EXCLUSIVE: Creative Sound blaster Free

Thanks to Google, we now have here a first look at the Sound blaster Free - Creative's latest portable wireless speaker.

(image source: http://www.clubic.com/audio-hifi/actualite-768186-creative-sound-blaster-roar-2-free.html)

According to the translation by Google, the Sound blaster Free seems to be a copy of Logitech's best selling UE boom that will be available in two color options.

From the image, it seems to also have an in-built microSD player - something that we have seen in both the Sound blaster Roar and Roar2.

It is said to be released soon in the month of June and July for 99Euro. If we are lucky, we might just see it at the upcoming Pc Show at the Singapore Expo which Creative would be participating.

Click here for Creative's Pc Show 2015 deals!

Creative refreshes the Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage series

Creative today silently updated its Sound Blaster Tactic3D USB and Wireless gaming headsets with a V2.0 version that promises compatibility with the Playstation®4 via USB. The new version also includes Scout Mode which will work in both Windows and Mac OS. 

As both versions are priced identically to Version 1.0, it is likely that Creative will progressively phase out the older models to continue selling the new ones.

The Sound Blaster Tactic3D range is designed to make PC/Mac gaming affordable and feature pack and its good to see Creative updating the product to support cross platform. In case you missed it, read our Sound Blaster Tactic3D USB review here.

Creative to preview new Sound Blaster Roar at CES 2014

The Sound Blaster Roar is targeted to be priced aggressively below US$200 and will be available in the spring of 2014.

Creative is set to preview its "heavyweight contender" in the wireless speaker category with the Sound Blaster Roar at the upcoming CES 2014. The product is said to be the product of years of research and "represents the pinnacle of portable wireless audio". The Sound Blaster Roar sets itself apart with its bi-amplified design that produces amazingly powerful and balanced lows, mids and highs.

The Sound Blaster Roar's bi-amplified design sets it apart from most other portable speakers that feature only one amplifier, allowing it to produce amazingly powerful and balanced lows, mids and highs.

Besides being an awesome sounding wireless speaker, the Sound Blaster Roar also comes with several useful features, such as speakerphone teleconferencing, a microSD slot for MP3/WMA/WAV playback and audio recording, a siren, Bedtime Mode and Life Saver Mode.

Some other features of the Sound Blaster Roar:

- The Roar button on the Sound Blaster Roar instantly and significantly boost the speaker's loudness, depth and audio spaciousness

- Integrated Voice Recorder - Allows for simple, one-touch audio recording directly to a MicroSD card, including that of phone conversations.

- Integrated WMA and MP3 Player - Plays music directly from a MicroSD Card without a smartphone.

- Additional Sound Blaster Functionality - Connecting the Sound Blaster Roar via USB to a PC and Mac enables advanced audio processing through Sound Blaster Control Panel, a downloadable software program specially designed for the speaker.

We will have more information as CES progresses so do come back again!

Creative introduces new Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 portable wireless Bluetooth speaker with all the features you can ever think of ... well, almost.

Creative today introduces its 2nd generation of its Sound BlasterAxx speaker series - the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200. Despite the moderate success of the previous generation, Creative believes that the new AXX 200 is the gamer changer that would "radically transform the wireless speaker market".

Powered by the SB-AXX1 audio processor (the same chip found in the Sound Blaster Z-series of sound cards), the AXX 200 is a little bigger than the previous Sound BlasterAxx SBX 8 and comes with a built-in battery for portability. It also has a new grill design and a series of new features which we think are so crazy it might just work.

Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 features:

• Supermega phone: amplify your voice with this loud hailer feature built right into the speaker
• Super loud siren: for ... emergency use?
• Integrated MP3 player: play music directly from your microSD card
• Portable battery: charge your iPhone or tablets directly with the AXX 200
• 4 microphones for teleconferencing 
• Sound Blaster Central app for audio processing on-the-go
• Bluetooth with NFC: for one-touch pairing
• aptX wireless codec and AAC codec for the best wireless streaming experience 

One of the most attractive point of the AXX 200 is of course the price. With the recommended retail price at $299.99, Creative is currently selling the AXX 200 at only U$149.99. The mini Jambox and Logitech Boom are retailing at U$179.99 with a similar size Bose Soundlink Mini going at U$199.99. The AXX 200 has wayyy more features with a really sleek design that is a departure from Creative's usual black, solemn design for its speakers.

While the AXX 200 is now only available in the US, Creative is giving away 5 sets of it on its Facebook page: Win Creative Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200

Learn more about the AXX 200 here:

Product page

Press Release

Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB Review

The Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB gaming headset is Creative's answer to an affordable gaming headset with superior audio. There is also a wireless version available which is the Tactic3D Rage Wireless.

