Creative X3 Hi-Res 7.1 SXFI USB DAC and Amplifier Review

A Closer Look

The amp its self is really nicely designed, with a square base that is going to sit nicely on your desktop. It’s that sweet spot of big enough to feel practical and comfortable, but not so big it feels like it’ll take up valuable desktop space I’d rather use for a beer, snacks, and scribbled notes. They kept the design blatantly obvious, with a big wheel in the middle, and three very clearly labelled buttons below that.

Down the front, you’ll find two easily accessible 3.5mm jacks. The one of the left is the microphone input.

While the jack on the right is the headphone output. What’s good is that the microphone input benefits from their audio processing tech, and the headphone amp will

The whole unit has a very mild texture to it, which gives it a really nice premium quality look and feel. The sound blaster logo has been left with a more glossy finish, rather than just being something they stuck on afterwards.

There’s a nice finish to all the edges too, with a trimmed and polished edge on the control wheel, and a nice raised edge on the surround.

Around the back, there’s quite a bit going on. There are stereo outputs for front, side and rear lines, with an additional one for centre/sub. There’s also an optical out which you could pass to an external amplifier. For input, you have a choice of Type-C USB port, or the additional line-in, which you can use to mix an external source into the primary mix from USB.