Disclosure: The Sound Blaster X4 was provided by Creative for this review. Please read more about our product review disclosure here.

When you think of gaming sound cards or gaming DACs, the first words that probably enter your mind are “Sound Blaster”. Why? That’s because Creative has been making sound cards since 1989, and hasn’t really taken their foot off the gas since then. Things have changed since the 1990’s and 2000’s though. Internal PC sound cards are no longer synonymous with gaming audio, with the landscape shifting to USB-based sound cards. Creative has kept up with the times though, launching numerous USB sound cards since 2015. Earlier this year I looked at the Sound BlasterX G6 and its viability in 2024. Today though I’m taking a look at the Sound Blaster X4, which is essentially the modern replacement for the G6 (as well as an upgrade to the X3) with more modern technology and design choices. Does that make the X4 the ultimate gaming USB DAC? Let’s get into the review to find out.

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• Sound Blaster X4
•  USB-C to USB-A cable (2 meters)
• Optical cable (1 meter)
• Manuals and warranty documentation

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Physical Appearance

The Sound Blaster X4 has a sleek and compact boxy design and weighs in at just 384 grams. The small and lightweight nature makes it perfect for moving between spots, such as between a PC and a game console, or just taking it to a friend’s place for some good old-fashioned LAN gaming. At the same time, it looks perfectly at home on your desk as a desktop DAC/Amp, with four low-profile rubber feet keeping it in place.

The dark grey metallic texture of the outer shell gives the X4 a more serious and industrial look, compared to that of a typical gamer DAC with contrasting colors and RGB. The standout feature of the X4’s design is undoubtedly the large volume knob on top. It’s a functional centerpiece that allows for easy volume control, as well as quickly muting audio by pressing down on it.

The X4’s build quality is extremely solid, with the metallic shell smooth to the touch and just enough weightiness to the device to give it a premium feel.

Buttons and I/O

The Sound Blaster X4 doesn’t skimp on connectivity options. On the front panel, you’ll find separate 3.5mm jacks for microphone input and headphone output with microphone support. This setup is ideal for gaming headsets or if you prefer to use a standalone mic, and it’s great that the X4 caters to either use case.

Turning to the back of the device we find line-out ports for Front, Side, Rear, and Center/Sub speaker connections, allowing you to hook up 2.1, 5.1, or even 7.1 speaker systems for an immersive audio experience. Next to those is a Line/Optical input connection for use with external audio devices, such as smartphones, digital audio players, and some game consoles via an adapter. Then we have a TOSLINK optical output connection, if you want to output audio to an AV receiver, amp, or other audio equipment. Lastly is the USB-C connection, which is used as the data connection with a PC, PS4, PS5, or Nintendo Switch. It also doubles as the sound card’s power source.

Looking at the top of the X4 contains the volume knob, which is lit up with a sleek blue LED ring when powered on. Below the volume knob are three buttons: Audio Balance, Mode, and Super X-Fi. I’ll touch on more about these in the Features section below.

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The Sound Blaster X4 is packed with a ton of features, most of which are accessed through the Creative App. Before getting to the app though, let’s go over in detail the physical button functions I mentioned earlier.

Button Functions

First up is the Audio Balance button. Pressing and holding the button until the LED ring around the volume knob turns green allows enables audio balance which allows you to increase or decrease your game audio relative to the chat volume. Meaning your game audio will increase but the chat volume will decrease, and vice versa. You have to do a bit of setup to get this to work though. I’m using Windows 11 in my example. First, set your default audio output device as Speakers (Sound BlasterX4), and then for your voice chat app set SPDIF Out (Sound Blaster X4) as the output device. These are the two audio sources that the Audio Balance feature mixes between, allowing you to prioritize hearing your friends talk while in the multiplayer lobby for a game, and then increasing the game volume while in a match so you can focus on the gameplay.

The second is the Mode button. Pressing and holding it enables/disables Direct Mode, indicated by an orange LED light above the button. Direct Mode disables any DSP (digital signal processing) done by the X4, giving you the “pure” audio signal. Simply pressing the button will cycle through three EQ presets, which you can define in the Creative App.

Lastly is the Super X-Fi button. I’ll talk about this more in the Sound Quality section.

Creative App

The Create App is the successor to the Sound Blaster Command software used by devices such as the Sound BlasterX G6, and all modern Creative USB DACs are now utilizing it. It’s available for Windows and MacOS and even has a mobile app on Android and iOS that allows you to control the settings of the X4 via Bluetooth.

The Creative App overall has a more streamlined, cleaner look than that of its predecessor, with more settings grouped together for better accessibility.

Looking at the main screen of the Creative App we see four tabs on the left side for navigating the various categories: Device, Playback, Recording, Settings.

The Device tab contains all of the functions for your specific device, in my case the X4. Playback is used for setting the audio output sample rate, as well as for enabling virtual surround sound and adjusting the gain setting. The Recording tab is for configuring the microphone sample rate. Finally, the Settings tab is for setting the USB audio mode, and for checking for application, driver, and firmware updates. There’s also a quick toggle on the bottom left of the screen for the output selection (headphones or speakers), and the audio and microphone volumes just below that.

