Microphone Input Performance

The Creative Sound Blaster X5 is equipped with line input and a microphone input. Creative doesn't mention the exact ADC chips used, but we do have their specs. Both inputs support a 24-bit/192 kHz PCM bit-depth/sample rate. The ADC chip has a dynamic range of 114 dB and a THD-N of -105 dB. To test the microphone input of the Sound Blaster X5, I used the Antlion ModMic Uni and the fantastic Drop + Sennheiser PC38X analog gaming headset (reviewed here).

The following sample was recorded after I set the microphone gain to 0 dB (it goes up to +9 dB) and left all other features (Noise Reduction, Smart Volume, Voice Morph, Microphone Equalizer) off.




The microphone input of the Sound Blaster X5 performs without any notable issues. It doesn't hinder the microphone connected to it in any audible way. There's no added compression, no depth is removed from the voice (assuming the microphone capsule is able to pick it up), and there's more than enough gain to work with, so you won't have any issues using even quieter (more demanding) microphones. I constantly found microphone inputs on Creative's external sound cards, even recent ones, too quiet, so I'm happy to see they removed any such issues with the Sound Blaster X5.