X-Mod, get the most out of your speakers. (Creative XMOD)

Member Name: Tsportmat

Product:	Creative XMOD
Date:	22/02/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Improves sound quality, gets sound out of a USB port.

Disadvantages: Phones kill them!!! (Temporarily)

Just before I was just heading to University in 2007, I had some spare money, so needed a laptop of course, and then figured I needed a device to broadcast my music to the rest of the university block, so I bought some "Acoustic Energy Aego M" speakers, (I have a review of these on here if you're interested in them) to summarize them, they are reasonably high quality speakers, so when I ordered them I ordered a Creative X-Mod Sound card with them for 2 reasons:

1) May as well get the most put of your speakers, I read some reviews on the card, and they said it was excellent. Normally I would try the speakers before ordering the sound card, as it was £30-£40 (can't remember exactly). When I thought about it some more, this is a small price to pay, if I've paid over £100 for the speakers, I may as well get the most.

2) This is specific to people with Acer TravelMate laptops (or similar), because they are designed to travel a lot, and have easy access ports, the speaker out from the inbuilt sound it smack bang in the centre, on the front of the laptop! There is no way I can be having a lead travelling from the front of my laptop, (I'm like that you see) so a USB soundcard was ideal for neatness.
After running some quick experiments here, I found that when using the internal soundcard, although the speakers sounded okay, they just weren't as crisp as with the soundcard. This is especially apparent when the speakers are cranked right up, the speakers remain crisp with the soundcard, but distort quite a lot with integrated sound.

On the subject of sound quality, there is a switch called an X-Fi Crystalizer, where you can flick on and off, which will give you an immediate increase in sound quality, and you can really notice the difference in quality as soon as it is on. The level of crystalization can be increased and decreased according to preference with the 'select' button the card. I have mine on full, and I think it really makes a big difference.

There is also a 3D surround type switch. I'm not convinced by this completely, it kind of makes the sound hollow. I sometimes switch it on during films, because voices are sometimes clearer, and the bass isn't so loud. I can sometimes hear a bit of 3-d surround, behind my right ear for some reason. I don't know, decide for yourself about this, but it' nothing special IMO. Maybe with different speakers it would be different.

The last control on the card is the massive dial (almost said knob there...). This is pretty handy, as it's reasonably solid, and is easier to turn up the PC volume with it, especially as I keep my sub out of the way, which has the master volume on it. I keep the master volume of practically full, then control the volume with the dial. Another useful thing is pressing it down quickly mutes it.

The inputs/outputs on it:
Mini-USB - This leads to the USB port in your PC.
Pre-Out - This is an output for speakers, before amplification, so your speakers can amplify the sound.
Headphone Out - This could be useful for putting in a convenient location if your headphone out is behind your PC tower. I assume it is better quality than the PC headphone out, but I have not tried this.
Microphone In - Again, could put in a convenient location.

Another point to mention (although I cannot verify this as I haven't used integrated sound enough) but there is no interference when the soundcard is external, whereas internally they can apparently get a lot of this. While on the subject of interference however, if you get one of these cards, be careful where you put it, as I always used to place my phone next to it, but whenever my phone receives a signal, either just randomly or to get a call or message, the soundcard dies, and has to be unplugged and replugged to get it working again, this cannot be good for the card I don't think. Note the same happens when I place it near the speakers too.

As it is a separate sound card, it also puts less strain on your CPU, compared to integrated sound. Again I cannot verify this, I'll assume it to be true though.

I'm very pleased with this product, and I think it's worth the money. Whether it would be worth it if you have a £20 Logitech system is a different matter, and I cannot comment on it because I don't know, but if you have half decent speakers it's certainly worth your money, otherwise I feel you've wasted your money on the speakers! May appeal to some people in the way that it did to me initially, if you want your sound to come out of a USB port.

Summary: 10/10

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Installation:
Features:
Sound quality: