Promotional Price No Longer Available. X3 Back at Full Price.
User in the comments @ShrewedOrJustTight mentioned that he/she has seen the X3 go on and off sale every few days/week. So if you missed out, check the website every now and again in case it drops in price.
Creative Labs (Australia) are running a promo on their Sound Blaster X3 external USB sound card/DAC/Amp. It normally retails on their site for $179.99. However it’s sold at Australian retailers for $200+ plus shipping.
At Mwave for example it costs $210.90 including shipping.
At Scorptec it costs $209 including shipping.
I ordered one today via Creative AU and the estimated delivery date is from 26 June to 6 July. So up to a 2 week delivery time frame (I suspect it may be shipped from one of their overseas warehouses.)
This is one of the best external USB sound card/DAC/Amps you can buy if your main focus is on gaming while also wanting to enhance your movie or music listening experience and you aren’t a super audiophile.
Comparable products are the Sound Blaster G6 and Sennheiser GSX 1000.
The X3 fixes a major issue with the G6’s mic monitoring/side tone feature (hardware feature that allows you to hear your own voice without any lag) - the G6 has noticeable lag which hasn’t been patched yet (2 years ongoing), whereas the X3’s mic monitoring works perfectly according to reviews.
This is extremely important if you game online and need to communicate with others, especially if you use closed back headphones where you can barely hear yourself speak, and constantly raise your voice to do so.
The X3 also adds a couple of surround sound features that you may or may not be interested in.
The G6 on the Creative website costs $199.99 delivered (also currently on sale). It costs around $250 delivered at Mwave and Scorptec.
Online consensus is that the G6 has a slightly better DAC/Amp which is why it costs more. It’s probably not noticeable in real life, but is something to note. If you don’t need the mic monitoring/side tone feature or the surround sound features of the X3 then you might want to look at the G6.
(Windows does have mic monitoring in the sound options, but there is a massive lag/delay when you speak and it plays back your voice, not suitable for gaming or anything really).
https://au.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blasterx-g6
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Vs’ the Sennheiser GSX 1000, the Sound Blaster X3 is better than it in almost every way (according to some reviews) and costs $200 less.
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/38118/epos-sennheiser-gs…
Even if you don’t really play games, using the X3 & G6 DAC/Amp will make almost every headphone sound better.
If you recently bought a Sennheiser HD58X via Ozbargain these dac amps pair well with it.
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Reviews:
This is a great price! Thanks for posting this.