Creative Labs SB1090 USB Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

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by: Karie A. Norman (Houston, TX United States)
on: Saturday, 30-October-2010

After doing a clean install of Windows 7 from XP, I had major sound card problems. I tried out 3 different internal sound cards before deciding to try this one, which is what I should have done in the first place! Even though it came with software, I didnt use it. I simply plugged it in to a USB port and it worked!! This was after hours and hours of trying every thing to get my internal sound cards to work!!

Sound quality is great!!! Your mp3s do not sound like mp3s.

by: Marcus (New York)
on: Saturday, 16-October-2010

I bought this to replace my older creative stereo x-fi usb for my laptop because I want to use a 5.1 speakers for better gaming, movie, and music experience.
+ Installation--- DO NOT use the CD that is included in the box. Go to this website below and find the one that is compatible with your windows.
[...] --- I watch HD movies with 5.1 enabled and play Medal of Honor and Modern Warfare 2 so this 5.1 adopter is perfect for maximum experience. You can easily switch from stereo to 5.1 if you want to listen to music. Music on 5.1 MIGHT give listening fatigue but it didnt do harm to me.
+ Control --- The nob control is easy to use but often sensitive.

Overall, I like it. Not a huge audiophile but this works great for games, movies, and maybe music.

For Your Information: My laptop is running Windows Vista 64-bit and it works perfectly. No lag whatsoever.

by: Marcus (New York)
on: Saturday, 16-October-2010

I bought this to replace my older creative stereo x-fi usb for my laptop because I want to use a 5.1 speakers for better gaming, movie, and music experience.
+ Installation--- DO NOT use the CD that is included in the box. Go to this website below and find the one that is compatible with your windows.
[...] --- I watch HD movies with 5.1 enabled and play Medal of Honor and Modern Warfare 2 so this 5.1 adopter is perfect for maximum experience. You can easily switch from stereo to 5.1 if you want to listen to music. Music on 5.1 MIGHT give listening fatigue but it didnt do harm to me.
+ Control --- The nob control is easy to use but often sensitive.

Overall, I like it. Not a huge audiophile but this works great for games, movies, and maybe music.

For Your Information: My laptop is running Windows Vista 64-bit and it works perfectly. No lag whatsoever.

by: Sydney R. Barnes (Anchorage, AK United States)
on: Tuesday, 12-October-2010

Upon recent Windows 7 upgrade. I discovered intternal sound card was not Win 7 Compatible. I installed this 15 min. Sounds GREAT, & works with Microphone!

by: Sean (United States)
on: Wednesday, 6-October-2010

Im not much into the high-tech aspects of computer hardware, nor could I really consider myself an audiophile, however I purchased this item for an Asus k601 laptop, which I use primarly for listening to music or playing movies in the background while doing work. I purchased the laptop, transferred all my music over and the first thing I noticed was how terrible the stock speakers are (shouldnt have been a shocker considered it is a laptop). So I went out and purchased a set of Logitech x-540 speakers, and they did make an improvement, however even after playing with the equalizer music and movies still seemed very flat and lacking richness, especially bass; everything seemed hollow. So after doing a little research I purchased the SB1090. I set everything up, installed the drivers and let it rip. I picked a song with high treble tones mixed with heavy bass (Yeah by Usher if you must know), and as soon as it began playing, I literally began laughing outloud; the difference was incredible. Again, I cant provide any tech stats, but coming from an average guy who enjoys his music, this was hands down the best upgrade purchase Ive ever made.

by: RandyPeterReviewer (United States)
on: Thursday, 30-September-2010

As a musician who bought an XLR mic and found out his sound card is to weak to support the quality i must say THIS WAS THE PERFECT SOLUTION!!!! Im currently using a laptop, and i must say the sound quality is less than desired (as with any laptop) but this sound card can solve all the problems you have with that. It uses a 2.0 USB port to make your sound crisp and clear (also depending on your speakers) if your a musician like me it can help make your recording smoother, and even increase the sound quality in that. If your having sound problems with your computer, or your just looking for better sound dont look around this is the product for you, its overall price+quality compete with some of the higher priced soundcards. Its light weight, has a glossy look and feel to it, and it comes with a heavy duty micro USB to USB cable. Id give this product a 5 out of 5 for its compact look, amazing quality, and price. You wont find better for under $100

