Creative X3 Hi-Res 7.1 SXFI USB DAC and Amplifier Review

Setup & Performance

The Creative X3 is really easy to set up, and as you can see, it compliments my current line-up of audio equipment quite well. I do use a lot of other brands too, but this is my specific setup on my main work/gaming rig. It’s as simple as plug in the USB cable to your computer, and it powers up and Windows 10 auto-detected and setup the output/input channels it has to offer.

It doesn’t take up a lot of space on your desktop either, which I do like. The input and output jacks are easily reached, and it has just enough weight to it that using the control wheel doesn’t move the device around my desk.

When you power the amp on, it sparks to like with a stunning red or blue glow on the wheel. The colour changes depending on what mode you’re in and what setting you are changing. Plus, there are three smaller LED lights above the microphone, mode, and SXFI buttons, which can turn red, blue, green, or off, again depending on what you’re doing at that time. It’s handy, as it means you can tell if you’ve got Super Hearing, SXFI, what EQ, microphone mute, etc, on or not.

What’s most important about this thing is how it sounds and well, it sounds tremendous. Albeit, it sounds like the sum of its parts, and that’s a good thing because they’re good parts. If you plug crap headphones in, they’ll sound the best they can, but they’ll still be crap. If you plug in some decent headphones though, they’ll truly sound their best. Your chain is only as strong as the weakest link though. Good quality hi-res audio files, decent headphones, and SXFI, and you’re going to be spaced out to your favourite Pink Floyd tracks in no time.

It’ll drive up to 600 Ohm headphones, which is a lot, but not completely uncommon, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, AKG, etc, have a few high-end sets that won’t break the bank too badly. However, any high performance wired PC gaming headset is still going to reap huge rewards from this level of processing. I plugged in the Creative Air C, Aurvana SE, Corsair HS60, Turtle Beach Elite Atlas, and my Philips ANC headphones. They all sounded as good as I’ve ever heard them, I think even better than they sound on my Onkyo 656 amp.

I love that you have options here too, nothing too complicated on the front end either. A few taps of these buttons to toggle through some EQ modes. By default, I don’t think the EQ profiles are quite right, but that’s subjective and down to your sources. I need more treble for my music, and I like skull-crushing bass when I’m gaming too. You can tinker with the EQ in the software or mobile app, it’s easy enough and all saves to the amp. The most important one is SXFI though, as you need to use your phone to take a picture of your ears for the audio holography to work. Do that, and you don’t get virtual 7.1 surround, you get holographic surround. It sounds like marketing bumf I know, but I’ve been using this tech for almost 18 months, every day, and I’ll never go back to NOT using. We gave them an award for Best of CES 2019 and 2020 for the tech, and we certainly weren’t the only ones.

The control wheel is really nice to use too, it’s fluid and has such an air of quality to it. Overall though, just sweep in a little more volume, kicking back with some tunes, and enjoying the media is what’s best. The X3 just gets on with what it needs to do, rather be something you find yourself tinkering with every ten seconds. Complexity boiled down to one dial and three buttons, I like it.