The headset features two 16 million-color illuminated ear cups, 50mm FullSpectrum drivers and 3D Surround audio which is beyond the 7.1 audio standard.

Beyond the hardware specification, most of the audio enhancements are driven by Creative's SBX Pro Studio software. This includes the SBX Surround, Crystalizer and Bass. I will take more about each of them in detail later.

Here's what included in the package:

A closer look at the ear cup of the headset. The built-in volume control dial allows you to conveniently and accurately adjust the volume of the headset.

Comes in the box is the Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB headset, a detachable microphone, quick start guide, micro USB cable and a 3.5mm  audio cable. 

The headset is enforced with a steel core to ensure durability. 

The foam cushion on the headset allows you to game comfortably for extended period of time.

All the controls are located on the right ear cup. You can attached the detachable microphone and mute it with the mute button. You can choose to input the audio through the USB cable or via the 3.5mm audio jack. 

The Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB headset with the detachable microphone intact. 

The detachable microphone's 3.5mm gold plated connector.

The 3.5mm Aux-in cable, for you to connect to your other audio devices while the headset is connected via USB.

The provided micro USB to USB cable for charging and data transfer.

One of the greatest selling point of the Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage headset is the software. Powered by the SBX Pro Studio suit of audio technologies, you get to customize and enhance your audio for music listening, movie watching etc. You can download the Sound Blaster Tactic(3D) Control Panel for free from the Creative website here. The file is about 93MB and takes roughly 15 minutes to download.

For the Sound Blaster Tactic(3D) Control Panel, you would need to plug in your headset or USB dongle for the wireless version. (Do note that the software will only work with the Sound Blaster Tactic3D range of gaming headsets.) Once the control panel is active, you will be brought to the SBX Pro Studio panel to customize your Crystalizer, Surround, Bass, Dialog Plus and Smart Volume level. The SBX Pro Studio demo reel is played on loop to help to hear the difference in audio enhancements real time. 

SBX Crystalizer	Similar to the previous X-Fi Crystalizer, this helps to enhance the dynamic range of your low quality, compressed audio to give you a more realistic experience.
SBX Surround	A set of algorithm that increases and expands the virtual surround spaciousness to give you an all round 360 surround experience.
SBX Bass	SBX Bass fills extends the low frequency tones and gives the extra impact for a dramatically improved sound experience.
SBX Dialog Plus	SBX Dialog Plus enhances the voices in movies for clearer dialog, allowing the listener to hear the dialog over the rest of the soundtrack and over ambient noise in the listening environment.
SBX Smart Volume	SBX Smart Volume addresses the problem of abrupt volume level changes during playback and between songs by automatically and continuously measuring volume, and intelligently applying gain and attenuation to compensate for those changes.

With the Sound Blaster Tactic(3D) Control Panel, every aspect of your audio can be customized. In the Equalizer panel, you can choose from 10 defaults EQ or save a customized EQ settings which you like. I found that the 10 defaults EQ would probably have a setting for everyone - from the bass to vocal lovers. 

One of the most fun feature of the Sound Blaster Tactic(3D) Control Panel is arguably the Voice FX effects. At this panel, you can morph your voice on-the-fly to one of a demon, elf, orc, robot and many more. You can also adjust the pitch and quiver of each effect. That's alot of customization for one single feature!

SB Prism allows you to customize the color of the 16 million-color illuminated ear cups. Some of you might encounter some difficulty in getting the ear cups to change color like me. To solve this problem, close the software and re-run it by right-clicking on the icon and "Run as administrator". 

"Look ma, it glows!"

At U$79.99, the Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB cost as little as the Razer's Kraken Pro, yet provide a complete suit of software and illuminated ear cups for full customization. Even when not connected to a PC or Mac, the Rage headset also works as a passive headphones via the included 3.5mm audio cable (without the audio enhancement of the SBX Pro Studio of course). There is little to dislike about the headset but if I really needed to nit pick, more could have been done to increase the comfort of the headset. Wearing it for a prolong period of time would cause your ears to heat up. 

There are also many nice touches done in the packaging like the red velvet tray that holds the headset firmly in the box and the red beaded cable that is tangle free and doesn't feel as cheap as the normal bundled ones. 

The Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB gamin headset is now available from the Creative Online Store.

New Sound Blaster EVO Zx Firmware (version 130618)

Creative released a new firmware for the Sound Blaster EVO Zx today, a product which it started shipping about 2 weeks ago. Here are some of the fixes the firmware will bring about to your EVO Zx:

• Improved Bluetooth connectivity for NFC pairing
• Fixed an intermittent issue where headset hanged while power up
• Fixed LED and reboot issues when performing a factory reset

This firmware update is only for the PC. You may download it here. 

