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I wanted to create this post regarding my thoughts on Dolby Atmos and what I think of virtual surround in general from a hearing perspective and something that isn't technically measured. This is used with the Sound Blaster AE-9 and the Tygr 300Rs. I decided to try Dolby Atmos with the 7-day free trial and see how good or bad it is. Spoilers I will rarely use virtual surround I didn't go into high hopes when trying out this virtual surround sound because I wanted my expectations low. That certainly didn't help because I just wanted to throw off my headphones in the first seconds of trying it out for either a game or music. Their virtual surround implementation is alright for a kind of fake "spacious" bathroomy type sound but the sound quality dropped harder than I don't know what. The sound got very grainy and had a lot of weird EQ going on which ruined the whole frequency response. Using their EQ didn't help with the sound either. As for directionality, it works surprisingly well to distinguish front and behind imaging in for example Battlefield and letting it downmix to stereo from using surround in the game. Mediocre for directional audio for footsteps and of course worse than without it. Then I decided to compare DTS Headphone:X that came preloaded with my ROG Strix mobo and see if there was a difference. And yep, big difference. DTS seems to have less distortion and more clarity without all the graininess that Atmos comes with, but some weird things are going on here which are that for some reason DTS shifts the image to the left by like 3-5 volume adjustments in windows, and sounds like a channel imbalance. My headphones do not have a channel imbalance because turning it off fixes it. This makes it pretty much unusable. The other con is that the bass is boomy and the sound seems more pushed forward losing some detail. I am guessing it's like that because of the way they try to make a spacious soundstage with a "subwoofer" which doesn't sound good although the echo isn't there as much as Dolby Atmos surround. It has pretty good front and back imaging as well as Atmos but it's a lot better in terms of quality. Not that good directional audio either hence the boomy bass and weird imaging. So as for my last "test" is that I compared both of them to my soundcard's virtual surround from the SBX settings and using the different percentages on the "surround" setting. This is closer to Dolby Atmos with almost zero to no sound quality compromise. Although it increases treble as well as a bit of echo. Having it between 1-33% gives a type of sound almost like I have 2 speakers in front of me with a tiny bit of echo, between 33-67% is just the same but a bit wider sounding and kind of blending the channels. Up to 100%, it sounds almost the same but at 100% it somehow surprisingly makes the sound like it's both in front and behind me as if I am in a bigger warehouse or something, I'm guessing it has to do a bit with the echo and other effects it's applying. The echo is surprisingly low and not at all bathroomy as the others I've tried. This one retains good imaging/directional audio but has a small bit worse front and behind imaging than DTS or Dolby. The only times I've had it to be more of a fun use case it kinda works for movies, casual games, an orchestral track or just to get immersed but not for quality or better directional audio. Dolby - Grainy sound, bathroomy, hollow. DTS - Channel imbalance (software related), boomy bass, detail loss. SBX surround - Great sound quality, decent frequency response, same if not more detail To sum it up don't use it if you need sound quality and proper stereo imaging and to rely on the game's sound engine. As for immersion or to have a different sound for casual games, movies, or just some orchestral track, sure. But Dolby Atmos isn't it anyway. I guess the built-in virtual surround in my soundcard works better since it has its hardware and processing for it and it doesn't sound half bad.

Hi all, I've decided to ask my question here instead of creating a new topic. I have a Logitech Z906 (I live in a studio apartment and it is convenient because I can connect a lot of things to it) and I was thinking about getting a separate sound card for my PC. My reasoning would be is that, back in the day I never had the chance to experience some oldies but goldies that use EAX (Doom 3 or Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast) and I was looking for something that could be modern and also offer these features. Or should I just go for the old x-fi cards and switch between it and the one on my motherboard? Also, I saw that Plouffe also uses a sound card and it looks like something to be from Creative but I've never figured out which model and I'm also curious as to why exactly? BTW, right now I'm rocking an ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming motherboard. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Hi! This is a bit of a long-shot, but I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro - don't get me wrong, this is an ancient sound card but I do really like it. Just to give you some context, this sound card has official driver support for Windows 10, and I've successfully used it on Windows 11 until this update. I now get this error: I've tried the drivers from Creative's own website, and the ones that Windows 11 Automatically installs through windows update, got the same result. Is there anyone, that might have an idea on how to fix this? Or someone that encountered the same problem? Thank you in advance.

