Search the Community

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.

Why has noone ever built a computer with frosted smart glass side panels before? The idea hit me yesterday and it seems pretty cool to me! Say, you have a 900D and you replace the side window panel with black smart glass, so when the computer is not powered on it looks like it has no side window, its all just a black plate like the other side of the case. But when you turn on the computer and power the glass it suddenly goes transparant, revealing all your slick custom watercooling and stuff inside. I am going to build this next year for sure! Video demo for those who have not seen the concept. http://vimeo.com/81322879 Would any of you want to try this?

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.

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.

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

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)

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 ?

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 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.

Hey guys I'm new to this site so thanks in advance for the advice. I am going to start building my first PC and it needs to be a multi purpose PC. I like to video edit, usually Gopro Footage at 1080p and also I want this pc to be able to game efficiently as well with demanding games like GTA or Battlefield. I want to be able to do both efficiently. I have a budget of about 700-800 USD to spend on the PC alone. Im not sure as to what monitor, keyboard, or mouse to get yet so that would be helpful as well. Right now I'm on a iMac, but its shared so i rather have my own set up. I don't know if what I'm asking for is doable in my price range but any information would help! Thank you again! - jay

Creative known for their audio devices seems to have venture into other computer parts, with their release of the Sound BlasterX Vanguard K08 Keyboard and Siege M04 mouse. The Vanguard K08 is a 109 keyboard that comes with custom made PRES (Perceive-React-Execute Switches) Omron switches, rated up to 70 million presses. It's has a 1.5mm distance pre travel distance, with up to 3.5mm of total travel distance vs 2.0mm pre travel and 4.0mm total travel on other mechanical switches. This makes the K08 custom switches 25% faster and 12.5% more key presses. It also features The Siege M04 mouse uses a Pixart PWM 3360 sensor, that has a dpi range of 200 to 12,000. 7 fully programmable buttons, a 32bit high speed MCU micro controller up to 1000Hz polling rate, and Omron mechanical switches on the primary left and right buttons rated at 50 million clicks. Sound BlasterX Vanguard K08 keyboard Durable professionally-customized OMRON switches with double cross-point contact technology for over 70 million fail-safe keystrokes 45g actuation force and short 1.5mm pre-travel distance offers rapid-fire input - 25% faster and 12.5% more keypresses Responsive tactile switches offer a reliable and better actuation feel, but with quieter clicks for those who prefer a more silent approach to gaming 26-key rollover with anti-ghosting for reliable registration of inputs even in the most demanding game Low-profile Swift keycaps are ergonomically designed for better typing experience 109 fully customizable keys in US layout with onboard rotary volume and media controls Fully programmable, per-key backlighting with 16.8 million colour Aurora Reactive lighting system High-speed USB pass-through port for convenient peripheral connectivity Adjustable height with sturdy extendable feet Comes with detachable wrist rest MSRP $179.99 $159.99 Sound BlasterX Siege M04 mouse PixArt PMW3360 IR LED precision gaming-grade sensor 32-bit high speed MCU with onboard memory 200 - 12,000 native DPI with programmable 3-level DPI switch 1000Hz polling rate for lag-free reaction and smooth glide across the screen No prediction, no acceleration for pinpoint precise movements Low 2mm lift-off distance eliminates unnecessary movements triggered by accident 7 fully programmable buttons, including sniper button and DPI switch with smart light indicators All-Edge Aurora Reactive lighting system with programmable lighting profiles is customizable up to 16.8 million colours Ergonomic right-handed design with non-slide matte surface and fingerprint resistant rubber-textured grip regions provide comfort and a secure grip Low-friction, large surfaced PTFE mouse feet for ultra smooth gliding Comes with a set of replaceable mouse feet Nylon braided USB cable with angled strain relief minimizes wear and tear MSRP $79.99 $59.99 And for the complete bundle, Creative has also introduced the SoundBlasterX weapons crate. In it, you get the K08 keyboard, M04 mouse, and their Sound BlasterX Alphapad mouse pad 1 x Sound BlasterX Vanguard K08 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard 1 x Sound BlasterX Siege M04 Precision Gaming Mouse 1 x Sound BlasterX AlphaPad Mousepad Warranty & Technical Support leaflet Quick Start Guide Safety & Regulatory leaflet MSRP $300 Press release http://www.creative.com/corporate/pressroom/?id=13536 Product links http://us.creative.com/p/peripherals/sound-blasterx-vanguard-k08 http://us.creative.com/p/peripherals/sound-blasterx-siege-m04 http://us.creative.com/p/bundled-offers/sound-blasterx-weapons-crate

