High-fidelity audio is undeniably important to the enthusiast. The soundtrack and sound effects are one side of the gaming experience coin, but it’s the rare gamer who puts as much thought and money into audio hardware as he does his graphics hardware. Creative’s Sound Blaster X7, an external sound card designed to handle about every audio source imaginable, may convince you to do just that.
The device is a chunky truncated triangular box that takes a fair amount of desk space. Thankfully, the X7 ships with snap-in headset stand, which helps to justify the footprint.
On the front of the device, you’ll find a large volume dial, mic jack, two headphone jacks (3.5mm and 6.3mm), a built-in microphone array, power/Bluetooth pairing button, and SBX Pro Studio post processing button. The business side of the X7 features a 4/8 ohm impedance switch, four goldplated passive speaker output terminals (for bare wire, banana plug, or spade connectors), optical in/out ports, analog stereo inputs, and a quartet of 6-channel analog outputs. There’s also a Micro-USB port for connecting to your PC or notebook and the external 24V power adapter. A side USB port lets you stream music from a smartphone or tablet. Underneath the X7 is a hatch that gives you access to the X7’s four Op-amps (two single and two dual DIP, or dual in-line package), which even the pickiest of audiophiles can switch out to suit his or her tastes.
To test the Sound Blaster X7, we streamed music via Bluetooth, ran game audio via the USB input from the PC, streamed music from a tablet to the USB input, and used the included optical cable to deliver a discrete surround gaming experience. We also downloaded the software for tweaking the sound output on the PC and the app for doing the same on our mobile devices (Android & iOS are supported).
Although we weren’t using an audiophileclass headset and the music we listened to was compressed (generally MP3s encoded at 320kbps), the difference between the built-in audio processor in our PC and the Sound Blaster X7 was like night and day. We especially enjoyed the SBX Pro Studio processing, which widened the sound field, clarified individual instruments, and punched up the bass of virtually everything we listened to. Shutting it off felt like the
muffling that occurs when your ears pop.
Using discrete audio hardware can make the gaming experience more immersive, but Creative adds another benefit for gamers with its Scout Mode. Configure the hotkey setting using the software and you can instantly amplify distant sounds in games to gain a tactical advantage. With it enabled, we were able to better determine the location of snipers and get the drop on enemies sneaking up on our position. Crystal Voice is another of the software settings that really enhances the multiplayer gaming experience. Another reason to love the X7 is that its built-in SB-Axx1 audio processor does all of the heavy lifting, which frees up your CPU to do other things.
The Sound Blaster X7 is a versatile and impressive external sound processor for anyone looking to dramatically improve his PC, mobile device, and console gaming audio experience. Best of all, you don’t need audiophile-class equipment to appreciate the difference it makes in music, games, movies, and more. BY ANDREW LEIBMAN
Specs: Built-in SB-Axx1 audio processor, Bluetooth, NFC pairing, 100W amp, 144W adapter, 24-bit recording/playback sampling rates, up to 192kHz sample rate, 127dB signal to noise ratio, 37W per channel rated power, 50W per channel maximum output, 0.05% total harmonic distortion, support for high gain 600 ohm and normal gain 32/300 ohm headphones