by: RandyPeterReviewer (United States)
on: Thursday, 30-September-2010

As a musician who bought an XLR mic and found out his sound card is to weak to support the quality i must say THIS WAS THE PERFECT SOLUTION!!!! Im currently using a laptop, and i must say the sound quality is less than desired (as with any laptop) but this sound card can solve all the problems you have with that. It uses a 2.0 USB port to make your sound crisp and clear (also depending on your speakers) if your a musician like me it can help make your recording smoother, and even increase the sound quality in that. If your having sound problems with your computer, or your just looking for better sound dont look around this is the product for you, its overall price+quality compete with some of the higher priced soundcards. Its light weight, has a glossy look and feel to it, and it comes with a heavy duty micro USB to USB cable. Id give this product a 5 out of 5 for its compact look, amazing quality, and price. You wont find better for under $100

by: bill_cly (United States)
on: Tuesday, 21-September-2010

awesome sound quality in win vista, but if you are WinXP user, do not buy it, because audio would be sounded like out of synch ( even with the latest driver from creative ), if you did buy it, heres a solution, but you can only choose either one of these, that is turned off either crystallizer or equalizer while listening to audio, which mean that you can not turned on both at the same time, but if you are Win vista user, then you are better off

by: James E. Hackney Jr. (Thonotosassa, FL United States)
on: Monday, 20-September-2010

I bought this device because I couldnt find a sound card that would fit the Dell Inspiron 580S I got to replace my 5 year old Dell Dimension. I bought the slim chassis machine because it was a real bargain given the video card, a 750 Gb hard drive and 6 Gb of RAM (which I increased to 8 Gb on the cheap) which allowed me to afford the cost of a quad core processor. I had a Creative Audigy sound card in my old computer and, in comparison the sound from the integrated chip set in my new machine was horrible.

I only listen to the 32 days of a large variety of music I have collected in iTunes. I dont do games and I dont watch movies. I have a 5 year old set of Creative 2.1 I-Trigue speakers I used with my old computer. The Audigy card drove them very nicely.

I plugged the X-Fi Surround into the computer and Windows 7 (64 bit) installed it without a hitch. I downloaded the newer driver from Creative and then installed only the Console -- to get the equalizer. I plugged in the speakers, thanks to the provided RCA adapter, and played the first movement of Vladimir Feltsmans version of Bachs Italian Concerto, followed by Warren Zevons Werewolves of London. I was absolutely delighted with the quality of the sound which was much better than that of the Audigy, which was very good. The X-Fi Crystalizer performs as advertised with respect to bringing compressed sound files back to life. I also like the almost ethereal sound of my really nice Sennheiser headphones.

I am very satisfied with this little box with the big knob I dont have to use because the I-Trigue volume and bass controller does. It produces sound very close to as good as my daughters XiFi Titanium card with comparable speakers. There is virtually no difference in headphone performance.

I would recommend it without qualification to anyone who needs an external device and has resources similar to my computer. It will get the job done -- very well.

by: Muhammad Kamran Khan (United States)
on: Tuesday, 20-July-2010

Few years ago I bought a used creative Sound Blaster Live! PCI sound card for my desktop for the price of 8 dollars because my computers built in sound card was awful since then I never thought of any other sound cards other than creative. The mic can catch your voice 20 yards away from it and the voice it records is crystal clear. Creative rules. The installation is easy just need to go to the creative website drivers page and select your operating system and download all the software available for your Operating System and enjoy the vision of sound.
My laptops operating system is Windows 7 x64 Home Premium.
Thanks creative for making great sound cards.

by: Naveed Zanoon (Colombo, Sri Lanka)
on: Friday, 9-July-2010

I bought this a couple of months ago, and so far it has been performing without an issue. I have it hooked up onto a Z5500 Logitech system and I must say the sound quality is awesome.

by: Jaws (Phoenix, AZ)
on: Sunday, 20-June-2010

Pros: Soundcard is fantastic
Cons: Software is dog bleep.

