I tried using an under monitor audio system "Sound BlasterX Katana" that is perfect for game play with a powerful bass

An under monitor audio system that has a horizontally elongated thin body before the LCD monitor and plays a powerful sound by being paired with a subwoofer that reinforces the bass "Sound BlasterX Katana"Has emerged from Creative Technology in mid December 2016. I tried variously how it looked at the system which is amenable to the reproduction of games and the like and equipped with an amplifier of up to 150 watt with 5 units and also capable of reproducing the high reso sound source.

Sound BlasterX Katana - Speaker - Creative Technology (Japan)
http://jp.creative.com/p/speakers/sound-blasterx-katana

A box of Sound BlasterX Katana ("Katana") delivered to the editorial department. In this, speakers and subwoofers of about 60 cm in width are set.


On the back, the description of various features is written as being narrowed.


The set of Katana is a combination of a bar-shaped speaker main body and a subwoofer, and a small remote control was bundled.


Two loudspeakers responsible for the midrange are placed on the top of the speaker body on the left and right, and one left and right high tone speaker is built in the mesh grill on the front.


Place operation buttons in the center of the front of the main unit. From the left is the power / Bluetooth connection, volume Down / Up, input switching, and SBX button to change the sound quality according to the situation.


On the front of the main unit, the settings such as the sound source source name and volume being input are displayed in this way.


I / O terminal on the back. From the left, the power input terminal, the subwoofer output terminal, the microphone input terminal, the headphone output terminal, the AUX (external input) terminal, the optical (light) input port, the USB memory port, the PC connection Micro-USB terminal are lining up I will.


The size of the main body is about 600 × 60 × 97 mm, and the weight is about 1.5 kg.


In addition to single operation of power supply, audio mute, volume etc, remote control can switch display and operate LED lighting as described later.


The subwoofer is 130 × 333 × 299 mm, weighs about 4 kg. A subwoofer driver with a caliber of 5.25 inches is placed on the side mesh part, and a bass reflex port is installed on the front side to boost bass.


By the way, only one cable is connected to the speaker body.


Connection image with peripheral equipment etc. is like this. It can connect analogously to PC, smartphone, game terminal and so on, input digital light output of TV and game console, and if connected with PC, it is possible to play high-resolution sound source of up to 24bit / 96kHz is.


So just by connecting the power supply to the subwoofer cable ......


Preparation to use is completed. It's handy that takes less than 5 minutes.


Where preparation is ready, first try to connect with the smartphone with Bluetooth easily. If you press and hold the button on the left side of the main unit for 3 seconds, you will enter Bluetooth pairing mode ......


Simply select "Sound BlasterX Katana" on the Bluetooth connection screen of the smartphone side and the connection is completed. Some previous devices were strangely difficult to pair and connect to Bluetooth, but in recent years the devices were really easy to connect.


If you play the music player of the smartphone as it is, the sound has come out easily easily.


Press the "SBX" button at the top of the main unit ... ...


It is possible to switch the sound quality to five types of "Neutral" "Gaming" "Concert" "Cinema" "Night". Neutral is a neutral sound quality as its name, but in Gaming it changes to a powerful sound that the low range and the high range are raised. Concert has soft tone quality, Cinema sounds that the dialogue seems to be easy to hear, Night got lighter in low frequency and changed to sound quality that would not annoy people and houses even in the middle of the night.


However, since the time lag occurs in the pronunciation by just keeping the Bluetooth connection, it may be unsuitable especially for the game of action system. In such a case, it may seem a bit cumbersome to connect with a wired cable, but you can play the game more comfortably.


Gaming sound can be enjoyed in full swing when connecting with PC and game console. Digital connection of PS4 and Katana with optical cable, enjoying beautiful flowing graphics and powerful soundNew feeling sound ga × Racing game "THUMPER"As a matter of course, there is no sound misalignment at all, you can enjoy a game of powerful power. Especially bass, basses which can not be imagined from the size of the Woofer Box have come out, and thickness is added to the explosion sound etc.


Nevertheless, there is also capacity, weight, and price aspects, you can not feel the bass that crawls the earth and pores open like the subwoofer used for full-scale audio. However, if you play so much heavy bass at home, you will be kicked out from the neighborhood the following day, so Katana can enjoy games, movies and music with just the right force, which is perfect for normal usage maybe.

It seems to add flower to the game play, it is "Aurora Reactive lighting system" by 16.8 million color full color LED arranged on the bottom of the speaker body. In this way the LED is arranged along the edge of the bottom ...


It will light up the speaker body like a neon tube.


The appearance that it actually shines is from the following movie. There are 4 patterns of "Wave Ice Blue", "Wave Rainbow", "Solo Orange", and "Aurora" and five types of lights off.

Sound BlasterX Katana's LED lighting "Aurora Reactive Lighting System" changes like this looks like this - YouTube


By connecting USB to the PC, it is also possible to play high-resolution sound sources of up to 24 bit / 96 kHz. Also, using the PC software to be provided in the future, it will be possible to reproduce the setting of the main unit, the light emission pattern of the Aurora Reactive lighting system, and up to 7.1 ch surround at the maximum. If you want to enjoy a powerful sound easily at a convenient price, it was becoming a system that is likely to rise sufficiently to one of the candidates.


Creative Technology's under monitor audio system "Sound BlasterX Katana" is on sale at Creative's online store, etc., with a tax-free price of 38,000 yen.

Purchase Sound BlasterX Katana - Speaker - Creative Store