Creative Sound Blaster GC7 Review

For some people, actually, quite a lot of people, the onboard audio on your motherboard is good enough. That's a pretty reasonable thing these days though, as onboard audio has come on a long way, and some high-end motherboards have incredible audio hardware as standard. However, you may be limited in terms of controls and input/outputs. Creative has been making internal and external audio solutions for a very long time now, and the Creative Sound Blaster GC7 is the latest evolution of this. Over the last 10 years, I've played around with a massive range from Creative, such as the monstrous X7 Desktop DAC, to the more compact and modern X3, and plenty more in-between! Creative Sound Blaster GC7 The new GC7 looks set to be more than just a humble AMP and DAC, as it features lots of fancy built-in controls, giving you a tactile interface that's also visually appealing; no doubt both aspects of this will appeal to gamers and streamers alike. So while it promises audiophile grade processing to improve you movies, music and games, it also have programmable controls to allow you to mix profiles, settings, levels and much more on the fly, which is obviously more tailored towards your gaming. However, it's also equipped with the latest and greatest Creative technologies, including my own personal favourite, Super X-Fi, or SXFI if you want it written even shorter. There's also SXFI BATTLE MODE, Scout Mode too. If that's not enough, it's running through an AKM4377 DAC, a dual-DSP system that has a suite of Dolby Processing, and so much more. Features ON-THE-FLY CONTROLS WITH PROGRAMMABLE BUTTONS | The Sound Blaster GC7 is ergonomically designed with simple and intuitive one-handed controls for quick adjustments on the fly. It also comes with 4 fully programmable buttons that you can customize with your favourite audio profiles, or program your own macros for some quick manoeuvres during a live stream. You can even customize it further with your preferred RGB lighting colours to match the device colours with the rest of your setupDUAL DSP WITH INCREDIBLE AUDIO PROCESSING | Equipped with both Super X-Fi and Sound Blaster audio technologies, the Sound Blaster GC7 offers you top-tier audio processing capabilities. Immerse in the hyper-realistic audio holography from Super X-Fi that recreates the soundstage of a multi-speaker system in your headphones; or experience Sound Blaster’s full suite of audio enhancements that has been fine-tuned over 30 years, and customize your audio to your liking for both speakers and headphones.HUNT DOWN YOUR ENEMIES | Sound Blaster GC7 comes with both SXFI BATTLE Mode and Scout Mode, so you can choose the best weapon for your gameplay. BATTLE Mode makes perfect use of Super X-Fi technology to bring you realistic audio cues with both direction and distance, allowing you to pinpoint the exact position of a sound source. Scout Mode focuses on detection—enhancing audio cues and bringing them closer to your ears so you can pick up the faintest sounds made by your enemies instantly.BALANCE GAME AND CHAT AUDIO | Increase your chat volume during the strategy meeting on discord, then turn it back down to focus on the game without leaving your game screen! Simply turn the GameVoice Mix control knob to adjust the game and chat volume when you need to! The Sound Blaster GC7 is angled at the perfect position to facilitate one-handed control from any gaming setup, so you can make adjustments without even looking away from your screen.AUDIOPHILE-CLASS DAC FOR PRISTINE AUDIO | At the core of the Sound Blaster GC7 is the AKM4377 Audiophile-class DAC which offers lower noise floor, lower distortion, and more distinct individual sound effects. Stream at up to 24-bit / 192 kHz PCM playback and enjoy high-quality audio regardless of which source you’re using. On top of the solid audio playback, you can also indulge yourself in a cinematic experience with up to 7.1 virtual surround on both headphones and speakers and Dolby Audio. There's a pretty comprehensive input and output setup too, ensuring you can connect to a wide range of consoles and systems easily enough. Of course, that includes mixing channels, as this is half DJ equipment smushed into a home cinema amplifier... this pleases me greatly. What Creative Had to Say "The best gameplay involves intuitive controls that support split-second decisions made while in the game. As the first in its series of premium gaming audio solutions for experienced gamers, Sound Blaster GC7 hands you the winning formula to conquer any game—the access to a plethora of programmable controls built directly on the device for quick switches when gaming.Designed with convenience in mind, you can make on-the-fly adjustments to your game and chat volume mix with GameVoice Mix, tweak your audio and microphone settings, and switch quickly between different sound modes—all with just a button press.And that's definitely not all! Armed with both Sound Blaster's audio processing expertise and our award-winning Super X-Fi Headphone Holography, the Sound Blaster GC7 is powered by a dual-DSP system to provide you with an edge over your opponents using superior battle tools like the Scout Mode and SXFI BATTLE Mode" Launch Trailer Packaging & Accessories The box is really nicely designed, with a clear photo on the front showing off the main controls and aesthetics, and damn does this thing look cool! We can also see it is a "Game Streaming USB DAC with Programmable Buttons and Super X-Fi", which sounds pretty cool to me. There are a plethora of icons too, showing the various formats that the system supports, as well as device support. Around the back, it's packed with specifications and features yet again, as well