Creative SXFI Carrier review
Our Verdict
The Creative SXFI Carrier is the start Artistic soundbar to support its SXFI environment sound tech, though not in the fashion you might call up. Luckily, it's still a respectable Atmos soundbar and subwoofer combo.
For
- Rich and adjustable sound
- Varied connectivity
- Wireless subwoofer
Against
- SXFI feature needs a divide pair of headphones
- Cheaper Atmos soundbars bachelor
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Creative SXFI Carrier is the offset Creative soundbar to support its SXFI surround sound tech, though non in the style you might think. Luckily, it's still a respectable Atmos soundbar and subwoofer combo.
Pros
- +
Rich and adaptable audio
- +
Varied connectivity
- +
Wireless subwoofer
Cons
- -
SXFI feature needs a split pair of headphones
- -
Cheaper Atmos soundbars available
The Creative SXFI Carrier is the company's first soundbar to support its Super X-Fi (SXFI) surround audio tech. Although, information technology's not in the way that y'all might await from a $999 soundbar and subwoofer combo, fifty-fifty 1 with sideways- and upward-firing drivers like this.
Creative SXFI Carrier specs
Price: $999
Speakers: 7 x soundbar drivers, 1 x subwoofer
Ports: 3.5mm aux in, optical in, USB-C in, 2 x HDMI in, ane x HDMI eARC/HDMI out, SXFI out, sub out
Wi-Fi: N/A
Size: 3 x 34.6 10 5 inches (soundbar), 17.7 x 8.ix x 16.9 inches (subwoofer)
Weight: 7.9 pounds (soundbar), 28.2 pounds (subwoofer)
Rather, the Creative SXFI is designed to pair with a prepare of SXFI-enabled headphones, like the Creative SXFI Theater or SXFI Gamer. It then acts as the source — or indeed, a carrier — for the bespeak that enables the environs sound format on the headphones. On a large Goggle box speaker that might sound like more of a fun extra than an integral feature, but as our full Creative SXFI Carrier review shows, this soundbar has a lot to offering even if yous never touch SXFI.
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Artistic SXFI Carrier review: Toll and availability
- $999 U.S. and £899 in U.One thousand.
- Release date coming presently
The SXFI Carrier isn't actually out yet, so visiting Creative will only let you annals involvement. I'g told it will cost $999 when it somewhen launches in the U.S. and £899 in the U.K.; those living in the latter can check the Creative U.1000. site. It seems similar only the lucky Singapore has the award of an initial release.
$999 is neither remarkably inexpensive nor outrageously expensive for a beefy soundbar/subwoofer combo, though it is pricier than the excellent Sonos Arc. That said, the SXFI Carrier is meant as a successor of sorts to the Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier, which launched at a whopping $five,800 dorsum in 2018. So y'know, perspective.
Artistic SXFI Carrier review: Design
- Compact and understated design doesn't have up too much room
- Plenty of ports, including 2 ten HDMI and eARC support
- Helpful LCD display
The SXFI Carrier certainly looks understated. While largely plastic, the soundbar is a tasteful mix of matte and gloss finishes, while the x-inch wireless subwoofer is compact plenty to tuck abroad without beingness besides pocket-size to produce a suitable rumble.
Clearly-labeled and easily accessible buttons on height offering a useful backup to the included remote, and an LCD display helpfully keeps tracking of sources, sound modes and book changes without distracting you from the TV. At just nether 35 inches broad the soundbar might look likewise narrow for truly massive screens, but information technology has a mode to help with that — more on these modes presently.
This is a fully-fledged Dolby Atmos soundbar, complete with upwards-firing speakers to bounce sound off your ceiling and create that extra sense of 3D height.
Yous also get an impressive assortment of ports, not to mention Bluetooth connectivity. Dual HDMI inputs accompany the eARC-enabled HDMI port, a boon for cable-cutters, while an optical input provides a more traditional means of connecting your Goggle box. If you wish y'all tin besides use the subwoofer with a wired connectedness, instead of relying on Bluetooth.
Extra flexibility comes from the 3.5mm aux input, a USB-C input and the dedicated SXFI out USB port. This is where you lot can plug in a dongle to connect your SXFI headphones, though if you were hoping your $999 would comprehend a pair, you'll exist disappointed.
Creative says that SXFI will work to an extent on whatsoever headphones, only to get the best results you lot'll need a pair of its own SXFI-branded models. You'll need to buy these separately, which to me seems odd. Should y'all actually need to buy additional peripherals to utilise a feature that the original product literally has in its name?
Fortunately, at that place is some other, likely more familiar way to get pseudo-surround sound from the SXFI Carrier. This is a fully-fledged Dolby Atmos soundbar, consummate with upwards-firing speakers to bounciness sound off your ceiling and create that actress sense of 3D height. The lack of satellite speakers means this isn't "truthful" surround audio, just as we've seen from numerous standalone Atmos bars, sometimes the result is pretty convincing.
