The Sound BlasterX Kratos S5 is an incredibly long name to say but it sure doesn’t skimp on features. (I use a Scarlett 2i2, for reference.) Definitely better than your average pair of computer speakers. The Creative Sound BlasterX Katana is an OK attempt at a soundbar. NOTE: It is recommended to use the shorter USB cable supplied. Games Reporter, 2) Most dedicated PC speakers are terrible. The product comes in 2 pieces, including a soundbar that you will place on your desk and a subwoofer on the ground. Something to note, if you’re either a sit/stand or stand-all-day type of person. Go much higher and the subwoofer has a harder time keeping up, resulting in noticeably tinny audio as the upper range outpaces the lower. Create your own setup and you can save it to the Katana’s onboard memory, making it available even if you change computers, uninstall the software, or move it to your living room. Desktop speakers are still a must-have for a lot of Mac and Windows users. You may just win a little more too. A string of 49 RGB LEDs is arrayed alongside the bottom of the Katana, reflecting off your desk and putting on a miniature light show. 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Creative actually claims the Katana supports Virtual 7.1 when connected by USB, though as with headsets, it’s more a crude approximation of surround. Measuring just two feet long and a mere three inches for its height, the speaker’s slim profile fits perfectly beneath your monitor whether it’s on a movable arm or stand. The Creative Sound Blaster X Katana is a speaker meant for desks. Creative’s Sound BlasterX Katana is an all-around attractive package. For instance, there’s a beats-per-minute (BPM) counter built in to speed up or slow down animations, but no way to sync the lights to your music. The Katana is powered by a powerful set of three amplifiers providing a … Still, you’d think those options would be there at launch. This download contains an updated firmware for Sound BlasterX Katana. Given it’s on the top and towards the rear though, you’ll rarely notice it. I also suggest setting the “Immersion” dial in Creative’s software to “Ultra Wide.” It makes the Katana sound less like a two-foot-wide soundbar and more like a broad array of speakers. It is not much but still ca… Download Creative’s software and you’ll gain access to more customization options, with the bar split into seven groups of seven LEDs. The Katana is meant for desks though. Opkaldt efter sværdet så teknologisk perfekt i struktur og så krævende i sin skabelse, Sound BlasterX Katana udviser den samme slanke raffinement og formidabel styrke i sit design og lydstyrke. Still, the PC seems ripe for soundbars to take over, and Creative’s put itself in a good position by being first to say, “Yes, this is for desktops.” Now let’s see how long it takes for everyone else to *ahem* “take inspiration” from Creative’s example. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The sheer build quality, unique design and technology housed within the soundbar and sub is staggering. There are a few presets available out the box, including a rainbow wave, a dim yellow mood light, and a pale white band that bounces back and forth. On the rear of the soundbar, Creative included numerous connections. I’ll also note that the power cable on the Katana is a bit short. Creative obviously wasn’t playing around during the development for the Sound BlasterX Katana. It is by no means a powerhouse, but it has enough muscles to be used for gaming, and it also works well for movies and TV. Anything bigger—like, say, a TV—and it’d look a bit small and silly. For more details, read the rest of … Creative’s default “Concert” setting is a good place to start, boosting the low end in particular and rolling off some of the harsher tones. It’s a cheap bit of kit, but works fine when you’re too lazy to reach up and hit one of the buttons on the bar itself (or if you plan to use the Katana in the living room). Razer sort-of made an attempt with its Leviathan a few years ago, but even that was more geared towards the living room. It incorporates a slim profile to easily fit under your favorite gaming monitor, yet … It’s attractive and loud enough to wake the dead, and sounds about as good as any desktop speaker system I’ve ever heard. Tired of all the clutter on your desk? Out of the box it has that “radio” sound I associate with smaller speakers, especially computer speakers. Instead of massive soundbars that travel the length of your 55-inch TVs, these UMAS are short enough to sit on your PC desk, but powerful enough to rival their living room counterparts. The software’s fairly foolproof, though I’m a bit sad Creative didn’t take advantage of seemingly obvious customization capabilities. If you buy something through this post, IGN may get a share of the sale. The sound bar is designed to tuck under any monitor with a height of just 60mm. By which I again mean to say the Katana is loud. Hayden writes about games for PCWorld and doubles as the resident Zork enthusiast. A bit of EQing goes a long way though. On top of that, it's fairly safe to say that Sound BlasterX Katana is a more popular sound bar, based on its 100+ reviews. We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. Read our, Learn more about PCWorld's Digital Editions, Sleek package compared to most PC speakers, Easily tuneable audio and plenty of volume, Subwoofer has a hard time keeping up at high volumes, RGB lighting missing some obvious customizations, Audio doesn't sound as wide or directional as 2+ discreet speakers. Reproduktor Katana představujetřídu samu o