Creative's Sound BlasterAxx is demoed
Creative's Sound BlasterAxx is demoed
"It's a product like no other", says Creative Labs. "There's nothing else like it out there." A bold claim, but after sitting through a demo of the Creative Sound BlasterAxx, we reckon they're right.
Axx is more than just a speaker tower. As well as playing your music, it listens, talks and adapts, acting as a central hub of communication. Connecting to your Mac through USB or Bluetooth, it has a high-quality built-in mic so you can also link it to your smartphone and use it to make calls from anywhere in the room. It also boasts an amazing ambient noise filter. During the demo, Creative Labs' Phil O’Shaughnessy used Sound BlasterAxx to make a FaceTime call from outside the room. He sounded crystal clear until he turned on a hair dryer, forcing him to shout to make himself heard. He then switched on the ambient noise filter, and the sound from the hair dryer disappeared. It wasn't merely subdued or reduced; it actually disappeared. We knew it was still switched on as it was blowing his hair around, but while Phil's voice remained clear and loud, the hair dryer couldn't be heard.
Creative's Vice President of Corporate Communications Phil O’Shaughnessy with a Sound BlasterAxx SBX 20
Another interesting feature is Smart Volume. if you walk around while making a call, Sound BlasterAxx keeps your transmitted volume at a consistent level. Walk away from the mic and its volume is increased to compensate. Move towards it and it's reduced. You don't have to raise or lower your voice according to where you are in the room. Using the Voice Focus feature, you can set the mic so it only picks up sounds from directly in front of it instead of anywhere in the room. Just the thing if you're sitting at your desk making a call, but also have a radio on in the background. The person at the other end only hears you, not the radio.
Naturally, you can play your music through the Axx too. We look forward to giving it a full MacFormat audio test, but from what we heard at the demo, it sounds pretty good. Although based on a tower form factor, the speakers are offset to give better-than-expected stereo effects, and the unit as a whole benefits from Creative Labs' wealth of audio experience. It certainly packs a lot of power considering it's wholly powered through USB.
The Axx comes in three models; SBX 20 (£180), SBX 10 (£130) and SBX 8 (£80)
Sound BlasterAxx comes in three models. The SBX 20 costs around £180, while the smaller SBX 10 is £130 and enjoys feature parity with its big brother. The smallest Axx is the SBX 8 for £80, which lacks Bluetooth.
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