CREATIVE Sound Blaster X5 DAC Headphone Amp, Desktop USB C DAC for PC/Gaming/PS5 Audio, Optical/RCA/Bluetooth/Microphone/USB Host input, 3.5mm/4.4mm Balanced/RCA/Optical Output

Arrives well packed in a smart box with plenty of foam inside to protect the sound-card. Unpacking there is the main unit, three cables (USB, Phono and Optical), and some booklets, one of which is a quick-start. The main unit is quite big so you better check the dimensions. Oddly the manual doesn’t mention a PC until the last page. However, a quick trip to the Sound Blaster site and you download the app, which makes light work of setting up the device through a very simple, friendly interface. The app also seemed to switch my onboard sound-card off and set everything up so the new unit just worked and that was that. By the way, the unit is powered through the usb port so if you want to use it without a PC you will need a USB power supply. The USB-C cable they provide can be used just to power the unit or as a data cable for the PC. It’s a type A on the PC end so if you have or want anything different you will have to buy your own cable. As you would expect, it sounds very good indeed and worked flawlessly. I wanted mine to replace the rather poor effort on my motherboard. The app is simple but actually contains a lot of features. If you have used Sound Blaster products before, there are no shocks. Gone are the days of tons of different apps, there is just one and it highly intuitive. Plenty of different effects or none at all for the purists. My guess is that you can install the app without the product to see if it’s to your liking (I didn’t try that, but I don’t see why not.). Recommended. A serious upgrade from onboard sound and a a really nice external package.

Fantastic product. Bit pricey but if you have good speakers and good headphones it blows high end on board sound out the water. The difference in Driving Sims like Le Mans Ultimate is AMAZING! Worth it 😁 Works FLAWLESSLY on my Asus x870e-e motherboard no crackling or popping for me. Just download the creative app, install latest firmware and driver and it works perfectly. Happy Days.

Audio quality is great; Scout Mode is incredibly useful for games where hearing footsteps, reloads etc is important. The EQ capabilities & Acoustic Engine make tweaking audio to enhance listening to different music genres incredibly easy, too. Only downside is that it's fairly big (but also very light) so it has a tendency of moving while trying to plug headphones in - not a deal breaker, but if you regularly swap between sets it can be a little finicky.

Had for a few years now and its a proper mixed bsg i regularly have ti reset the device to fix static or poping , switch iutputs between balanced and unbanced to stop weird audio glitches between the left and right channels, .. feature wise its good bit the hardware is so hit and miss i wouldnt recomend it for the price

Brilliant piece of kit if it's what you're looking for. I use it USB connected to my laptop and power two monitor speakers and also a soundbar/sub via the optical out option. I've also just purchased an Akai MPC Live 2 music production unit and this feeds into the line in option on the back of the SB unit. It sounds fantastic and although I don't really use all the available extra options for customised sound via the app on the laptop, it does the job of blasting music and enhancing game play dramatically as is for me.

Crackles and static cause the sound quality to be absolutely appalling. Overpriced and is simply not fit for purpose - numerous issues reported on forums about the awful sound quality, static and distortion. Sadly I only found these forum posts after I received my X5 and very quickly realising it was awful. The speakers connected to it are Bose so not exactly cheap ones nor were any of the leads I used to connect it all together. Creative known this is a problem and no resolution in sight.

Score : 4/5 Star . Firstly - I am using it on HTPC with Windows 11. No issue. Works as should. Before I get a Xonar DX/XD , Xonar D2X , Creative Soundblaster X4 and now X5. Need to say I was very very impressed about X4 quality. My Creative Megaworks 250D 2.1 works very nicely on X4 model. Nothing was missed... Also gaming , movies perfect. Want something better for my Stereo Onkyo A-9030 + Jamo S606 + Jamo J10 , for that reason I step up. TBH for normal PC use I will say X4 model is more than more people need. On X5 left and right channel is more clean detailed sound, separation is also much better maybe because got doubled DAC, one for left channel and other one for right. In my opinion X5 have more flat specific detailed with little less bass. Same EQ options Music and Video sounds different little. But when connected headphones clarity of sound hits harded and bass somehow get back. Bluetooth working well but I more prefer using USB connected to PC for little better quality in my opinion. It was hard for me to make a decision should I stick with X4 for half of money of it or upgrade. For that details sound and future pros I wil keep it. Is it worth 230gbp ? It's hard to say. I will say it depend. X4 is far enaugh for PC Home Cinema System. But if someone is more headphones or stereo oriented X5 might be worth to go for it. After few days of listening my final decision is to keep it. So I am happy but also understand people who might think it might be a bit overpriced as we start getting nice amplifiers with internal dac in good prices so then this one might be not worth. Final score 4/5. As sound is more clean, I hear more details.

this sound card audio quality is out of this world, with some minor bugs like usual sound blaster

bello, accattivante, suono bello pulito, ma dopo una "guerra" di 48 ore devo a malincuore renderlo. windows 11 si collega in uscita senza problemi, ma il problema è in entrata è gravoso. difficile configurare il microfono di una cuffia da gaming Razer...aggiornati tutti i driver sia microsoft che creative, ma senza successo. ripeto, lo rendo con dispiacere, ci tenevo farlo andare.... UPDATE : disdetto il reso, trovato il problema con il microfono ( windows 11 ) quindi confermo le mie 5 stelle

Sounds great! Hooked up to studio monitors and sub!

I buy a SoundBlaster x5 soundcard on 24 juni 2024, nice soundcard, but all the time after in three months, the only what I hear is the crackling and popping, I have done every fix you can read at forums. Being a company that is dedicated to sound, and knowing that these cards are going to be used in computers, they should have engineers who know how to implement the exact components so that the sound of any digital equipment such as computers can make use of these and not try to sneak around by putting the following solution on their website (¨Solution ID: 200261¨) Which indicates to me that their sound card is not suitable for the computer market, since in a computer there will always be programs that are running internally. It is like saying if you have the washing machine running, you cannot turn on the light in the house. The interferences of this card are in the simple complexity of using USB. Likewise, the latest drivers 3.6.3.0 do not solve anything at all, in fact they make things even worse. I have lost three months trying to fix the faults of this SoundBlaster x5 sound card and 300 euros thrown away, simply because Creative Labs does not recognize its responsibility. So Creatieve labs, it's time to take this card problem very seriously.

CREATIVE Sound Blaster X5 wady i zalety: ZALETY: + porządne wykonanie, bardzo ładny design, dobrze działające manipulatory + dyskretne podświetlenie z możliwością przyciemniania + czytelne komunikaty + rozbudowana ale i prosta w obsłudze aplikacja WADY: - brak filtru zasilania lub osobnego portu zasilania - wysoki poziom zakłóceń EMI

Excelente qualidade de som, prático e multifuncional.