Sound Blaster’s modular hub is a reconfigurable Stream Deck for audio

Creative, the company best known for its Sound Blaster line of sound cards that boosted the audio capabilities of ‘90s-era PCs, is reviving the brand with a new hub called the Re:Imagine. It’s reminiscent of Elgato’s Stream Deck controllers, but with a focus on your audio gear. It has a modular design allowing buttons, dials, sliders, and screens to be mixed, matched, and rearranged to your specific needs. The company launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign with delivery expected as early as June 2026. Pricing is expected to start at $500 for a kit that includes a horizontal base unit plus touchscreen, button, dial, and slider modules. Kickstarter backers can currently preorder it for $329 for a limited time. [Image: The hub’s buttons, dials, and even screen are modular and magnetic so you can rearrange them as needed. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/soundblaster2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] The Re:Imagine features USB-C, mic, line, and optical in connections, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a dedicated USB port for connecting it to a computer, plus support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth for wireless gear like headphones. There’s also a built-in DAC and amp that Creative says can power larger studio-grade desktop speakers. You can route audio from one device to another using the hub’s buttons or touchscreen, without having to juggle cables, but its usefulness goes beyond that. While connected to a PC, the hub’s various buttons and controls can be customized to launch applications, trigger shortcuts such as muting a phone call or starting programmable macros, and even control Matter-enabled smart home devices. It runs Linux, and Creative says users have full root access to its hardware. Developers are encouraged to create their own apps or find alternate uses for the hub. But the Re:Imagine isn’t completely dependent on a PC. It’s powered by an octa-core processor with 8GB of RAM and 16GB of storage that can be expanded using a microSD memory card. It can run apps on its 3-inch touchscreen and includes a DOS emulator for playing retro games, AI-powered assistants, and an AI DJ that can generate music based on a theme.