Sounds Like It’s Time To Upgrade
If you have been hoping for a new Sound Blaster sound card, it has been a long drought but your wait is finally over. The new X5 Hi-Res Dual DAC USB sound card is available, for a price of $280 directly from Sound Blaster. That will get you dual Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs with TOSLINK Optical, RCA and USB A and C. In addition to that your headphones can be connected to the Xamp headphone bi-amplifier either with an unbalanced 3.5mm or a balanced 4.4mm jack. The inputs match the output choices, with an additional 3.5mm microphone jack, making it an all in one audio solution.
As to the quality of the audio, Hardware Asylum were more than impressed with how the X5 Hi-Res Dual DAC USB compared to the Sound Blaster X7 that they were using previously. As with the majority of Sound Blaster products, they will work straight out of the box, but if you want to get the most out of it you will need to install some software. The Creative App will extend the options on your PC and is also available on Android and iOS to link it up to your gaming console.