Looking deeper into what’s available in the Device tab we have the following functions:

Sound Mode – This allows you to select and configure sound profiles. There are a bunch of pre-configured profiles included, ranging from generic Gaming, Music, and Movie ones to profiles created for specific games, such as Apex Legends, Call of Duty, and Red Dead Redemption 2. These profiles essentially group various other functions so you don’t have to manually set everything up each time you go to play a specific game or watch a movie.

Super X-Fi – This opens the Super X-Fi Windows App (or installs it when you run it for the first time). Super X-Fi is Creative’s own take on headphone holography technology (such as Dolby Atmos, or Sony Real360 audio). The idea is to put a surround sound speaker system in your headphones by using algorithms to place sounds in specific places, so your brain thinks it’s in a 360-degree environment. My thoughts on the results of how this works are in the Sound Quality section.

Acoustic Engine – This is where most of the DSP options live. Creative has its virtual surround technology (referred to as SBX in the Sound Blaster Command app) and from here, you can adjust settings related to that. For the Surround setting, I generally start with these values for these types of games:

25%-39%: FPS games

60% – 75% – Open world games and RPGs

Equalizer – A 10-band equalizer is included here, with many presets included. You can also select which EQ profiles can be selectable using the “Mode” button.

SmartComms Kit – There are three features that make up the SmartComms Kit: VoiceDetect, NoiseClean-out, and NoiseClean-in. I’ll talk about them in more detail in the Sound Quality section.

CrystalVoice – This is a set of voice communication filters for your microphone, including a rather interesting Voice Morph feature. Again, I’ll go into more detail in the Sound Quality section.

Direct Mode – As mentioned before, enabling this will disable any DSP done on the X4, and will disable the use of many of the X4’s functions, such as the Equalizer, Acoustic Engine, etc. SmartComms Kit is the only feature usable with Direct Mode enabled.

Scout Mode – This mode enhances quieter sounds such as footsteps, character movement, and gun reloads, making them easier for you to hear and therefore easier to pinpoint in the game.

Encoder – The X4 supports Dolby Digital Live encoding via the optical output port and can be enabled here.

Mixer – Here you can mix the volume levels for all of the inputs and outputs on the Sound Blaster X4.

Mobile App Control

The Creative App offers remote control of some of the functions of the X4, such as enabling Super X-Fi, enabling and modifying the Equalizer, enabling/disabling Direct Mode, and the Mixer. This is extremely important if you are using the Sound Blaster X4 with a game console since there’s really no way to manage any of those settings without connecting it to a PC first.

There’s also the mobile Super X-FI app, which is needed when you enable SXFI on the X4. The mobile app is necessary as it guides you through the process of taking pictures of your ear and head in order to optimize the audio algorithm for your specific head type.

Overall, the apps and functions of the X4 work exactly as intended, and I never experienced any bugs or issues when using it for various purposes (listening to music, playing games, watching YouTube videos). I did initially encounter an issue when I first plugged in the X4 into my computer and installed the required software and drivers. It seemed to have installed a newer driver that was actually pulled due to various bugs, and the fix was to simply uninstall the driver through Device Manager, reboot, and let the Creative App install the correct driver, version 2.0.2.10 as of this review. The process is detailed in this Reddit post.

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Gaming Performance

Let’s talk about the gaming performance first, and for the games, I mainly played Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, Halo: The Master Chief Collection (namely Halo CE and Halo 2), Civilization VI, and Skyrim.

Simply put, as a gamer, the Sound Blaster X4 will do everything you want it to do. The stereo performance is absolutely solid, with good imaging performance and a clean, distortion-free sound. I never felt like the X4 was holding any of my headphones back. What I really like is that, even in stereo mode, you can enable the surround setting in the Acoustic Engine to simulate surround audio. This was very helpful when playing Halo 2 in MC (classic graphics and audio, I guess I’m a purist) since it only outputs stereo audio, and on top of that, the audio mix is not the greatest, even with mods to fix it. Enabling the Surround setting and setting it to 38 improved the audio mix, and also helped with the placement of sounds, giving the impression that I was listening to a surround sound system.

Setting the X4 to Virtual 5.1 or 7.1 Surround and playing games like Halo CE and Skyrim was truly a joy. The placement of the audio cues sounded correct, and for a game like Skyrim, it made the open world seem larger as it opened up the soundstage and allowed for greater immersion.

If you use Dolby Atmos for some games, like I do for Call of Duty, then you’ll be happy to know that you can use Dolby Atmos with the X4. It works and sounds exactly as it does with my ZEN DAC V2 and my Qudelix T71.

Music and Movie Performance

Listening to music using the X4, it’s extremely competent and can hold its own against more expensive DACs. The DAC in the X4 supports up to 24-bit/192kHz sampling rates, which should be enough even for most audiophiles. There is no DSD or MQA support, nor is there an ASIO driver, which is disappointing as the Sound BlasterX G6 included an ASIO driver.