I just plugged this into the USB and it worked like a charm. I have a Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit computer hooked through my home theater and a 42 inch Vizio and it sounds better than a movie theater. When you initially install the soundcard, just let it go out and find the Microsoft drivers and youll be good. The initial mistake I made was downloading the software that came with this. After I did, there was a serious delay between the video and audio, which was due to adding the creative drivers (which are crap!) I also had computer issues which I later discovered were due to drivers. I also had an issue with my restore point so I had to uninstall all the crap from the CD-ROM and the updates from the Creative website. I did keep PowerDVD 9 though, it works very well for watching movies.
Bottom Line: keep the hardware, lose the software.

by: Brett Manak (Columbus, NE United States)
on: Thursday, 27-May-2010

I think the sound quality, when used to put out to Peavey speakers for a professional Karaoke or Wedding show, is superb. I couldnt hear a difference between this and the Creative Soundblaster Extreme PCI cards when used for the same. Good base, good control. I find the dial on the box redundant, but it doesnt hurt anything to stick it out of the way and just not touch it. If youre looking for a replacement for PCI cards that pop out and interrupt your sound, then I highly recommend this product. Im about to purchase a second one.

by: Woodmasta1 (Atlanta, GA USA)
on: Friday, 30-April-2010

I purchased this product to improve the sound quality of my laptop primarily for streaming movies online and routing the sound through my home theater system. I chose this particular product because it has a digital optical output and that is the best input option for my home theater system that could allow 5.1 sound.

I was able to set it up and get sound easily, but the sound quality was garbled at times and was only coming out over 2 speakers. The supplied instructions gave no information on how to configure the system with digital optical output.

After a couple of hours spent fiddling with the control settings, downloading and installing beta drivers, and reading posts, I learned in a post that the sound output within the OS control panel needs to be changed to use the digital output as opposed to the analog output if it is configured the way I have it.

Just with that simple change, everything worked. The sound quality is great and coming out in full surround. My only complaint is that this is not written anywhere in the start up manual and I wasted a good amount of time figuring this out. This point could be made very easily in the quick start guide and it would save a lot of time and agony.

I have a engineering masters degree, and I can imagine that some people who have given this product poor reviews might have given up sooner. I have a good deal of patience for this type of thing and I know many do not. It seems like a silly problem to have, when the product is actually good - all it needs is a better manual. The way I am using it seems like a pretty typical application of the product, so I would imagine that it would merit writing about it in the startup manual.

by: M. Al Rawi (Long beach CA)
on: Monday, 12-April-2010

I have this Soundblaster for more than a year now. I use it with Turtlebeach 5.1 headset with my Asus G51VX. never had a problem with it. using Vista and Win7 OS. Too bad THX speakers calibration is not supported by drivers anymore. overall its great for Games and movies. go for it.

by: Poupard Emilio Alejandro (DORAL, FLORIDA, US)
on: Monday, 22-March-2010

I have it connected to my HP HDX16 and I am using the optical out to connect it to a DENON 1709. The soud quality is excellent, its very easy to install and use. I am very glad with this purchase.

by: A. VELASQUEZ (PANAMA)
on: Wednesday, 10-March-2010

Hello,

This product sounds good... when it works.
I have random BSD and tried beta drivers, then the new drivers... driver only installation...
None works I still have random BSD...
Creative... you have to do better when it comes to drivers.

by: Donald Dean (United States)
on: Monday, 8-March-2010

I was looking to augment my recording needs with extra inputs, and the Creative SB1090 did what was expected. It played nice with other components in my setup and I was able to integrate its quality sound with a number of situations including live multi-track music recording. For the home sound hobbyist this product is at the right price point to fulfill better results than what would otherwise be found in typical built-in computer sound setups.

by: Domel (NJ United States)
on: Friday, 26-February-2010

The sound quality is decent and it does allow for a 5.1 surround to be connected to your laptop. I unfortunately had to return this product because I could not get it to work under Linux OS, it only work on MS Windows.

by: Ricardo Armando Fuentes Flores (Chihuahua, Mexico)
on: Thursday, 25-February-2010

this sound card is awesome i have a dell xps m1330 and i have the Logitech z-5500, z-2300, and x-230 hooked them up to a 5.1 sound card!it sounds amazing believe it or not, i have the razer carcharias headphones and with the cmss-3d truly it sounds awesome, once i saw a video of an airplane then in the video the airplane pas through you the sound is amazing really i tough, hell an airplane is outside. well in conclusion the music sound excellent very very good, the movies sound clear, crisp and the bass that produces is really powerful the mids are strong the lows very hard and low and the highs crisps, in 2 words i would say ama zing