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Creative Sound Blaster X4

Inle

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Apr 6, 2017
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System Name Efrafa
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Mouse Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum
Keyboard Cherry MX Board 6.0
Software Battlefield 1
The Creative Sound Blaster X4 is a direct successor to the excellent Sound Blaster X3. This external USB sound card keeps everything good about its predecessor and adds a couple of interesting additions to the mix, most notably SmartComm Kit—a combination of features aimed at improving our online call quality.

Show full review
 
Wow, talk about a "blast" from the past..... the last time I saw anything decent from creative was way, way back when they still made one of the very few pci sound cards that didn't cost an arm, leg, left testicle and 1st born youngin :)

Just curious why they made it look so similar to a mac mini, albeit with knobs & buttons ?
 
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Stay true to the awesome gfx card reviews and show us the guts! (PCB, internal construction, etc.)

Also, no sound card review can be serious without any of the standard quantitative measurements: THD, SINAD, etc. I don't care if the plastic is gray or black, I want the sound to be good.
 
Thanks for the review!
A question!
One I hope wasn't actually in the article: how about the volume of the speaker output (especially the front)?
My Audigy SE is noticeably louder than my SB Z, and both are waaaay louder than the onboard sound (ALC887 Of A320 S2H and ALC892 on e B350 Tomahawk), and the output of my old Samsung TV/monitor is even louder than the SE (but its sound sucks). The onboard sound simply can't drive my Edifier C200 (and is bad for headphones too, and the Z is also quieter than the SE on headphones, but can't say how much). Actually only the TV/monitor can, all the others fall short.
 
You mention on the review that you can connect the USB to a PS4/PS5. On the product page they say it's not compatible and needs an hdmi optical converter to work (lame!)

Which one is it? The X3 received an update to make that available at some point, is that the case here as well?
 
I would love to see a soundcard with atmos. I have no desire to add a big receiver on top of my htpc. I have decent powered speakers. Stand alone decoders are in the price range of cars and there is really no low range options. I can't be alone in this desire.
 
It'd be nice to see a true line-by-line comparison between this & the GC7, both specs and feature wise.
 
Biggest flop is it doesn't have HDMI IN/Out ports, and instead it requires a stupid converter (expensive, and sold separately) in order to connect it to a console.
 
Thanks for the review.
Hmm I was planning to buy a cheap DAC like Fiio K3s for music but this looks interesting with all the gaming features.
 
I have the X3 and it is so dumb because on the Apple app store of my country you can't download an app and make a profile for that 3D sound or whatever it was called. I don't get it why some countries don't have the app on the Apple store..
 
I noticed that this does not seem to support 44.1KHz sample rate. Critical for normal music listening. I assume that this is upsampling to it 48KHz? If so, that's just Creative being their normal cheap selves, and not spending the extra dollar on a better DAC.
 
Stay true to the awesome gfx card reviews and show us the guts! (PCB, internal construction, etc.)

Also, no sound card review can be serious without any of the standard quantitative measurements: THD, SINAD, etc. I don't care if the plastic is gray or black, I want the sound to be good.

Regarding the teardown: unfortunately it is not possible to get the PCB out of the case without breaking the device. It seems to be glued to it. Furthest you can get is to see the nearly completely empty bottom side of the PCB. As for the measurements, while I did do loopback tests and RMAA measurements in some of my previous sound card reviews, I stopped with that practice, because I found it pointless. Some users would cling to a certain number, completely ignoring the fact that it doesn't mean anything for the actual performance of the device. This is why I switched to in-depth testing with two powered speaker systems, and close to 10 different hi-fi headphones/gaming headsets, and describing the overall experience in great detail.

Thanks for the review!
A question!
One I hope wasn't actually in the article: how about the volume of the speaker output (especially the front)?
My Audigy SE is noticeably louder than my SB Z, and both are waaaay louder than the onboard sound (ALC887 Of A320 S2H and ALC892 on e B350 Tomahawk), and the output of my old Samsung TV/monitor is even louder than the SE (but its sound sucks). The onboard sound simply can't drive my Edifier C200 (and is bad for headphones too, and the Z is also quieter than the SE on headphones, but can't say how much). Actually only the TV/monitor can, all the others fall short.

You shouldn't connect your speakers to anything other than line-level ports, to avoid amplifying the signal twice. Your speakers already have their own amplifier built-in so if you bring them a signal that's already been amplified (through the front headphone output, for example), the sound quality is going to degrade. You could also potentially cause damage, although this is going to happen only in extreme cases. As for the headphone output, the amplifier of the X4 has two gain settings, and it was powerful enough to drive all of my hi-fi headphones and gaming headsets at a sufficient volume, even when I wanted to listen to them LOUD.