Hello, I’ve got a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS. I’ve been using it for years and recently installed it into my new gaming PC. Since this card was made almost 15 years ago, I was wondering whether it is a good idea to upgrade to a newer one. I usually just use my headphones with my computer, but I do have an ear for audio and appreciate good sound. Every now and then I use my Logitech Surround Sound Setup with my audio card. Anyways, are there any reasons/advantages to upgrading to a new card? The Logitech surround Sound has its own built in Amplifier (in the sub), and the headphones don’t have that high an impedance. I mostly use my Bose QuietComfort 2.

hi, I am looking to improve computer audio to at least power a 300ohm headphone or better speakers in the future. I am looking between the Creative Sound Blaster E5 or Creative Sound Blaster Zx, as there is a sale. Should I get a internal or external sound card? Thanks

Hey everyone. I currently have some Sennheiser HD 558's I've been using for about a year-year and half now. I use these with a Creative Sound Blaster Z for my Sound Card, I know it's not a dedicated setup but its an up from onboard. Primarily I use them to listen to music, play games, and talk to friends. I am finding that these headphones are a little lackluster in the Bass department. I do enjoy the Open-back features on all fronts except that my dog barking completely breaks immersion, which is whatever. I have been looking at the Beyerdynamic DT-880 Premium (don't want the coiled cable on the pro). Is this a step in the right direction for me? Any other suggestions anyone can make? I am willing to spend I think up to $300 as far as Budget goes for these.

Good day everybody I ordered myself a new ryzen CPU, AM4 Mainboard and Ram the cpu is going to be the r71700 and im going to combine it with and Aorus AX370 Gaming 5 But my problem is that i already own a dedicated soundcard that was gifted to me by a friend (X-Fi Titanium fatal1ty) and the onboard sound on the aorus looks quite decent and i wanted to ask which one i should use i mostly play games but casually edit videos and listen to music i have decend headphones and im going to get a 5.1 Set up quite soon too. if i listen to music its mostly Nightcore EDM or some Psy-trance. Thanks in advance and sorry for my bad english.

Hey guys, this is my first post. So i'm looking for speaker to go with my PC. This will be mostly used for music, so sound quality is the main thing. I've found some speaker with decent reviews and now i'm trying to figure out which one to buy. Edifier R1280T - https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33392/edifier-r1280t-2-0-bookshelf-speakers Microlab FC50 - https://www.pccasegear.com/products/21715/microlab-fc50-black-finecone-2-1-speaker-system Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II - https://www.pccasegear.com/products/11825/creative-gigaworks-t20-series-ii So those ones are what i'm looking at, so please tell me what you think and If you know anything better speakers that's around $100 please tell me.

