Sound BlasterX G6 Hi-Res 130dB 32bit/384kHz Gaming DAC, External USB Sound Card with Xamp Headphone Amp, Dolby Digital, 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound, Sidetone/Speaker Control for PS4, Xbox One

Let me First talk about what I came from before moving to this. I have a Asus Maximus Code X motherboard and it has supposed 32-bit on board Audio (Realtek Chipset). I used to think it had good audio….(now I just shake my head in shame)This little thing the size of a desk of cards, plugs in with a USB cable. and absolutely blows my on Board Audio out of the Water. Not only that, but my Head phones all three Pairs of them Sound AMAZING now, and My speakers, its like they are brand new, and so powerful.It Improved Steel Series Arctis 7’s, Turtle Beach Elite Atlas’s (using 3.5mm) by a really surprising amount. I used to have to turn my headphones to about volume 50-60 on most games and Music, now I cant turn it past 22-24, IT IS way to loud now. The headphones can handle it, but my ears can’t take more volume than this. It is Amazing.I now get crystal Clear 32-bit 96khz Spoken Dialog, Amazing 7.1 Surround (yes 32-bit 96khz even in Surround) and Perfect Stereo 2 channel in 32-bit 384khz Audio for Even more Crystal Clear perfect audio (of course this depends on your source… but honestly this DAC makes everything sound better than it did before.It also made my Klipsch 2.1 BT Desktop Speakers Thump hard as hell. I had to turn my bass down on my speakers as they now are much louder than ever before.Listening to music with this is a whole new experience, and seriously if you thought your headphones were nice before you have a whole new world of music to listen to again.The EQ Settings are excellent, and varied, From Dance to RnB to Classical and Acoustic and they have many presets for so many games. ( I honestly thought geeze there are too many almost). If you don’t want to use their presets, no problem create your own.You can tailor your Sound to Direct, 2 channel, 5.1, 7.1 Virtual , and even change the type of speakers you are using which affects the frequency response allowances in the Equalizers. You can choose Headphones, Desktop, Bookshelf, Towers, you name it, all of which change your sound, or go full custom with the EQ.One thing I love about this is that your Keyboard volume and mute controls still work like you’d expect, even though you have controls right on the DAC itself for volume and Surround etc. I have the Logitech G910 Keyboard, and it works flawlessly with this DAC for Adjusting volume ever so slightly, Muting completely. The reason I bring this up is because I had a Pair of 2018 Arctis Pro’s + Game DAC and it took all controls away from Windows. and it sucked having to reach over and adjust the Knob constantly, also the Arctic pros Software Sucks too, no where near as many features. and no discernible sound difference from the Arctis 7’s I already own (which are a really good Headset too).The installation of this DAC is literally a breeze, Download the Software, The Driver, AND the latest 2018 Firmware update for Windows 10.. and you are Golden.. Trust me.. this is very easy to setup and configure.One Extremely Important thing to note about this DAC, it has no Battery, it is not Portable in the sense that you can use it to amplify headphones on the go etc, (this is a Good thing because Batteries die) It must always be plugged into a USB port or a USB to wall outlet Adapter to provide power.The build quality appears to be Excellent and I almost wonder if Creative Labs didn’t shoot themselves in the foot by releasing this over top of their X7 External Unit, which is only 24bit/192khz. I totally understand the different use scenarios of the two, but for the Sound quality and the compact size of this thing, at less than half the price of the X7 many PC Audiophiles will not make the jump to the bulky big block, even if they want to Hook up Larger Speakers, or Headphones. This Begs the question… When will Creative release the X8 or X9.. with 32-bit 384khz High Fidelity Certified Audio? Count me in.Closing Pros:-Extremely Compact-Extremely Excellent Sound Quality 32-bit 384 Khz in 2 channel and 32-bit 96khz in 7.1-Amazingly Easy Setup-Excellent Windows 10 Drivers that just work ( Yes Really) (REMEMBER THE FIRMWARE UPDATE)-Connections allow for Headphone and MIC Connections in the Front, and your Desktop Speakers in Back. ( yes at the same time.)-Excellent Presets and Equalizer customization, for a ton of games..(You’ll see)-Excellent Software-Really Good Virtual Surround-ON DAC controls for Volume, Surround, Gain, and Scout Mode-Worth every penny of the 150.00 price tag, (I would’ve paid more honestly)-RGB!!! Mine is set to RED… just Solid Red.. the way things outta be.-Minimal desk Space consumption ( if that’s a thing for you.. it could be a thing.. just saying)-Flawless for both Games and Music-Makes Your Headphones Scream and your Speakers Thump.. All for 150.00Hope you guys Love this thing as much as I do!!

