Last year, I had the chance to check out Creative Labs Super XFI technology at COMPUTEX, an impressive audio listening experience that is able to deliver a super realistic soundstage on a pair of standard ear cans, which the company achieved by training an AI system to produce sound based on your facial shape and in-ear canal.
While the SXFI AMP dongle has already been sold in certain markets for $150 (RM618), Creative Labs isn’t stopping just there and has set to unveil two new Super XFI capable headphones in CES 2019, they are the SXFI AIR and SXFI AIR C.
Boasting a battery life of up to 10 hours, the SXFI AIR is a pair of on-ear headphones that sports both Bluetooth, USB-C and Line-In connectivity, it also has a Micro SD card slot that enables users to load up music in a Micro SD card and play them directly in the headphones, supported file formats include WAV, MP3, FLAC and WMA.
For those who are serious about audio quality, connecting the SXFI Air with USB on the PC or Mac will enable low-latency 7.1 audio, which is great for games and movies, and you should also be able to do the same on gaming consoles.
While Creative didn’t market it as a gaming headphone, the SXFI Air’s ear cups feature customizable RGB light rings, allowing users to choose from over 16 million colors that suit them the most.
The ear cups will also support touch control that will enable users to control music playback by doing a swipe gesture. If you require to talk, it comes with detachable NanoBoom microphone for that purpose.
The SXFI Air C takes away the dedicated music player, touch controls and Bluetooth connectivity, USB-C audio connectivity is swapped to MicroUSB and there’s no built-in battery, it however has an adjustable and detachable ClearComms microphone for communication.
Both of these headphones come with a dedicated SXFI button, which users can choose to enable it to experience a cinematic audio experience that eliminates the need to have a multi-speaker setup.
In terms of pricing, the SXFI AIR C is already available at Creative.com for SGD179 (RM543), while the SXFI Air is available for preorder for SGD19 (RM664). Stay tuned on our ears-on session coming right up.
