Creative Sound Blaster X7

Fully featured Bluetooth connectivity Agile sound Tonally balanced Distinctive appearance Adjustability provided by app

Price puts it up against some tough competition Lack of sonic insight and dynamic thrust

The Creative Sound Blaster X7’s spec sheet promises much, but it doesn’t really deliver sonically. Our money would go elsewhere unless we could get one with a very hefty discount. MORE: Best DACs 2015

Lots of features and gadgets; a decent overall playback standard; solid headphone amp and audiophile tweaks

No HDMI connectivity; optical input only supports DD and PCM; 5.1 is a faff

Highs: Lots of features and gadgets; a decent overall playback standard; solid headphone amp and audiophile tweaks Lows: No HDMI connectivity; optical input only supports DD and PCM; 5.1 is a faff

Aimed at gamers, Creative's Sound Blaster X7 is a bit of an odd product, but it manages to deliver plenty of options. At first, it looks more like a large, dark matte Toblerone, but the desktop-sized amplifier has more features tucked in than meets the...

The Creative X7 is a brilliant bit of kit that works great if you don't already have a top-notch sound card in your PC, and works well as an external DAC, but its biggest problem is its price. £330 is around the same price as an Xbox One or PS4, and...

The Creative X7 is a great piece of kit for audio fanatics, but it's not for everyone. It packs in tons of high-end audio gear into a compact shell that's a worthy addition to your setup if you're looking to boost audio. It's powerful enough to drive a...

Very good sound via Headphones ; Also very good with attached speakers driven by on-board amplifier ; Unique design ; Decent connectivity for various types of users

Expensive if your use is limited and you're not taking full advantage of everything on offer

Overall, in terms of audio quality and playback the X7 did a very reasonable job of producing high quality music playback via headphones and speakers. Personally that is all I would use it for and as such I’m not sure it is the product for a wide...

The Creative Sound Blaster X7 is a jack-of-all-trades USB amp with that offers unrivaled features and connectivity for the money. Sound quality is up there with dedicated DACs. The volume knob is handy for PC desktop use

Better hi-fi amplifiers can be had for the price. No remote control beyond the smartphone app. Build quality isn't as good as you'd expect for a $400 component. The headphone detection circuit is poor, and hooking up surround sound is a pain

The Creative Sound Blaster X7 offers a ridiculous number of features for the money and sound quality is generally very good, but its appeal is limited.

Nearly every digital and analog I/O port you could want ; Audiophile components (DAC, ADC, and headphone amp) ; High-quality USB and Bluetooth audio streaming

No HDMI support ; Can't decode high-res Blu-ray soundtracks ; No support for Apple's AirPlay technology

I evaluated the Sound Blaster X7 with both headphones (Bowers & Wilkins’ P5 and Ultrasone’s HFI-2400) and a pair of loudspeakers that Creative product manager Ryan Schlieper introduced me to. Both experiences were exceptional. None of the headphones I...

Some dodgy software muddies the music, but with tweaking this is a great solution.

Small footprint makes it easy to shift around ; Supports full 24bit/192kHz sampling ; Bluetooth support ; Great value given the features

Software audio enhancements can be a little too much

At this point, we think it’s safe to say that the Sound Blaster X7 really does work as advertised, both in terms being able to adequately power your headphones and speakers, and in terms of being able to give you clean audio through its internal DAC....