Better than I Expected! 🤔 Creative Zen Air SXFI Review

Creative Zen Air SXFI

The Creative Zen Air SXFI noise cancelling earbuds, which only costs $80 are very competitive. They’re part of a generation of earbuds that Creative is designing for SXFI holography - Creative’s own version of spatial audio. If you use the SXFI app to scan your ears and face, it will optimise the spatial audio according to your preference. As it didn’t measure my ears’ sensitivity, so I’m guessing that it’s just correcting for HRTF, which take into account how your head structure and ear cartilage affect the audio perception.

What’s really interesting about these earbuds is the range of EQ presets. It’s the only one I’ve encountered that has specific video game presets in addition to the usual EQ presets for different music genres. Some of my favorite games like the Witcher 3, Call of Duty and Death Stranding have their own presets.

Although these are mostly older games, and not all games are represented, it still gives the presets a more interesting element than the usual ones. Furthermore, if you want to make even more improvements to the EQ, you can tweak it manually with the graphic EQ.

As for its multipoint pairing, the connections are stable, and what I really like about it is that both connected devices can hijack each other, so you don’t have to pause on one device before playing on the other. Just hit the play button on either of the two devices. That way, it just feels more seamless. The earbuds also have wireless charging, and they support the basic AAC and SBC codecs. Although it doesn’t have super rich features like head tracking, LE Audio or hi-res codecs, but for the price, it does cover all the basics that most people need.

Other than that, we’re going to test its performance including the mic pickup, noise cancelling and sound quality. At the conclusion of this review, we’ll discuss some of its shortcomings and how they can be improved.

Microphone Test

After testing the mic pickup, I’ll rate it as quite above average. In quiet conditions, my voice sounds full bodied and clear. In noisy and windy conditions, it was effective at noise gating. However, it can be a smidge too aggressive and slightly cut into my voice. It also made my voice sound softer, more distant.

But overall, not bad, as you can listen from the following samples recorded in both quiet and noisy conditions using loud cafe noise and wind noise from a fan.

👉 Click to listen to the mic pickup samples.

Active Noise Cancelling

Compared to the mids, I find low frequencies have better noise cancelling. Not the most effective noise cancelling I’ve tested in the budget range, but I definitely could feel the noise around me dumbing down in noisy situations.

Overall, it’s quite silent. What’s amazing about it, though, is that it seems much more stable fit than most stem type earbuds, so it doesn’t need to be adjusted all the time and can maintain its noise cancelling power better.

The adaptive noise cancelling mode didn’t seem to work as expected. I’m wondering what’s so adaptive about it because it was stuck at full noise cancelling and didn’t switch no matter where I was.

👉 Let’s listen to the ANC samples.

Ambient Mode

When it comes to transparency, it focuses more on the mid highs when it is at its max transparency, but my voice is heavily muffled. It’s more comfortable to use for quick awareness instead of having conversations, even short ones.

Sound Quality?

In terms of sound quality, it requires some polishing with the EQ. However, before we go into the EQ settings, you can choose between regular or SXFI sound quality. With its peaks in the 5-6kHz range, the sound signature is generally darker in regular mode. The lower mids are very dark, and the highs are even darker.

Instead it emphasises on the bass frequencies more, which can sound a bit too boomy without EQing. Along with Ennio Morricone’s La Caliph, I was listening to the soundtracks of game and anime.

👉 Have a listen to the sound quality samples.

The sound was thick and heavy, but lacked some liveliness. To make it sound crisp and airy without losing bass, I adjusted the EQ settings by cutting a bit of the lower mids, and boosting the upper mids and highs. Basically a more V-shaped tuning. Now it sounds great!

To SXFI or Not SXFI?

SXFI mode expands the soundstage. It cuts heavily the lower mids and bass, and adds additional reverb to the sound, which is why the jagginess in the curve. To achieve the same default bass levels, you’ll have to boost the bass around 10dB.

But what makes SXFI sexy is that surround sound sensation, with pretty good discrete object placement, which makes it a great way to enjoy videos and games. Though it’s not exactly like hearing external speakers as their marketing material claims about SXFI, but with head tracking, it would be pretty close. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have head tracking.

👉 Enjoy the sound quality samples.

Biggest Pros and Cons?

Aside from decent sound, mic pickup and noise cancelling, the Zen Air SXFI brings a unique experience with its SXFI Spatial Audio feature, and the range of EQ presets for specific games.

However, I find the controls to be the one aspect of it that I dislike. The hit box is quite small, so you have to tap in a very specific area, and sometimes it doesn’t work so you’ll have to try again. You have to navigate through all four settings in order to switch between noise cancelling and transparency. Single tap gestures are not supported. While this design helps prevent accidental taps, it also limits control options. So you’ll definitely have to assign different controls to both sides, which makes it less intuitive. Additionally, it also doesn’t support Hi-Res codecs, or even Snapdragon Sound.

On the positive side, what I do like about these compared to almost every other stem type earbud is the fit. The rounder housing, shorter stems, and it doesn’t have a glossy surface so they do fit more snugly, and stay in place, even during jaw movements like eating or talking. A good fit matters a LOT because it affects both noise cancelling and sound quality. The less you need to adjust them to get the best possible performance, the better.

In summary, the Creative Zen Air SXFI is definitely worth a look. Check out the Amazon link below for the latest price, and if this video was helpful let me know in the comments.

Check latest price:

Creative Zen Air SXFI - https://amzn.to/3WPsMFZ

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