Sound BlasterX G6

https://en.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blasterx-g6

I am not looking to buy this, just interested in opinions on this unit.

Edit: I am still MazeFrame, so when I can get my hands on it, there is a PCB shot:

Thoughts:

  • SMD components to make it mass-produceable
  • input filtering (5V USB) almost non-existant
  • discrete HP-Amp
  • I/O and dial are not secured to chassis, just “stuck into” chassis holes. shields are soldered to the PCB though

It’s pretty aight if you want the features on there imo

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I had a soundblaster g5 i used for a long time. Not sure how different it is from the 6, didn’t really notice much sound quality difference outside of the gain switch. It does come with some neat features in the software. I never really used or tested scout mode so can’t comment if it actually works in my experience digital surround sound is usually not very good just generally. But it does have a voice changer which was fun enough to play with. Overall at least for the G5 which was the predecessor at the same pricepoint at the time (now like 80ish) I’d say put money into a more substantial upgrade, unless the G6 is some kind of massive improvement over the 5

edit: i guess a feature worth noting is it works with consoles

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Yep. The optical I/O combined with analog 3.5mm jacks is neat

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its not bad if you need a mic in and definitely sounds better than the likes of a fiio e10k.

I have been using the G6 for a few days and I have noticed one thing that is bothering me a lot, randomly, a kind of pop / crack is heard while I’m listening to any audio source, it happens with both headphones and speakers, but it shows much less on speakers.

Could my unit be defective?

I have tried to update the firmware, the software, I have connected it to different usb ports …

I don’t know whether to request a return, exchange it for a new one, or get a different dac / amp.

Right now I’m using an HyperX Cloud Core and I have in mind to buy some AKG K712 Pro.

Did you install the correct drivers? You might want to uninstall and reinstall which might help, also setting it to 24/44.1 for the time being can help

I have installed the driver found on the official creative page, which comes with the Sound Blaster Connect 2 software and then I have updated the firmware from the application itself, I am going to try listening for a while to 24 / 44.1.

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to answer me.

Is it a constant noise whenever audio is playing, or is it only when something is just started and paused?

It’s a fast sound that happens randomly sometimes while a song is playing, but it’s like the one that occurs when something starts

Then this leads me to believe it’s a driver issue. So if you are on windows, go into device manager and right click on the sound blaster and click uninstall, then unplug the dac from the computer (do not plug it back in), and restart. Then install the driver again (don’t plug in the dac yet), and restart once it has finished. Then finally plug in the dac, and restart once more. This process typically resolves the strange driver issues

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Could also be a bad USB cable, there is no error correction on USB audio, it just detects the bad frame and drops it, resulting in a click.

Also true, something else to try

It seems that for the moment after deleting everything, driver, software and settings, following these steps seems to sound correct, at least for now …

Thank you very much because I was going crazy haha

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Do you think it will move the AKG K712 Pro well?

At the moment they are at 225€ in Spain

It’s not the ideal pairing but it should work just fine imo

It is happening again, there is also something else that happens that must be due to the software, it stops making any sound and it does not fix until I unplug it and reconnect it.

I give up…

What would be a good combo with the AKG K712 Pro?

I have no other dac or amp other than the G6

Oh the joys of the 5 (or so) Windows driver-paths for sound devices.

See if your problems go away when hooking the G6 to your computer via optical (cable for that should be included).

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If you are going for a combo unit, the fiio k5 pro is a good pick, and if you can get it over there the schiit asgard 3 with the 4490 dac module. For separate devices a topping d10 or smsl m100 with an amp like a schiit magni 3+ is pretty sweet

Yes, this should prevent any issues with it imo

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I had the sound blaster omni 5.1 for about a year. I had nothing but driver problems out of it as well. My mic wouldn’t work half the time in games no matter what I did. I actually just quit using it and used my motherboard audio instead.

I really wanted something like the g6 before I upgraded recently but I was scared off by the software of the older unit I had.