sobě. Even at more listenable volumes, the Katana is a bit treble-heavy. This audio system embodies the perfect combination of our most powerful 24-bit high resolution DAC and sophisticated 5-driver system. If you’ve already got a great set of speakers, there’s no reason to rush out and upgrade. It’s software, so there’s a chance Creative gets around to adding those in the future. Indeed, the soundstage felt simply enormous. It looks good, sounds good, and manages to do so without taking up your entire desk. When paired with a good headset, the Sound BlasterX G6 brings games alive, delivering new audio details even from games you thought you knew inside out. The … And hey, at least you’ll see these lights—it’s not like headsets, where they’re purely for other people’s benefit. The subwoofer is passive, just a nondescript black box approximately five inches wide, a foot tall and a foot deep, connected by a single cable. The Sound BlasterX Kratos S3 is the entry-level 2.1 speaker system in Creative’s gaming line, though the only thing that visually separates these from standard PC speakers is … Big sound, small form factor, and one eye-popping price tag. It is quite straightforward to set up the system. There are five drivers total, with two tweeters along the facing edge, two mid-bass drivers pushing audio up from the top, and a separate subwoofer unit meant to go under your desk. Not a bad deal, really. Not really. Cue the SoundBlasterX Katana, a soundbar for pairing with a PC monitor that creates 2.1 audio – using a separate, wired subwoofer – and offers a … But for some reason the soundbar hasn’t made its way to desktop PCs, even as it’s become a hit with everyone else. The only thing that might give me some pause is the inconvenience of plugging in headphones – and perhaps the fact that these can’t grow with you to something that requires HDMI. Two discrete speakers give me more control, plus the LSR305 setup definitely has richer audio (even without a subwoofer) and a wider soundstage, no tweaking necessary. Or are partially deaf already. Compared to other speaker systems, the Sound BlasterX Katana is fairly easy to setup as it is only two items that need to be positioned. It’s hokey, but then so is everything else RGB. Notably absent is HDMI, which is a bit strange in this day and age but probably not a big deal for PC users. The Katana fires on almost every cylinder. The more audio you hear, the more fun you'll have. Creative's Sound BlasterX Katana might be overkill for desktop audio, especially on Macs, but it's impressive nevertheless. The nearby Sound BlasterX logo is a bit of an eyesore, very video game-centric in its aesthetic on a device that’s otherwise sleek and high-end looking. Deafening. The Product Creative Sound Blaster X Katana Review. The Katana is a relatively small soundbar since it’s designed to sit under your monitor instead of a large TV. Creative Sound BlasterX Katana (Soundbar) (Photography courtesy of Creative Labs) While it is not the most needed addition to a soundbar, in all honesty, it was a nice touch. The Sound BlasterX Katana is as much of a deadly weapon as its namesake. An LED panel on the front gives you rudimentary control of the Katana, with five buttons spanning the top: Power, Volume Down, Up, Source, and the “SBX” button that cycles between various preset profiles. Not just loud. There are 3 cables coming out of the soundbar, which are the power cord, the subwoofer cord, and the USB cable connecting to your PC. The roughly 24 inch sound bar is the brains of the setup featuring multi core audio DSP processing and doubling as an external sound card/DAC driving the 150 Watts of 24-bit high resolution audio. On the other hand, the LSR305 takes up a huge amount of space and costs $300 a pair—plus the cost of an audio interface to power them. Before we even get into a discussion of sound quality, let’s talk sound quantity. Sound BlasterX Katana is a popular option on the higher end of the price range. Listen: Does it measure up to an actual set of speakers? PCWorld |. It looks good, sounds good, and manages to do so without taking up your entire desk. Aside from its relatively diminutive size, it’s a pretty standard soundbar design—black grill on the front, housed in a brushed-aluminum chassis. There is lack of resolution in the treble, which makes the music experience less tempting. By and large, the PC has stuck to 3.5mm input dual-speaker systems, occasionally with a subwoofer included. Since this is the passive subwoofer, it doesn’t need power and you will just need to connect a cord to the soundbar. From there, you can set to taste—there’s a lot of headroom to experiment with, and you can get surprisingly good audio out of the Katana considering it’s a soundbar. It is quite large, as it not only packs the soundbar, but the subwoofer too. Creative’s latest Sound BlasterX Katana isn’t quite the first PC soundbar on the market, but it’s the first that actually fits well below the monitor. There’s also Bluetooth capability if you want it. Rounding out the hardware is a remote control with the ability to Play/Pause, adjust volume and EQ, and cycle through lighting schemes, sources, or audio presets. But really, anything up to around 35 inches will work fine. It fits right under your monitor with a slimness that's unmatched by other gaming “sound bars”, and is powered by the award winning multi-core audio DSP making it the world's first true Under Monitor Audio System (UMAS). The Katana may seem expensive at $300, given most PC speakers are around $100 a pair, but it sounds pretty damn fantastic, takes up only a smidgen