Creative Announces Sound Blaster GC7, a Game Streaming USB DAC and Amp

[Tsing]

Image: Creative



Creative has announced the Sound Blaster GC7, an external DAC and AMP that’s built for gamers, streamers, and content creators. The design of the unit allows users to quickly and easily adjust volume and other parameters on the fly, while four programmable buttons are also available for quick access to saved presets or shortcuts to applications. At the heart of the Sound Blaster GC7 is Creative’s Super X-Fi Headphone Holography and Sound Blaster audio processing technologies, which enable finely tuned and enhanced sound.









The Sound Blaster GC7 is an audiophile-class DAC that offers lower noise floor, lower distortion, and more distinct individual sound effects. Users can also stream at up to 24-bit / 192 kHz PCM playback and can support up to 7.1 virtual surround on...

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[LazyGamer]

So... I'm typically in the 'don't buy a Creative Product' category. Having bought plenty myself over the decades, and enjoyed most, I simply find the vast majority of their offerings to be fairly tone-deaf.

Their last big release, the X3, was plagued by driver issues. I can't say today whether that's been resolved, though while I'd expect that it has, that's a real blemish on a product that should 'just work'.

Like seriously, these aren't complicated appliances.

But I have a confession: when the audio jack in my wife's ASUS laptop decided to die, I grabbed a Sound Blaster Play! 4 as a replacement. Simple device, relatively simple software, and yeah, it just works- while also having actually useful buttons on the device itself. And it was cheaper than all the niche 'hi-fi' options that serve a similar function.

So here's what I'll say about the GC7: so long as Creative has the basics figured in terms of software and functionality, they have a decent proposition here.

But where the GC7 could pull ahead is if they get the assignable button functionality done well and if the overall tactility of the buttons and knobs is refined.

Where they'd fail is at US$169, there are stacks of legitimate audio interfaces that can do everything that the GC7 purports to do well enough, frankly, far better.