Why you should give a damn about the Sound Blaster EVO series

Once upon a time, Creative's sound card dominated the PC market by being the de facto standard for PC audio. In 2005, Creative introduced the X-treme Fidelity (or X-Fi) audio processing chip, which was the most powerful at the time of its release. The technology was impressive and the company did attempted to bring X-Fi into a variety of products including the Xmod, Xmod Wireless, Aurvana X-Fi, ZEN X-Fi, ZEN X-Fi2 and the latest ZEN X-Fi3. While most enjoyed moderate success, they all had one point in common: they did not have a physical audio chip in it. Most of the X-Fi enhancements were instead driven by software with the audio algorithm developed by Creative. It seems that amount of powered needed by the X-Fi chip is too great for a portable device.

Fast forward to May 2011, Creative is ready to introduce its new generation of audio processor - the Sound Core3D (also known as the SB-Axx1 chip). The low power, "multi-core" processor manages to merge both the audio and voice components of the chip giving it an advantage in size. The new SB-Axx1 chip is so small (as compared to the X-Fi chip) that Creative has to dress it up with a fake heatsink to make it look better on the product.

With a smaller audio processor that consumes less power, for the very first time, Creative was able to implement real hardware acceleration with its portable products. We have already seen this being implemented in the Recon3D USB sound card, Sound BlasterAxx series of portable speakers and more recently, the Sound Blaster EVO series of headsets. 

For the record, the Sound Blaster EVO Zx and ZxR would be the first true, hardware accelerated headsets powered by Sound Blaster. Simply put, it's having a dedicated sound card built right into your headset. While there are 4 variants in the EVO series, only the EVO Zx and ZxR are worth looking at (provided budget isn't a concern for you). Both the headsets work with your PC/Mac/iPhone/iPod/iPad/Android phone and tablet. Creative really nailed the connectivity portion by focusing on the needs of modern day users (people who can't leave home without their phones or tablets) with the inclusion of NFC, Bluetooth, USB and Aux-in.

If you're using the EVOs on your mobile devices, you will be able to customize your audio via the Sound Blaster Central app that is available free on the Apple App Store or Google Play. With the app, you can make full use of the SBX Pro Studio (an advance version of the late THX TruStudio) and CrystalVoice settings (for voice calls). In the app is also a music player and alarm option which is really just a good to have.

Here's a comparison chart on the 4 variations of the EVO headsets

We have yet to see any reviews on the Sound Blaster EVO series yet, but personally I would think it is pretty promising. We can't wait to get our hands on these, in the meantime, enjoy this demo video of the Sound Blaster EVO ZxR!

Creative intorduces the Sound Blaster Rage gaming headset - in wired and wireless flavors

Creative is expanding its line of Tactic3D gaming headsets with the new Rage series. Available in both wired and wireless, the Sound Blaster Rage gaming headset is one of the most affordable wireless gaming headset introduced by the company or dare i say in the market.

The Rage looks identical to the previously released Wrath headset but seem to enjoy some minor technical and technological improvements:

Sound Blaster Rage headset features:

- 50mm FullSpectrum drivers for all the bass you would ever need

- 16 million color illuminating earcups  

- SBX Pro Studio allows you to customize your audio the way you want it

- 16 hours battery life

Creative is expected to ship these headsets in end October, just in time for Christmas we think :)

Link

Sound Blaster Tactic 3D headsets for true 3D gaming experience

Creative has introduced 2 new gaming headset - the Tactic 3D Sigma (USB) and Alpha. Both headsets incorporate THX TruStudio Pro technology for true 3D gaming audio, a first for any gaming headset in the world! The headsets also come with a detachable mic which features the THX TruStudio Pro Dialog Plus technology for clear gaming communication. To be launched in September, the Tactic 3D Alpha will cost $59.99, while the Tactic 3D Sigma will ring up for $89.99 (USD)

[Tactic 3D Microsite]

Creative debuts Wireless Rock Speaker

Sure we have seen the Sound Blaster Wireless Rock - Outdoor Speaker many months back at CES 2010 (how long ago was that!) but now Creative is actually shipping the speaker. For USD$199, you get a weatherproof wireless speaker designed specifically for Sound Blaster Wireless music systems. It is interesting to note that the speaker will only work with the Sound Blaster Wireless ecosystem and runs on a rechargeable battery.

Buy Sound Blaster Wireless Rock online

Creative launches Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD

It has been some time since Creative has updated its Sound Blaster line of sound card. And if external sound cards ain't your thing, check out the all new Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD! Touted as the sound card that provides the "highest quality audio playback of any other sound card Creative has ever introduced", the Titanium HD offers you the ultimate Sound Blaster experience! Made with high quality components and featuring an amazing 115dB, 24-bit/96kHz support in HD quality sound for original playback, the Titanium HD also comes equipped with the THX TruStudio PC software. Before you shell your precious moolah for this card, do note that it only supports Windows Vista and 7.

