INTRODUCTION

   It's no secret that for most gamers audio usually takes second place to graphics and of course most of the time the same applies for casual users and even most professionals. In a way this is understandable, spending significant amounts of money on an audio card and speakers is not something many want to do and let's face it, onboard audio cards have come a long way and currently produce satisfactory results. Even so a quality sound system is always a good thing to have, not just for gaming but also for watching movies and of course listening to music. With the Sound Blaster Katana V2 Creative successfully managed to pair a soundbar with a USB audio card and the result was quite impressive, especially for its size. Still, some in the gaming community questioned Creative's decision to use a thicker subwoofer than what was shipped with both its predecessor the Sound BlasterX Katana and the Stage 360 and V2 models and the result of that is no other than the latest Sound Blaster Katana V2X model.

   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.

   Just like with the Sound Blaster Katana V2 the Katana V2X consists by two rather compact parts, a soundbar and a subwoofer. Now even though both soundbars are very similar and so inside the aluminum and plastic housing Creative has once again placed the same USB audio card capable of outputting Hi-Res audio (24bit/96KHz) both in stereo and 5.1 virtual surround (with Dolby Audio and X-Fi support), the same dual beamforming noise-cancelling microphones (can be used as a speakerphone) and the same 4 drivers (2x63mm mid-range/2x19mm fabric dome tweeters with 50Hz-20KHz frequency response) its DSP-controlled tri-amplifier only delivers 90WRMS (180W PMPO – 50WRMS for the soundbar and 40WRMS for the sub) compared to the 126WRMS (252W PMPO) of the Katana V2. The subwoofer of course is the primary difference since due to its reduced length and thickness the one that gets shipped with the Katana V2X has an 133mm driver as opposed to the 165mm of the one used with the Katana V2. Of course, once again we find the same RGB lights underneath the soundbar and identical connectivity including 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. So, time to see what you can expect from the latest Sound Blaster Katana V2X by Creative.