As always, the drivers ...

The background:
I used to date a X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB. The card had a reasonably good sound, but it is the dynamics concerning nowhere near to my old Audigy 2 zoom. Since I already long only use a laptop, had a new and better sound card so forth externally via USB. The X-Fi HD USB I bought myself for the reason because I needed a high-quality stereo sound with no frills, because my old card had driver problems, and because of the Phono-ins and big front-jack sockets for my Sennheiser HD515. The line-out was subsequently tested with a Dynavox VR70E2-tube amplifier and ELAC three-way speakers.

Now the map:

Outwardly quite challenging. Jacks are forward fairly easy to achieve, but you have when you connect the card with hands holding since the case is now again but only made of lightweight plastic and the map otherwise simply slipping backwards.
The volume control is not very large and difficult to operate, because it a) many revolutions need to ensure that the level changes significantly, b) is very small, c) you can not round grab with your fingers, because the table is in the way and d) he can turn unpleasant. Well, that's not quite so bad if the rest would fit.

Sound Quality: A little better than my previous card, not by far, what I expected. The difference Exceeds Although clearly cheap onboard sounds, compared to onboard HD audio chip is noticeable but only for experienced listeners. It simply lacks entirely again this great momentum that the Audigy 2 had.
The SNR of 114 dB is noticeable, even at full charge with all playback devices is not heard the slightest noise. That's also already.

The sound is clear and very direct, the treble sting a little too much out and are almost too bright. With sincere listening it can happen sometimes that hurts the ear. Especially is the course to listen to loud rock music, as well as electronic music, pop music and language can be a problem.
The headphone output has a very high signal quality, but above all in the depth range, which was still appropriate at the line-out, very narrow at the chest and thus spoil the otherwise good sound. This is probably still heavily dependent on the headphones used.

Software: Here comes the biggest disappointment.
Without installed driver (and without features) the card under Windows 7 32bit is still working without problems. However, If you install the audio driver from the CD or any application (even without driver), the computer detects the card as an "Unknown device" - a propellant Erneuville installation is successful in any way, any more than it is possible to manually install the driver with Windows. ("There was no driver to be found" in the \ DRIVERS \ i386 folder ...)

The software worked after several (de-) installations short for 10 minutes. It lacks an equalizer, which was already available at cheaper predecessor cards. The EAX effects are listening to music completely pointless, they are only useful for games and could be omitted from the menu. The THX TruStudio functions are indeed sometimes quite nice, but in the end only distort again the detailed original sound of the audio file. Reverberation or not configurable EQ settings (Surround or Crystalizer) improve the quality not really.

Creative had never supplied regular drivers about their products, but that there could be so bad, I have not dreamed of. Of course, the sound card is not listed, a few weeks after the release in stores on the Creative website, there are no manuals or driver for downloading. For me a very clear sign that something tremendous here bib. The card comes as soon as possible, primarily because of useless drivers / software back. Pity about the high-quality workmanship and sound quality ...