Creative Sound BlasterX Pro-Gaming Katana Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Soundbar System can found at many retailers, with prices ranging from about £270-310 depending on where you shop, and it fluctuates too, so best to have a dig around for a good deal. For example, Amazon was cheaper, but now it’s not at £310, and I expect that to change to cheaper again soon.

Overview

Let’s get straight to it, this isn’t a cheap setup, but it wasn’t ever designed to be affordable, it was designed to be an amazing sound system first. Fortunately, Creative has not let their customers down and has delivered a premium quality product here, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a gamer, music lover, or just want your daily YouTube binge to have banging sound, the Katana will not disappoint you.

Is the Katana perfect? No, it’s not, it does have a few minor faults with it, but they’re not really deal breakers for everyone, and for others, they’re likely something you can live with anyway. The biggest one for me is that the headphone jack is on the back, tucked into a recess. This is not easy to get to on a night when I want to switch to my headphones so I can game while my partner watches something on TV or I have a skype call, and you can’t toggle between headphones and speakers in the software, which is annoying. I can move the unit out and fumble for the port, but I’d rather have it on the side of the unit or anywhere else for that matter.

The next is the fact it doesn’t sit on my desk. I actually have it on my monitor stand, so the left and right 1/4 of the unit is actually floating just a few millimetres off the desk, which means that its feet aren’t doing anything. I think having them height adjustable would fix this problem for the many people that have large monitor bases. This is less of a problem if you have a deeper desk than myself, though, as mine is only 60cm deep.

A few minor faults aside, which are fairly subjective, the Katana is a great product. The use of multiple drivers and the tri-amp design means that it can deliver a huge sound in a fantastic form factor. The stereo performance is powerful, and the width of the surround sound is nothing short of impressive too. I often review things for a few days, box them back up and move onto the next, but the Katana is still on my desk well over a week after testing began and I see no motivation to stop using it. I guess my Creative T20 stereo speakers have now been replaced after many years long service!

Pros

• Extremely powerful
• Flawless sound quality
• Excellent surround processing
• Multiple profiles
• Easy to use and powerful EQ settings
• RGB LED lighting
• Headphone/microphone support
• Bluetooth pairing
• Compact design
• Easy to setup and use
• Remote control included
• Great for all kinds of multimedia

Cons

• Headphone jack placement needs improving

Neutral

• Height adjustable feet would be a nice improvement

“The Creative Sound BlasterX Katana is as much of a deadly weapon as its namesake. It may be compact and slim, but it gives a stellar performance that’s sure to put a smile on anyone who cares about high-end audio performance in their favourite movies, music, games and more!”