Tuesday, October 28th 2025

Creative Technology Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Sound Blaster Re:Imagine

Press Release by
GFreeman
 Discuss (94 Comments)
Creative Technology, the company that brought the world the original Sound Blaster and transformed PC audio in the 90s, today announces Sound Blaster Re:Imagine, a next-generation modular audio hub that redefines what a sound card can be. The campaign goes live on Kickstarter on October 28, 2025 (10am EST).

Since its debut in 1989, Sound Blaster has shipped more than 400 million devices worldwide, shaping the soundtrack of the digital age. The original Sound Blaster gave PCs a voice, powering the rise of multimedia, gaming, and digital creativity. Sound Blaster Re:Imagine builds on that heritage - taking the DNA of Sound Blaster and evolving it into a modern, modular platform designed for creators, gamers, and anyone who lives at the intersection of work and play.
RE:IMAGINE WHAT A SOUND BLASTER CAN DO
Sound Blaster Re:Imagine is far more than just a sound card:
  • The Ultimate Audio Hub
    • Seamlessly connect devices such as PCs, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, gaming consoles, as well as microphones, headphones, speakers, and instruments, all in one place. Route any input to any output instantly with a simple tap, without tangled setups.
  • Modular and Customizable
    • Expand and reconfigure with magnetically attached swappable modules such as Smart Screens, sliders, knobs, and quick keys. Allows users to adapt their setup as it evolves.
  • Fully Programmable Controls
    • Every button can be configured as macros to perform any action a user wants, for example, mute a call, trigger a software code compile, or activate any Matter-enabled smart home device.
  • Studio-Grade Sound
    • High-resolution 32-bit/384 kHz playback with a studio-quality DAC and amp powerful enough to drive everything from professional headphones to large desktop speakers.
  • Superuser Access
    • With root access to hardware, developers can build and share their own custom apps that utilize this open platform in any creative way - making this a truly community-driven platform.
  • Many Fun Apps Included
    • Enjoy retro DOS games, music visualizers, an AI-powered DJ, and the iconic Sound Blaster Parrot and Dr.Sbaitso, reborn as AI-powered companions.
WHY KICKSTARTER?
With over 400 million Sound Blaster units shipped, Creative's audio legacy is well established. But Sound Blaster Re:Imagine represents more than an evolution - it is a recontextualization of Sound Blaster as a next-generation audio, control, and creative platform.

Launching on Kickstarter is a conscious choice: it allows Creative to work directly with the community to shape this new chapter. Just as gamers, creators, and dreamers fueled the Sound Blaster revolution in the 90s, today's backers will help guide the evolution of Re:Imagine.

LEGACY, REBORN
"The original Sound Blaster changed the way millions experienced sound - powering gaming, creativity, and discovery. With Sound Blaster Re:Imagine, we set out to reimagine what a Sound Blaster can be: not just a sound card, but a modular hub, a control deck, and a creative playground with endless possibilities. We are making the Sound Blaster relevant again, for today's generation, in today's multi-device world," said Darran Nathan, Vice President of Operations & Products, Creative Technology.

At launch, it introduces a suite of playful experiences alongside its powerful audio capabilities. An AI DJ can generate entirely new music based on desired themes, while longtime fans will be delighted to see nostalgic favorites like Dr. Sbaitso and the Sound Blaster Parrot return - now reimagined with modern AI. These moments of fun sit alongside serious audio power, underscoring that Re:Imagine is built for both creativity and discovery.

By opening the platform with full superuser access, Creative invites developers to expand it further: to build their own apps that utilize the hardware in any way they imagine and share creations with the community.

KICKSTARTER LAUNCH DETAILS
  • Campaign Launch
    • October 28, 2025 (10am EST).
  • Limited Quantity Early Backer Rewards
    • Every pledge includes the Horizon Base Unit with Smart Screen and modular controls.
  • Stretch Goal
    • Unlock Vertex Base Unit, a larger model with additional expansion slots.
BE PART OF THE NEXT CHAPTER
The original Sound Blaster defined the soundtrack of a generation. Sound Blaster Re:Imagine is built to define the next one - an open, evolving platform shaped hand in hand with its community.