In Direct Mode, Audiophiles using the X4 might notice a slightly constrained soundstage as it tends to sound on the more intimate side. It also doesn’t sound as natural or warm when compared to something like a ZEN DAC 3, but it’s also not meant to compete against something like that.

For movies, the X4 also sounds and performs great, and actually, I found the Acoustic Engine Surround setting helpful here to enhance the soundstage and surround audio.

Power

I never once had to enable high gain on the X4, and even with my Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80ohm I never had to go past 30% volume. You won’t be starved for power on this DAC. IEMs are another story though. The minimum output impedance is fairly high for an IEM, so when using an IEM there’s a noticeable hiss in the background. You can resolve the problem by using something like iFi’s iEMatch to lower the output impedance, but overall I wouldn’t recommend using IEMs with the X4.

Super X-Fi

Earlier I went over what this feature is and how to configure it. But once all that is set up, how does it actually sound? Quite good honestly. It’s not revolutionary, but simply another tool in your virtual surround audio toolbox. The soundstage is expanded in a more natural way compared to that of using the Acoustic Engine surround setting, providing a more out-of-your-head experience.

There’s also the Super X-Fi Battle Mode setting, which focuses less on the surround sound aspect and more on positional sound cues. This mode is intended for competitive multiplayer games to help you pinpoint enemies faster and more accurately so you can act first. It works really well in Call of Duty, and I would say it rivals the Dolby Atmos performance, which performs extremely well in that game.

Scout Mode

This feature is also present on the SoundBlasterX G6. It amplifies quieter sounds such as footsteps and weapon sounds, allowing you to hear them more easily. It has the same intended effect as Super X-Fi Battle Mode, but I prefer the X-Fi Battle Mode over Scout Mode as it seemed to perform better for me.

Game Console Performance

I tested the Sound Blaster X4 on my PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. The actual audio performance is the same as on PC, which is a good thing as it means it sounds great, so on that front there’s very little to talk about. The biggest distinction between using the X4 on PC vs consoles is what features are supported. When using the X4 with a PS5, PS4, or Nintendo Switch you do not get any of the surround sound virtualization features, with Super X-Fi/Battle Mode being the exception. You also don’t get access to SmartComms Kit, CrystalVoice, Scout Mode, or the Acoustic Engine. The PS5’s 3D audio is supported though. As well, the microphone input also works.

Microphone Performance

Looking purely at the microphone and headset performance, it sounds extremely crisp and clean with no static or noise.

Diving into the various features of the microphone performance, we’ll first look at CrystalVoice. There are various options we can enable here, and some will be more helpful than others depending on your recording environment. One really fun feature is Voice Morph, which turns your voice into an Elf, Dwarf, or even a robot. The Microphone Equalizer is the feature I found to be most useful, with various presets to help reduce bass if you have a deep voice, or reduce the harshness of a high voice.

Then we have the SmartComms Kit, a compilation of various features. The first one, VoiceDetect, is intended to automatically mute and unmute your microphone based on when you are talking. It works very well, and I could see this feature being handy not only for gaming online with friends, but also during conference calls. The last two are NoiseClean-out and NoiseClean-In, which are intended to be noise-canceling features for outgoing and incoming audio. NoiseClean-Out works very, very well. I had my Dyson fan sitting right beside me at a high fan speed and it was filtered out of my microphone audio with no negative effects. The NoiseClean-In feature is applied to all incoming audio, which includes game and music audio. It wasn’t very useful for me, honestly.

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At the beginning of the review I posited the question, do all these features and design choices make the Sound Blaster X4 the ultimate gaming USB DAC? I’d argue that it does, as it gives you excellent gaming audio performance with a plethora of features. At the same time, if you want to listen to high-quality FLAC music files, or watch movies, it can accommodate both scenarios with ease. Usually, when a device tries to be the jack of trades it ends up being the master of none, but thankfully the X4 never forgets that it’s a gaming audio device first, and never sacrifices on that front.

The Sound Blaster X4 does lack certain features and characteristics that audiophiles would be looking for, so if you are an audiophile looking for a gaming DAC the X4 will work great, as long as you keep in mind its limitations when it comes to audiophile-level playback and sound. If you’re not an audiophile, or if you’re just dipping your toe into that world, the X4 will perform admirably, especially when paired with a high-quality headphone.

I do wish Creative included an ASIO driver for the X4, and I also would have liked to see granular control of the LED lights on the device as the blue ring can sometimes be a little too bright (especially in a dark room). I also wish they could have tweaked the impedance to allow greater compatibility with IEMs. Really though, those are small details, as on the whole, the X4 succeeds at what it set out to do. The ultimate gaming USB sound card? I would say yes, especially for the price of $130 USD. I highly recommend the Sound Blaster X4 if you’re in the market for a gaming DAC.

What do you all think of the X4? Would you like to see a detailed comparison against the Sound BlasterX G6? Let me know in the comments below or by contacting me directly.

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