Creative releases Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Gaming Sound Card

erek

erek

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Hookin it up? Seems interesting at least if not useful

"For audio output, stereo speaker output is maximum 32bit / 96kHz (maximum 32bit / 384kHz in direct output mode), 5.1ch speaker output is maximum 32bit / 96kHz, headphone output is maximum 32bit / 96kHz (maximum 32bit / 96kHz in direct output mode. 384kHz), optical digital output up to 24bit / 96kHz. Bus interface is PCI-Express (x1), connection interface is equipped with 3.5mm headphone terminal x 1, 3.5mm line output terminal x 3, optical digital output terminal x 1, 3.5mm line input/microphone input. The card size is 145 mm long, 20 mm thick, 128 mm wide, and weighs about 215 g.

The card looks to cost something in the sub-200 USD region."

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/creative-releases-sound-blasterx-ae-5-plus-gaming-sound-card.html
 
Nice. But honestly, pcie soundcards for me are more about the input/output options vs features. Creative ZX user here.
 
I realize some of us never want to upgrade our stuff if its 'good enough', but we've had HDMI for nearly 20 years now.....if you're still running optical and component cables as thick as power lines, it's time to move to the high bandwidth HDMI age :) Receivers that will do 7.1 raw or even fake surround with DD/DTS are like $30 bucks on craigslist, plus you get digital switching and one cable run! AMAZING STAR TREK TECHNOLOGY, TODAY!
 
I'm glad they're still making cards, but honestly I'd rather they make a followup to the Soundblaster X7. External DACs are, generally speaking, better.

The rest of my systems are hooked up via HDMI to receivers. If AMDs audio engine from the PS5 makes it into Navi 2 than that would be more interesting than a traditional sound card.
 
My next rig may have a proper sound card... but my current USB headphones are doing well enough. Creatives hardware does look pretty nice though as a whole, and aside from that whole Vista debacle (99% Microsoft’s Fault) their support for products has been pretty awesome.
 
HeadRusch said:
I realize some of us never want to upgrade our stuff if its 'good enough', but we've had HDMI for nearly 20 years now.....if you're still running optical and component cables as thick as power lines, it's time to move to the high bandwidth HDMI age :) Receivers that will do 7.1 raw or even fake surround with DD/DTS are like $30 bucks on craigslist, plus you get digital switching and one cable run! AMAZING STAR TREK TECHNOLOGY, TODAY!
Click to expand...

There are issues using HDMI if your display requires DP (like my XB271HU for example.) Yes you can run HDMI from the video card to receiver for audio output, but the OS will pick it up as a separate display which means you start running into all kinds of stupid little issues. Hopefully when HDMI 2.0 or whatever the next big HDMI upgrade is becomes standard and everyone has it, those of us with HT AV setups can go back to pure HDMI.
 
HeadRusch said:
I realize some of us never want to upgrade our stuff if its 'good enough', but we've had HDMI for nearly 20 years now.....if you're still running optical and component cables as thick as power lines, it's time to move to the high bandwidth HDMI age :) Receivers that will do 7.1 raw or even fake surround with DD/DTS are like $30 bucks on craigslist, plus you get digital switching and one cable run! AMAZING STAR TREK TECHNOLOGY, TODAY!
Click to expand...

Two channel for life!

Don't get me wrong, I use a surround receiver for my home theater, but 99% of my gaming is done with a two channel external DAC, headphone amp and headphones.

When I want to listen to music I use either those headphones or feed it through a two channel power amplifier to my bookshelf speakers and sub.

The amplifiers in those old receivers are generally fairly decent (as long as you aren't trying to drive all channels full blast at the same time) but everything else, including the DAC that takes your digital HDMI audio signal and converts it to analog is going to be old, and bottom barrel quality.

Surround receivers have their place for movies. I wouldn't want one on my desktop. I actually used a Denon receiver on my desktop for a little while when I was between power amps, but when I did I fed it a clean analog signal from my two channel external DAC and just used it as an amplifier.
 
HeadRusch said:
I realize some of us never want to upgrade our stuff if its 'good enough', but we've had HDMI for nearly 20 years now.....if you're still running optical and component cables as thick as power lines, it's time to move to the high bandwidth HDMI age :) Receivers that will do 7.1 raw or even fake surround with DD/DTS are like $30 bucks on craigslist, plus you get digital switching and one cable run! AMAZING STAR TREK TECHNOLOGY, TODAY!
Click to expand...

You know what else HDMI is good at? Creating an electrical path between your computer and your DAC that electrical interference can pass over. You won't get electrical interference / background noise over optical, which is a non-conductive cable that only passes light. Computers are inherently electrically noisy environments, especially a gaming computer with a power-hungry CPU and GPU.
 