You mention on the review that you can connect the USB to a PS4/PS5. On the product page they say it's not compatible and needs an hdmi optical converter to work (lame!)

Which one is it? The X3 received an update to make that available at some point, is that the case here as well?

That's correct, you need to buy the HDMI-optical converter separately, it is not supplied.

It'd be nice to see a true line-by-line comparison between this & the GC7, both specs and feature wise.

Honestly? The GC7 has more elaborate controls, a central display, and the option to bind its functions to C1-C4 buttons. The X4 has the SmartComms Kit. For all other intents and purposes, there's no noticeable difference between them. Including the sound quality. I'd buy the X4.

I have the X3 and it is so dumb because on the Apple app store of my country you can't download an app and make a profile for that 3D sound or whatever it was called. I don't get it why some countries don't have the app on the Apple store..

Same problem in my country (Croatia). I solved it by downloading the SXFI App APK manually. That won't help you if you have an iPhone, though... You bring a good point, I'll ask Creative what's up with the regional shenanigans.
 
I have the X3 since launch and can only sing it's praises both on powering my 5.1 speaker setup which is the tried and tested Logitech Z906 and my Philips Fidelio X2HR/beyerdynamic DT880...Not worth the upgrade to the X4's but for anyone looking for better PC sound, these are not bad at all and fairly cost effective for what you get...good review.
 
That's correct, you need to buy the HDMI-optical converter separately, it is not supplied.

I went over the Creative support pages and found more conflicting info

Both this pages show usb support on playstation (on the first link on the connection diagram, on the second plain USB support like the X3 on the support matrix)

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x4#specs (and older support page I can no longer find) again mention the need for a optical port/hdmi for audio balance (?)

So, could you get some clarity from the creative reps? Is the optical requiments just for some weird half-baked audio mixing feature (mixing chat and game audio - like the G3)?

I want to just connect this to my PS5 with a usb cable and just work (game and chat), then I'd like to connect a phone/pc to line in and mix the 2 (console and line in). Those are my use cases, do they work?
 
I went over the Creative support pages and found more conflicting info

Both this pages show usb support on playstation (on the first link on the connection diagram, on the second plain USB support like the X3 on the support matrix)

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x4#specs (and older support page I can no longer find) again mention the need for a optical port/hdmi for audio balance (?)

So, could you get some clarity from the creative reps? Is the optical requiments just for some weird half-baked audio mixing feature (mixing chat and game audio - like the G3)?

I want to just connect this to my PS5 with a usb cable and just work (game and chat), then I'd like to connect a phone/pc to line in and mix the 2 (console and line in). Those are my use cases, do they work?
Connecting via USB should work without any issues, hdmi->optical is only needed for Audio Balance function because PS5 doesn't have the S/PDIF out.
 
As for the measurements, while I did do loopback tests and RMAA measurements in some of my previous sound card reviews, I stopped with that practice, because I found it pointless. Some users would cling to a certain number, completely ignoring the fact that it doesn't mean anything for the actual performance of the device. This is why I switched to in-depth testing with two powered speaker systems, and close to 10 different hi-fi headphones/gaming headsets, and describing the overall experience in great detail.
Measurements pointless? Is this some kind of joke that I'm not getting?

Would you (or other users here) be OK with W1zzard saying for example "Yeah, those benchmarks, and temperature and noise measurements are a hassle and seem redundant. I'm gonna judge the gaming performance, temperatures, and noise levels by using my eyes, fingers, and eyes, respectively, from now on"?

Granted, loopback tests aren't all that useful to begin with, but it's still better than nothing. Or maybe use a separate sound card as reference.

Not having measurements basically defeats the purpose of a review. Let users cling to whatever number they want. The job of the reviewer is to provide proper information about the product. How users (mis)interpret it is their problem. The same can be said for CPU and GPU reviews here on TPU.
And numbers actually do tend to be meaningful. Depends which ones of course, but to say they don't mean anything is just strange for a reviewer.

Also, considering that all speakers and headphones should sound the same if the DAC/Amp is designed properly, means you are actually describing/reviewing the sound of the speakers or headphones, not the performance sound card. To measure the latter, proper equipment is required.
 
There is little reason to buy this shit, instead a person should look into buying Schiit. A Fulla Schiit for less, A Hel Schiit for more power for cans that need it, or if you don't need a mic input, a Magni/Modi Schiit stack.
That Schiit has no mic input so here's your reason to buy this shit.
 
