This month I’m celebrating my 15 anniversary of doing reviews and in that time I’ve covered a lot of amazing products. But when you have access to a wide variety of hardware what you use day to day changes up often, but there is one product that I have been using for 8 years now. Sound blaster’s X7 DAC and amp paired up with a set of bookshelf speakers and a powered sub. Not only do I use the X7 with my speakers but also for my wired headphones as well. So when I saw Sound Blaster launched the X5 which is an external dual DAC along with a headphone amp I had to check it out. So today I’m going to see what the new X5 has to offer and put it to the test to see how it performs.

Product Name: Sound Blaster X5

Review Sample Provided by: Sound Blaster

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

 

Specifications

Headphone Output Power (Unbalanced)

1.61 Vrms (162 mW) @ 16Ω

2.28 Vrms (162 mW) @ 32Ω

5.05 Vrms (170 mW) @ 150Ω

5.05 Vrms (85 mW) @ 300Ω

5.05 Vrms (10 mW) @ 600Ω

Headphone Output Power (Balanced)

1.61 Vrms (320 mW) @ 16Ω

2.28 Vrms (320 mW) @ 32Ω

5.05 Vrms (340 mW) @ 150Ω

5.05 Vrms (170 mW) @ 300Ω

5.05 Vrms (85 mW) @ 600Ω

Remote Control (BLE)

Android devices, iOS devices

Headphone Amp

16–600Ω

Dynamic Range (DNR)

130 dB

Audio Technology

Sound Blaster Acoustic Engine

Connectivity Options (Main)

1 x TOSLINK Optical In

1 x TOSLINK Optical Out

1 x RCA Line-in

1 x RCA Line-out

1 x 3.5 mm Headphones-out (Unbalanced)

1 x 4.4 mm Headphones-out (Balanced)

1 x 3.5 mm Mic-in, 1 x USB-C port of PC/Mac/PS4/PS5

1 x USB-A Host Audio-out port

Headphone Amp

16–600Ω

Max Channel Output

Stereo

Audio Technologies

CrystalVoice

Scout Mode

Supported Operating Systems

Mac OS X v10.5 and above

Windows® 11

Windows® 10 Ver 1703

DAC

2 x Cirrus Logic CS43198 high-resolution DAC

PCM 32-bit / 384 kHz playback

DoP 64

128 support

DSD 64, 128

256 support

THD: -115 dB

DNR: 130 dB

ADC

DNR: 114 dB

THD+N: -105 dB

Power

USB-C

Recommended Usage

Gaming

Home Entertainment

System Requirements

Windows

  • Intel® Core™i3 or AMD® equivalent processor
  • Microsoft® Windows 11, 10 32 / 64-bit Ver 1703 or later
  • > 4 GB RAM
  • > 4 GB of free hard disk space
  • Available USB 2.0 / 3.0 port

Macintosh

  • Macintosh running macOS 10.15 or later
  • > 4 GB RAM
  • > 4 GB of free hard disk space
  • Available USB 2.0 / 3.0 port

PS4

  • Firmware Ver 5.0 or later
  • Available USB port

PS5

  • Firmware Ver 20.02-2.26.00.00-00.00.00.0.1 or later
  • Available USB port

Software Remote Control

  • Android OS Ver 8.0 or later
  • iOS Ver 12.0 or later
  • Built-in Bluetooth Low Energy support

Package Contents

1 x Sound Blaster X5

1 x USB-C to USB-A Cable (1.5m / 4.9 ft)

1 x Optical Cable (1.5m / 4.9 ft)

1 x 3.5 mm to RCA Stereo Cable (2m / 6.6 ft)

1 x Quick Start Guide

1 x Warranty and Compliance Leaflet

Warranty

1-year Limited Hardware Warranty

 

 

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