I have been using onboard sound chips for more than ten years. But I could never forget how amazing when I replaced my onboard AC97 with a Sound blaster Live twenty years. I'm going to build a new PC for gaming and streaming recently, so considering to bring back a separated sound card. I have two candidate now: AE-5 Plus and AE-7. AE-5 plus is cheaper, but I really like ACM included in AE-7. Are the built-in mic and controller as well its slightly better DAC worth $60? Thanks

I bought the Logitech x 530 like twelve years ago and they are still working fine. But the room where my computer is located is not that big so I want some 2.0 speakers. I'm not audiophile and I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but, would the Creative Pebbles 2.0 be a good replacement for my current setup? 90% of the time I just watch youtube videos so 5.1 doesn't work. I do some gaming and watch Netflix and that's it.

So i just got myself a 2.1 speaker system..and i wanna connect it to my pc, but i don't know how to, it's a stupid question but where do i connect the 3.5mm jack? There are 6 holes in the motherboard, and 1 in my monitor.

Budget (including currency): 1,20,000 Indian Rupees Country: India Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Hello there I hope You are doing well. Please give me awesome Custom Rig specs for Blender & Adobe creative cloud usage. Thank you.

My friend, Jace, was upgrading his cpu and he forgot to plug in the cpu power, after about two weeks we decided to do something great

Hello everyone, I want to buy a sound card, but I don't really know which one to be. Currently I'm choosing between Asus Xonar U7 MkII or Creative Sound BlasterX G6. I've researched and there were different opinions and reviews, but nothing solid. My question is which I should buy and I won't be dissapointed for the purchase? Also I want to hear other suggestions on their price (around $150) and what specs I must check while choosing soundcard. Thanks for the attention!

So I was changing PSU for new and in same time was decided to clean PC as every time and then. So, of course I unplugged every cord (all USB, RJ45 etc.) to get it right and unobstructed. Plug everything back power on and Zoinks, my PC stop before BIOS post! There was only that little underscore thingy, show up in the left corner, like before every post in every BIOS - I guess. So reset - same result! All stuff inside plugged well triple-checked - stil no post! I unplugged every USB, even M & K and restart - everything working well! So I started plunging stuff in and restarting and it turns out it is a Creative Omni 5.1 (external sound card - DAC). Without it everything works well. With it - no post! And the search of the problem begins: I tried every USB port on Mobo, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.1 gen2 - Nothing, still no post when plugged in. Reset bios to default - Nothing. BIOS USB Legacy settings - Nothing! UEFI / Legacy boot - Nothing! Turned on/off sound card on Mobo (Realtek) in BIOS - Nothing! I have no more ideas so far, and start loosing my mind I have to unplug it and plug it in back every time I turn on my PC :| It is a Creative Omni 5.1 plugged in MSI B450M Mortar with 1.D0 (AGESA 1.0.0.4) BIOS. Does anyone experience anything like that, or have some ideas what to do - except throw away that Creative device trough the window Thanks in advance for any ideas and suggestions!!!

Hi there, looking to get a little advice on a new build. Haven't build a new machine for about 7 years, so this will completely replace my old one. It's a work machine first and foremost, but I'd also like to get into some gaming. I do illustration, design and photography work, mostly in Adobe apps, and I'd like to learn some 3D. So apps like Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, Premiere and Blender. The plan is to use 2 x high speed M.2 drives to boot from, use for scratch disks, and keep all my work on. The 2 x 16TB are for media and backups. I already have a 2 x 20TB external setup for backups and cloud storage etc. I'm trying to make sure I build something that will still be fast in 5 years, but without going overboard. I don't have any sort of budget restrictions, but I'd also rather not buy things that are vastly overpowered for the sake of it, since if I'm not going to utilise them it seems stupid. I've only added the main components to the list (CPU, GPU, RAM, HDs, MOBO) since that's what I'd like the advice on. I did think of adding 64GB more RAM but wasn't sure if it'd help with the apps I use, and also wasn't sure if the 2080 Ti was overkill or if I should go for a 2070. I don't mind spending the extra if the power will actually be used. Thanks in advance! Have edited this list since first posting: CPU: AMD Threadripper 3970X 3.7 GHz 32-Core Processor (£1773.48 @ Ebuyer) CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM SE 63 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£129.99 @ AWD-IT) Motherboard: Asus Prime TRX40-Pro ATX sTRX4 Motherboard (£386.98 @ Amazon UK) Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£173.99) Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£173.99) Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£359.99 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£359.99 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro 16 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£459.96 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro 16 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£459.96 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB STRIX GAMING OC Video Card (£1399.99) Case: Corsair 275R Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case (£70.99 @ AWD-IT) Power Supply: Corsair RMx 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£159.99 @ AWD-IT) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (£99.00 @ Amazon UK) Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AX58BT PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ax Wi-Fi Adapter (£76.49 @ Box Limited) Case Fan: Corsair LL120 RGB White with Lighting Node PRO 63 CFM 120 mm Fans (£80.79 @ Amazon UK) Case Fan: Corsair LL120 RGB 63 CFM 120 mm Fan (£23.99 @ Amazon UK)

