at a glance
(+) Guiness Draft
Plenty of top-shelf components; lots of connections.
(-) Natty Ice
Pricey; unwieldy; lacks HDMI.
The gold-plated kitchen sink of soundcards
In the constantly shifting landscape of PC tech, soundcards have risked becoming a footnote, like dial-up modems and network adapter cards before them. When a system seller like Dell or HP can shave even $20 off a build, it can shift the balance of power in a world of razor-thin margins. So when someone drops a device like the Sound Blaster X7 on us, it’s almost disorienting. It’s a $400 audio station, when people can buy entire PCs for that much money. Creative Labs faces an uphill battle. What kind of beast could this be to justify its price tag?
At the heart of the X7 is the company’s top-end ZxR soundcard. It features four digital signal processors on one die, a Burr-Brown PCM1794 127dB digital-to-analog converter, a Texas Instruments PCM4220 analog-to-digital converter, and a TI TPA6120A2 headphone amp capable of driving 600-ohm cans (with a 1/4 and 1/8- inch jack available on the front). That gear might not sound familiar to you, but it’s top of the line in the world of digital audio.
The back of the unit has a set of RCA jacks and banana plugs for analog speakers, and the plugs are switchable between four and eight ohms. Out of the box, the X7 will drive two speakers at up to 38 watts, and you can buy an optional power brick that will push that to 100 watts. It connects to your PC with a bundled micro-USB connection, and has a full-sized USB port to act as a host for another device, like a mobile phone or tablet. If that’s not enough, the X7 has optical audio in and out. And you can adjust its settings with an Android or iPhone app via Bluetooth and NFC. And besides the microphone jack, there’s also an integrated beamforming mic. The X7 will do echo cancellation and noise reduction and let you fine-tune the width of the beam.
We could talk all day about the features inside this box. Suffice it to say that it’s a kitchen sink for audiophiles. The X7 also has Crystalizer, virtual surround sound, a loudness cutoff for nighttime viewing, “Dialog Plus” to make movie conversations easier to distinguish, and bass boosting, all under the collective banner of “SBX Pro Studio.” But audiophiles usually look down their noses at most of these, accusing them of unnaturally distorting the dynamic range of incoming sound. Creative Labs itself will tell you that the appeal of Crystalizer is subjective. The company says that this feature can restore dynamic range lost when compressing audio down to an MP3 file and even undo dynamic range compression engineered during the compact disc mastering process.
Where’s the HDMI?
For our ears, using a pair of AKG K240 headphones (the older version made in Austria) and Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro cans, tweaking the equalizer during gaming produced cleaner acoustic distinction between booming explosions, the metallic rattle of a magazine reload, overheard conversation, and wind and rain. Part of Crystalizer’s impact also comes from a hidden volume boost of three to four decibels as soon as you activate it, which is a questionable move. But you can disable SBX entirely if you don’t care for it, or adjust its software sliders.
The metal knob on the front of the X7 controls volume, and pressing it mutes all audio. Unfortunately, we don’t get an input selector, nor does the X7 save profiles for different devices or scenarios. When you have audio from multiple sources, it will blend together. The X7 also lacks HDMI, so its use as a home theater receiver is limited to lossy 5.1 surround sound. And although it’s external, its dimensions and AC power brick disqualify it as a practical portable audio device. While the X7 is undoubtedly a premium piece of hardware, its equally premium price puts it up against devices that have better connectivity to appeal to audiophiles. Gamers who want external and portable audio can find options—in some cases from Sound Blaster itself—at a fraction of the price.
| Specifications | |
| Output | 38W (100W w/ upgrade) |
| Audio Processor | SB-Axx1 |
| Signal-to-Noise Ratio | 127dB (DAC) |
| Headphone Amp | Up to 600 ohms |
| Supplied Power Adapter | 2x 38W @ 4 ohms |
| Connectivity | USB 2.0; mini-USB; RCA; optical audio in/out; Bluetooth; NFC |
| Dimensions (H x D x W) | 5 x 5.5 x 6 inches |
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1QitYfg
