CreativeSound Blaster GC7 Next Gen Gaming USB Soundcard

Pros:The sound is amazing. I upgraded from a SteelSeries GameDAC. When I first used the GamerDAC I was blown away by DTS. Now upgrading to GC7 I am blown away AGAIN. I use the Steel Series Arctis 5's, the power provided by the GC7 is unmatched compared to the GameDAC. I can control base, mids, and treble as needed. My Arctis 5s sound amazing now, more so than when combined with its own product the GameDAC.I have a unique setup as I used to be a YouTuber. On my main PC I game and talk on discord. So having the volume mixer between game and chat was a must for me. I can balance how loud a game is or how loud I want discord.I have a second PC I use to watch YT, netflix, etc.. while gaming. I route this audio via 3.5mm to the main PC. I am also able to control the audio using the Game/Chat mixer nob. This was another must for me. I can make my game louder or my entertainment louder, etc...Gaming wise the sounds are amazing, I can hear the fine nuances in ambient environments, NPC chat is clear, bass is strong and crisp.Discord audio is clearer than ever. I couldn't be happier.ConsI understand the innovation from Creative trying to use a picture of your face, and mapping of ears. But with all of the extreme data privacy and leaks I was super uncomfortable taking my picture to 'map' my features. I was a bit frustrated when I found that Steel Series are not even supported for this feature. Maybe I could have looked it up but its not a big issue. Just something I did not like.The initial setup is confusing because it asks you to download a mobile product for the desktop. I ended up uninstalling the mobile app, did a google search and found the mobile product to control the GC7. So unfortunately I cannot comment on the true value of sxfi. I have setup a lot of complex audio routing so setup was not an issue. It was more so the instructions coming out of the box. I don't want to use a mobile device to control or update a desktop app. It doesn't make sense to me. I have experience setting up multiple audio interfaces and routing audio to different sources.

I’m one of those weird people who doesn’t just use whatever sound output comes on my mobo. I’m always looking for better, cleaner audio when I game, Discord, listen to music on my PC, whatever. You just don’t know what you’re missing until you get a dedicated sound processor.I can’t usually fit an internal sound card because my GPU always hogs like 20 slots. I used an X3 for years on my old gaming rig, but some of the nice features on this one prompted me to upgrade when I built my new rig.I’m happy I did. The programmable buttons are great. I like being able to swap or combine outputs even easier than on my X3, and the audio quality is fantastic. My weak gaming headphones actually sound acceptable when plugged into this thing. That was also true of my X3. People can hear me very clearly online and I can tune my audio sources on the fly. Good stuff. I recommend.

What I was really looking for was a quick way to adjust volumes when I was playing a game while chatting in discord and other person's voice is being drowned out by the game music. Some of the various headset manufacturers have this feature, but with this I can perform that same adjustment for my desktop speakers and mic. I got that with the game/voice knob. That was the driving force behind it.Of note though, the optical cable connection is pretty much solely designed for use with a playstation. While my motherboard has an optical out, I couldn't get the game/voice balance adjustment to work so I use it as it's USB device.I've paired a set of Apple AirPods to it and they seem to work but I haven't set up the ear mapping software. Without more mirrors than I currently own, I don't think its possible to get the steady shot of your ear that the software wants due to the angle it wants to use. Some companies have made their software capable of finding and tracking your ear as you pass the camera by the area, but sadly this does not. I don't typically play using a headset, so I haven't bothered with it to be able to give more of a review aside from this.Display screen, well is useless. It rarely turns on for anything and serves pretty much no purpose as you can get that info and more from the software. I was hoping at least to possibly be able to control bass, treble, and maybe balance where it's display would turn on to indicate where it's at and what you've changed it to. Basically, for quick changes where you don't want to have to open the app. Currently for me it doesn't do anything. The only time it provides any info is while I'm doing something in the app. If I'm already looking at the app, I don't need that display.Wished for feature. The ability for the device to accept the usb dongle of another company's headset so that you can take advantage of the mic mute, etc. and keep all of the controls in one place regardless of audio delivery method. I currently have a set of Logitech Pro's that I found very comfortable, but when I want to use them it requires going into Windows audio settings and selecting them over the Soundblaster card (and you have to do so for both, audio and communications, else communications apps will still send to the soundblaster)

I am in the process of transitioning from an old high-end desktop to a new high-end laptop. I was really upset that I couldn't get 5.1 surround sound out of my laptop and there was not much I could do fix it. I am a bit of an audiophile, so this was pretty important to me.After a lot of research, I settled on this unit. I had to also buy a USB C to optical adapter to make it work, but I got sound coming out of all my speakers now! As a bonus, I get an additional HDMI port but it's at 60Hz.Big hint, if you want surround sound, you really need to use the optical cable in and out.It has most of the features that I had with my desktop soundblaster card. So I'm very happy now.