Packaging
The packaging for the Sound Blaster Katana V2 was noticeably toned down when compared to the original Katana that I reviewed back in 2017. The Katana had a full picture of colorful aurora’s covering the entire front of the box with the Katana and sub sitting in front of all of that. The Katana V2 on the other hand has a black background with an orange fade across the top and bottom edges. The Katana V2 itself is also on the front including its RGB lighting but it isn’t sitting in the center they have it along the bottom edge and on the right side for the sub. They do have the Sound Blaster logo up in the top left corner and the Katana V2 logo is below that and in the largest font on the box along with an even smaller Creative logo in the top right. A lot of the features of the Katana V2 have icons or logos to represent them along the middle as well. Then around on the back, they have those same features but with full descriptions of each to let you know what they are all about and for some lines drawn to show where they are on the pictures of the Katana V2 on the back. The pictures also show the back with all of the connections which is helpful as well.
When you open things up there is foam holding everything away from the walls and keeping it safe. The Katana V2 itself is up near the top with a foam bag around it as well then down under that is the sub with cardboard boxes on each side of it to fill the space and to also hold the accessories and documentation.
All of the documentation for the Katana V2 comes in one plastic bag. The large box on the left is the quick start guide to get you through the installation and wiring things up. There is a small folded-up book with all of the warranty information and then another with safety and regulatory information. The last one had a bunch of legal warnings as well, the main thing you need to worry about here is the quick start guide.
The Katana V2, like the original Katana, does support being wall-mounted and comes with the mounts to do that. These are similar to the original’s mounts only they have an angle to them where the old design was more squared off. There are two mounting holes in each side of the mount and they include pre-thread locked machine screws for mounting the Katana V2 to the mounts but you will need to get your own screws for mounting to the wall and make sure your screws/mounts can support the weight. The keyhole style holes for the Katana V2 screws do mean you can take it down if needed and there are rubber pads across the mount on that side to try to prevent any rattling as well.
You get a whole bundle of cables in a big plastic bag and then in their own plastic bags as well. The Katana V2 comes with three different power cables depending on where you are located. There is a USB cable for hooking up to a PC and an optical cable for stereo and TV connections all in the bundle. There is also the AC to DC power adapter as well which supports 100v to 240v for that international support and has a 24-volt output and 3 amps and 72 watts twice for 144 watts total.
Another big change for the Katana V2 which I think might be the biggest one for me is the new remote design. The old Katana has a simple flat remote with just a few functions but the Katana V2’s remote is a proper remote with rubber buttons and a little more substance to it. Power and mute are easy to get to and there are volume controls, play/pause, and skip forward and back with the direction pad. Then you have buttons for each input, sub-boost controls, and 6 customizable buttons down at the bottom.
