Creative has announced two new sound card technologies, which it feels will be a breakthrough in audio technology. The new card ranges called Xtreme Fidelity and the Creative X-Fi Xtreme promise the ability to enhance MP3s to sound even better than they do on their original CD.
All CD music is in 16-bit resolution, which is typically compressed from an original 24-bit studio recording. When converting CD music to MP3 format, the music is compressed yet again. These types of compression result in a compromise of audio quality and clarity. The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor drives new applications that can enhance MP3s by bringing them back to 24-bit quality, and allows the user to upgrade the music to multi-channel surround sound. This enhancement enables virtually all MP3 music to sound even better than it did on the original CDs.
The Xtreme Fidelity standard will support a combination of 24-bit quality audio with a minimum of 110db SNR and the new CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) 3D headphone and surround speaker technology.
“Xtreme Fidelity is the result of our vision of a new audio standard which would provide a dramatic improvement in MP3 music, PC game play and digital movies, thereby setting the stage for a whole new platform for digital entertainment in the home,” said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. “To deliver on the vision of Xtreme Fidelity we created the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor, which makes a quantum leap in quality, power and performance that cuts across the entire audio space. The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor is truly awesome, and the experience of Xtreme Fidelity will astound people.”
The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity Audio Processor has more than 51 million transistors, and is capable of 10,000+ MIPS.
Creative is yet to confirm how it will implement this technology as yet, however as soon as we have details we will let you know.