Creative Labs new product for CES was a mild tweak to their X7 combined DAC/headphone/speaker amplifer:

DSC_8973 copy

Of course the X7 isn’t brand new. It was recently launched at $400 and is really quite a compact package that boasts some really good components to make it a decent headphone amp and dac, then on top of that it packs some serious output power for speakers also. We like the idea and the limited edition white version pushes the power up a bit further:

CL_x7Of course maximum power is usually bit deceptive.  Note that the rated power doesn’t change much at all.
DSC_8974 copyIt’s cool that it’s white, but I suspect that unless they opamps or DAC have also been improved that $100 more is a bit too much to ask for the mild tweak.  That’s not to say it’s bad, it seems like a really good product, but if it were me, I’d buy the $400 version instead.