PRESS RELEASE
Creative Technology will be showcasing its innovative audio solutions at the world’s leading electronics show CES 2020, including the latest and upcoming highlights from the award-winning Super X-Fi Headphone Holography and its expanding ecosystem.
Preview of the Super X-Fi Ecosystem
The first line-up of Super X-Fi products was launched at CES 2019, and swept 15 best-of-show awards from various audio media who had come from all over the world to experience this breakthrough technology. Super X-Fi recreates the soundstage of a multi-speaker surround system in a pair of headphones, and personalizes it by scanning the user’s head and ears, so that the custom-fit audio experience becomes natural like never before.
A significant enhancement to the product line-up this year is the implementation of the Super X-Fi Gen2 profile, an updated version of the Super X-Fi audio profile which promises even greater accuracy in personalization for users and therefore the ability to provide more pristine audio across a broader range of content.
The Super X-Fi Gen2 profile will be exclusively unveiled to guests at the Creative suite at CES 2020, where the latest product highlights of the Super X-Fi ecosystem will be showcased. This includes Creative SXFI CARRIER, the world’s first soundbar with Super X-Fi Headphone Holography which carries on the legacy of its celebrated predecessor, X-Fi Sonic Carrier, which had been dubbed by industry experts as the ‘soundbar of the gods’. Jointly developed with Dolby Laboratories, it features a custom Dolby design, making it the first-of-its-kind Dolby Atmos Speaker System (DASS) soundbar which delivers breathtaking, moving audio that flows all around, even overhead, for a full and immersive experience.
Also to be showcased are the upcoming triple-driver headphones to be added to the Super X-Fi line-up. SXFI TRIO is a triple-driver in-ear headphones that comes with an attached in-line SXFI WIRE, which is an even smaller and lighter version of the finger-sized SXFI AMP. Aurvana Trio Wireless is a neckband headphone solution with Super X-Fi READY, which allows users to access the software processing power of Super X-Fi through local content played via the SXFI mobile app.
Guests will get to preview product offerings dedicated to gaming as well. The SXFI GAMER headphone will be making its first appearance, and features a specially-designed sound profile which optimizes the Super X-Fi audio profile for first-person-shooter games. Also, following up on Creative’s announcement earlier in 2019 on its partnership with OEM laptop manufacturer CLEVO to produce laptops with built-in Super X-Fi, a prototype model will also be featured.
“Since our historical award-winning run last year, Super X-Fi has generated huge interest across the industry, including OEM partners. Our showcase this year not only features the possibilities in terms of product options available for development with our partners, but also how much we have improved the technology itself to further the appeal to users. Exciting times lie ahead,” said Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Creative Technology.
Creative will also be showcasing its other latest and upcoming audio solutions at CES, such as:
- SXFI TV, the HDMI TV companion box which connects SXFI THEATER headphones to TVs
- The first Sound Blaster with Super X-Fi, Sound Blaster X3
- Previews of the successors to the immensely popular Outlier Air and Outlier Gold true wireless earbuds
Super X-Fi® Gen2: Next-level Headphone Holography
A year on after sweeping 15 best-of-CES awards with its breakthrough Super X-Fi Headphone Holography, Creative Technology will be unveiling the all-new Super X-Fi Gen2 audio profile, which features key improvements to provide users with a more natural headphone audio experience than ever before.
Unprecedented Realism in Headphones
Super X-Fi recreates the soundstage of a high-end surround speaker system in headphones, and personalizes it with Artificial Intelligence (AI) for a natural listening experience. Since its worldwide launch at CES 2019, users and critics have been blown away by the realism of personalized audio, which is tailored according to their anthropometric profiles.
“At the beginning, our user profile base was in the range of tens of thousands. Over the past year, riding on the successful launch of Super X-Fi, we have accumulated hundreds of thousands of user profiles. This significant jump in real-world data has provided us with the capacity for more research, and importantly, it has enabled us to train the Super X-Fi AI engine to be even more accurate in personalizing the audio experience for our users. This was key in our development of the Super X-Fi Gen2 profile,” said Lee Teck Chee, Vice-President of Technology at Creative and inventor of Super X-Fi.