Be the first to experience Sound Blaster Re:Imagine at launch, head to the KickStarter link here.
Source: Kickstarter

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94 Comments on Creative Technology Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Sound Blaster Re:Imagine

#26
Fungi
I don't think there's a market for another Cooler Master MasterHUB.
Posted on Reply
#27
Wirko
ToTTenTranzWhy does an external USB DAC need a 6 TOPS NPU?
This is a decades old quote from a famous music producer, I'm almost certain it was Brian Eno, from my recollection. "One day when we're old, we're going to sit with our grandchildren and recount how we collected LPs and CDs and listened to the radio. They will ask, in disbelief: And you listened to the same music again and again?"
Posted on Reply
#28
remixedcat
Vayra86A... kickstarter from a professional company? Yeah. No.
thats what I'd like ta know too... creative isn't so creative cuz they fumbled and tumbled... and they blew so much money on buying THX when not many ppl gaf about THX unless it's memes with the sound

and this is really one hell of a crackhead contraption too
Posted on Reply
#29
Chaitanya
Vayra86A... kickstarter from a professional company? Yeah. No.
Peak design, Shimoda, Canon, Xtar, etc... all established brands in their respective fields have used kickstarter and other crowd funding platforms to judge consumer interest in upcoming products. Also compared to unknown projects there is a good record of products being delivered to backers of said projects.
TheLostSwedeCreative has slowly been drifting into irrelevance themselves, as their products barely matter any more.
Seems like sound cards/dac(internal and external) havent died off even when M$ killed hardware sound in windows and these days with ray traced graphics cards and high powered USB peripherals they have become a necessity over onboard integrated audio codecs.
Posted on Reply
#30
remixedcat
ChaitanyaSeems like sound cards/dac(internal and external) havent died off
I still love my fiio e7k.... it's been great
Posted on Reply
#31
PLAfiller
HM_Actua1100% they've made the Z legacy now.
Not really though, i have the same card as you the Z OEM (without the leds and shield) we still have the latest command center as their other cards. I also had AE5 plus, so I can compare. It's a fantastic sound card!
Posted on Reply
#32
Scrizz
I'm still rocking my Titanium HD
Posted on Reply
#33
kondamin
The product could be nice, this press release has enough buzzwords for me to feel repulsed by it.

also In no way anywhere near 500 usd value
Posted on Reply
#34
ToTTenTranz
Hecate91A Kickstarter campaign from a massive company, not cool even though other companies pull that marketing tactic as well.
Creative isn't a massive company anymore.

I'd be surprised if they have more than 200 employees, and they probably have like half of that.
Posted on Reply
#36
outlw
Besides all the other arguments against it already listed....

It is only listed as having Bluetooth 5.0 support.
As such, LE Audio is definitely not supported (LE Audio is optional starting with Bluetooth 5.2).
While this might be a plus for overall sound quality over Bluetooth (depending on codec support...), it makes it very suboptimal for gaming/viewing videos.
The latency improvements from LE Audio are not to be underestimated.

Anwhoo, a hard pass for me.
It does look like an interesting product, but I can not find the utility in it to justify the 500$ price.
Even the 300$ "Super Duper Early Bird" price is excessive.
Posted on Reply
#37
ToTTenTranz
outlw6669Besides all the other arguments against it already listed....

It is only listed as having Bluetooth 5.0 support.
As such, LE Audio is definitely not supported (LE Audio is optional starting with Bluetooth 5.2).
While this might be a plus for overall sound quality over Bluetooth (depending on codec support...), it makes it very suboptimal for gaming/viewing videos.
The latency improvements from LE Audio are not to be underestimated.

Anwhoo, a hard pass for me.
It does look like an interesting product, but I can not find the utility in it to justify the 500$ price.
Even the 300$ "Super Duper Early Bird" price is excessive.
I don't get why this has Bluetooth at all, either. Unless they were trying to merge their external soundcard line with their BT-W line of bluetooth audio emitters, but they aren't as I don't see that functionality mentioned anywhere.


I could understand them releasing a new-gen soundcard/DAC with programmable modular controls and a touchscreen, allowing stuff like switching from speakers to headset dynamically without having to leave a game. I think that'll be a nice touch for some people.

It's their decision of trying to include all the other stuff into a brand new product line that makes the price balloon that I'm questioning.
Posted on Reply
#38
dyonoctis
Devastator0Yeah I very much share the same sentiment, using Kickstarter when you're a multi million/billion dollar company is not a good look.
Vayra86A... kickstarter from a professional company? Yeah. No.
After digging a bit, it seems that Creative isn't doing well, like not well at all. And judging by the sentiment on the forum, it seems reasonable to say that they are "cooked". Everyone who used to be in the PC audio market ultimately pulled out, or doesn't put that much effort into it anymore (Asus doesn't do much with Xonar anymore, Sennheiser's EPOS pulled out, EVGA is just generally painfully slowly dying, Altec Lansing went Bluetooth only, Logitech is just refreshing old stuff...). Nowadays, you either buy something from a niche audio brand, professional gear, or a 10$ Apple dongle (which measures exceptionally well).

