Sound BlasterX G6 amplifier review — The best headphone audio

Creative Labs always seems like it is fighting an uphill battle to convince people that they should want better audio. While some are seeing diminishing returns going to 4K or even HDR, most gaming fans have plenty of room to improve their sound setup. And the Sound BlasterX G6 DAC and headphone amplifier from Creative Labs is one of the easiest ways to do that.The G6 is an external USB sound card. It features support for 32-bit 384 KHz quality. And its digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is capable of driving 130dB through Sound BlasterX’s Xamp headphone amplifier. That’s the bi-aural amp that drives Sound BlasterX’s excellent internal AE-5 soundcard. It creates crisp, clear audio by amplifying the left and right stereo channels independently.The G6 is an update to Sound BlasterX’s G5, which I reviewed back in 2016. That was already a great external USB card, and the G6 maintains most of its features. But Creative Labs also made improvements, and those primarily affect the audio. The G6 is capable of truly stunning sound. Its audio is deeper and richer than the G5 or even competing products like Sennheiser’s GSX 1000 gaming amp.