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GotNoRice said:
You know what else HDMI is good at? Creating an electrical path between your computer and your DAC that electrical interference can pass over. You won't get electrical interference / background noise over optical, which is a non-conductive cable that only passes light. Computers are inherently electrically noisy environments, especially a gaming computer with a power-hungry CPU and GPU.
Click to expand...

How does background noise encode itself into a digital packet.

What are you even saying? It would have to be so bad that it was corrupting entire packets, which would probably cause the cable to not synch and function at all.
 
Verge said:
How does background noise encode itself into a digital packet.

What are you even saying? It would have to be so bad that it was corrupting entire packets, which would probably cause the cable to not synch and function at all.
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with the digital signal or the individual packets. I'm talking about electrical noise that travels over the same cable, because it's a conductive cable, and then becomes audible via the analog output of the DAC.

If the digital signal itself was being corrupted somehow, then using Optical wouldn't fix it. It's possible, and actually pretty common, to have an external DAC, and still get electrical noise using USB or even digital coax, but not optical.
 
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GotNoRice said:
You know what else HDMI is good at? Creating an electrical path between your computer and your DAC that electrical interference can pass over. You won't get electrical interference / background noise over optical, which is a non-conductive cable that only passes light. Computers are inherently electrically noisy environments, especially a gaming computer with a power-hungry CPU and GPU.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Once you've solved a grounding issue with optical it's hard to go back to copper.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Two channel for life!

Don't get me wrong, I use a surround receiver for my home theater, but 99% of my gaming is done with a two channel external DAC, headphone amp and headphones.

When I want to listen to music I use either those headphones or feed it through a two channel power amplifier to my bookshelf speakers and sub.

The amplifiers in those old receivers are generally fairly decent (as long as you aren't trying to drive all channels full blast at the same time) but everything else, including the DAC that takes your digital HDMI audio signal and converts it to analog is going to be old, and bottom barrel quality.

Surround receivers have their place for movies. I wouldn't want one on my desktop. I actually used a Denon receiver on my desktop for a little while when I was between power amps, but when I did I fed it a clean analog signal from my two channel external DAC and just used it as an amplifier.
Click to expand...
I use a 5.1 speaker setup for my gaming PC and a 2.1 soundbar for my TV o_O;). My receiver for my PC doesn't have HDMI (it is from like 2008 or so) and I use multichannel input (which effectively turns my receiver into an amp only). it is amazing what you can hear with a 5.1 setup.
 
HeadRusch said:
I realize some of us never want to upgrade our stuff if its 'good enough', but we've had HDMI for nearly 20 years now.....if you're still running optical and component cables as thick as power lines, it's time to move to the high bandwidth HDMI age :) Receivers that will do 7.1 raw or even fake surround with DD/DTS are like $30 bucks on craigslist, plus you get digital switching and one cable run! AMAZING STAR TREK TECHNOLOGY, TODAY!
Click to expand...

What's an HDMI cable? All my stuff is DisplayPort :p
Plus, leaving HDMI audio enabled on at least one of my systems results in regular hard crashes (real time audio issues), while optical out on my Xonar with DTS encoding works great.
 
HeadRusch said:
I realize some of us never want to upgrade our stuff if its 'good enough', but we've had HDMI for nearly 20 years now.....if you're still running optical and component cables as thick as power lines, it's time to move to the high bandwidth HDMI age :) Receivers that will do 7.1 raw or even fake surround with DD/DTS are like $30 bucks on craigslist, plus you get digital switching and one cable run! AMAZING STAR TREK TECHNOLOGY, TODAY!
Click to expand...

My Toslink and digital coax cables are about the same size as a USB cable. My HDMI and DP cables are about the same size as a PC power cable.

As already mentioned, an HDMI connection from video card to receiver causes the receiver to show up as a display on the PC, which makes for some funky issues. Since multichannel analog inputs have disappeared from all but the most expensive receivers, that leaves SPDIF over Toslink or coax as a very useful audio interface between PC and receiver.

My main PC has a sound card that does DTS Live encoding connected to a great receiver that I couldn't afford when it was new (that I was able to buy used from a friend) that doesn't have HDMI. In other rooms, I have PCs connected to receivers via HDMI. One of the great things about a PC is the versatility.
 
4saken said:
Nice. But honestly, pcie soundcards for me are more about the input/output options vs features. Creative ZX user here.
Click to expand...

This. I'm still using an x-fi titanium w/ front panel, my use is entirely the expanded I/O (though that sound card does sound drastically better driving my headphones than integrated does on my gigabyte x570 pro)

The ZXR at least came with the pod and the second pci bracket with more i/o.

