Anyone who had a PC in the 90s will likely have very fond memories of Creative's Sound Blaster range. It's no exaggeration to say that its cards changed the PC into something way beyond an office tool, and without it games would have been rubbish. In fact, in the

Creative's new device is called the X7, and it takes PC sound to a different level. For one thing, it's more than just PC sound, there are ways to hook up your phone, either via USB or Bluetooth. And of course, there is a USB input, which allows the X7 to act as a soundcard too. In addition to that, there is a digital input for connecting a DVD or Blu-ray player. The device can also decode Dolby Digital, and pass it out via pre-amp RCA jacks, but it doesn't offer speaker outputs for these extra channels.

We heard the device last night at an event in London, and the £330 device performed really well. Most impressive was the quality of music. We heard a couple of tracks - including the live version of Hotel California, which is mandatory for listening tests. The system sounds amazing, and while it isn't cheap a good DAC and amp can cost a lot more than Creative is selling the X7 for.

NFC is included too, which can pair your Android phone automatically with the X7. Both Android and iOS have apps, which allow you to tweak settings while you're listening, and it's seamless too, which is a nice touch. If you're gaming, this could be very handy if you don't want to exit your game to change options. As you'd hope, the X7 has aptX for improved sound quality of Bluetooth too.

So what of the downsides, well, the price is, at first glance, high, but if you think about putting together a new gaming PC, if you want a dedicated soundcard, then you'll need to spend a fair amount of money anyway. Add to that a good amp, and you're already up and over the price of the X7. I felt, listening to the movie and gaming demos, that these needed some more tweaking. The sound processing made a huge difference to how this content sounded, but I wasn't sure if it was an entirely good change. But we'll wait until review time to pass judgement on things like that.

Creative is also quite pleased with the fact that the X7 can drive studio-level headphones, which is where the 600 ohm impedance figure comes in. We're told that studio headphones need a lot of power to be driven. And if you opt for a higher power AC adaptor, you'll be able to pump out 100watts via your speakers - assuming they can be driven at that volume.

The X7 will go on sale in December for £330.