Creative Sound Blasterx H6 Review Update 11/2024

Bottom Line

With its sleek design, superb comfort, and extensive feature set, the Sound BlasterX H6 is one of the best headsets on the market at the moment, and it doesn’t break the bank.

An advantage of the H6 is that its audio wasn’t designed with gamers in mind.

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It’s the best option for anyone who wants to use their headsets for purposes other than gaming.

Design:

The market for gaming headsets is more crowded than ever, with countless brands offering dozens of different options. Nonetheless, we can’t whine now because the current offerings are so consistently high-quality; the Sound BlasterX H6 by Creative Labs is further evidence of this.

However, there are so many options in the mid-priced headset category that a new model would need to be truly exceptional to compete for your attention. How distinctive is the Sound BlasterX H6? To an extent, but perhaps not in the way you’re thinking.

Specifications

Design

A quick glance is all it takes to recognize the H6’s air of superior craftsmanship. The sleek black exterior exudes an air of sophistication and aggression-free gaming cool.

Instead, the H6’s only noticeable feature is the ring of LEDs that surrounds each ear cup. This helps the H6 blend in with any RGB setup while still looking understated when paired with a less flashy gaming rig.

The metal-reinforced headband and high-quality plastic construction ensure that the headset maintains its luxurious feel after prolonged use. Also, you can get a good idea of how cushy they are by zooming in on a picture of the ear cushions.

The best part is that you can easily swap them out. They are inexpensive enough to replace if they are ever broken without breaking the bank. You may also have noticed the mesh material that covers the ear pads.

While the meshed fabric’s advantages (most notably its increased breathability) are much appreciated, we note that this benefit comes at the expense of reduced passive noise cancellation.

The H6 also has a detachable cable for use with various electronic gadgets. One is a USB cable, and the other is a regular 3.5mm jack, so you have options.

This ensures that the headset can be used with not only computers and mobile devices, but also the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Features

The Sound BlasterX H6 is equipped with a wide variety of useful features, some of which are standard for a gaming headset and others that are novel and exciting.

First off, the 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound does a good job of immersing the listener. Moreover, the Scout Mode is something that Shooter fans will appreciate.

To be more specific, this function amplifies only those frequencies that provide a strategic advantage, such as hearing your opponents before they hear you.

Still, being able to adjust the EQ to our liking was a huge plus. If the ‘flat’ EQ isn’t to your liking, the H6 ships with three additional EQ modes: one for gaming, one for movies, and one for music.

They aren’t fantastic, but they’re a nice bonus for people who don’t want to manually adjust the equalization.

Sound Blaster Connect, available for free from Creative Labs’ website, allows you to create a custom audio profile, should you so desire.

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All of the headset’s settings, including audio processing effects, LED lighting, and EQ, are at your fingertips thanks to this nifty piece of software.

Just so you know, you can’t use any of these functions unless you’re connected to your computer via USB, and the same goes for the left ear cup’s controls. Using the H6 with the Xbox One or the Nintendo Switch, as the implication suggests, will result in a much more stripped-down experience.

This also applies to other functions, such as the ClearComms microphone technology and the Ambient Monitoring.

We’ll talk about ClearComms in a bit, when we get to the microphone details, but we want to get right to explaining the new and exciting Ambient Monitoring feature.

Basically, it does the same thing that mic monitoring does, only for environmental noise. A tiny microphone is built into one of the earbuds, and when activated, it will add the captured sound to your current audio source.

Let’s say you’re waiting for something important to happen, like a phone call or a doorbell, but you still want to play a game. All right, you can do that now.

If you activate Ambient Monitoring, it will be as if you are simultaneously wearing and not wearing a headset. A little background noise is to be expected, but we think this has great promise.

However, the H6’s passive noise-cancellation is already quite poor, so you shouldn’t buy it just for this feature.

Nonetheless, it’s a neat feature that will be most appreciated by streamers and young gamers whose parents don’t realize that some games can’t be paused. We’re more interested in seeing where it goes from here.

Software

While the Sound BlasterX H6 can be used without any additional software, the Sound Blaster Connect 2 program is required when using this headset with a PC. The software is user-friendly and gives you the option to adjust many parameters, such as:

• Change the EQ settings quickly and easily between a wide variety of predefined options.
• customize the audio to your liking by adjusting the Surround, Crystalizer, Bass, Smart Volume, and Dialog.
• you can fine-tune the microphone’s sound quality by adjusting its Noise Reduction, Acoustic Echo Cancellation, and Smart Volume settings.
• Select from the modes Solo, Pulsate, Music Reactive, and Cycle to modify the color and intensity of the lights.
• set up mono, stereo, 5.1, or 7.1 channels of audio
• Improve the H6’s performance by upgrading its software.

Again, you don’t need it because the headset has four EQ presets, but it’s great to have for PC gaming and sound customization.

Microphone/Voice Quality

The voice quality appeared to be fairly clear when used with a personal computer. Other members of my party didn’t complain about not being able to hear me during our test games while using the Sound BlasterX H6, so I guess I must have sounded pretty clear to them. There is also a mic mute button on the left ear cup that can be held down for about two seconds to activate or deactivate the headset’s mic monitoring feature.