You shouldn't connect your speakers to anything other than line-level ports, to avoid amplifying the signal twice. Your speakers already have their own amplifier built-in so if you bring them a signal that's already been amplified (through the front headphone output, for example), the sound quality is going to degrade. You could also potentially cause damage, although this is going to happen only in extreme cases. As for the headphone output, the amplifier of the X4 has two gain settings, and it was powerful enough to drive all of my hi-fi headphones and gaming headsets at a sufficient volume, even when I wanted to listen to them LOUD.

Thanks for the reply, but I have no idea what I said that made you think I'm re-amplifying the signal! I'm not!

..but I could. In fact, given how quiet the sound from the onboard is probably I should. I even thought about it and actually made plans for it if I sold my Z and couldn't get some other like the X4.
And there actually are headphone amplifiers out there. Similar could work for amplifiers too, simply raising the incredibly poor signal.

If you have a Z and a X4 could you compare the volume for some hard-to-drive self amplified speakers?

Also, I see what the other user said could be true: it doesn't support 44.1 or 88.2 Khz!!! That's probably a deal breaker for me!

There is little reason to buy this shit, instead a person should look into buying Schiit. A Fulla Schiit for less, a Hel Schiit for more power for cans that need it, or if you don't need a mic input, a Magni/Modi stack of Schiit.


I'm seeing the page for those products and I see NO reason to buy those shits.

Tell me, do you understand what are products like the X4 for? Tell me what are those for.
 
There is little reason to buy this shit, instead a person should look into buying Schiit. A Fulla Schiit for less, a Hel Schiit for more power for cans that need it, or if you don't need a mic input, a Magni/Modi stack of Schiit.

The so common error of generalizing things to ones tastes - following that trail of thought there's also little reason to buy anything from Schiit since most every computer nowadays come with decent DACs anyway, and like the legend of nwavguy proved good measurements don't mean shit.

There's a lot of things this does that Schiit doesn't like decoding some Dolby formats, outputing surround sound or mixing sources. The Schiit Hel is pretty sweet though if not for the audiophile class high price tag

Measurements pointless? Is this some kind of joke that I'm not getting?

Would you (or other users here) be OK with W1zzard saying for example "Yeah, those benchmarks, and temperature and noise measurements are a hassle and seem redundant. I'm gonna judge the gaming performance, temperatures, and noise levels by using my eyes, fingers, and eyes, respectively, from now on"?

Granted, loopback tests aren't all that useful to begin with, but it's still better than nothing. Or maybe use a separate sound card as reference.

Not having measurements basically defeats the purpose of a review. Let users cling to whatever number they want. The job of the reviewer is to provide proper information about the product. How users (mis)interpret it is their problem. The same can be said for CPU and GPU reviews here on TPU.
And numbers actually do tend to be meaningful. Depends which ones of course, but to say they don't mean anything is just strange for a reviewer.

Also, considering that all speakers and headphones should sound the same if the DAC/Amp is designed properly, means you are actually describing/reviewing the sound of the speakers or headphones, not the performance sound card. To measure the latter, proper equipment is required.

I believe what Inle meant is that comparing the measurements from audio gear (that require very specialized equipment to even be meaningfull) where we're way past diminishing returns (can you hear 0.001% vs 0.0004% vs 0.0008% THD from the x4 vs x3 vs schitt hel? doubt it) is not very useful - because it isn't...

Cpu/Gpu for example have very meaningful and, not only measurable, but easily measurable differences.

Audio gear reviews are always very hard and subjective. You have the list of headphone and other equipment used for comparison, take from that what you will.
 
Measurements pointless? Is this some kind of joke that I'm not getting?

Would you (or other users here) be OK with W1zzard saying for example "Yeah, those benchmarks, and temperature and noise measurements are a hassle and seem redundant. I'm gonna judge the gaming performance, temperatures, and noise levels by using my eyes, fingers, and eyes, respectively, from now on"?

Granted, loopback tests aren't all that useful to begin with, but it's still better than nothing. Or maybe use a separate sound card as reference.

Not having measurements basically defeats the purpose of a review. Let users cling to whatever number they want. The job of the reviewer is to provide proper information about the product. How users (mis)interpret it is their problem. The same can be said for CPU and GPU reviews here on TPU.
And numbers actually do tend to be meaningful. Depends which ones of course, but to say they don't mean anything is just strange for a reviewer.

