Gadgetory

last year I had the pleasure of checking out creative soundblaster e5 a USB DAC and portable headphone amplifier I really liked the sound profile for gaming the built-in battery and the wealth of connectivity options today I have on hand the Sound Blaster XG 5 a 7.1 surround sound portable sound card and headphone amplifier this packaged up is a very similar looking unit with some very distinct differences with the blaster X branded g5 creative a specifically targeting audio sensitive gamers not only on the PC platform the console game is to claim it can provide the best-in-class console gaming audio I'm really reviewing this from a PC gamers perspective but before we dive into all of that let's check out the design and aesthetics as mentioned the g5 is very similar looking to there 5 its shell is all-black with the same soft rubber padding on the bottom and a big wheel on the front this time though the big wheel features a very cool illuminated volume indicator that increases with brightness as we increase the volume next to this wheel or two three-and-a-half millimeter jacks one for your headphones and one for your microphone heading around to the back of the unit you'll find the micro USB port with which you use the supplied USB cable to connect to either your PC or gaming console next to this is a USB device port as well as an optical import and optically out port on the left hand side the remaining controls for the device including the Scout Murray button Sound Blaster X Pro file switching button and a low high gain toggle switch rounding out the design is a very cool looking Sound Blaster X logo on top with an also illuminated red X when the device is powered now internally the g5 is a beast in terms of headphone amplification it packs the same Texas Instruments amp that the e5 before it did capable of driving headphones up to a 600 ohm impedance also in line with the e5 is the Cirrus Logic digital audio converter which supports high resolution player back up to 24-bit or 192 kilohertz and also has a signal-to-noise ratio of 120 decibels for audio enhancement creative is also included its popular s be a double x1 audio processor which can be controlled by the previously mentioned scalp mode and SPX buttons on the side of the unit as well as within creatives company software the Blaster X acoustic engine pro software is a real strength of the package it's powerful polished and very intuitive on the profile page you can configure a variety of different presets and assign them to the three profile slots they can be switched between on the flyer using the FBX button on the g5 itself creative is included presets such as first-person shooter adventure in action driving simulation and even specific ones for the Call of Duty series dota 2 and csgo there are 17 presets in total included in the software then you can additionally create your own and import others pretty comprehensive if you ask me on the acoustic engine page you can play around with the blaster axe acoustic engine enhancements and customize them if you selected profile this tab also allows you to preview three types of sound for immediate feedback after your settings tweaks the next tab is the simple equaliser where there are also a variety of presets to choose from and then you kind of course create and save your own the Scout mode tab simply allows you to toggle on and off the Scout mode a technology that alters the sound profile to help you hear enemies from further away in order to give you an advantage in first-person shooters in particular additionally you can configure a hotkey to switch this on and off and of course as I mentioned earlier you can toggle Scout mode on the unit itself with the dedicated button voice FX is the next tab and this is really just to mess around there's a variety of funny voice filters that you can apply and they're actually surprisingly good my favorites included diamond male to female yes this is what I would sound like as a lady apparently finally with the advanced setting page you can configure and test the surround sound mode and customize all sound levels in the mixer on the home page also allows you to change the volume and do a cool surround sound demo with a helicopter the sound performance is great as you'd expect and with any decent pair of headphones you're going to notice a big difference compared to onboard audio the clarity range and detail is significantly better for music movies and especially gaming directional awareness is the main advantage but you're also able to detect additional details that just weren't there before overall the Sound Blaster XG 5 is a great portable audio upgrade for gamers with a discerning hear the sound performance is fantastic the acoustic engine software is powerful and polished and the customization the entire package office is really unrivaled coming in at a reasonable one 30 US dollars or 300 Australian dollars from creative Australia's website it represents great value in the USA and I would expect prices to be a lot lower in Australia once it's available from local retailers I see the g5s main competition being creatives very similar soundblaster 85 which comes with a few extra features and an internal battery to aid portability but does come in at a little over 50 US dollars more expensive right now thanks for joining me for another hardware unbox product review I'm your host Matt as always I'll see you guys next time