Super X-Fi Gen2 incorporates other important enhancements as well, including the preservation of more details in the surround sound configuration, along with higher positioning accuracy. Audio fidelity is improved, resulting in a clearer sound signature. This translates to more pristine audio across a broader range of content, and a much higher level of enjoyment for users overall. For movies, dialogue becomes clearer, and audio cue positioning is more precise, with an enhanced bass performance. This is also better across various genres of music, as the improved restoration of details moves users closer to a studio environment.
For gaming, the Super X-Fi experience is improved across a broad range of game types, with better perception of distance and position. Furthermore, Creative will be showcasing at CES 2020 a special gaming sound profile designed for first-person-shooter games in a preview of the SXFI GAMER headset.
The benefits of the new Super X-Fi Gen2 profile do not end there. With its new approach in design methodology, power consumption becomes more efficient. For instance, the SXFI AIR headphone will gain more than 10% of battery life.
The Super X-Fi Gen2 profile will be implemented on all existing user profiles worldwide during CES 2020, and users just need to perform simple firmware updates on their products, and download their new profiles through the SXFI APP to experience the all-new holographic audio.
Lee added - “Super X-Fi Gen2 is the new fruit of our unrelenting research for audio excellence. Also, while Gen2 is the best sound profile we have, we are constantly looking into developing the next higher standard. Gen3 is already on the horizon.”
SXFI GAMER: Headphone Holography For The Win
At CES 2020, Creative Technology will be providing a sneak preview of its upcoming USB gaming headset, SXFI GAMER, which features a specially-designed sound profile which optimizes the Super X-Fi audio profile for first-person shooter games.
Gaming Gets Real Like Never Before
Super X-Fi Headphone Holography is an award-winning technology which recreates the soundstage of a high-end surround speaker system in headphones, and personalizes it with Artificial Intelligence (AI) for a natural listening experience. Since its worldwide launch and award-winning run (15 best-of-show awards) at CES 2019, users and critics have been blown away by the realism of personalized audio, which is tailored according to their anthropometric profiles.
At CES 2020, Creative is launching the all-new Super X-Fi Gen2, an improved version of the Super X-Fi audio profile which incorporates key enhancements like higher precision in personalizing a user’s audio profile, the preservation of more details in the surround sound configuration, higher positioning accuracy and audio fidelity.
The gaming sound profile in SXFI GAMER incorporates all of these, and optimizes it to a perfect fit for first-person-shooter games – environmental imaging, audio cues, distance projection and directionality are all enhanced for the competitive gamer’s benefit.
Developing a custom gaming profile came as a natural step for Creative when creating the Super X-Fi sound signature. As Lee Teck Chee, Vice-President of Technology at Creative and inventor of Super X-Fi said, “Audio design for gaming realism in first-person-shooter games has a different approach, for example as compared to the realism of a movie. So that presented a challenge when working on a Super X-Fi sound for gaming, but our expertise and experience have put us in good stead. Since the earliest days of Sound Blaster more than 30 years ago, we have had a long history of working on games, and have a deep understanding of optimizing audio performance for various game types.”
Look and Feel like a Pro Gamer
Besides its sharpshooter audio quality, the SXFI GAMER headset performs in various ways befitting a bona fide pro gamer.
SXFI GAMER sports a RGB lighting profile that is more aggressive and stylish than previous Creative gaming headsets, and provides more comfort for users with leather earpads. A key feature is its microphone with an all-new design for enhanced gaming communication. It features an integrated pop filter, improved uni-directionality to remove unnecessary ambient sound, better noise reduction, and a clearer yet more natural sound overall.
SXFI GAMER is tentatively scheduled for launch in Q2 2020, and will be attractively priced to target the mass market.