Also, considering that all speakers and headphones should sound the same if the DAC/Amp is designed properly, means you are actually describing/reviewing the sound of the speakers or headphones, not the performance sound card. To measure the latter, proper equipment is required.

I had a feeling this discussion is going to pivot in this exact direction :) The CPU/GPU measurements cannot be compared to audio ones, the analogy doesn't stand. While you'll definitely see and should care about a difference in CPU/GPU heat dissipation or the framerate you're getting in the game you're playing, the same is not true for the numbers generated by RMAA tests (and many other audio-related tests for that matter). A THD of 0.0079% vs 0.0074%, or a 0.0003 IMD difference, or a 0.2 dB dynamic range difference, etc. - these don't mean anything for the overall listening experience, but might make it seem like a product A is better than product B, while that doesn't have to be the case in practice at all. I ran into tens, if not hundreds of audio products that measured good, but sounded worse than their competitors which measured worse. The way I see it, my job is to tell to the reader that the Sound Blaster X4 sounds indistinguishable from the more expensive GC7, and that it makes no sense to spend more money if getting a better sound quality is the goal. Some arbitrary measurements could take away from that conclusion.

With that being said, I have a plan to introduce a reference sound card for my upcoming sound card tests, but only if I find a good way to use it, and deem the numbers meaningful and relevant to the actual performance of the device.

The sound quality comments in my review are written after plugging the same headphones/headsets/speakers to the X4 and other sound cards and DAC/amps mentioned in the review. Commenting on its performance without direct comparisons, while using the same headphones/speakers, would be absolutely pointless (and quite stupid), as you've said yourself.

Thanks for the reply, but I have no idea what I said that made you think I'm re-amplifying the signal! I'm not!

..but I could. In fact, given how quiet the sound from the onboard is probably I should. I even thought about it and actually made plans for it if I sold my Z and couldn't get some other like the X4.
And there actually are headphone amplifiers out there. Similar could work for amplifiers too, simply raising the incredibly poor signal.

If you have a Z and a X4 could you compare the volume for some hard-to-drive self amplified speakers?

Also, I see what the other user said could be true: it doesn't support 44.1 or 88.2 Khz!!! That's probably a deal breaker for me!

I'm seeing the page for those products and I see NO reason to buy those shits.

Tell me, do you understand what are products like the X4 for? Tell me what are those for.

Sorry, perhaps I understood your original post wrong, you've mentioned connecting the speakers to the front port so that made me think you're connecting them to the (amplified) headphone output :) I don't have a Z-series sound card at my disposal but the loudness depends on the amplifier in your speakers, not your sound card. Assuming your speakers are connected to your sound card's analog line-out port, then the sound card takes your audio "file", coverts it from digital to analog (with its integrated DAC), and sends it the converted audio signal, now in analog form, to the amplifier in your speakers. The amplifier then amplifies the signal and reproduces it through the speaker drivers (this is a simplified overview of the audio chain). If your speaker system is connected to your sound card digitally (USB, TOSLINK, coax), then the sound card only serves as a transport (it "forwards" the audio signal to the DAC found in your speakers), but still does no amplification of the signal sent to the speakers. I'm not able find much info about the speaker system you've mentioned (was it Edifier C200?) so I'm not sure how you're connecting it. Some devices use a higher line out level but you won't generally find those in the world of PC audio (google consumer vs pro audio levels).

As for the Schiit products, they're an excellent choice for users who want a great headphone amplifier/powered speaker preamp (some models), and don't need other features a "real" sound card would offer, such as an microphone input, and a software driver with an EQ, audio profiles, virtual surround, Dolby processing, etc. For example, for $190 you can get the iFi Audio Zen DAC V2, a fantastic DAC/headphone amplifier, which sounds audibly better and is significantly more powerful than any Sound Blaster. But it's a one-trick pony, as it doesn't do anything other than output audio.

I believe what Inle meant is that comparing the measurements from audio gear (that require very specialized equipment to even be meaningfull) where we're way past diminishing returns (can you hear 0.001% vs 0.0004% vs 0.0008% THD from the x4 vs x3 vs schitt hel? doubt it) is not very useful - because it isn't...

Cpu/Gpu for example have very meaningful and, not only measurable, but easily measurable differences.

Audio gear reviews are always very hard and subjective. You have the list of headphone and other equipment used for comparison, take from that what you will.

