Creative Sound Blaster X4 External USB DAC Amp

I really like this sound card – it is superior to the older X3 despite having slightly lower specs on paper as well.

I use this as a “plug and play” device and do not bother with any of Creative’s software – you would need this if you wanted to use SXFI or create your own EQ presets however.

Compared to the X3, it offers greater volume output right off the bat, roughly equivalent to that of a higher end motherboard on its maximum gain setting – I like this a lot. The grey colour scheme also makes the X4 look more premium compared to its predecessor.

My favourite feature of the X4 is that it allows me to switch between headphone and speaker output using a physical button – volume levels are saved between each and it removes any potential issues that may arise from switching audio devices in Windows.

Since it is external, if your motherboard audio suffers from electrical interference at high load, using this will solve that issue as well. My current motherboard (Asus X670E Hero) does not suffer from this and has excellent onboard audio – but I still much prefer to use the X4!

All in all – I strongly recommend this device for those who wish to upgrade from onboard audio and take their PC audio experience to the next level!

I had recently upgraded to a Sonos Ray soundbar for my PC which only works via SPIDF (Opitcal) output from the PC. My motherboard has a built in SPIDF out, but there were times when switched to my gaming headset for PC sounds and then switching back to soundbar would not play sounds from PC. I would have to restart my entire PC. This led me to believe somehow the onboard audio for the motherboard was having issues when not outputting sound for a few hours. I figured I would then try an external soundcard of some sort. I landed on the X4 from Creative Labs. There seemed to be mixed reviews, but being an external sound card / DAC seemed promising. Everything was easy to connect and it worked straight away after a couple updates. The Sonos Ray soundbar hasn’t skipped a beat. More testing will let me know if this will 100% resolve the previous issue I had, but even if it were to happen on this device, I believe being able to unplug the usb-c connection to the device and plugging it back in would resolve such issue.

Time will tell for sure, but for now, I can honestly say I highly recommend this if your looking for an external soundcard.

Using this as a DAC. Plugged to my TV via optical and then to my headphone amp. Downloading, installing, and setting up the Creative App took all of maybe 30 seconds. Immediately I was hugely disappointed by how it sounded, but it turns out SXFI was the culprit. Maybe it’s because my headphones aren’t on the list of SXFI products. I don’t know. Turned off SXFI and now they sound perfect. To my knowledge this and the X5 are the only two products on the market that create virtual surround from an optical connection. This is in my opinion vastly superior to just having a regular DAC because it sends some of sound coming from one the channel to the other. This makes everything (movies, music) sound so much more natural since in real life you never hear from just one ear. EQ is also more than welcome since by adding bass and calming the midrange a bit I turned the sound of my high end headphones (ESP-950) into more of a cool IMAX cinema sound. A remote control would have been appreciated but controlling volume with cell phone is fine. I still don’t get what the deal with SXFI is, but you don’t need it for surround. So, at least as far as using it as a DAC, this is an awesome product. Thanks Creative for decades of cool stuff.

This has pretty mind-blowing audio when you set it up properly.

At first, I didn’t think very much of it at all and even considered returning it until I started playing with the dials and buttons

Here’s my pros/cons:

+ Likely the best sound delivery alteration implementation I’ve experienced yet

+ All *hardware* aspects feel extremely premium

– Does take some tweaking/getting used to

– Many features are not intuitive; you’re going to have to fully read the manual and keep it around for reference for a while.

-For whatever reason when I got it, I fully expected the LED ring to indicate the volume level in some way such as dimming as volume goes lower or turning them off around the ring as the volume gets lower. It does not. I know that was not an advertised feature in any capacity but to me it would just make sense that it should/would. Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to just “feel right/satisfying” to have that physical indication of what you’re doing on the unit itself at a glance

– The apps (yes multiple) suck. There’s really no excuse as to why you should have to use Location Data to connect to the unit — Yes I know you use it for this reason or that reason (likely something to do with low power bluetooth connectivity). I don’t care. I never have my location on unless I especially need it to preserve battery life and further, it’s aggravating that the entire suite of apps is not compiled into a single one; that’s multiple apps for both PC and the Mobile versions. People shouldn’t have to have multiple apps/programs to control a single device

– I’d very very much like to have some basic passthrough capabilities through the Bluetooth, such as being able to connect the x4 to bluetooth speakers so they can benefit from it using the app as a control to do so. To my knowledge, that is not possible.

– Would very much like the microphone output and headphone output on the back or either side of the device instead of the front. Would also be okay with a set on each side of the device. It would be far more flattering on my desk than having my microphone input on the front

Overall, despite criticisms, the pros heavily outweigh the cons. I am more than willing to trade ascetics for functionality, and I’m more than willing to spend the time to get the software side doing what I want and boy does the Soundblaster x4 ever deliver function. If I were to upgrade to the x5 down the line though, Creative will have to have a very compelling new feature set, or they’d have to remedy most if not all my cons above

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