Mainstream Pc audio in 2025 can be resumed in one word: Bluetooth headphone. And you might have a pair of bookshelf speakers if you are a tech nerd or compose music as a hobby/gig. Creative failed to diversify and adapt to the trends. They should have become a proper audio company like Harman or Sennheiser. PC audio is looking pretty dreadful as a market if you aren't a relatively small, privately owned Chinese company.
For the first six months of its fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2024, Creative’s net loss widened to US$6.1 million (S$8.1 million) from US$4.1 million in the year-ago period. This was despite higher net sales of US$37.4 million, a rise of 18 per cent from US$31.8 million in the year-ago period, from selling new audio products, including the Super X-Fi earbuds and headphones.
www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jobs/creative-technology-cuts-workforce-continues-wave-of-tech-layoffs
www.theedgesingapore.com/news/tech/creative-technology-gives-notice-three-years-consecutive-loss?fbclid=IwY2xjawFzW0dleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHVwzqNiHoTWHviBPXzWWDqmvE1HJAqYDq7kGLzSmA9uDojiHueZ7CvR7fA_aem_vTpI8BIrvRf8Ma2Vrn1WWQ
Posted on Reply
#39
TheLostSwede
News Editor
ChaitanyaSeems like sound cards/dac(internal and external) havent died off even when M$ killed hardware sound in windows and these days with ray traced graphics cards and high powered USB peripherals they have become a necessity over onboard integrated audio codecs.
Wireless headsets have replaced a lot of them though.
Posted on Reply
#40
dyonoctis
ToTTenTranzCreative isn't a massive company anymore.

I'd be surprised if they have more than 200 employees, and they probably have like half of that.
According to the article that I linked above, they still have over 280 employees worldwide, which is still too many since they have to fire people. I feel like their glorious past is weighing them down, preventing them from being more aggressive when it comes to the price.
Posted on Reply
#41
TheLostSwede
News Editor
dyonoctisAfter digging a bit, it seems that Creative isn't doing well, like not well at all.
They pulled out of the Nordics earlier this year and closed their online shop.
Posted on Reply
#42
Hecate91
ToTTenTranzCreative isn't a massive company anymore.

I'd be surprised if they have more than 200 employees, and they probably have like half of that.
I wasn't aware Creative isn't doing well, it seems they didn't change their product offerings enough to what the market wanted, or their offerings were overpriced. The PC audio market is being overwhelmed by wireless headsets and powered desktop speakers and soundbars which unfortunately makes internal soundcards and DACs mostly irrelevant except for enthusiasts using high end setups.
But still, Creative should make a product people want, not seeking buyers with a Kickstarter campaign.
Posted on Reply
#43
Onasi
TheLostSwedeWireless headsets have replaced a lot of them though.
Ehhhh… Audiophiles still prefer wired, but those aren’t the people who go for Creative anymore either - they’d grab something from Fiio/Topping/Schiit/Moondrop/whatever and not even look at Creative products. That’s the problem, Creative is kind of in a no-man’s land and it’s not clear what their audience even is. I mean, they have some decent soundbars, but that ain’t much. And the last time they were relevant in headphones was with the OG Aurvana Live which was a value champ for closed cans.
Posted on Reply
#44
mikesg
Creative should license Nvidia/AMD/Intel GPU technology to soley process audio, and work with Steam Audio and similar to use their GPU for processing sound.

They owned the EAX market, why are they doing baby toys now...
Posted on Reply
#45
PLAfiller
Hecate91But still, Creative should make a product people want, not seeking buyers with a Kickstarter campaign.
Not a bad way to test the market though. If you reach the kickstarter you know there might be some interest, if not you know it's not worth it. And you will know the latter BEFORE investing time and money in developing and launching a product not enough people want....so yeah I understand them. Free way to test the waters.
Posted on Reply
#46
Onasi
mikesgCreative should license Nvidia/AMD/Intel GPU technology to soley process audio, and work with Steam Audio and similar to use their GPU for processing sound.