That's exactly what I mean, sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my previous reply :)
 
Regarding the teardown: unfortunately it is not possible to get the PCB out of the case without breaking the device. It seems to be glued to it. Furthest you can get is to see the nearly completely empty bottom side of the PCB. As for the measurements, while I did do loopback tests and RMAA measurements in some of my previous sound card reviews, I stopped with that practice, because I found it pointless. Some users would cling to a certain number, completely ignoring the fact that it doesn't mean anything for the actual performance of the device. This is why I switched to in-depth testing with two powered speaker systems, and close to 10 different hi-fi headphones/gaming headsets, and describing the overall experience in great detail.



You shouldn't connect your speakers to anything other than line-level ports, to avoid amplifying the signal twice. Your speakers already have their own amplifier built-in so if you bring them a signal that's already been amplified (through the front headphone output, for example), the sound quality is going to degrade. You could also potentially cause damage, although this is going to happen only in extreme cases. As for the headphone output, the amplifier of the X4 has two gain settings, and it was powerful enough to drive all of my hi-fi headphones and gaming headsets at a sufficient volume, even when I wanted to listen to them LOUD.



That's correct, you need to buy the HDMI-optical converter separately, it is not supplied.



Honestly? The GC7 has more elaborate controls, a central display, and the option to bind its functions to C1-C4 buttons. The X4 has the SmartComms Kit. For all other intents and purposes, there's no noticeable difference between them. Including the sound quality. I'd buy the X4.



Same problem in my country (Croatia). I solved it by downloading the SXFI App APK manually. That won't help you if you have an iPhone, though... You bring a good point, I'll ask Creative what's up with the regional shenanigans.

Does the X4 have the same dual DSP as the GC7? I think on the X4 Super X-Fi is run via software where as the GC7 is hardware driven.

On the GC7 the Super X-Fi is powered by the UltraDSP chip and the Sound Blaster chip for the other features.
 
I had a feeling this discussion is going to pivot in this exact direction :) The CPU/GPU measurements cannot be compared to audio ones, the analogy doesn't stand. While you'll definitely see and should care about a difference in CPU/GPU heat dissipation or the framerate you're getting in the game you're playing, the same is not true for the numbers generated by RMAA tests (and many other audio-related tests for that matter). A THD of 0.0079% vs 0.0074%, or a 0.0003 IMD difference, or a 0.2 dB dynamic range difference, etc. - these don't mean anything for the overall listening experience, but might make it seem like a product A is better than product B, while that doesn't have to be the case in practice at all. I ran into tens, if not hundreds of audio products that measured good, but sounded worse than their competitors which measured worse. The way I see it, my job is to tell to the reader that the Sound Blaster X4 sounds indistinguishable from the more expensive GC7, and that it makes no sense to spend more money if getting a better sound quality is the goal
The analogy is perfectly apt. Nobody would accept it if a review for a graphics card or CPU lacks hard data. The same applies to reviews of other devices and peripherals as well: motherboards, SSDs, HDDs, monitors, etc.
How about cases? Measuring their performance is a challenge due to the numerous factors involved, however, with a well thought out methodology one can still produce useful data. Gamers Nexus is a prime example of this. Even Darksaber started performing some kind of measurements at some point in the past. Can his methodology be expanded and/or improved? Of course, there is always room for improvement. However, his reviews can actually be called reviews now, compared to the glorified unboxings they were previously.
For crying out loud, some people are trying to find some way to objectively review the performance of mousepads! Regardless what people might think about this (consider it misguided, pointless, laughable, doomed, etc.), I would consider it commendable. It is an attempt to apply some kind of scientific method to quantify something that is generally quite abstract.

How come audio equipment is the single category of electronics where measurements are considered unnecessary?

Generally, our senses are nowhere near as advanced as specialized pieces of technology we have developed to measure all kinds of things. Are you implying that your ears and brain are drastically different than those of the rest of humanity? If not, then what makes you think you actually hear a difference, and not imagining it? Are all listening tests double-blind? Is there a methodology at all or does it all boil down to "just trust me, bro"?

Some arbitrary measurements could take away from that conclusion.
I'm sorry, what? You start with a conclusion, then you measure, and if measurements do not match your conclusion, you assume measurements are wrong? Are you serious?!? You are afraid to measure a device because it might produce unwanted results?

Yes, tiny differences in various measurements would be inaudible, and if one device has excellent measurements and another device measures a tiny bit worse, it can safely be concluded that for all intents and purposes both devices are identical in terms of performance.
If the measurements show a large discrepancy, then the devices obviously perform differently, and one is objectively worse. Whether that is audible is a different matter, but it doesn't change the fact that measurements come first, not your feelings, assumptions, or how something may sound to you. Music may be art, but audio is science.
 
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