Creative, the company best known for its Sound Blaster line of sound cards that boosted the audio capabilities of 1990s PCs, is reviving the brand with a new hub called Re:Imagine. It’s reminiscent of Elgato’s Stream Deck controllers, but with a focus on your audio equipment. It has a modular design that allows you to mix, match and rearrange buttons, dials, sliders and screens according to your specific needs.
The company launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and is expected to deliver in June 2026. Pricing is expected to start at $500 for a kit that includes a horizontal base unit plus touchscreen, buttons, dial, and slider modules. Kickstarter backers can currently pre-order it for $329 for a limited time.
The Re:Imagine features USB-C, microphone, line and optical connections, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a dedicated USB port for connecting to a computer, plus support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth for wireless equipment like headphones. There’s also a built-in DAC and amplifier that Creative says can power larger studio desktop speakers. You can route audio from one device to another using the buttons on the hub or the 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 apps, activate shortcuts like muting a phone call or start programmable macros, and even control Matter-enabled smart home devices. It runs Linux and Creative says users have full access to its hardware. Developers are encouraged to create their own applications or find alternative uses for the hub.
But Re:Imagine is not entirely dependent on a PC. It is powered by an octa-core processor with 8 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage expandable via 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 who can generate music based on a theme.
