The Creative worked better with fuller-sounding speakers like the Audioengine P4s or even the Bowers and Wilkins 685 S2.
The Creative was able to give the notes more detail, too, pronouncing their rough edges, where the TEAC just made them "bass." The Creative fared much better with only one note toward the bottom a little quieter. The deep, descending bassline in The Beta Band's "Life" is a test for any system, and the TEAC only got it half right with the notes in the middle of the run softer than others. We were surprised to hear the differences between the Creative's onboard amplifier and the one in the Teac A-H01, even when using the Creative's DAC as a source for both. But if you prefer more bass weight, the Titanium added a tad more low end propulsion to Nick Cave's songs. For gamers looking to add bass oomph to their stereo setup this would make a poor choice of "card."Ĭompared against the earlier X-Fi Titanium HD slot-in card, the X7 was smoother on the close miked vocals of "It's a Wonderful Life" by Nick Cave as the X-Fi could be a little ragged with the spitty second verse. As it was, neither output worked when connected directly to a subwoofer. It would have been great if the subwoofer output was broken out into its own dedicated RCA rather than the fiddly 3.5mm-to-stereo jack shared with the Center channel. What it doesn't do well is surround sound due to the stereo nature of the amplifier.
While it works as a standalone stereo amplifier, we tested it mainly in its ability to function alongside a PC.
#Sound sblaster x7 reviews Pc
Whether you're playing games or listening to music, Creative's history as one of the leaders of PC sound becomes clear: this is a talented performer.
#Sound sblaster x7 reviews driver
The Creative X7's driver comes with a preset for the complementary E-MU XM7 speakers ($269.99, £229.99), which also includes a toggle for Warm, Neutral or Energetic. As a result, the easiest and best-sounding way to use this sound card for surround is to ignore the onboard amps and output to an AV receiver via optical or the analog outputs. While you can use the two amps for left and right, it has two 3.5mm minijacks for sub/center and rears which means you'll need to use a separate amp or powered speakers for those channels (to make matters worse, breakout cables for the rear and center/sub channels are not unfortunately included).
#Sound sblaster x7 reviews full
If you want to feed a full surround system, and most sound cards including the X7 allow for this, then things do get a little trickier. Creative says the "headphone amp" is able to drive high 600Ω impedance headphones such as the Beyerdynamic DT 880 or Sennheiser HD 600.
While these will work without connecting to a PC they will also be available as recording inputs if you do.īe aware there is no way to select inputs on the Creative and it will happily play as many sources at a time as you have connected, including Bluetooth.įor outputs, the X7 has gold-plated two-way binding post terminal connectors for passive bookshelf and tower speakers, 5.1 analog connectivity for surround sound, optical S/PDIF-Output connectivity plus the aforementioned 1/4-inch and 3.5mm headphone outputs. While this product is heavily skewed towards PC use it can be used for connecting other devices including: USB hosting for iOS/ Android, optical S/PDIF for TVs and gaming consoles, plus an RCA Line-In for analog connectivity to other sources.
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