ThePCEnthusiast.com: "Usually DACs and Headphone Amplifiers or DAC/AMP Combo that are geared towards audiophiles and music lovers are so darn expensive. A DAC with AMP would cost you starting from a couple of hundred of bucks up to way thousands of dollars. That’s why PC enthusiasts and/or gamers are discouraged to buy such device because they would rather invest their hard earn money on upgrading the components of their PC. On the other hand, PC gamers usually resort to discrete sound cards that are all the time stuck inside their PC. But how about a portable DAC with Headphone AMP where both PC enthusiasts/gamers and music lovers would enjoy? From Creative Technology comes the Sound Blaster E5 – a USB DAC with Headphone Amplifier that is not only for music lovers, but also for PC gamers and enthusiast as well. The Sound Blaster E5 is actually not the first of its kind from Creative. They previously released the E3 and E1. But the SB E5 is so far the most feature rich DAC/AMP currently in the market making it a really bang for buck device."
CCG writes - "The Creative Labs Sound Blaster Katana SE is a solid soundbar for those looking for something small and relatively affordable. It would be very difficult to find a small desktop amplifier with all of these features, especially with HDMI ARC, and that doesn't even account for the soundbar/speaker feature itself. When considering all that this offers: the five inputs, the decent speaker, the good headphone jack, the decent microphone, the PC and mobile-friendly app with tons of customization, the sharp looks with an integrated RGB strip - well, that's tough to match, much less beat for $299.99."
For many gamers; audio is just as important to the experience as are the graphics. No matter how good a game looks; the experience can be hampered by bad audio in the game and by bad audio hardware. Creative has released the Sound Blaster AE-7 which combines a sound card and amp to give gamers a new edge.
Skewed and Reviewed have posted a positive review for the new external Sound Card from Creative. They liked the ease of use, portability, and sound the unit offers but noted it does not work with USB headphones.
