Creative Sound Blaster Katana V2X RGB Gaming Soundbar

Once you've got through a pretty annoying rollercoaster of a setup process (enough to make you think you've been given a defective model), the Sound Blaster Katana V2X is a fantastic gaming sound bar, with great punchy sound, that fits perfectly end-to-end under a 27-inch gaming monitor, and has great customisable RGB lighting to complement your setup too (more on that point later)! First off, just a note about power cords. I was quite reluctant to part with my money at first, as as soon as I saw it was sold by Creative (Europe) and Amazon EU (despite having next day Prime delivery), I actually became unsure if a UK 3-pin power cord actually came with this product. (I've been stung before with a speaker purchase that only had an EU cord included, despite being sold here in the UK.) However, I'm pleased to confirm that the Katana V2X comes with multiple region specific power cords in the box, including the UK 3-pin, plus 2-pin variants for both the EU and US. These all plug into the relatively small power brick for your soundbar. Now, my biggest gripe with this soundbar is it's over-complex plethora of Standby settings, which at first actually made me think my soundbar was faulty. I have my soundbar connected directly to my monitor via my monitor's HDMI CEC port, then my PC connected to my monitor via DP, and Switch 2 plugged into my other HDMI port. Initially, the sound worked seamlessly across all devices UNTIL...15 minutes had elapsed, then my soundbar would shut itself off into a standby mode, regardless of whether I was gaming on my PC, Switch 2 or watching a film on my PC. I immediately looked up online how to change the device's Standby settings, and discovered the soundbar had a built in Standby timer. (Accessed by holding the 'Power button' and 'Volume -' buttons, and scrolling through some menus using the built in digital display.) The Standby timer can be adjusted to activate at various times ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours, or can be shut-off entirely. I did this. Setting Standby to 'Never'. The soundbar can also be set to go into 'auto-standby' when you turn off your monitor too, through HDMI CEC support, though I did turn this off. Great right? I figured out how to edit/disable the Standby functions on my Soundbar and was ready to game again! 15 minutes later...the sound cuts out and the Soundbar goes into Standby. It was at this point I started to think something was wrong and I'd made a huge mistake parting with my £250. Turns out, there's yet ANOTHER Standby setting, triggered by a 15-minute Energy Saving Inactivity feature (Yellow LED on your soundbar power indicator). That's right, the Soundbar failed to detect that it was actually in use and went into an Energy Saving Inactivity Standby mode. Here's the worst part about all of this though, this 15-minute timer cannot be disabled on the soundbar itself. It can only be disabled through downloading the Creative app either on your PC or on your phone. (PC App Connectivity is achieved by plugging in the included, but pretty short USB-C to USB-A cable.) When you're setup with the app, it was a simple front-page toggle to turn off the energy saving mode and my problem disappeared for good (even after I unplugged the USB link) But WHY??? Why did I need an app to do this? Why wasn't it a toggle on the soundbar itself? That's the reason this soundbar gets 4-stars, and not 5, as it was not a great setup experience, and having to use an app to access critical features like this, and other functions too is no doubt a deal breaker for some! In terms of RGB lighting, there's a handful of modes available right out of the box, changeable with the included remote. The default is a scrolling colour spectrum, then there's my personal favourite, 'Aurora', which softly morphs greens, blues and purples, and is probably the least distracting of the default modes. There's a white light mode, which would look cool with the more 'Sci-Fi' themed gaming setups, especially with how the light diffuses itself on your desk. Then there's a 'beat' mode, which causes the LED's to flash orange with sudden noises, which I thought was a bit 'meh'. Oh, you can have the LED's turned off completely too if you're not interested in all that, as with the digital display too. The main bulk of RGB lighting features are again hidden behind the Creative App though. Here, you have yet more presets, or can completely customise the lighting to your own preferences using various sliders and toggles. In terms of sound quality, I'm very impressed! There's some sound profiles pre-installed on your soundbar right out of the box, including a Movie mode, Gaming mode and Music mode, easily toggleable with one press of a button on your soundbar or remote. The remote also allows you adjust the bass level on the included subwoofer, which is tall and slim, a bit like a big, chunky A4 ring binder! Playing shooters on this thing sounds fantastic, with weapons and explosions sounding like they have quite a depth to them, and voices in both games and movies have a real clarity to them! It's a real cinematic experience, and is a great reward for your hard work during the initial setup! Overall, I'm very happy with my Katana V2X, and would easily recommend it to others, provided you're happy with potentially needing to use the Creative App, at least for the initial, fiddly setup process!

Artikel sehr gut. Haben für mich die Katana V2x und für meine Frau die Razer Leviathan V2 gekauft. DIe Katana klingt deutlich besser und bei der Razer ist der Sound sehr flach. Er wird nur stärker wenn man den THX Treiber deinstalliert und auf Stereo stellt. Allerdings hätten wir dann auch 2 einzelne Boxen kaufen können. Alles in allem bin ich sehr zufrieden. Wer also gerade zwischen Katana und der Razer schwankt auf jeden Fall Katana kaufen. Haben mit der Katana alles richtig gemacht über die Razer ärgere ich micht. Sie ist ein wenig günstiger aber dafür deutliche Abstriche im Sound leider.

Vi este producto hace mucho wn youtube pero vi la Blaster Sound Katana no era la X V2. Tenia mis dudas pero al llegar a casa y probarla me encanto. Muy buena barra y sub wofer. Muy buen sonido. Tambien te viene con diferentes cables y adaptadores para poder ponerlo en consolas, pc, etc. Lo que si tienen que decir es que para configurar las luces sonido y demas tienes que tener una aplicacion en pc con ella puedes elegir los colores el modo de sonido tambien hay modo ecualizador etc. Esa es la unica pega que le pongo lo de la aplicacion. Que menos mal que vi videos de toutube y por sierte hay en español. Cuando pueda me comprare otra junto a unos cascos lo unico que me arrepiento es de no habermela comprado antes

I have mixed feelings about this sound bar, stock settings it is just really really bad, very little base, tinny sound, you need to use BASS+ and tweak the EQ settings to be decent. Then using it in 5.1 surround sound which is not great either and volume is pretty inconsistent some times it's loud other times it's not. It does have a wide range of support with Bluetooth, USB-C, Optical and AUX in. I think it's will very expensive for what it is which puts it on Par to my 15 year old LG 960 which is much better and a true 5.1 surround system. If this system had rear speakers then the price would be valid, or even an ability to add your own rear speakers but knocked off £100 then I think it would be worth it. It is compact which does make it quite convenient more so the subwoofer and on it's own it not very powerful even at max base which is why the BASS+ is needed so you get some of the down firing not just the subwoofer but also the sound bar. The remote control is very good, light and has a lot of controls to make changes like lighting, volume and sound profiles.

Magnífico sonido y un subwoofer no demasiado voluminoso que cumple perfectamente su cometido.