Creative Labs Sound Blaster X5 Headphone Amp | Any good?

The Sound Blaster X5 from Creative offers dual DAC technology to be the best headphone amp... but how good is it?
0:00 Start
0:24 Intro & preamble
3:33 Unboxing
5:14 First look
5:53 Front panel & controls
8:45 Rear I/O
9:41 Power input
9:51 Approvals
10:24 USB C & power
10:40 Internal; chips
11:09 About the software
12:20 Software in use
13:30 Playback settings
15:13 Recording settings
18:30 Sound modes available
19:57 Components in modes
20:22 Acoustic engine
22:32 The Equalizer
24:15 Crystal Voice
27:11 Direct mode
28:00 Scout mode
32:45 Software comments
34:17 Mobile & Bluetooth
35:47 The phone app
37:13 Dual DAC Information
42:09 Observations so far
44:45 Headphone levels
45:42 Build quality
46:48 Firmware updates
47:17 More Bluetooth
49:10 Some specifications
50:50 Purchase price
52:32 Warranty
53:46 Review score
55:31 Special Note
Links:
Creative Labs (UK): uk.creative.com/
Sound Blaster X5: uk.creative.com/p/sound-blast...
If you are looking for quality audio equipment relating to computers then Creative Labs and their Sound Blaster series of equipment is right there at the top - and has been for many years.
Creative Labs was formed back in 1981 in Singapore, and today they continue to innovate where sound and technology meet. Of course some will tell you its their sound cards used for games that is the best solution for gamers, and some audiophiles will tell you its their technology that makes Creative Labs and the Sound Blaster series stand out above others. Of course, the X5, just one of the newer series of sound devices can be used for many things even including in the recording studio or if you're operating from work remotely, the Sound Blaster X series offers many features and benefits.
In this video, I'm sharing my review of the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X5 Headphone Amp. This headphone amp is designed to improve the sound quality of your headphones, and I wanted to share my thoughts on it!
Are you looking for a headphone amplifier that will improve the sound quality of what you're hearing? Then you should definitely check out the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X5 Headphone Amp! This amp is designed to work with all types of headphones, and it will definitely make your headphones sound better! So if you're looking for a headphone amp, be sure to check out the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X5 Headphone Amp!
For the Sound Blaster X5, Creative have included inside this headphone amp a Cirrus Logic DAC chip (CS43198) but then added ANOTHER! This combination takes the X5 far beyond many of the other headphone devices available out there today and at a price of just £269.00 (at the time of writing) it makes the Sound Blaster X5 a veritable bargain!
Through this video review I show the unboxing, the front and rear panels and I/O, power requirements, approvals, the control software on a PC, the Bluetooth on a mobile phone, a closer look at the DAC chips, overall quality, firmware updates. I also discuss the specifications a little, the purchase price in the UK, the warranty, and give the unit a review score so do check the video out and you might learn something about the Sound Blaster X5 that others just don't show.
This review is more of a 'hands on' approach and generally speaking what I show is maybe what you might expect to experience yourself... and that's probably worth a thousand other reviews where often it tends to be all technical jargon that most ordinary users may not really want. The software section shows you the excellent controls for controlling thr X5 from a PC - and it is also supported on an Apple MAC and on mobile phones either IOS or Android.
Using the unit for a while made me appreciate the very wide range of uses that this headphone amplifier can be used for.
The X5 was supplied to me free of charge for this review but make no mistake that this entire review really is MY OWN OPINION of the X5 from Creative Labs.
Visit my website: tonymckenzie.com for some great reviews of music related equipment that are not on KZbin.
It's important for you to subscribe and thumbs up, ring the bell and click ALL to see more of my videos. Please do SUBSCRIBE to give my channel a boost and thank you for watching - I hope the video shows you things that others never did about the X5 and its great uses.
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#creative #soundblaster #soundblasterx5 #headphoneamp #tonymckenzie #review #mckenzie

[@user-yv3xb7to1z]

Hi Tony well. another well informed video its rare you get reviews like you do

[@tonymckenziecom]

Sadly, with these types of products I don't get the viewers and thats sad really. It is a useful device that has some pretty good features and benefits even for musicians... of course the problem is these days (in case you have not noticed) is that the release of decent guitar gear is very slow. Having said that, the X5 from Creative is certainly worth looking at - and if you happen to play games boom... its great. Thanks for watching and the post.