They owned the EAX market, why are they doing baby toys now...
There is no need to use GPU tech for audio. AMD tried and there were no takers. Steam Audio is already absolutely fantastic by itself and easily hooks into existing audio engines like Fmod or Wwise. And that would work with any audio source. Problem is, developers just mostly don’t give a fuck about proper audio implementation in games. Exceptions like Hellblade are extremely rare. For the most part, if it sounds fine for most people - devs are done. No reason from their point of view to fuck around to get HRTF, resonance and proper sound propagation working.
Posted on Reply
#47
ToTTenTranz
dyonoctisMainstream Pc audio in 2025 can be resumed in one word: Bluetooth headphone. And you might have a pair of bookshelf speakers if you are a tech nerd or compose music as a hobby/gig. Creative failed to diversify and adapt to the trends. They should have become a proper audio company like Harman or Sennheiser. PC audio is looking pretty dreadful as a market if you aren't a relatively small, privately owned Chinese company.
Yes. Positional audio in PC games has come down to either headsets with Atmos, a pair of bookshelf speakers and for the niches who still want multispeaker surround (like me) there's Dolby Atmos going into AV Receivers and soundbar setups with HDMI-in.
Dedicated soundcards make no sense anymore, and many motherboards and cases nowadays aren't even designed for add-in boards other than the dGPU.

Creative should have adapted to the new reality of object-based audio in games and become a Dolby licensee to design products around it. They should've been on the forefront of HDMI ARC and eARC audio, or using the latest Bluetooth tech and LC3+ to launch a bunch of truly modular speakers for the office and/or living room coming from an Atmos source. Or a game engine to Atmos converter through hardware and/or software.
Instead, they just kept going in the same direction as the past 10 years.. This might be unfair, though. Maybe they tried all that but were ignored/blocked/refused.


Creative still seems to have a handful of successful products, like their Pebble line and the BT-W dongles, but that's pretty much it. I use their Aurvana Ace 2 daily and I'm super happy with those, but I do recognize they have their flaws.
dyonoctisAccording to the article that I linked above, they still have over 280 employees worldwide, which is still too many since they have to fire people. I feel like their glorious past is weighing them down, preventing them from being more aggressive when it comes to the price.
I guess that counts with sales reps worldwide plus tech support in english and non-english. People working on product R&D are probably in the dozens, unfortunately.
mikesgCreative should license Nvidia/AMD/Intel GPU technology to soley process audio, and work with Steam Audio and similar to use their GPU for processing sound.
They do license tech. Intel uses IP from their ZiiLabs research. And I think they own part of xMEMS.
Posted on Reply
#48
Hecate91
PLAfillerNot a bad way to test the market though. If you reach the kickstarter you know there might be some interest, if not you know it's not worth it. And you will know the latter BEFORE investing time and money in developing and launching a product not enough people want....so yeah I understand them. Free way to test the waters.
For a product like this one, perhaps it makes sense. I can understand for a start up company with a few employees, but it never makes much sense for any company with an established brand.
RejZoRI guess they just entirely dropped internal soundcards to this external junk. Still rocking AE-9 with MUSES OP-Amps that I swapped afterwards and I'm sticking with it for as long as possible. Onboard audio has regressed so hard in recent years there is no way I'm resorting back to that...
With how Creative claims this product is "re-imagining" the sound blaster name, and since Creative hasn't updated some of their sound card drivers in years it seems like they're going away from internal soundcards.
And yeah it's very frustrating as motherboard makers have gotten greedy using old low end audio chips on many boards, motherboards used to have decent audio, some even had built in op-amps, along with a DAC amp dedicated for headphones.
mikesgThey owned the EAX market, why are they doing baby toys now...
Thanks to Microsoft, EAX and high quality positional audio in games died out.
Posted on Reply
#49
TheLostSwede
News Editor
OnasiEhhhh… Audiophiles still prefer wired, but those aren’t the people who go for Creative anymore either - they’d grab something from Fiio/Topping/Schiit/Moondrop/whatever and not even look at Creative products. That’s the problem, Creative is kind of in a no-man’s land and it’s not clear what their audience even is. I mean, they have some decent soundbars, but that ain’t much. And the last time they were relevant in headphones was with the OG Aurvana Live which was a value champ for closed cans.
Nah, they were early out with TWS buds with xMEMS speaker elements in them, but they got very mixed reviews. They're already on the second or third generation of those now, with the latest model looking passable feature wise. The problem is that they keep pushing their X-Fi "tech" into so many products, but then gimp them in other ways, like SBC only for Bluetooth audio and no upscaling in the world will fix that.
Posted on Reply
#50
Onasi
@TheLostSwede
Fair, I am not into that part of the market, so can’t comment on that.
Posted on Reply
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