I joined the ltt server today and i hopped in creative after playing a bit of towny. I wanted a plot next to active builders so i did /plot auto. I got a plot that I didn't like so can I unclaim it somehow?

I need a good stereo speaker system for my gaming computer. Which one could be the best choice in terms of sound quality ?

I am interested in buying the 'Creative Stage soundbar' for my gaming pc. I need some information regarding the connectivity/compatibility of these speakers with a gaming motherboard. I'm using a msi b360 pro vdh mobo which delivers a very good quality HDMI audio (I'm using a wired speaker currently having a 3.5mm jack) I can see that the speaker package doesn't include an aux cable to connect the speakers to the motherboard/computer (my mobo doesn't support Bluetooth). If i purchase an aux cable separately and use it with the speakers will the sound quality be as expected ? Specifications of the aux cable that i'm planning to purchase for this device- 1. Stereo 3.5-millimeter audio auxiliary cable , male to male 2. Audio High transfer speeds up to 1000 Mbps 3. Made by Honeywell.

Hello guys, I currently have the logitech z623. I've got a good opportunity to buy the Razer Leviathan Elite for cheap. Is that considered an upgrade if I would do so? In addition, I can also get the Sound Blaster Katana for cheap ( will cost me a bit more then the Leviathan). Now my question is, how do they compare to one another? Is the katana worth it? I find things like this so hard because I have no plan what they really sound like. (Nope, I can't check at a store)

As the title suggests, when I'm playing Apex using my new headset, Creative H6, sound distorts, then crashes, screen freezes and when the screen is back I have no sound. I have the latest headset/motherboard drivers installed, firmware also. It doesn't seem to happen when watching Youtube for example. Also this did not happen with my previous headset, also from Creative. I did not uninstall the previous headsets drivers, but I don't think that matters. I'm suspecting a driver conflict maybe? Windows 10 64bit.

Hi guys, i need help about audio. In my previous PC i really enjoy my musics using JBL extreme with aux cable connected to PC, but now i sold my PC and bought a high spec laptop for convenience but the sound with the speaker are not as good as PC. I was using Realtek EQ in my previous PC, but now the new laptop only has Creative Sound blaster EQ, which sounds bad. Like crackling noise when there is a high pitch sound, and bass are not as good as Realtek and no loudness equalization. All test are done and no result of improving sound blaster sound card. All tested with Aux cable plugged (coz Bluetooth mode has no effect on EQ). Speaker : JBL Extreme 2 (AUX connected) Old PC Sound Card : Realtek HD Audio New Laptop Sound Card : Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 5 It shows Realtek device on my laptop, but i only can change EQ in sound blaster app. Audio enhancement tab are gone. Please help me, is there a way to use just realtek? guide me I really need a graphic EQ and Loudness Equalizer(sound normalization) for my games Extra note : i tried a program called Equalizer APO, but doesnt change my sounds. doesnt work.

hey So basically, a friend and I are going to be doing a creative project for our astronomy project class, but we seem to have difficulty choosing a topic, so we'd like to ask you. We were planning on either making a documentation in VSauce's(Micheal's) style or building something(probably a model of sorts) and explaining how we built it, what works how and why, and making a seperate, short documentation about that. I know this is very vague, but so far, we've considered either building a giant solar system or making a Vsauce-style video about time travel. What do you think we should do? Thanks in advance! xqcL

Hey, I’ve read a couple older posts, but wanted more recent and wider suggestions! Ive got a couple extra PCIE slots on my motherboard. (I think 2 x1 slots and one x4 slot) I currently have an RX580 in my main slot, and was wondering if there were any good recommendations for what I could or should put in the other slots? Thanks in advanced!

