For as long as I’ve been gaming on PCs, I’ve been using soundcards to output audio to whichever speaker or headphone setup I had at the time. Not one to depend on onboard solutions, I’ve always turned towards Creative for their dedicated sound cards, which came with the added benefit of clarity and noise-free audio.
Dedicated soundcards continue to decline in popularity due to onboard offerings—which are now better than ever before—but they still have their uses, especially if you consider yourself an audiophile like I do. Rather than be driven from the market, Creative itself produces some of the best onboard audio offerings for motherboards like Gigabyte to rival companies like Asus and Realtek.
One of Creative’s new offerings is the Creative X7, a beast of a DAC and USB amplifier. Unlike other amplifiers, which are strictly limited as headphone amps, the X7 is designed to support high-powered speakers and it has support for both consoles and the PC. Unless you only intend on listening to music with your headphones (in which case I’d recommend the previously reviewed Creative G5), you’ll want to see what the X7 has to offer.
I had the opportunity to play with the Creative X7 Limited Edition, the big brother of the regular X7. It comes with a beefier power adaptor, lower headphone amp output impedance and higher maximum power for more demanding speaker setups—capable of delivering a total of 100W of power. But for all intents and purposes, the X7 and the X7 Limited Edition carry the same features.
The Creative X7 costs a premium at $400, but you’ll be spending much less than if you were to get a Yamaha amplifier, which not only costs slightly more and is heavier to lift, but also takes up a lot of space on your desktop.
The X7 stands six inches tall and features a volume knob that also doubles as a mute button when pressed. Below it are the power/Bluetooth, and SBX buttons, the latter of which allows you to disable any software enhancements you might have enabled on the PC without going into the settings. Beneath the buttons are 3.5mm sockets for a microphone and headphone, as well as a ¼ inch headphone socket.
In the rear, you’ll find a variety of speaker connectors, as well as optical in and out for use with gaming consoles and HDTVs. You can plug passive speakers directly into four plastic connectors at the top, which accept loose wires as well as banana plugs. You can also plug in RCA connectors and 3.5mm minis for other types of outputs. You’ll have no problem connecting your subwoofer and center speaker to the X7. The back of the X7 also contains a slot for attaching a headphone stand, which was flimsier than I would have liked.
If you’re into modifying the sound signature of the X7, you can swap out the op-amps by opening a flap at the bottom of the device. Nice, if you’re into that.
The X7 can be controlled directly through the PC software or via Bluetooth using an Android or iOS app that allows you to pair your phone to the device. If I have any complaints, it’s that the announcer voice is way too loud when you use your phone to control the X7.
The X7 packs a punch with its internal hardware, featuring a Burr-Brown PCM1794 DAC, which Creative has used before on its audiophile-targeted internal sound cards. The DAC can decode up to 24-bit/196kHz. The X7 also comes with an onboard Dolby Digital decoder, which works with Netflix, provided that you hook it up directly to your smart TV or PS4 instead of watching shows on your PC browser.
Besides watching TV shows like Narcos, I tested the X7 with hundreds of hours playing Battlefield 1 Open Beta, Destiny: The Taken King, and The Witcher 3, often with Skype or Discord running at the same time. I also listened to countless hours of synthwave and prog rock. The X7 performed admirably in all aspects.
One of the most interesting features I discovered about the X7 is that you can listen to multiple audio sources at the same time, provided they’re all plugged into the X7. While using the X7, I was able to chat over Skype on the PC while playing Destiny on the PS4 and listen to both sources of audio through my headphones.
Speaking of output, the X7 contains a headphone amplifier that’s capable of powering high-impedance headphones like the Sennheiser HD650 and any number of Beyerdynamic headphones. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to toggle the “High Gain” setting in the configuration app. Just be sure to set it back to normal gain it if you’re running anything else, or you might damage your headphones.
The X7 autodetects headphones when they’re plugged in, and switches back to speaker mode when you unplug them. You can also manually swap between the two modes at any time using the software.
If you already have an AV receiver or an integrated amplifier like the Yamaha A-S701 (that’s what I have), you can connect it to the X7 and use it to manage your speakers. It would be a waste not to use it, after all. Thankfully, the two play nice together and interface directly through the optical port. If you opt to plug your speakers directly into the X7, you can calibrate their distance and level.
The X7 also comes with presets for the E-MU XM7 speakers, with options for Warm, Neutral and Energetic. Creative provided me with a pair of XM7 speakers to test out how well they played together, and I can say that they definitely deliver good sound for their price ($269.99) that rival some more expensive setups. I had to play around with the EQ and the settings to get the most out of the speakers, though. By default, they don’t sound as good as they have the potential to and require a bit of tuning.
A few previous reviews noted that the X7 doesn’t play quite well with a dedicated subwoofer, noting their inability to get the subwoofer to work unless hooked up with a 5.1 speaker setup. Well, this isn’t exactly true. You simply have to make sure “full range speakers” isn’t toggled and the subwoofer will work as a dedicated channel. Likewise, if you use your speakers with an integrated amplifier, the X7 will detect them.
If I have any suggestions for Creative on how to improve the X7, my suggestions would be to work on the device’s more superficial qualities. The volume knob could be improved with an LED volume indicator. Likewise, an OLED display for the DAC sampling rate and playback mode indicator would go a long way to helping me know I’m getting everything I can out of the X7. In terms of technical improvements, the X7 would benefit from the addition of HDMI.
In conclusion, the X7 is a solid device grounded in features that’ll please any audiophile and gamer alike. If you have a pair of good speakers (or even a 5.1 setup) and regularly switch between your them and a pair of high-end headphones, you can’t go wrong with it.
Disclosure: Creative provided us with a review unit of the X7 and E-MU XM7
