Review Index:  Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Review  Subject:
General Tech Manufacturer: Creative Labs   When compared to the
graphics market, audio technology has been crawling along at a
snail's pace. However, PC-based entertainment is under more
intense competition thanks to next generation consoles and home
theater systems. With the new X-Fi product line, Creative Labs
is hoping to give a very strong reason to continue using their
PC system for gaming, entertainment, and audio production.  The
X-Fi sound card uses a brand-new architecture called "Audio
Ring" which Creative Labs touts as the next generation in audio
processor design. I have to admit, the new architecture looks
very exciting, so let's take a closer look!  Reinventing PC
Audio Processing Traditionally, audio processing is a serial
procedure which means that every signal has to pass through a
series of processes before being output. Of course there are
improvements done here and there to this method, but largely
this way of processing audi