as a description of all the included cables. Open it up, and there's a stylish diagram of all the main features. Some fancy shaped foam protecting the larger knobs and dials. Durable plastic keeps it free from scratches too. Plus, it's all double layer cardboard with air gaps, so it's pretty safe in here. In the box, there's a Type C cable, TOSLINK, and 4-pole male-to-male 3.5mm audio cable. A Closer Look This is one seriously cool looking piece of kit, which is good, as it's going to spend all of its time up on top of your desk. As you can see, everything is very clearly labelled too, so even if you're new to this, you can pretty much make out what everything does and how; it's mostly intuitive. Down the front edge, four LED lights showing which mode you're on (there's a switch on the back to set this). There's a Dolby light, too, so you can see when that codec is active. The main input and output are right on the front, offering you headphone and microphone inputs. Pretty straightforward stuff, really, plug and play. All the buttons on the top are nice and large, and all have nice tactile clicks to them, making them comfortable to control. The C buttons are fully programmable, not sure why they're C1-C4 when just numbers or ABCD would do just fine. A master microphone mute button, handy if your microphone doesn't have one of its own or is mounted overhead and unreachable. There are two large dish-shaped dials, with the left one controlling master volume and the right mixing Game and Voice channels. There's a smaller dial in the middle, which is used to adjust the parameters of the five function buttons there; Surround, Bass, SXFI, Treble, and Mic. There is a simple two digit display in the middle. There's a small set of legs at the back, so it's not sitting flat but just slightly forwards, making the controls easier to see. Around the back, there's a plethora of ports and buttons. Master power control. Input device mode. USB C, this is both the master power input but can also be used for USB audio on PC (which is how I'll be testing it, mostly). Optical in and out, allowing you to pass through an amp, soundbar, console, etc. Gain control. Mobile line in, which is just the AUX channel, you could really plug anything from an old tape deck to your Alexa in here if you wanted. The same goes for the Line Out, which can go to speakers, another headset, a secondary mixer, whatever you want really. Performance The Creative Sound Blaster GC7 may be a cool looking bit of kit, but it needs to serve a very practical purpose, regularly and easily. Fortunately, it really does just that. While there are some software things to deal with, the physical hardware is very straightforward. Plug in the USB C cable, and the device boots up with all red LEDs. Then the larger dials light up. Then the RGB kicks in on the C buttons. You can customise those colours though. While the volume and mix are self-explanatory, the middle part may not be. Simply tap the button you want to adjust, and turn the knob. Bass and treble default at 0, but go to +9 by turning the dial clockwise. And to -9 anticlockwise. The same works with things like Microphone but this instead adjusts from 0 to 99. The surround setting may seem confusing, but it sort of increases how much virtual surround you want, making the room feel bigger and more open, or less, if dialled the other way. I love tiny design details, and here's one of them. The LED strip on the dial makes it clear where the dial is set. However, when it's at min or max, there's a little notch, and you can see just a bit more of the light, making it easy to tell it's at either limit. If you're using this on PC, all you need is a single USB C cable, which is neat and tidy. Fine for a nights movies, music and games. Of course, if you're streaming, you can line in and out with a range of other sources too. I can hook up my Creative T20 speakers to the Line Out too and still use the same AMP, surround processing, etc. Plus, my headphones just line into the front, and it's really simple to swap hardware in and out. You can add other sources, desktop speakers, a soundbar, optical pass through as required, it's all basically just plug and play. Software Download the software, and it'll undoubtedly prompt you to update the firmware of the GC7 on the first boot. It took about 1 minute to complete, and of course, I got it done. The software layout is pretty straightforward. I like that "sound mode" is right there on the first page with a drop-down for all the EQ profiles. SXFI can be enabled by clicking that button... right? Nope. It's a separate app. Le-sigh. I had a bit of a battle convincing it to login to my existing account, but it got there in the end. More confused by the fact the SXFI app it downloaded (windows store) is different to the one I already have for my own SXFI headset (from Creative site). You MUST set up SXFI with an Android/iOS phone, as you must take photos of your ears to get your holography profile. Here you can see my scan on the 3rd. You can save multiple scans for multiple people, but strangely, you cannot rename them. Overall though, I would like to see this integrated into a single software suite, but it does work and only really needs doing once per user. Mixer works well enough, and you can see all the inputs and outputs and their recording levels. Dial in the settings, close the software, and you're good. The EQ is extremely powerful. You can dial in so much EQ that weaker headphones or speakers can easily be pushed past their limits and distort. Thankfully, I got a few of the latest Creative headsets here, and that certainly wasn't an issue. Want bone-shaking bass? No problem, you'll have your teeth rattling in no time. My