Well, I said I was done changing out desktop speakers for a while – but that didn’t
stick.
Creative offered to send out their new gaming sound bar, the “Sound BlasterX Katana”
with fancy RGB lighting and I couldn’t resist.
This is actually the first time I’ve ever used or tested a sound bar in-person, so this
was a great opportunity to see if they are as wack as I thought.
Was it worth the switch?
I’m EposVox, here to make tech easier and more fun taking a look at the Katana – a
blade of sound and RGB goodness from Creative.
I’ve reviewed quite a few audio products from them over the years, but I expected to
hate this sound bar.
I’m pretty old-school when it comes to audio gear: To me, directional audio only comes
from physically having speakers set up at the proper angles and directions, and virtual
surround sound is a joke.
To me, the best headphone audio experience doesn’t involve software effects, but a
good sound engine and proper stereo, open-back cans.
Sound bars have always seemed like a mainstream family TV room kind of product, not something
serious audio enthusiasts or gamers should take note of.
So Creative went out and built one targeted for gamers.
The Katana is a pretty sweet little sound system, if expensive at a MSRP of $300.
The main sound bar features 2 34mm front-facing tweeters on the side, 2 63.5mm mid-bass drivers
that face upwards, and then the subwoofer to sit on your floor.
This is perfect for a desktop gaming setup – the high end is crisp and clear, the mid-range
carries well and if it shoots behind your monitor, creates a very unified sound that
I love, and the sub can pack a punch.
Unlike traditional desktop speakers, however, instead of fitting 2 small speakers somewhere
on your desk, you need a lengthy space available below or in front of your monitor.
I hope you have a monitor arm of some sort.
This clearance was an issue for me, as I keep a LOT on my desk.
The feet for the bar angle it upwards a bit so the sound isn’t just shooting at your
keyboard – nice touch.
The onboard processors are quite high-end, and can take up to 24-bit, 96kHz audio, and
up to 5.1 surround to process and deliver to you the best way possible.
The built-in sound card can also virtualize 7.1 surround sound for gaming over USB, as
well.
For inputs, on the back we have: Power in, the connection for the Subwoofer, Micro USB
in for computer connection, optical toslink input, 3.5mm aux connection, and a USB A port
for charging or playing audio from a flash drive (which even supports FLAC files!).
It also acts as a USB sound card that you can hook a 3.5mm headset up to via the headphone
jack and mic in ports.
Bluetooth connectivity is also supported on the Katana.
This is a pretty complete package, and it even comes with a handy remote.
I wish I could throw this on my retro gaming station with my HD CRT television, but I don’t
have room in front of the TV on the stand, due to its size, and trying to balance it
on top of the TV would mean sound pointing upwards, away from my face.
Maybe if I get to upgrade TV stands sometime in the future, I might work that out.
All that leaves us to talk about is the RGB and the Windows “Sound Blaster Connect”
app.
Again, they have different drivers and software for this speaker system than their other speakers
or their headphones.
I hope one day they can go for a more package solution like Logitech’s Gaming Software.
The Sound Blaster Connect for the Katana is much easier to set up and use than their other
Sound Blaster tools, however.
You can choose from a variety of profiles for gaming, music listening and so on.
These control the sound profiles – for the usual things like compression, EQ, and virtual
surround – but also the 49 RGB LEDs lining the bottom.
You can set custom mood profiles, patterns for the lights to cycle through, and so on.
I’m quite impressed.
They also have some of the voice morph profiles as per their headset I reviewed, for that
mic input.
They really tried covering all the bases with this.
And it sounds fantastic.
For music-listening, this may be my favorite speaker system thus far.
YouTube videos sound very good here, too.
The gaming profiles are pretty good, and can sound nice – but I always notice some sort
of wishy-washy, listening-in-a-seashell-like sound from virtual surround, so I leave it
on neutral and just have fun with the lighting effects.
I have a lot of fun gaming with it, too.
They also have a “cine” mode with a dialogue booster and “smart volume” to try to keep
things normalized.
I did need to mention that my first review sample I received had a defect, where randomly
while consuming media (YouTube videos, music, anything), the tweeters would stop making
sound – leaving only the mid-bass drivers at the top and creating a very AM Radio-like
effect.
At first it was a rare odd occurrence, but then it started happening multiple times a
day.
They swapped me a new one and it seems to be fine, but I did need to mention that.
Overall, I’m super satisfied with this sound bar, and I think I will utilize the included
wall mounts and make it a permanent part of my setup.
I’m almost scared to say that, though, as it almost guarantees they’ll have some other
crazy speaker product to send me and make me need to replace this with the new one.
We’ll see :)