Creative Sound BlasterX H5 Review: Wake Up Your Sleep

With the rapid development of software and hardware technology, computer games are becoming more and more fun and realistic. In addition to the immersive image quality and the vast virtual sandbox world, the game sound effects have also changed from the original "listening to the sound" to the current shocking audio experience beyond imagination. As an important peripheral for players to grasp various sound details and distinguish the source of sound, headphones have gradually evolved into gaming headphones specially made for gamers. The Sound BlasterX H5 we reviewed this time is a member of the professional gaming audio product series launched by the veteran manufacturer Creative Technology in November 2015, priced at ￥799.

The Sound BlasterX H5 is mainly in cool black, with a silver-white aluminum alloy headband and a unique red X logo on the outside of the earmuffs, giving it a full sense of gaming. At the same time, due to the innovative technology and unique minimalist design concept, the Sound BlasterX H5 has a lighter body than other similar headphones, and the pressure on the head is almost non-existent.

Long-term wearing is a major difference between professional gaming headsets and traditional headsets. The design of H5 can reflect the high level of innovation in design. In terms of earmuffs, Sound BlasterX H5 uses replaceable protein leather memory foam earmuffs commonly seen in high-end headsets, which can ensure long-term wearing comfort and good closure to isolate the noise of the surrounding environment. This earmuff also has a feature that "the more you wear it, the more comfortable it is." At the same time, in order to minimize the discomfort of players during long-term use, the Sound BlasterX series also draws on the design concept of the sound unit layout on many high-end headsets. By tilting the 50mm FulllSpectrum sound unit, a mini acoustic cavity is created around the ear to avoid auditory fatigue caused by immersive games. The editor did not feel obvious stuffiness during the 4-hour wearing test, and it was extremely comfortable to wear. However, I don’t know how it will perform in the hot summer. I hope that Innovation will provide a replaceable earmuff solution that is more suitable for summer in subsequent research and development.

In addition to some stand-alone games, most e-sports games also require real-time communication, so the requirement for microphone performance is another obvious difference between gaming headsets and traditional headsets. SoundBlasterX H5 is equipped with a detachable unidirectional noise-cancelling condenser microphone. In the use test, the H5 headset performed well in the sound pickup effect, and also performed well in noise reduction and the fidelity of human voice, which can fully meet the daily game call needs. The wire material adopts a single-sided entry design, and the entry point is located on the left unit. Compared with the double-sided entry, the single-sided entry can reduce the troubles caused by the wire material for players. In addition to the conventional play, pause and volume adjustment on the fiber braided headphone cable, the microphone switch is designed very humanely to avoid players frequently switching out the game switch microphone during use. However, the headphone cable is slightly shorter at about 1.3m. If it is connected to the interface of the computer host located on the back of the chassis, an extension cable may be required.

The selling point of gaming headsets has never been the sound quality, but the above-par performance of Sound BlasterX H5 really surprised me.
The sound quality style of Sound BlasterX H5 is to enhance the three frequencies evenly without over-emphasizing high, medium and low frequencies, and provide a solid, natural, clear and accurate sound quality performance. However, dynamic sound quality does not mean mediocrity. In some test songs, the performance is even comparable to that of the editor's MSR7.

The first audition song was "Crossing the River" by Tsai Chin. The three drum sounds in the prelude showed that the Sound BlasterX H5 had a deep sound and excellent musical expression, but the low frequency was a little muddy. Tsai Chin's voice in the latter part seemed to have a slightly stronger digital flavor.

The second audition song was the Eagles' classic "Hotel California". When the applause first sounded around 20 seconds and when the music, applause, and cheers from the audience sounded at the same time around 1min20s, the sound field performance of Sound BlasterX H5 was excellent, and the degree of restoration of the instrumental music was comparable to that of MSR7.

In addition to the audition songs, we also selected several games for testing. As a professional gaming headset, its ability to analyze sound and locate sound effects, as well as its ability to freely control large dynamic and large-scale sound fields, accurately present background music, footsteps, gunshots, and even echoes were all demonstrated.

The first game is "The Witcher 3", a masterpiece with a GS score of 10 this year. As a popular 3A masterpiece this year, the excellent production is also reflected in the game sound effects. The coordination of the game's combat sound effects and the physics engine is displayed through Sound BlasterX. The kind of bone-piercing impact makes you feel as if you are on the scene.

The second game is World of Tanks, one of the War Gaming trilogy. In order to reproduce the shocking audio-visual effects of real war, the developers of World of Tanks went to great lengths to personally collect the sound effects of tanks firing, explosions, and even engine operation and track rolling on the battlefield. The powerful bass rendering of Sound BlasterX can make people's blood boil, as if the roar of machinery and the rolling sand raised by the steel torrent are right next to them.

The BlasterX Acoustic Engine that comes with the headset is another selling point of the Sound BlasterX series of gaming headsets. The BlasterX Acoustic Engine allows players to customize more suitable audio modes for different game types. For example, in FPS mode, it can enhance the spatial realism and virtual surround perception, in ACT mode it can enhance the overall sound realism, in RTS mode it can enhance the audio clarity of key game elements to help players make the most appropriate strategic decisions while focusing, and in RAC mode it can enhance the noise details of various cars to help judge driving conditions.

In general, Creative Sound BlasterX H5 reflects the sincerity of Creative Technology and is a product that is above the standard. Its gaming-like appearance, excellent sound quality, comfortable wearing feeling, 32Ω impedance and its support for all platforms provide players with a tough, durable, complete, high-performance, high-definition gaming audio solution.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.