The Super X-Fi is a new technology developed by Creative Technology that would be a game changer. It is available in headphones or as a headphone amplifier. This technology was the company's new audio experience costing US$100 million in R&D over two decades. The broad idea is that headphones don't necessarily need to feel like your music is playing next to your ear. Instead, the Super X-Fi aims to make the sound feel expansive and natural. It makes sound feel like it's coming from several speakers placed at a distance around the listener, instead of from the headphone itself and the company calls it “holographic audio.”
Creative's SXFI AMP Super X-Fi Headphone Amp retails at US$150 (S$219) and the SXFI AIR Bluetooth headphones is sold at US$160 (S$239).
The technology works by taking a picture of the user's face and ear shape on the Super X-Fi app to create a customized listening experience. The company has studied how thousands of different people perceived sound by putting microphones in the subjects' ears in a studio and fed the results into artificial intelligence (AI) engine that analyzed how others will hear sounds.
Creative SXFI AMP
The SXFI AMP delivers the best of both worlds in advanced personalized headphone audio. It has the award-winning Super X-Fi technology and is also a premium high-performance headphone amplifier that is capable of driving even studio-grade headphones.
Creative SXFI AIR
The SXFI AIR is a Bluetooth and USB headphones that comes with a built-in Super X-FI technology. This headphone can offer holographic audio personalized to your ears for an unbelievable headphone experience that's as good as the real thing. It also boasts an SD card slot, 50mm drivers, touch controls, and a customizable RGB light ring which can also double up as an MP3 Player.
About Creative Technology
- Sim Wong Hoo, Chief Executive Officer of Creative Technology, had been a popular household name in Singapore for his Sound Blaster sound cards.
- He had also gone to lawsuits with Steve Jobs over their portable music players.
- Hostility also escalated in 2006 and he sued Apple for patent infringements over the iPod.
- In the end, Sim walked away with a US$100 million settlement.
- Since then, the fortunes of the two tech companies have diverged dramatically.
- As the iPod became a remarkable success, it killed Sim's MP3 player, which was created in 1999, two years before the Apple's device.
- It also marked the start of Creative's downfall when shares traded on the Singapore exchange fell from a record of S$64 (US$47) in March 2000 to hover around S$1 in 2017.
- The company eventually delisted its shares from the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2007.