[@Lenny_Melzer]

Man oh man. I remember the days of getting a new sound card to install in my PC (way back when I used to build them). The one that I remember the most (in terms of making the biggest difference in midi quality) was the AWE32. What a difference a 32-bit Vs 16-bit sound card made. It’s funny to see how things have changed so much over the years, but I’ll always remember Creative labs and sound blaster for being great! Thanks for the upload and review as always. Best to you and your family. -Lenny

[@tonymckenziecom]

Ha me too! Yes Creative and Sound Blaster really were at that time incredible... but this X5 is also a very good item - it can have far more uses than just the games too. Thanks for watching...

[@nandomemi733]

Thank you very much!! Excellent review. ✌🏻✌🏻😊😊

[@tonymckenziecom]

My pleasure! and thanks for watching.

[@TheForce_Productions]

Thank you for the review; since it's launching I've always thought that this one X5 had 5.1 output, such a disappointing! I was about to get one of these and you really saved me from waste my money, and over here it's price is double or even more than there. Cheers Tony.

[@tonymckenziecom]

My pleasure! and thank you for watching.

[@michaelschwader7944]

The AE-9 might be more up your alley. It has an ACM that has an input for both a standard and an XLRA mic, and toslink and even 5.1 output. 7.1 virtual.

[@famtoonen18]

I remember having a sound blaster as my guitar interface.... Good memories.

[@tonymckenziecom]

Now that IS going back a bit :)

[@MrViktorWilliams]

Thank you for the excellent review.

[@tonymckenziecom]

Glad it was helpful! and thanks for watching.

[@humblegeorge]

I have always used SoundBlaster sound cards and Logitech Surround Speakers with them. Brilliant and wonderful and I still have the first one bought in 2003 and it still kicks ,,,,,,,,,well you know what . Great seeing you dear friend :>)

[@tonymckenziecom]

Ah Hi @humblegeorge good to hear you.... and of course thanks for watching. Creative are a very good company in my exerience.

[@bodhistation]

Hi, may I ask a question ？ Because I wish to buy ×5 for singing use the loopback function recording music. So I need to know ×5 will support loopback function？？ Microphone and stereo mix(what u hear) will work together same time or can not? And the ×5 use sidetone headset will support mic monitoring? ？Thank you so very much.🙏🏽

[@MarcAndreLevesque]

I did not know SB was still around, clever of them to sell a DAC and get away from the sound card biz. I can see this being very useful for any people requiring good sound that does not record

[@tonymckenziecom]

You can record a stream with it.... thanks for watching....

[@kotec1234]

They need to finally make a x7 successor with simultaneous dual headphone outputs , swappable op amps, improved usb host mode , balanced headphone output etc

[@tonymckenziecom]

Thanks for the suggestions and of course for watching.

[@Barbarapape]

Soundblaster were never the best for providing full instructions even their soundcards could learn you how to swear trying to get certain features configured correctly. Today no matter what you buy all you get is a quick start guide, which is fine provided that you can download the full manual online, but this is where a lot of products fall down, there are no full manuals! I don't play games, but think of myself as tech savvy, but sometimes no matter what you try the ***!thing won't work. I bought a bought a new mobile phone made by Realme an offshoot of Oppo who are very good or were until they deserted the AV market, the phone updated to the latest software, but the online manual is for the previous version, so some new features are impossible to fathom out, someday they might update the instructions, i am not holding my breath! Thanks for a great review Tony as for this headphone amp, i just don't need it certainly not at this price. My Vox VT40X has an headphone socket and cost less than this one.

[@tonymckenziecom]

Well they did provide the quick start guide and that was perfect as a quick start guide of course. But if you really wanted to climb in to the X5 I did think that a more in depth manual (especially for the software) might have been a good addition. Honestly Creative offered to make one for me! But I really did not want them going to the trouble. The move with most manuals these days from what I see, is they are either hyper depth (really over 750 pages on one recently) or they are scarce. But we have to print them :) and that's just par for the course today. Manuals can be so important and especially for users that have never before heard of some of the features as you describe in the phone stuff you did. This X5 headphone amp is really a master of a number of things, not really 'just' a headphone amp if you will, It certainly has a place in a number of different areas for audio that I had not considered before looking closer at it. It's not a cheap one I agree, but it did have a number of pretty unique features like the dual dac and some of the software features too. In any case thanks for watching...

[@realtruth529]

TV QUESTION !!!Is it Any good for connecting WIRED headphones to 2023 LG oled tv without jackstick ????????? , so I can listen to tv though it ? Dont wanna use bluetooth, as I got good WIRED headphones and prefer wired sound. With a volume dial wheel on the divice.

