Creative debuts the Sound Blaster Katana V2 gaming soundbar
Gaming audio is a real battlefield at the moment, with console and accessory-makers fighting over your ears while you game. That’s mostly going on in the headset field, though – soundbars and TV speakers are a little rarer still.
Best PS5 and PS4 headset: Superb Playstation gaming headphones
Creative’s Sound Blaster Katana was that rare thing – a soundbar aimed explicitly at gaming, and it’s clearly proven enough of a success to trigger a follow-up. Hence the new Katana V2, a revised and improved soundbar.
It’s been smoothed out and refined on the design front, with a slightly more premium look to the bar itself, although the included subwoofer doesn’t look any different. Still, under the hood Creative says it’s 68 percent more powerful, so if you really want to crank out the volume this’ll boost you up.
Impressively, Creative has read the room on gaming – while the Katana V2 will sound amazing on loudspeaker mode, it’s got a 3.5mm jack front and centre for late-night sessions where you can’t be blasting out your sounds.
That jack uses Creative’s mouthful of a feature, Super X-Fi Headphone Holography, to apparently simulate a higher-end speaker experience. There are also various audio modes to switch between for different game types.
Connectivity is impressive, with a full suite represented in the form of HDMI ARC and optical ports, Bluetooth 5.0, a USB-C port for USB audio support, 3.5mm AUX-in and SXFI-out. The soundbar is available now for £299 or $329.99, and we’ll be testing one for a full review soon, so keep you eyes peeled for our verdict.
