality appears good.

The sound card is going to be used in a car audio environment so I also appreciate the grounding screw as it will help eliminate the interference the system is prone to.

Cons: Could have given a higher-end RCA->3.5mm cable, or at the very least one with proper labels on the RCA side, but who really cares?

Other Thoughts: If you need high quality USB audio on linux, buy it.

Pros: It has a high SNR, 114dB. That's pretty good.

Cons: Only supports 2.1 audio. Seriously? Not stated on the box anywhere. It's going back to the store immediately, because a $100 2.1 channel sound card is so far away from what I wanted it's not even funny.

Other Thoughts: I'm inclined to believe Creative deliberately made their labeling confusing, as the rest of their X-Fi products have multi channel support. I suspended my policy of never buying Creative products due to their dubious drivers, and this is what I get...stay away from this unless you don't like your sound devices to have features and capabilities. Or I guess want to record, but there's better products out there for that already.

Pros: Being an owner of a microATX motherboard, I had to say goodbye to my old PCI x-fi fatal1ty card because my PCI-e video card took up the space of the 2 PCI slots beside it. I tried taking advantage of my realtek on-board audio but it wasnt as good as my old fatal1ty card. Enter this USB sound card and I am again enjoying playing games. In-game sounds were now clearer, livelier and more engaging. It was a step up indeed from on-board audio.

As for music playback, honestly, I reserve my musical nirvana to my separate hi-fi system and never use my computer for musical entertainment. I did try playing a CD and noticed that this sound card gave a more detailed and engaging presentation of music compared to older sound cards ive owned (sound blaster live!, audigy, x-fi fatal1ty, realtek on-board audio). However despite the improvement, it wouldn't rival the output of my hi-fi system. So if you're an Audiophile do not expect much.

Cons: Minus one egg because the "virtual" surround mode sucks. Im sure Creative could have easily bundled 5.1/7.1 support on this card by providing the necessary outputs for 5.1/7.1 surround sound. They did support 5.1 sound in their older X-Fi surround pro USB product and I cant understand why they removed this feature in this newer product.

Contributing to this "minus one egg" is the extra hassle entailed in buying two 1/8" Stereo Jack to 1/4" Stereo Plug Headphone Adapters if you posses headphones and a microphone that has 1/8" plugs. Also Creative should provide both types of Y RCA adapters instead of just one type ( the pic in Newegg shows female 1/8" to 2 RCA males but my bundle came with an 1/8" male to 2 RCA males Y adapter). I had to go out of my way to buy a 2-sided 1/8" female adapter so i could hook my headphone to the RCA output.

This product will only work properly with a good processor and USB 2.0. Your old laptop may not have enough juice to run this product

Other Thoughts: Creative should bundle two 1/8" Stereo Jack to 1/4" Stereo Plug Headphone Adapters and 2 versions of Y RCA adapters with this USB card and save its customers the hassle of buying adapters.

I also noticed an improvement in sound when i hooked up my headphones to the RCA output. But this set-up will only work if your headphones have an external source of power (in my case my Razer Barracuda was powered through a USB cable).