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The USB sound card works with PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, and combines a virtual 7.1 32-bit / 384 kHz, 130 dB USB Digital Audio Converter (DAC) with our awesome Xamp discrete headphone amplifier for incredibly detailed audio. It also boasts Dolby Digital decoding, virtual 7.1 surround sound, game-voice volume balancing, Scout Mode, and Sound Blaster's 30 year legacy of impressive sound enhancement technologies. Just bought this as an all in one audio solution for my PC and portable needs, but i'm having some second thoughts after receiving it. The tail end of the box houses the USB connector and optical input/output ports, which enable the G6 to work with consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One—but if you are only using this with a PC, you can ignore them. After I engaged Direct Mode, everything changed to a much better vibe and finally I could listen to my favorite tunes. 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.
First of all, i got this under the assumption this is basically the AE-5 on an external enclosure, but, apparently that is not the case? I'm getting conflicting opinions on google, and i'm still not sure whether getting the internal card would have been a better alternative. bit / 44.1, 48.0, 88.2, 96.0, 176.4, 192.0 kHz Rozlišení nahrávání Vstup mikrofonu: 16 / 24 / 32-bit / 44.1, 48.0, 88.2, 96.0, 176.4, 192.0 kHz The main advantage in something like the G6 is its compatibility on both ends. The PC or console side is one thing, but the fact that any pair of headphones will work on the other negates the need to buy a dedicated gaming headset. There’s a lot of technical stuff going on to make this happen, and we found it wasn’t all that important to recognize how it all works – the fact it consistently did was good enough. Just for giggles I decided to listen to few tunes with all 3 modes of the DSP engine enabled and not a single one was passable for music. I know my tunes really well and when something sounds Off I either turn the damn thing off or I just don’t listen to music at all. At this size G6 can be even considered a portable device. It draws power from USB, so it doesn’t have a battery inside. I quite like its form factor, build and overall shape. It is gaming oriented so of course there are lights everywhere, but in case you want to turn them down, you can do that in the Connect 2 app (only the X light can be turned off).
Boosted audio for PCs and consoles alike
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. There was a single headphone from my stable that triggered clipping on the G6 and that was the Hifiman Arya. At more than 70% volume on G6 and on the high-gain, it started clipping and slightly distorting my music. In its defense I will state that Hifiman Arya is not an ordinary headphone, it needs gobs of power, it was designed to work only with proper desktop headphone amps that are wall-powered. It’s interesting, and there’s a lot of technical stuff going on to make it happen, but we should stress that this is all virtualized. Creative Labs is a long-term Cirrus Logic endorser, since for more than 15 years a big majority of their sound cards (external or internal) used Cirrus Logic DAC chips for the hardware audio processing. I would recommend the surround setting maximum at 60%, it sounds weird going more than that and I personally don’t like the smart volume setting, it somewhat kills the dynamic range, I mean the difference between a low intensity and a high intensity sound should be quite big and not a small one.
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. Microsoft® Windows® 10 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit 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. It also has an optical out, also works as a line-out. Use this one if you want to pass your digital signal to a better source (to a better DAC and headphone amp combo) or if you want to use some powered speakers.
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OK guys, confession time: Yes, I game myself time and time again. I’m mostly a single-player type of gamer, searching for nice and captivating stories. I am a hardcore media consumer after all: music, movies or games is what I consume and I’m trying to find myself in those if world is giving me the middle finger. Apart from that case, everything else, including Quad Era-1 planars or Sennheiser HD660S sounded pretty amazing and sincerely I was quite surprised how good a gaming-oriented device can sound with my favorite tunes. From the first moment that I fired up Wolfenstein II, for example, it was clear that the G6 pumped more raw volume to the headphones than my PC’s built-in sound chip could possibly deliver, even near its max setting. Sound at both the high and low end seemed noticeably enhanced; the low drone of explosions and gunfire boomed satisfyingly in my ears, while at the high end, dialog and weapons were sharper as well. In a nutshell, the soundscape is better defined, and added up to a more immersive experience. 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.
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