While the G6 works fine with consoles, it really comes alive on a PC, where the Sound Blaster Connect desktop app lets you thoroughly customize your audio experience. Without the app, you can toggle between Scout Mode and the SBX surround profiles. The app, though, gives you a dashboard of preset profiles for music, movies, and about 2-dozen games (including DOTA, Overwatch, Fortnight, League of Legends, and more). You are free to make your own, leveraging tools like an equalizer, a surround feature that expands the soundfield in virtual 7.1, and a feature that punches up in-game dialog. We noticed an audio boost immediately once we fired up the G6 – thanks, especially, to a Creative technology called Scout Mode that enhances the ambient noises and not only add some character to a game, but also help determine a course of action. Footsteps or voices come through a little clearer and louder, offering a tactical advantage when moving or hiding to avoid and ambush enemies – and all of that is done without also cranking up the volume. The Xamp discrete headphone amplification is developed in dual-mono configuration, so basically the left and right channels are having its own discrete amplification circuits. The ultra-low 1 Ω output impedance means it will work great with high sensitivity IEMs and with hard to drive 600 Ω loads.

The volume dial deserves MVP status. The knurled dial feels like it belongs on a high-end audio rig or a Leica camera; it turns smoothly and allows for very fine adjustments to volume. Press to mute, or press-and-hold to toggle between the headphone and microphone volume. In this way you can separately adjust headphone and mic volume, and see the status via solid and blinking lights on the side of the box. Speaking of lights, the volume dial is softly illuminated from behind, and the selected Scout Mode and SBX button illuminates as well – nice flourishes to an otherwise plain box. What it makes so different compared to pure audiophile DAC and headphone amp units is that the Sound BlasterX G6 is also having a DSP inside and is doing some additional processing to make all games sounding surreal and enveloping the listener or dare I say the gamer. I managed to get a decent sound signature by setting the card to "direct" through the Sound Blaster Connect utility, which removes all effects (also disables the EQ but to be honest i was not that impressed by that either, not for music anyway), and i'm also using the ASIO Creative driver on Foobar, and i mean it sounds pretty good but again i'm still not sure whether the AE-5 would have been the better option. I launched AC Odyssey and with a shaking hand pressed the SBX (Sound Blaster X) button to enable the internal DSP engine. To my surprise the sound wasn’t muddier or something like that, I felt that it sounded bigger and I could easier hear all the sounds around the world. Pressing the Crosshair (Scout Mode) button was a funny experience, it sounded weird at first, with it enabled I heard all the NPC talk around much easier, it is almost too distracting at times. I hear them talking closer to me and in general the mid tones and the treble is somewhat enhanced.Nevertheless, we would say it’s an acquired taste. The algorithms, as good as they are, don’t necessarily adjust volume levels for different sounds. For instance, you may be in a quiet area in a game, only for the music to jolt your ears once something dramatic happens. That’s not entirely Creative’s fault, mind you, since they don’t engineer any of the games, but some additional work would be good there. Now, G6 is a different type of DAC and headphone amp compared to regular units in so many ways that I can’t wait to tell you more. You can save few presets that are working great with a particular game and other presets for other games. I discovered that my settings for AC Odyssey sounded really weird with Heroes of the Storm and vice versa. Your FPS settings might be completely different compared to your RPG settings and so on. FiiO F5 PRO is bigger, it is wall-powered, its body is entirely made from sand-blasted aluminum, it is also destined for the audiophile community, but can be used while gaming. bit / 44.1, 48.0, 88.2, 96.0, 176.4, 192.0 kHz Rozlišení nahrávání Mikrofonitulo: 16 / 24 / 32-bit / 44.1, 48.0, 88.2, 96.0, 176.4, 192.0 kHz

It must be said that the physical buttons on the G6 will just control a small portion of what can really be achieved with it. But if you wanted to, you could boost it by switching the gain from low to high, amplifying all audio coming through the headphones. With Wolfenstein II, for instance, the boost helped to tip us off when an enemy was moving closer without having eyes on them. I must add, this App is kind of cool, quite advanced, I never seen something like it. Even expensive audiophile stuff is not coming with cool apps like this one. I'm writing this because the sound of the G6 is... not exactly what i was expecting. I mean it is a net improvement over my motherboard card. Sound stage is wider, instrument separation is far superior and there's a ton of detail that can be heard even from my simple M-Audio AV 30 desktop speakers, but at the same time i find the sound somewhat distant, kinda brittle and harsh at times, sort of muffled at others. I understand this is a gaming device which is also what i got it for, but still. It almost sounds like an "audiophile" version of a cheap motherboard sound card, if that makes sense.

Další

Fit and finish is…interesting to say the least, the titanium like surface is actually a painted plastic surface, but since G6 is very lightweight, dropping it shouldn’t cause any damage. On top you have an X letter that is showing the power state, it glows only when it’s powered. After installing the Sound Blaster Connect 2 App you can change the color of the X, its blinking speed, it can even blink to your tunes. The volume wheel is also lit and is really easy to find once you play in the darkness. Volume wheel is a 100% digital volume control that will actually control the Windows volume. There are even settings for the microphone input, for example there is a noise reduction setting, acoustic echo cancelation and a voice enhancer. If you are gaming in a noisy environment all those settings can really help you out and your team mates. Setup on a PC is simply a matter of connecting the USB cable. But it’s also compatible with the PS4 (via USB and optical), Xbox One (optical, but you’ll need to plug the G6’s USB port into an AC adapter for power), and Nintendo Switch (USB, naturally). Unfortunately, Creative doesn’t include a power adapter, so you’ll need to provide your own if you’re plugging it into an Xbox. That’s not the only inconvenience. Unless you have crazy-long cables, the G6 will sit on a shelf with your console. Meanwhile, you’re halfway across the room on the sofa, where adjusting the volume is a distant dream. Sound BlasterX G6 – Software

To be perfectly honest, I had modest expectations – I was expecting a subtle improvement in sound quality that might require a fair bit of A/B testing to notice. That was not the case. You should also know that disengaging the Scout Mode or the SBX does not mean it will automatically switch to Direct Mode. It will still have its DSP engine enabled but to a much smaller degree. What was really unexpected for me is that this small bus-powered device is capable of driving even hard to drive headphones.The app, though, gives you a dashboard of preset profiles for music, movies, and about 2-dozen games (including DOTA, Overwatch, Fortnight, League of Legends, and more). You are free to make your own profiles too, leveraging tools like an equalizer, a surround feature that expands the soundfield in virtual 7.1, and a feature that punches up in-game dialog. Since it is a gaming-oriented device I will to bombard you with audiophile terms that only few will understand but I can tell you in advance that G6 sounds really good, almost on the same level with FiiO K5 PRO actually and that is a very good thing in my book.