[SOUND BLASTER TITANIUM HD PRODUCT PAGE]

Sound Blaster Easy Record

Creative's latest Sound Blaster product is the new Sound Blaster Easy Record. To put things simply, the Easy Record allows you to convert your MiniDisc/cassette tape music into Sound Blaster quality MP3 files. Although I don't personally know of anyone who still uses a MiniDisc player, this product might be targeted at the Japanese market where majority of MiniDisc/Discman were sold. With its cheap price point and bundled software, the Easy Record might not be such a bad idea afterall.

Something's brewing at soundblaster.com

Soundblaster.com has just launched a new teaser campaign. Although details are scarce, the combination of weird egyptian music and strange logo almost confirm the fact that it has got something to do with gaming. From the looks of it, it seems like a gaming headset, or some sortof Sound Blaster audio controller. Whatever it is, i'm sure we will find out soon! I would also like to apologize for the lack of updates. Have been really busy with Uni orientation (kent ridge hall roxs btw) and some other stuff, but i promise to catch up on the back dated entries really really soon! You can of course always visiting epiZENter.net or follow us on twitter for the latest updates on Creative stuff. Till then, peace out.

Soundblaster.com

Sound Blaster Wireless for iTunes

The Sound Blaster Wireless for iTunes is the second external sound card that supports tha Mac platform (the first being the Xmod). This USB thumb-drive device allow you to stream music from your laptop or PC to anyrooms equipped with the Creative Wireless Receiver or the GigaWorks T20W Series II speakers. The bundled software will allow you to to set your rooms into zones and manage your song list effortlessly with the remote control (from the Creative Wireless Receiver). You can buy the Sound Blaster Wireless for iTunes now from Amazon at a price of $99.99.

Product Page
Product Demonstration
Buy at Amazon

Buy the Creative Fatal1ty MK II & get Free 60-Day WoW pre-paid game card & Free Shipping [US]

Newegg MKII Promo
Fatal1ty MKII Product Page
Fatal1ty MKII Demo

Creative Fatal1ty Professional Series Gaming Headset Mk II

Here's one interesting fact about the new Creative Fatal1ty Professional Series Gaming Headset Mk II. Repeat the name twice and you will almost reach the 140 word limit in Twitter. Having said that, damn, this is one fine looking gaming headset! We first saw this during CES where Creative introduced the Silencer Technology to the world. Many months and some minor design improvements later, the headset is re-branded into the Mk II with a price tag of US$99.99. I would see why a gamer would be inclined to buy this however, for the rest of us, the need for a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium series sound card to utilize the Silencer Technology might just break the deal for us. As we haven't had the chance to test out the headset, we can't comment on how good or comfortable it is. But if you're a fan of Fatal1ty or gaming, i think this is a pretty decent buy at a $99.99 price point. Pre-order it today at us.creative.com.

Fatal1ty Professional Series Gaming Headset Mk II

Creative ALchemy 1.25.10

Creative ALchemy
Creative ALchemy restores 3D audio and EAX® effects for certain DirectSound®3D games in Windows Vista. With Creative ALchemy, you can:
-enable the DirectSound3D game audio to be processed by your Sound Blaster audio device to deliver EAX effects, 3D audio spatialization, sample rate conversion and hardware audio mixing. Without this, most DirectSound3D games will be reduced to stereo output without any EAX effects.
-improve 3D audio processing for host-based Sound Blaster audio devices.

[DOWNLOAD Creative ALchemy 1.25.10]

Creative Console Launcher 2.61.09

This download supports the following devices only:
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty® Champion Series
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Karaoke
Sound Blaster X-Fi

Added Features or Enhancements:
Added Microphone Reverb effect.
Added controls for Silencer settings (for certain audio devices only).
Improved controls for Wireless Music settings (for certain audio devices only).

Fixes:Resolves the following issues:
-Display for X-Fi CMSS-3D settings is not synchronized.
-Display for mixer settings is not synchronized.
-Custom EQ option does not appear when adjusting EQ values.
-Text is truncated in certain menus.
-Error message does not appear when hot-plugging a 'Plug and Play' device.
-Error in VoiceFX presets selection.
-Unable to restore default volume settings.
-Unable to select the external decoder option automatically while Dolby Digital Live or DTS -Connect is enabled in the encoder settings.
-Noise can be heard when enabling 'Use Built-in Decoder' and 'Dolby Digital Live' or 'DTS Connect'.

[DOWNLOAD Creative Console Launcher 2.61.09]