of desk real estate, includes a sound card if you want to use a headset or headphones (3.5mm only) with something better than your motherboard’s onboard audio, and puts on a pretty light show while it’s at it. The Katana gives you an immersive audio experience for your games and movies with the BlasterX Acoustic Engine and Dolby Digital Decoding. Creative’s Sound BlasterX Katana is an all-around attractive package. Though the soundbar itself is easy to place under a monitor on a desktop, you will need to find a suitable location for the subwoofer. A confession: I haven’t managed to push it over 25 yet because it felt like the Katana was punching holes in my eardrums from two feet away. For more. This audio system embodies the perfect combination of our most powerful 24-bit high resolution DAC and sophisticated 5-driver system. Sound BlasterX Katana – Software The Katana works with a version of the same Creative Connect suite that powers other Sound Blaster products, … In all, the Creative Stage V2 is value for money. It’s strange for a few reasons: 1) Unlike TVs, monitors rarely ever come with built-in speakers. Sound BlasterX Katana nese název po meči, který má technologicky perfektní strukturu a jehož výroba je velmi náročná. It's in the top 3 bestselling sound bars and has dozens of popular alternatives in the same price range, such as Vizio SB3651-E6 or Vizio Smartcast 45'' 3.1. The Katana gives you an immersive audio experience for your games and movies with the BlasterX Acoustic Engine and Dolby Digital Decoding. It’s a particularly good fit on a 24-inch monitor, with the tweeters lining up almost perfectly with the corners of my own panel. Of course, it may not tally up in the ways of a Sonos Beam Smart Soundbar (S$699) or even the Creative Sound BlasterX Katana (S$419) would perform, but for the sleek design, surround sound and clear dialog, it’s surely a soundbar that one won’t be disappointed with. If you want to blast this thing at full power, make sure you don’t have neighbors. The Katana is impressive, but toggling back and forth between it and my standard JBL LSR305 studio monitor setup, I still prefer the latter. Creative Sound BlasterX Katana review: Sound quality. The Sound BlasterX Katana is comprised of two main components. So Creative isn’t stretching the truth too far when it calls its new Sound BlasterX Katana the first “Under-Monitor Audio System.” Sure, you could still use it in your living room—it’s got all the necessary inputs, and it gets damn loud (more on that later). Vykazuje stejnou elegantní dokonalost a impozantní sílu designu a zvukového výkonu. Nor is there any sort of “Visualizer” type display available. Oh, and it … On the back are a dozen or so hookups: MicroUSB for your PC, regular USB for thumbdrives or whatever, optical, 3.5mm, and more. PCWorld helps you navigate the PC ecosystem to find the products you want and the advice you need to get the job done. Creative's Sound BlasterX Katana brings the soundbar to the PC. By thegamescouts.com on December 23, 2016 100 The box in which the Creative Sound BlasterX Katana comes is quite intimidating. For its class, this is hands down the best speaker system I have ever encountered. Shove it out of the way or use it as a footrest. Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc. Is The Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Built as Tough as The Legendary Weapon? Creative's Sound BlasterX Katana brings the soundbar to the PC. And besides, it sounds better in the 10 to 20 range anyway. Rated for 75W RMS, the Katana is a bit much for my apartment and could easily fill a much larger room. The Creative Sound BlasterX Katana is a stunning piece of kit every gamer should own. Big sound, small form factor, and one eye-popping price tag. The Sound BlasterX G6 has the best audio performance of any USB sound card or gaming DAC in the market. So Sound BlasterX Katana, while being a cheaper option, tends to get more favorable ⭐ reviews than the $1498 Sony 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos, as seen on the chart below. 3) Desk space is often in short supply, and cable routing a pain. With a sleek and slim profile, Creative’s soundbar, the Sound BlasterX Katana, almost goes unnoticed at first glance. It should be fine for normal purposes, but I’ve taken to testing every device with my sit/stand adjustable desk, and while the Katana can be used in the standing position the cord just barely reaches—and my power strip sits directly beneath my desk. The volume steps from 1 to 50, but I’ve kept it around 10 for most of my testing—20 if I really wanted to get loud. Sound BlasterX Katana is $118 more expensive than the average sound bar ($131.99). Creative has kept the branding to a minimum with just the Sound BlasterX badging to confirm this isn’t your typical sound bar. We’re in the era of RGB-everything, so of course the Katana also lights up. Loud, attractive, and high quality, the Katana deserves to be unsheathed under your gaming PC. Oh, and it bears repeating: It gets loud. Considering the burgeoning popularity of soundbars in living room setups, it’s surprising they’re mostly missing in action on the PC side of things. However, as far as dedicated PC soundbars go, these peripherals are quite rare, and the Katana is sure to pique one’s interest. At two feet long and a mere three inches tall, its slim profile fits comfortably under your monitor whether it’s on a stand or a movable arm. With a height of just 60mm taking creative sound blasterx katana review your entire desk built-in speakers this at... 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