Hey guys! I've basically been going crazy trying to find a good laptop for creative work at my university. As a student, I'm basically looking for a good ratio of price/performance, yet I still need a decent amount of horsepower for the work that i'm going to do. I have not had any luck so far in finding the ideal laptop for my needs, and I now feel like I could use a little help from you people on the forum! Important thing is to not recommend me a specific deal from a website, but rather a decent laptop itself. I'll find a good deal for it on my own. Here's what i'm looking for: Portability Core i7 (preferably 6 cores but 4 cores is ok) Dedicated graphics (MX250 or better) SSD (256 GB minimum) Color accurate IPS Panel (preferably a decent coverage of the adobe RGB space) Capability of smooth work in Adobe: Premiere, Photoshop, After effects, Illustrator, InDesign Budget 1000$-1500$ USD Available in Sweden (So no fantastic deals on Amazon or Newegg etc, since the shipping will be too expensive and the laptop won't have the right keyboard layout) I know these specs are pretty hard to find a good deal for, and I am open for suggestions to make certain compromises! :)

Hello, I am looking for a new monitor that is colour accurate for creative work (photoshop, lightroom, illustrator, etc.) as well as possibly doing some gaming on the side. Thanks in advance for any recommendations

Hi, I just got a new PC system (Ryzen 3600, Asus ROG x570, Windows 10 Pro) and of course the Creative AE-7. I just powered my new PC eager to listen some CDs and experience the amazing sound every review touts. Well folks I can hear sound for about 2 seconds only when changing settings (in SoundBlaster Command) from Enhanced on-off or Headphones to Speakers. It also works when starting to play a new song for 2-5 seconds then it goes mute. Although that the Windows sound settings panel shows the sound source as selected and Device manager says everything is ok. Drivers are from 20'th of June 2019. I tried headphones several sizes, even speakers (Logitech Z623), set from SB Command the impedance with no success. "Amazing" experience for almost 300 usd. What a piece of GARBAGE. This is the reality behind the glowing reviews. Do you need to be a sound expert just to be able to output any sound?

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and PC building in general, but have always been an audiophile since I started modifying cars in 2005. Now when I say "audiophile", I am not a critical listener, nor do I have a listening room where everything is pitch perfect and I listen to only the highest quality music. I just really enjoy good music, good effects when I am gaming or watching movies. As such, I tend to spend way too much on audio equipment. My current plan is to build a sound system that does everything. Audiophile-quality playback for music and an immersive 5.1 surround experience for games and movies. The reason I chose to go the soundcard route is because good DACs seem to cater mostly for the 2.1 crowd, except the ridiculously expensive ones. 5.1 DACs tend to have just passable-quality audio. AV receivers can do both well, but plonking a huge, chonky thing onto my desk is the last thing on my mind. The Creative Sound BlasterX AE-9 ticked all the boxes, while being able to fit in my PC case, that's a win on all fronts! It also boasts some really impressive hardware and specs, and could really be the end to all my problems. Recent circumstances resulted in me given the opportunity to obtain one of these babies earlier than usual, and I can say Creative really has some top-notch service, That is already a huge plus in my book. I decided to post some photos I took and also my impressions, but please bear in mind I am not a full-on audio equipment reviewer and neither do I know a lot about hardware. I am just an average guy like most of you out there who really loves listening to good audio, so I might sound like I have no idea what I'm talking about. If you guys have any tests you want me to run or specific things you want me to take a closer look at I'll try to accomodate, but I probably will not touch the sound card once it's in my PC (in about an hour from now!) until I my Burson opamps arrive. Enough rambling, photo time! Well, it's a box. Nothing much to say here except I am literally bursting with excitement. Soundcard is on top, wrapped in an anti-static wrap, and breakout box is below, product is well packaged. Not too sure if the breakout box is needed for the card to work, I will mostly be using just speakers so it isn't that important to me but the volume knob is nice to have, especially since the Dynaudio speakers are quite annoying to change the volume on. So here we have it! The AE-9 feels very solidly built and finished, even before testing it, it just feels like a quality product all around. Design is clean and modern, and I especially love the EMI shield design. Not only does the cutaway allow easy swapping of opamps, I am expecting we will be able to install larger opamps like the Burson V6 and still be able to use the EMI shield. That's really thoughtful, and I love how they pay attention to little details and not just throw in the option to roll opamps and call it a day. The breakout box is surprisingly light, but still feels solidly built. The volume knob is just a pleasure to use. Turns easily and smoothly, while clicking firmly as you go through the steps. Like I said, little details! RCA cables are well-made too, and Creative includes both an RCA-to-3.5mm female and RCA-to-3.5mm male. A TOSLINK optical cable is also provided. The breakout box uses what seems to be a mini version of a HDMI cable.. Terminals are all gold-plated, not necessary in my opinion, but little details like this makes me feel like Creative is sparing no expense at making this what will probably the best soundcard ever. The finish on the EMI shield is beautiful, sadly I will not see much of it because it'll be on the bottom. Overall, my expectations are really high now. The AE-9 is a well-built card with no expense spared for quality hardware, and definitely none spared in putting it together as well. Even just fiddling with it is impressing me beyond expectations, but at the end of the day, it's all about the SOUND right? I am going to do some cable management now and plan my speaker placement and I will post more pictures and impressions once I actually get it running. See you!

