INTRODUCTION

   As someone who has put much weight on PC audio since the mid to late 90's I’m genuinely overwhelmed by the number of available choices in the market today. Just imagine for a second that back then only Creative Labs and a couple of others offered 5.1 Dolby surround sound systems for the PC (at least in Europe) so aside the 3-4 available choices by these manufacturers every other model in the market was basically either a 2.0 or a 2.1 stereo system. Now there were some quite powerful 2.0 systems available but the vast majority were affordable models (many of those not even active ones) aimed towards the masses. Today on the other hand PC users can get their hands on just about anything they require to cover their needs from 2.0 and 2.1 stereo systems to 5.1/7.1/Atmos surround sound systems and even 2.0/2.1/5.1/Atmos soundbars. The Sound Blaster Katana V2 Multi-Channel Gaming Soundbar is one of the most popular gaming oriented soundbars in the market today and that's what I’ll be talking about today.

   Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Famous for its Sound Blaster® sound cards and for driving the multimedia revolution - which established a user base of 400 million - Creative drives digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions that include premium wireless speakers, wireless headphones, powerful audiophile-grade digital amplifiers and next-generation home-theatre systems. Aiming at the new mobile networked generation by bridging the worlds of the computer, smartphones, and tablets, Creative continues to reinvent the Sound Blaster, with its ground-breaking Sound Blaster Roar series and USB-audio class of products such as the Sound Blaster X7.

   The Sound Blaster Katana V2 by Creative was released exactly 1 year ago and is the successor of their acclaimed Sound BlasterX Katana Gaming Soundbar (review here) released near the end of 2016. Creative of course wasn't developing the Katana V2 for 5 full years but that's exactly how long it took for them to dish out its successor and so as expected the list of changes is quite long. So even though both the original Katana and the Katana V2 offer USB audio (24bit/96KHz), 5.1 virtual surround audio, have a similar RGB LED bar and are based on a tri-amp design (mids/highs/bass - all of which are DSP controlled) the latter offers a much higher total power output of 126WRMS (66WRMS for the soundbar and 60WRMS for the subwoofer - 252W PMPO) as opposed to the 75WRMS (150W PMPO) of the former. Another significant difference is driver size and although the new Katana V2 is still equipped with a total of 4 drivers this time over it has two 63mm mid-range drivers, two 19mm fabric dome tweeter drivers and an 165mm subwoofer as opposed to the 2x63mm, 2x34mm and 133mm of the original Katana (both models deliver a frequency response of 50Hz-20KHz). Secondary differences include dual beamforming noise cancelling microphones (for high quality calls), Dolby Digital decoder, energy saving mode and a comprehensive remote control with customizable buttons. In terms of connectivity the Katana V2 comes ready with Bluetooth v5.0 (support for A2DP/AVRCP - v4.2 for the original), HDMI ARC port, optical port (SPDIF), 3.5mm AUX input, USB-C and a 3.5mm headset output. Time to see what the Sound Blaster Katana V2 Multi-Channel Gaming Soundbar by Creative is really capable of.