Artistic SXFI Carrier review: Setup
- Like shooting fish in a barrel with HDMI eARC
- SXFI setup much more complicated and requires multiple devices
Having an eARC port will always make the physical part of soundbar setup trivially easy, every bit long equally you have an HDMI ARC or eARC port on your Telly: 1 cable connecting the two and you're done. The SXFI Carrier is no dissimilar, and it didn't take long to get the wireless subwoofer paired either.
Configuring SXFI headphones tin be more involved, as I found when attempting to pair the SXFI Carrier with the SXFI Theater wireless headphones. Because the entire system is based around personalizing audio output to the shape of your ears, I first had to download the mobile app and use my phone photographic camera to take photos of my ears. Fair enough, that's no dissimilar to how Sony 360 Reality Audio works.
However, to apply my newly created contour to the headphones, I was then directed to get my laptop and plug in the SXFI Theater's USB dongle. Then, back on my telephone, I had to perform a wireless setup process through the app to connect my phone to the dongle (which is withal connected to my laptop at this signal). I could then transfer the contour saved on my phone to the dongle, which subsequently a few minutes would be gear up to remove from my laptop and get slapped into the SXFI Carrier's USB port instead.
Customized environment sound was never going to exist plug-and-play only I tin can't say I've always used a soundbar that requires 2 additional devices, not counting the headphones or the dongle, to set up its headline feature. Artistic has since been in touch to explicate there's an alternative method (see the "Setting upwards SXFI Theater" on the Creative site) that doesn't require a laptop, just this wasn't made clear in the printed instructions.
Creative SXFI Carrier review: Sound quality
- SXFI not that impressive
- Atmos much better, particularly in Superwide style
- Versatile mix of other sound modes
What's more than, after all that complication, the outcome of SXFI was but decent. The digital environs sound was convincing enough, and the soundstage was accordingly wide, but the SXFI Theater couldn't pump out enough bass for the cinema-like quality that Creative promises. It is an improvement on the average pair of standard Bluetooth headphones, in the rare instances where using a pair of headphones instead of your new £999 soundbar makes sense, merely as far every bit dwelling house cinema is concerned I don't think SXFI will ever exist the game-changer that Atmos was.
Speaking of which, the SXFI Carrier makes up for its underwhelming, price-inducing headphones fob by only being a practiced soundbar. Admittedly, its implementation of Atmos doesn't make the soundbar a similar-for-like replacement of full surroundings sound systems, but for a unmarried soundbar and subwoofer it works fine.
In that location's clear distancing between the left, right and heart channels, which added to the excitement when rockets flew past in Exterior the Wire. The height effect could perhaps be stronger: when Our Planet showed dive-bombing birds or gorillas sliding down trees, there was a tangible sense of sound origins moving from the peak of the screen to the lesser, but never a feeling of that something zooming over my head or landing behind me.
The SXFI Carrier makes upwardly for its underwhelming, cost-inducing headphones trick by simply being a skilful soundbar.
Nonetheless, Atmos on the SXFI Carrier definitely adds a certain something, even in content where the Dolby mastering is relatively restrained. And that's all just in Movie fashion — there are plenty more modes to play with if you lot want to arrange the sound.
Neutral is the flattest, just also the virtually counterbalanced, so depending on your tastes might exist even improve for music playback than the Music profile. This brings vocals to the forefront and does the same with dialog in movies and TV, so proved surprisingly suitable for documentaries. Night mode quietens everything downwardly and reduces the bass punch, to avoid waking the neighbors.
Movie mode sounds quite close to Neutral, albeit with much louder soundtracks. Dialog is also boosted to compensate, resulting in a more dramatic sound overall. My personal favorite mode was Superwide, which recessed dialog slightly only widened the soundstage dramatically.
This works great if you lot have a large TV, and even if you don't, the extent to which sounds on the left and correct of the mix almost begin to wrap around y'all is seriously absurd. The only catch is that you lot need to be sat in line with the middle of the soundbar to get the full event, then it may not arrange big living rooms with multiple chairs and couches spread out.
Overall, in that location'south a lot to similar most how the SXFI Carrier sounds. Information technology's solid and impactful, and the subwoofer adds more than than plenty room-shaking low-end. Crucially, it does so without making the bass sound too boomy or unrefined.
Creative SXFI Carrier review: Verdict
Information technology's unfortunate that the SXFI Carrier has to succeed almost in spite of Super X-Fi, rather than because of it, and while you can ignore it there will ever be the nagging sense that maybe you paid extra for an unused characteristic.
Still, while that might forbid the SXFI Carrier from joining the best soundbar greats, its general sound quality, wealth of connectivity and customization options hateful that you lot'd never feel ripped off either. There might exist odd occasions when you'll want to switch to headphones — if it's belatedly at night, for instance, or if y'all accept a roommate trying to work from home — but for the near part, you lot can simply and happily care for the SXFI Carrier as a serviceable Atmos soundbar.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/creative-sxfi-carrier
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