I've been trying my best with creating a unique name for my meme page but nothing really seems to stick or on occasion the name has been taken. I'm looking for maybe some interesting titles, phrases, or words to help me put together a perfect name. I'm still not 100% sure what all types of content will be on there but i was thinking mostly new trendy memes and some a bit more edgy. Any help is much appreciated

There was apparently tons of news about these two cards back in December 2018 when they were suppose to come out, but I missed all of them. Turns out, they are being released sometime next month (August 2019), similar timing as with AE-5. They aren't cheap though, AE-9 is coming in at $349.99 and AE-7 at $229.99. Auch. As an AE-5 user, it's a very good soundcard. Drivers have dramatically improved and the support has actually resolved my initial software problems very quickly. And they even opened official Sound Blaster subreddit for faster tech support which is encouraging. Creative has really turned a new page with release of AE-5 and they are continuing this strongly. Do like. Sound Blaster AE-9 https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-ae-9 Highest end soundcard ever released by Creative that comes with dual Core3D audio processor, all the Nichicon Gold and ESS Sabre DAC goodness, swappable OPAMPs, dedicated CleanLine power delivery circuitry powered by a single PCIe 6pin power connector and a desktop control unit with XAMP headphone amplifier of highest order (which is also powered from the PCIe connector through internal connection), tons of Mic inputs including professional XLR port. It also brags with 129dB DNR and THD of 0.0001 and pure unprocessed output at 32bit 384kHz or when processing audio through DSP, it can output it at 32bit 96kHz, same as older AE-5. Sound Blaster AE-7 https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-ae-9 A slightly lesser version called AE-7. Component wise, it's somewhat similar to AE-9, but only comes with single Core3D audio processor, non-swappable OPAMPs, lacks CleanLine circuitry, no Nichicon Fine Gold treatment and no desktop unit with XLR input. It still has the same output capabilities at slightly lower 127dB DNR. It still has dedicated headphone XAMP amplifier that has output directly on the rear of the soundcard where AE-9 has that on the desktop unit. Creative Upgrade program https://us.creative.com/upgrade/ Creative is running an upgrade program which gives existing Sound Blaster users with more recent sound cards extra 15% discount on purchase of AE-9 and/or AE-7. To my luck, my country is excluded from the program, but my neighbor Italians have it. WHY YA DO THIS TO ME! New Sound Blaster Command software suite Both, AE-9 and AE-7 will come with new Sound Blaster Command software suite which is similar to Sound Blaster Connect on AE-5 but with slight redesign and extra controls for output frequency used in shared mode. And to make AE-5 users feel a bit better, AE-5 is also getting this software/driver package sometime soon, allegedly in coming weeks, I'm guessing sometime when AE-9 and AE-7 actually get released. I'm certainly tempted by that glorious looking AE-9. I had Sound Blaster Z and it was very good. But I didn't think Sound Blaster AE-5 would be better. And it was. So, my expectations are set pretty high. I'm still thinking about that Ryzen 3900X, but throw a new high end soundcard in front of me and I'll almost always pick the soundcard without much thinking. Darn it. What do you guys think? Tempted as well?