The humble sound card was once the king of PC multimedia... Can Creative take back the crown from "good enough" onboard audio? Buy a Sound BlasterX AE-5: On Amazon: http://geni.us/w1EI9X On Newegg: http://geni.us/TQistKg Buy a Beyerdynamic DT990 PRO: On Amazon: http://geni.us/bV2An On Newegg: http://geni.us/bHAa Buy an Audeze LCD-2: On Amazon: http://geni.us/3y1hAc On Newegg: http://geni.us/oW91CnK

Hey Guys, I have a creative soundblaster audigy 5/rx and I had no problems. Now I can hear coil whine while playing csgo(300fps). I bought the soundcard to get rid of the coil whine in the first place. Don`t know why it came back now. I tried to change the PCI slot and download new drivers(I had the newest one already, still reinstalled it). My specs: Win10 Pro i7 4790k 4.0Ghz MSI G45-z87 16GB DDR3 Ram Creative Soundblaster Audigy 5/rx Asus Strix GTX 1060

Hey everyone! I need some help selecting some parts for a PC build. Here's my idea: I'm trying to build a PC that I can take on the go (maybe in a backpack if possible?) but considering that I already have a nice PC at home, I don't want to shell out a ton on a new one. It doesn't need to be anything too fancy, as long as it can play eSports games at decent framerates and fit into a small case. I need help/ideas selecting some parts for this build, mainly an ideal case but also any cheap (I'd like to source from eBay if possible) components that anyone is aware of that are still relevant by today's eSports standards but are cheaper than building an all-new PC. Any thoughts or ideas are greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, I know practically nothing about audio and i got my rig a few months ago, please deal with my silly request Been surviving with the Creative A60 speakers this months but i got the Kratos S5 a couple days ago wow, what a difference! so much better. I was thinking about grabbing the sound blaster x ae-5 but heres the question: 1) worth it ? I mean, is it really gonna improve anything substancially, after i got the speakers already ? 2) Kratos S5 connect to the pc via USB - if i buy a sound card, shouldnt i connect the speakers TO the sound card and not usb ? If i buy a graphics card, i would connect the vga/hdmi cable to the sound card, so if i buy a sound card, shouln't i connect it the cable to the sound card ? If so, its usb - HOW ? Thank you!

So I recently got an Asus Xonar Essence STX II with UNI Xonar drivers to replace my Audigy Rx, so I uninstalled the old Sound Blaster Audigy drivers, naturally. But then when I figured I should use both sound cards in the same computer because the STX II had too high a latency for rhythm gaming and the Audigy Rx had a MIDI synth whereas the STX II doesn't (sheesh, what a downgrade!), I reinstalled the Audigy drivers only to find out that the MIDI synths do not appear in anywhere I would normally find them, such as in FL Studio's MIDI I/O settings or DOSBox. As far as I know, I deleted one remnant file in System32 that corresponds to the Audigy Rx's ASIO, since it showed up in FL as one of the ASIO devices despite not having its drivers installed. I doubt that has anything to do with it. I have reinstalled the Audigy Rx drivers multiple times in the past and this has never happened. Please help prevent me from pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get the MIDI synth and soundfont player to work. Even Soundfont Bank Manager comes up empty! No bueno!

Can I use my desktop Audio Control Module (ACM) from my Creative Sound Blaster Zx, with the new Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 without any audio quality degradation (bottlenecking)? I currently do not own the AE-5, so I can't test this myself. The reason why this concerns me is because the AE-5 has a much higher quality DAC, AMP, frequency range, and pretty much everything else. I am not sure if the ACM from the Sound Blaster Zx would somehow degrade the audio quality in any way on the AE-5. I pretty much need the ACM because my Audio Technica ATH-A900X headphones have no volume controller and neither does my keyboard. I like to change the volume on the fly when I game. watch movies/videos, listen to music, and edit videos/audio. Honestly, I may not have a choice. I don't personally see why the ACM would degrade the audio quality, but I have a hypothesis that since the ACM was designed specifically for the Sound Blaster Zx, it may only be able to output what that card can (24-bit, 192Khz) and act as a bottleneck. I am not really sure, but I would like a second opinion. If I am paying for high quality audio, I want the most out of what I pay for. I am happy to provide more information if necessary, but please don't give those b.s. responses such as, "You can't even hear that high quality of audio", or "Sound cards suck!", or "Why do you need a sound card?" Thank you. Product links for reference: Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Creative Sound Blaster Zx Audio-Technica ATH-A900X