I think creative is missing the target audience since most gamers have moved on to USB headsets and USB dac/amps, if not just plain integrated since it's "good enough" now. I wish I could put my older PCI x-fi in my new system because that one even has MIDI i/o on the front panel.. these things were extremely useful to me.

Now we're supposed to pay twice as much and the only use is as a headphone amp or digital output to our stereos.. what's the point?
 
https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-U-Control-UCA202-Ultra-Low-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI

2 Chan cheap ass swiss army knife for the PC.

I'll see myself out.

51ZAjSGDX6L._AC_SL1000_.jpg
 
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IdiotInCharge said:
They have that covered quite well too...
Click to expand...

They do... but then who is this new card targeting is my question. Doesn't have enough I/O for me and it isn't the form factor most people appear to be after, making their USB DAC more desirable. I don't really know of anybody buying a pci-e sound card just for headphones and analog input speakers these days. Just seems like a wasted pci-e slot IMO.

If they would include a front panel box like the old days or even better - a desktop breakout i/o box with midi, optical, and 6.35mm i/o, and maybe XLR, I would instabuy.

In other words, I think combining something like the Sound Blaster K3+ bundled with and interfacing with the sound card in an all in one unit would be a good piece of hardware to market to "content creators" rather than just gamers.

That's the kind of sound card I want at least.. Audigy 2ZS with the external box was awesome IMO.
 
Mode13 said:
If they would include a front panel box like the old days or even better - a desktop breakout i/o box with midi, optical, and 6.35mm i/o, and maybe XLR, I would instabuy.

In other words, I think combining something like the Sound Blaster K3+ bundled with and interfacing with the sound card in an all in one unit would be a good piece of hardware to market to "content creators" rather than just gamers.
Click to expand...
This also exists too, in some form.

Mode13 said:
They do... but then who is this new card targeting is my question.
Click to expand...
Other than just having a product in a particular segment, it's likely targeting integraters, and probably born out of some combination of supplier contracts and manufacturing costs and so on supporting a new SKU.
 
I'm currently using an Asus Xonar U3 (usb) because I have 0 free pcie lanes. Well unless I want to take my gpu to x8 (not gonna happen).

There is a point to having everything inside the case.

If I move to a 3950x and x570 board I would have more pcie lanes with that config.
 
I'd love to find a use for one of these, but I'm finding it difficult now. I used to love the creative cards even from back with the sound blaster 16. The original SB live started EAX and made half-life a totally different experience. I've also owned an x-fi and loved that one too.

But even though my mainboard is an old z170, it has some sort of x-fi onboard. I don't find it as good as my old x-fi, but I have to say it's not bad. Overall I'm very happy with it.

I'm not going to claim to be an audiophile, but I'm far from tone deaf. I also don't listen to music very loud and often prefer headphones - especially now that I have a young child! Makes getting an amp a hard sell.

Unfortunately for many of us onbard has exceeded the 'good enough' barrier long ago. These cards are more of a niche item now. I'm sure they're better and produce excellent sound, but it's just not enough to matter for most I think.

I do admit I still kinda want one:) so many good memories from creative cards. Only reason I ditched the x-fi was because it was an old pci version.
 
I've been through many Creative soundcards, Audigy, Audigy 2 & ZS, Titanium HD, ZxR and G5 but since Realtek ALC1150 (and currently ALC1220) I've been using Realtek but I quite enjoyed the Audigy 2 ZS a long time using kX Audio drivers which are 3rd party drivers built from ground-up so they are nothing like Creative's drivers (but that project is long gone now). The thing is what I haven't been able to reproduce is the nice soundstaging I can get with the Realtek onboard when using 5.1 speakers with my headphones. Different manufacturers seems to handle the speaker config HRTF stuff differently I suppose and Creative tends to force ppl to use a "Headphone" profile that to my ears tend to give a more closed-in sound when I want that virtual-surround like experience that leads of EDM songs are floating outside my headphone cups in a bigger space, think of dolby headphone without added reverb and sound quality impact.

I wonder if this is still the case with the latest 3rd party soundcards out there and I don't quite feel so tempted to spend like $150 everytime a new soundcard arrives for a plausible 10 min worth of use, I want as best possible sound but so far I've been getting better results with Realtek which is quite absurd imo. Can't speak of every manufacturer but I enjoy what comes out of the ASRock front port headphone amplied setting that I think also fares very well also when setting aside the soundstaging differences.
 
I still hold a grudge for creative suing aureal into bankruptcy, then buying the remnants for cheap afterwards. I'll never buy one of their products.

That and Microsoft neutered audio in later windows releases
 
I had an Aureal card that came with a demo of Half Life. I can't remember if it was part of the full game or a separate map specific to the demo. I don't think any of the Creative cards ever matched what Aureal did with 2 channels.
 
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