CreativeLabs 272791 So 70sb181500000 Sound Blaster X4 Retail

Had to find a decent USB 7.1 sound solution after upgrading my computer as the MB couldn't free up a PCIe lane due to NVME drives.I knew replacing my Asus Xonar board was going to be a challenge as 7.1 usb sound cards I've tried in the past were, for the lack of another word, horrible.This system is in a custom-built flight simulator, so sound quality is very important to me.Figured $150, what the heck, I can always use it on the garage AV system if it didn't meet standards for the simulator.The Creative app gives you every tool you'll need to properly configure and manage this device, the SXFI app suggested by the insert offers nothing except overhead for a pc with speakers and puts you on a mailing list.It took all of 10 minutes to install, configure and fine tune through the Creative app.The sound quality rivals the Asus Xonar.Absolutely zero hiss, clicks or buzz from the speakers, hiss has been a problem with other usb sound cards as I use separate power feeds and grounds for the computer and the sound system.Build quality is uncompromised as expected from Sound Blaster.The rotary encoder instead of a potentiometer for volume gain was a brilliant touch by the engineering team.One of the better purchases I'm made in a while.

Built a new PC using ASUS Crosshair X870E Hero and with most higher end boards don't have 5.1 sound audio jacks. I figured I would just use optical S/PDIF out port and use the setting stereo x2, which in short front and rear channels would be combined as one so I would have 2 left and 2 right speakers playing stereo sound and loose center channel. Sound was not bad and still sounded great for gaming. After a couple days I missed having 5.1 sound since it sounded so much better having sound played through all the channels. An internal soundcard was not an option since I would lose PCIE lanes from GPU. So looked at external DAC amp and Creative Sound Blaster X4 saved the day. I have Logitech Z-5500 THX-Certified 5.1 speaker system that are over 25 years old. The X4 brought life back into 5.1 sound just like I had. I did not even use the app and with Windows 11 setup for sound setup was easy and sound was great. To avoid clutter on the desk having two sound controls decks I put the X4 in a desk drawer using the desk hole meant for running cables. After about a week I eventually did download the app to use the features offered but just stayed with 6 channel direct since it all I ever used and sounds the best. The X4 added another 5 years to my old 5.1 sound. Eventually I will need to figure something out for 5.1 sound. Most likely will need a receiver and 5.1 speakers setup for PC in the future. Hopefully Creative Sound continues to offer product like the X4 or newer models since it is just a great option for audio for PC.

Got this thing to work pretty easily on my Windows 11 machine. I got this to drive my 5.1 surround sound home theater receiver over TOSLink. So I'm not using the discrete speaker outputs, only the optical output. The only hang up I had was finding where in the software to enable real time encoding of the audio data into Dolby Digital and DTS so that the surround sound works. Even though the button is labeled "Encoding" in the software's GUI, it still wasn't super obvious but that might be a "me" problem. I feel like it should've been enabled by default or something ... idk.Also, in my use case, the giant volume knob on the thing doesn't work to control the volume (and by extension, adjusting the volume using the Windows volume control doesn't work either). You can only mute and unmute it. I guess that only works if you're using the discrete speaker outputs.

Works and sound majestically, arrived on time and well packaged

I'm a semi casual audio guy who games on PC, and after countless deaths to unheard audio cues in Warzone I started looking into getting an audio card to improve the sound of my system. I settled on this card for the number of gaming specific features that seemed very useful, and I've been very pleased so far. The software is easy to use and packed full of different EQ's and preset SFX profiles for gaming, music, and movies. There is also a Scout Mode for you fps gamers out there, it disables any EQ's set in the Sound Blaster app but does a killer job of isolating the direction and volume of footsteps in game, atleast in Warzone. Footsteps are noticeably crisper, more audible and more directional with the mode enabled. I haven't tried the SxFi surround yet as I'm not really interested. The buttons on the card itself are easy to use and it's really nice to have the volume knob if you don't have volume controls on your keyboard. Lastly and most importantly, the audio coming out of the card into my headphones is noticeably cleaner than my onboard sound. I have an MSI Z390A motherboard which claims to have studio quality audio, but the dynamic range and pure clarity of this card are just better, even with my non-audiophile Sony xm3 headphones. Music sounds cleaner and Warzone sound effects are more satisfying. I can definitely recommend this to any PC gamers out there. Just one thing to note, I read many reviews on here mentioning that the more recent drivers make the software glitchy. Once you download the software from the Creative Blaster website and open the Sound Blaster Command app for the first time it will prompt you to download the latest drivers.... I didn't do this because of those reviews mentioned and I've had no problems so far. I'd suggest anyone buying do the same and see if your card works as intended before downloading the new drivers, which could possibly mess things up.Update:After one day of use - ONE DAY - I noticed that there was random popping happening. There was no rhyme or reason for the popping, but it was frequent and obnoxious. Additionally, starting any audio from idle resulted in a nasty buzzing sound for the first 2 seconds of playback. I thought, okay, maybe I DO need the software update, so I downloaded it...... and nothing, problem didn't go away. So, I deleted everything software wise(app + drivers) and re-downloaded, same problem. I went to back to the headphone jack and found that the popping problem was now an issue on that as well, but not the buzzing at the start of audio. To fix the problems, I had to delete the drivers for the Sound Blaster Card, making the product unusable.I wouldn't recommend this product in its current state; the software features are awesome (especially the scout mode for gaming), but none of it is worth constant, random popping. For gaming, the Astro mix amp is probably a better option (it has some similar software features), I ended up going with a Schiit Fulla and have been happy so far.