Due to the lack of support, we were unable to evaluate voice quality on the Xbox One X or the Nintendo Switch.

Price/Value

Sound BlasterX H6 USB Gaming Headset is reasonably priced at its suggested retail price of $79.99. It’s currently on sale for $49.99 (a steal) on the Creative website.

Comfort

When it comes to headsets, the H6 is among the most pleasant we’ve used. It’s possible that some listeners won’t enjoy the slightly more tactile experience that the mesh fabric provides around their ears.

However, in terms of comfort, this headset has a lot going for it. Clamping force is just right, and the memory foam padding molds to your ear for optimal comfort.

The end result is a headset that doesn’t cause ear pain or sweating, making it suitable for long periods of use.

The memory foam ear cushions are what really sell this headset for us. If you wear glasses, the H6 will still be comfortable to use.

The thin meshed fabric padding on the headband is the only potential drawback, but even then, it never presses into your skull.

A competent gamer would not throw away the game while wearing this headband because it is surrounded by teammates (ear cups, lightweight design, and clamping force) that can easily carry the team to victory on their own.

Microphone

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A high-quality microphone is now arguably more important than good speakers in team-based video games. Obviously, this was a top priority for the people at Creative Labs as they developed the H6’s microphone, because they spared no effort in ensuring its high quality.

The H6 comes with a high-quality unidirectional condenser microphone that can be removed from the headset and used separately.

Lacking a pop filter and diminishing some of the richness in your voice, this microphone isn’t ideal, but unless you’re a full-fledged professional, you probably won’t need anything better than this anyway.

In addition, the USB connection enables you to fine-tune the noise-cancellation level via software, among other neat features made possible by the ClearComms technology (such as mic monitoring).

The H6’s microphone is merely adequate at best, but with a USB connection and some fiddling with the settings, it can become impressively professional for the price.

Sound

Here comes the meat of it: the actual audio. How does the Sound BlasterX H6 stack up against the other great headphones that cost about the same as it does?

As opposed to following the herd, it suggests a new way forward. The H6 provides a well-rounded listening experience, in contrast to many gaming headsets that focus solely on providing great sound during gameplay and ignore all other uses.

For video games, yes, but not at the expense of other multimedia uses. Therefore, the H6 is the best option if you want a headset that isn’t limited to just gaming.

Since the H6 isn’t a bass-driven headset, the freedom to adjust the EQ to your liking is helpful, as are the three premade EQ options.

While the bass can certainly hold its own thanks to the 50mm neodymium drivers, it’s clear that the highs are taking center stage this time around. The headset has a pleasant, warm sound and is powerful and flexible enough to do justice to a wide variety of gaming and music experiences.

The only real flaw is a lack of fullness in the mids and especially the vocals. It’s not terrible, and it shouldn’t ever be so jarring that it breaks the immersion of whatever you’re experiencing, whether it’s a movie, song, or video game. Aside from that, it’s one of the most adaptable headsets out there, letting you adjust the sound to your liking.

Sound BlasterX H6 – Software

The fact that you never actually need to use the Sound Blaster Connect software is one of the highest compliments I can pay it. Not that this discredits Connect in any way. However, the left earcup houses all of the headphones’ most crucial controls in case you’d rather not fiddle around with the right.

However, you’ll need to delve into the H6’s dashboard to extract its full potential. It’s possible to customize the lighting to your liking here, whether you prefer a constant glow or to have it change color in response to the music playing. Sound can be improved by using the sound controller’s equalizer and other acoustic controls. Moreover, there is a feature called Scout mode, which is a clever enhancement that emphasizes in-game effects like footsteps and voices, giving you enhanced, Predator-like aural perception.

You can choose from nearly two dozen profiles pre-configured with specific games or activities in mind if you’re not a fan of meticulously shaping waveforms or throwing switches to configure your audio. You can look at how they’ve configured each setting for games like Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, DOTA 2, Fortnite, and League of Legends, among others, and use that information to make and save your own profiles.

Sound BlasterX H6 – Gaming

I must admit something. These past few weeks, I’ve been listening to games and music with a pair of headphones that aren’t designed for either purpose: Beyerdynamic’s excellent (and excellently expensive) Amiron. I had adjusted to the headphone’s tight mids, clear highs, and lackluster bass. Maybe that’s why I liked the H6 so much; it’s true that it costs only a tenth as much as the Amiron, but the H6 was specifically designed by Creative with gaming in mind, and it packs a low-end punch that can even wake the dead.

Conclusion

Overall, the Sound BlasterX H6 is a great headset that competes well with the best in its price range. That’s saying a lot given how strong the opposition is.

Because of the extensive personalization options and the variety of devices to which it can be connected, it offers remarkable adaptability.

We wouldn’t recommend the H6 as your first choice if you need a headset, especially for gaming on the Xbox One or the Nintendo Switch, because of the necessity of the USB cable for optimal performance.

We recommend the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas if you’re looking for a headset that puts gaming first and foremost, but it will cost you an extra $20 or so.

However, the H6 easily outperforms the Elite Atlas in terms of value if you require a headset that you intend to use for more than just gaming.

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