Creative makes multiroom wireless audio setup more affordable

(Credit: Creative)

If you're finding that your notebook is pulling double duty as productivity machine and audio server in your home, Creative has a new tandem of products that may hold some appeal: the Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook sound card and Wireless Receiver.

The $90 Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook sound card fits into an ExpressCard slot and, on its own, promises to restore details to compressed audio files. It also delivers an approximation of surround sound to gamers using headphones.

Add the Creative Wireless Receiver to the mix, and you can broadcast your iTunes library or other audio files stored on or streamed from your laptop to other speakers in your house.

The receiver communicates wirelessly up to 100 feet to the X-Fi Notebook sound card and ships with a remote control. You can connect the receiver (via the included RCA cable) to a set of powered speakers or an audio receiver. You can use up to four Wireless Receivers with the sound card. The Creative Wireless Receiver will cost $70 when it starts shipping later this month.

If you already own a home theater receiver, speakers, and a laptop, the X-Fi Notebook sound card and Wireless Receiver(s) present a more affordable route to a multiroom wireless audio arrangement than the admittedly more complete Sonos product.

[moshelinho]

u didnt mention anything about how creative announced it, they invited the press on the 17th of September, much like how Apple announced the "Let's Rock" event, and showed a teaser of a picture showing X-Fi on it.

the press and the fans were certainly disappointed with such a tactic and personally i feel its a desperate attempt by creative to gain some lost popularity again.

[BenFlavoredCandy]

$70 seems a bit steep for a streaming audio product. While it is much less than the Sonos, I could get an Airport to stream from iTunes for $99, plus it will be my router and my print server. Yes, I know it is a lower quality stream, but if you're that concerned with sound quality, chances are you aren't playing mp3s anyway.

[xfi]

Hopefully, they can make it more affordable for the mass market and also make it more useful by integrating it with their speakers, mp3 players and so on. There's wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, wireless router. I think it will also become a norm for wireless audio too. I hope they can also make wireless video one day and bring back 3DLabs.