aging Creative T20's were happy enough to handle the EQ too, which was a welcome bonus. They've included more EQ profiles than I've ever seen pre-installed. Plus, you can add many of your own too. Acoustic Engine is back again and can act as a master EQ over both headphones and speakers. This is actually something I've seen on plenty of Creative products, such as the KATANA soundbar. Actually, the Surround and Bass dials on the control panel of the GC7 directly control the two settings on this tab. Now, this is a nice addition, with CrystalVoice offering some pretty powerful microphone processing. It'll provide noise reduction, smart volume, and a powerful EQ. This can really help ensure you sound your best while gaming and streaming. However, it's handy if you're a content creator that does a lot of voice over work too. There's a Voice Morph feature, but I care less about that than I can be bothered explaining, but it works just fine. Scout Mode is active here too, and that's freaking awesome. If you're using your favourite headphones or speakers, it's unlikely this feature is built-in. It'll effectively listen for further away and quieter noises and brings them closer to you. However, combine this with the surround sound of SXFI and nobody will be sneaking up on you again! It does sound strange though, so there's a hotkey feature meaning you can enable it on the fly, then turn it off for normal audio in cutscenes, for chat, etc. The programmable C1-C4 buttons are really cool. However, I didn't expect them to have anywhere near this level of programmability either. I thought it would be setting EQ profiles or something. However, you can set a cycle to it, with up to three profiles per button or just a simple on/off toggle for an EQ. You can set it to enable scout mode, mic monitoring, change outputs and more! Oh, and set a custom RGB colour for each, so you know what is what. You can turn them into multimedia control buttons to play/pause your music. Use them for basic web navigation, text strings and emojis. However, the Keystroke is quite interesting, as you can record full macros with it. Albeit, it's missing one thing, no option to play a simple audio file, as streamers could have used this to play sound effects too. How Much Does it Cost? The Creative Sound Blaster GC7 Game Streaming DAC Amp ft Programmable Buttons, Super X-Fi, 7.1 Virtual Surround, BATTLE Mode, Scout Mode, GameVoice Mix, Dolby Audio, for PC, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox is available right now from a few select retailers. It's normally on Amazon, but the stock has sold out at this time in the UK, but it's $169 in the US. However, it's available directly from Creative for just £134.99. Overview Creative certainly has an interesting product here, but one that I think I may have somewhat misjudged. I thought it was more tailored towards the professional streamers out there. However, I think it's less serious than that in retrospect, but that doesn't mean its performance isn't fantastic. It has some exceptional microphone processing, and even with a cheaper Turtle Beach headset microphone right up to a standalone desktop mic, the difference was profound. Further enhanced with the noise reduction and EQ technologies specific to the microphone levels, very impressive stuff for a bit of gaming hardware. However, while it'll make you sound like a pro, having quite a few of the settings in the software makes it tricky to configure more things on the fly. It's tricky to explain, but this is more for gamers who want to occasionally stream rather than pro streamers who occasionally want to game. It's a bit more on the fun side in terms of functions, but that's hardly a bad thing, and that appeals to me greatly from a fun and social aspect. The greatest thing about this, however, and this is the main reason anyone would buy one, is the AMP/DAC combo. For starters, running from a single USB cable to your PC makes it super easy to configure. The software is a bit of a pain the butt, but once it's configured how you like it, you really won't have to bother again. The SXFI technology is as brilliant as ever. Interestingly, I have several SXFI headsets here, including the flagship SXFI Theater, which is £180 on its own and has SXFI built in. However, wired to the GC7 and letting this do the heavy lifting, it sounded even better. However, this is thanks to Acoustic Engine and the more powerful EQ on the GC7. I can really crank some incredible bass on this, and there's even more warmth and detail in the mids and highs too. If you really love your movies and music, you're going to love this. Of course, it's not the flagship audio chip from Creative. They have models with 32-bit sound and others amps, but the AKM4377 does 24-bit / 192 kHz PCM which is plenty. For the latest 4K movies, the highest quality you get from streaming platforms, and what games are likely to support, you're not falling short here. Plus, getting this level of processing at this price range is really damn impressive, especially with the inclusion of Dolby Audio. Should I Buy One? Do you find yourself listening to a lot of music or chatting on discord a lot while gaming? Do you like to change your EQ quite frequently to suit whatever music, movies or games you are playing? Do you like powerful sound, full of detail and with the best surround processing (SXFI)? Well if the answer is yes to all of that, the Sound Blaster GC7 is a mighty addition to your setup. Ticking all the right boxes for the enthusiast gamer that likes to dabble with a bit of streaming, while also ticking the right boxes for movie and music lovers who want things to sound their best without spending a small fortune. Creative Sound Blaster GC7 Review