[@tonymckenziecom]

I did NOT try that. However, grandson after uses this unit a lot. He would not if it had issues... and thanks for watching.

[@axelrivas2914]

It is worth improve from the SB GC7? Only use is for game on PS5 and Windows

[@tonymckenziecom]

It's hard for me to advise on this - Harvey, my full time games guy might tell me his thoughts and if he does I'll post them. Thanks for watching and have a great new year.

[@johnwebb2562]

Hi Tony , forgive my ignorance but what would be main objective of me as a 😊 guitar 🎸 player to obtain this piece of audio equipment?. 👍 Thanks. . John.

[@tonymckenziecom]

Did you watch it? I think in the studio this could be quite useful, and as for the guitar stuff, if you hear things through this unit then I doubt you could ever hear it any better way with 192k x 2 in there.... but to be fair it is a device for multiple uses as I tried to describe in the video, studio, professional business, games, and I'm sure there are so many more uses too. Thanks for watching.

[@craigharrison5406]

Hi Tony. I was hoping I might be able to get your educated opinion on something. I have a 50 watt EVH Stealth head and when I was playing it yesterday the crunch (blue) channel went very quiet to a point where I could barely hear it even when cranking the volume. The clean channel is also very quiet as well but the lead (red) channel works fine and is still very loud. Could this be a bad power tube or preamp tube?

[@tonymckenziecom]

I would look at the preamp tubes. I think 5 and 6 (from memory - but the row behind the front handles channel 1 and 2) and the front (from the back) left tube and the next are critical re ch3 and maybe others... but its probably just one preamp tube... use a really good replacement and swap out to check one at a time. Let me know how it gors... thanks.

[@craigharrison5406]

@@tonymckenziecom Yes I was reading the V5 and V6 preamp tubes only affect channels 1 and 2 which are the channels that went bad on my amp. I will pick up some preamp tubes this weekend and give it a go. Thanks for the quick reply, I will let you know what comes of it. Thanks again👍

[@craigharrison5406]

Hi Tony, I bought a few new JJ 12AX7 tubes to verify if my tubes are good. I did the tap test on the preamp tubes with a pencil and found the V1 tube was microphonic as it was making a loud pinging sound. I replaced it with a new tube but the clean and crunch channel was still very quiet. I tried replacing the V5, then the V6 and then put new tubes in both V5 and V6 but the problem was still there. I didn't bother checking V2,3 and 4 because they only affect the Lead channel which works fine. So I am stumped as to what the problem is. UInless I burned out something on the circuit board playing with that microphonic V1 tube for too long. Feeling somewhat defeated I took the amp into my local shop today for repairs. On the bright side I have known this tech for 20 years and he has always been fair and kept the bill to a minimum so I should be in good hands. Thanks for your suggestion, my tech was saying the same as you...based on the symptoms it should be a preamp tube. I'll let you know what the problem was when I get the amp back.

[@dannops]

All the way back to the AWE 32 & 16 ISA card for me.

[@tonymckenziecom]

:) exactly! anyone who has been around Creative Labs - it shows just how the longevity of the 'sound blaster' and all the stuff they have made is sort of ingrained in to (at last) all gamers, but these days it can be used for so many different things. I loved the idea of losing that echo off a phone line for example! A useful device that even guitarists could use some of those features. Thanks for watching.

[@bryandrums9275]

The app is literally just the normal creative app

[@tonymckenziecom]

Thanks for the info... very useful... and thanks for watching.

[@Mrtee-ml8zf]

I had the first sound blaster 16. then as a young guy with a few amps I procured one of the first external docs that creative made.(noise isolation) Now I need a day for my SCH**T audio Magni Heretic.... The X5 might be the "Halo" model for Creative. I ordered one. "Member Berries". I 'member, u 'member???

[@tonymckenziecom]

Hey post back how you find yours... and thanks for watching.

[@iancurrie8844]

This thing is incredibly disappointing. If they're going to do that bluetooth implementation then don't bother. It's useless. I'm a watch guy: your watch is far, far, far too loose.

[@tonymckenziecom]

:) Ha thanks for the tip... but I always wear them loose - when it gets hot otherwise it digs in... thanks for that... appreciated and thanks for watching.

[@iancurrie8844]

@@tonymckenziecom To each their own! Have you considered wearing it higher up on your arm - before the wrist bones? It might help. If you're having issues with "digging in", it's likely a poorly fitted watch to your body. All the best.