I am not a gamer but I do game. What I do the most is video editing and as an editor I would recommend a PC configuration close to what we know as gaming PC. Anyway, In order to have the best audio/video results you might want to invest on a few important parts of the system. I was happy that I have already use an amp (FiiO E10 USB DAC) and honestly, when you pair it with a premium headset of your choice (I use Sony MDR7506 mostly), it creates an impressive outcome. BUT I thought that is the most I could get for quite a while until I started paying attention to what others are doing and after doing a bit of research, I found this Creative Sound Blaster G6. Device is kinda expensive and I really wanted to hear if it worth what it costs.Amazingly, this device right out of the box and after making all wire connections and software downloads (Firmware + Driver) results in much higher, better and deeper audio quality. It is that obvious that when I started hearing my very first music video on everything adjusted by default and absolutely no changes or adjustments, I was like, WoooW. I couldn’t even believe the sound in coming out of my PC. The very same music that I listened on and on in the past, now had a much higher audio spectrum and it was completely obvious.Well, I have had already activated Dolby Atom on my PC and I knew how to adjust the settings to this new commer and what I am using as a motherboard is a MSI Tomahawk which presents Realtek sound card which I never had any problem with. With this DAC, since you can have a direct connection by using the included fiber optic digital output, you get not only much better audio quality but you can have all available types of adjustments open including (stereo, 5.1, 7.1). This thing can get very very loud. As loud as what it can really heart your hearing but by default everything is set on about 35 percent to avoid this from happening, so be carefull.At the present time, there is something that I am not quite sure about so I can not really say if there is any cons with the device and that is the description outcome for 32bit/384KHz. If I go with that range, I am losing the Dolby Atoms capability. In fact, anything over 16bit will automatically cancels the Dolby Atoms and I am not sure if this is a restriction with Windows 10 or the one with Dolby Atoms or something else. However, for those who don’t care about Dolby Atoms, you can set it on 32bit/384KHz with no problem.Overall, it looks like the dream has come through and the audio quality has just got a massive upgrade all across the platform.The only question left here, should you buy it for yourself? Please do your own research and see if it worths the total costs for what you are doing.

I had a big doubts that this external DAC can make any differences to the sound. But when I received and connected it to my PC I was surprised by the sound quality both in music and games. I have ASRock Z370 Taichi MB which has quite good audio DAC, Nichikon capacitors, audiophile grade transistors and dedicated headphone amplifier. However, I was not very happy with sound quality coming out from my MB. It was not good enough, it has somewhat limited maximum volume and in PUBG I always set it to 100% and it was still not enough. With this SoundBlaster G6 everything has changed. Now even with toggle set to Low gain, my volume is only 75% in PUBG and it is blowing me away. If I set again to High, then I have to drop volume level to 45%. The sound itself now is very crisp and clear. I can here every small details in game. The footsteps become so clear! After installing Sound Blaster Connect app on my PC I can set equaliser and banch of other parameters for every game individually, as well as for music. This is very convenient and it makes so huge difference in the sound. My scepticism is now gone. I love this product and highly recommended it to everyone who loves music and games. Now the Scout mode is a bit confusing. When I toggle it on the sound volume increases by around 50% and it looks like some frequencies are pushed up. That definitely makes footspets so highly accentuated so I can easily here them from a long distance. However, it does not keep it like that all the time. If some of your game mates or even you make a different sound, let’s say shot, then the footsteps are like muted for about 5-10 sec and after that they come back. So I found this not usable and switched off. It may be usable if you switch it on and off when it is required for the short period of time. For that you can bind keys in the Connect app. But overall this sound card is brilliant!

just make sure you plug it into your mother board so it doesnt cut out

Sound randomly consistently cuts out. 3-5 times in a 4 hour period.Just suddenly no sound. Windows still sees it just fine, everything looks normal, but the only way to get it back is to unplug the unit, and plug it back in.