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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.

So, today my X2's arrived from amazon. I got a "very good" used pair and I don't regret I did. They first of all are in great condition, they look new and most importantly feel new. I am gonna go through what I think about these and compare them to my older daily driver, my 990 pros. This review is my first really "review" ever of headphones so don't expect much. It is not as in depth as others. Let me start off this review with build quality and packaging. I was wowed to see these in person because I didn't think the build quality was this impressive as they really and clearly are. They are as sturdy as my computer case haha. Anyways. The unboxing was alright although having bought a used pair. Back to the build quality. The top headband piece is a kind of metal type pair of tubes. They rotate sideways on the head by bending the actual headband which is fine since they are sturdy. The earcups feel like metal as well but they are hard plastic. The earpads are really good, probably not something I'll need to replace in like 2 years. I've seen dekoni released a replacement ear pad for both the X2's and X3's which is great. Cable is good, makes some noise when touched but that wont matter when I actually listen to music or play games. It's not like I rub the cable all the time. Build, 9/10 unboxing, 6/10 The comfort: Putting these on at first, they are really comfortable, just not extremely since they are just opened and tested right out of the box not giving them time to adjust to my head shape yet. But the dense memory foam ear pads with the nice self-adjusting hammock there is nothing bad to say about these. The weight of these is barely noticeable with the comfort of the ear pads and the hammock. But it does put a little bit of strain on my neck muscels since my 990's weigh like 100 grams less which makes me rate the comfort at 8 instead of 9 or 10. But this will definitely change over time due to me getting used to the X2's. Edit: Comfort has gotten much, much better just after a couple of hours. Comfort, 7/10 The sound: Reviewers such as Zeos, him saying these are worth the full price of 300 dollars as they were if I understood correctly, they definitely are. The sound of these compared to my 990's is very smooth. No more piercing treble. Although both shine in different categories. I found these to have more refined bass. Maybe these sound like that since they are almost brand new and not used over a year like my DT 990's were. The bass is tight and EQ friendly if I'd like more bassy explosions in for example battlefield. The treble is still pretty detailed and these give much more of the mid range compared to the 990's. The sound stage is hard to explain. But it feels very open. These also leak a lot and I can hear my own voice with a less muffle filter over it compared to the 990's. Maybe I am so used to my 990's since the sound signature and sound stage is so drastically different. I love the sound stage tho. Tested with CS:GO where I had to put these into competitive use. I got instantly better with the positional accuracy with its imaging. Peoples ears are different but I can locate footsteps as good or even better. The only disadvantage is the treble and footsteps not being as pronounced as they were on the 990's. But giving these a bit more boost in the treble and higher midrange and lowering the bass will definitely help hearing them. Seen some people described these to be a kind of "bass-head open back headphone", not at all as I'd describe them. These have less bass than my 990's but tighter. Kinda makes me feel like the 990's are sloppy in the mid-bass region. These do have less extended sub-bass but still great. Paired with my AE-9 I can definitely tell a difference between onboard and my AE-9. Less difference than my 990's tho. Take my rating with a pinch of salt since I haven't tried higher end headphones over 300 dollars but when I do, I'll definitely see what I'll change my rating to. Sound, 8/10 Final overall rating: 7,5 I hope this review wasn't too shabby and that it might be interesting and helpful!

Hi everybody, I got a Sonos Beam V1 connected to my PC to replace an old 2.1 kit which needs to go away for physical space reasons. I connected the Sonos to the optical out of my trusty old SoundBlaster X-FI Surround 5.1 Pro and the thing sounds decent so far. Why Sonos? 1 sound bar system in the house to rule them all - I can always put it somewhere else later. But if I could swap out the SB for something more "modern" as the SB software is ancient, I think it could make sense. Should I keep this and save some coin or is there a worthwhile upgrade? At a minimum needs an optical out, HDMI would be nice. My setup is a mid tower with an NVidia 1650 card and an i7-8700 (yes with built-in graphics). So is there a way to use the NVidia or the Intel for this? I use the DisplayPort port for my gaming monitor - and thought I could use the HDMI to just output sound if that's possible. Or could I use the Intel as the main audio output? I need a HDMI-DisplayPort adapter but if it makes sense I'll just get one. Thanks!

I am trying to setup a 5.1 speaker system with a receiver (Sony STRDH590) to my desktop. I tried to connect the computer and the receiver together via an optical audio cable. When I turned the receiver on it played music, however the left and right sounds where only coming out. I later found out that the optical audio on the computer only supports Left and Right speakers. The only way to use 5.1 sound from my computer are the 3.5mm ports for the speakers in a 5.1 setup. My receiver does not have individual inputs for speakers, so I want to have the input be optical audio. I have a Sound Blaster Recon 3di to process sound to the receiver. I looked for drivers the supports 5.1 optical audio, but I found nothing. If anyone has any ideas how I can move forward feel free to drop a comment. Thanks

Hey guys, I've finally got my hands on a 6900XT and my build is almost complete: 5900X (will maybe exchange later for a 5950X) 6900XT 4 case fans (pwm hub connected to SATA) 3 Sata SSDs + 2 NVMe SSDs Sound Blaster AE-9 (requires 12V PCIe connector) I guess I cannot go wrong with a 750W or 850W PSU. However, I am still unsure about single vs multi rail, although I'm aware of the differences and their advantages and disadvantages. That's why I think the additional protection provided by multi rail PSUs would benefit my soundcard, SSDs and fans. After reading the PSU tier list and considering what's currently available in my country, that's my list: FD Ion+ 860W (single rail, unproven?) - 170$ BQ Dark Power 12 750W (multi rail, apparently has severe QC issues in 2021) - 229$ (or 287$ for 850W) BQ Straight Power 11 Platinum 850W (multi rail, same QC issues, only 5 years warranty) - 188$ Corsair HX850 80 Plus Platinum 850W (multi rail, old --> PSU released 2017, based on 2014 platform?) - 220$ Corsair RM850x 2018/2021 850W (single rail, only gold, new version is louder because of worse airflow) - 166$ Enermax Revolution D.F. 850W (multi rail, only gold, seems to be cheapish?, unproven?) - 137$ Noise is important to me, so the more silent the new PSU will be, the better. Also, I am not trying to cheap out on this point, but what PSU has the best value and suits my system the best?

Is this a amp Creative Sound Blaster Play!3 ?

For a while now I have been having this issue with a weird stutter like freeze in audio, it happens like every 30 mins. I'm currently using Beyerdynamic DT 990 pro's with Sound blaster G6 Dac. Before I had these headphones and dac tho I had a razer headset with astro mixamp and my mixamp use to completely cut off and give me no audio, so I thought getting new equipment with the DT and Dac would fix the issue, but it seems problems are still haunting my audio atm. Please reply if you have any adivce. For extra info here are my pc specs: -Ryzen 5 3600 -32gb Corsair Vengeance 3200mhz -650w Corsair PSU -RTX 2070 Super 8gb -Samsung evo 500gb and 1tb ssd -I also run 3 monitors 2 144hz and 1 240hz

Recently got a SB G6 for PC and Xbox. But atm struggling to get Audio from the optical cable for xbox. I have in plugged into the line in like it should be but no luck. Then plan was to use Xbox Companion app to talk to friends in a party then use optical cable for audio on xbox but thats not working. I did try powering the g6 into a wall which fixed my audio for xbox but then my Antlion Mod mic would not work with the xbox when it was plugged in the G6 or in the xbox controller. G6 is all up to date so thats fine. Xbox audio settings are set to 'optical audio bitstream out' and then 'bitstream formate dolby digital'. Tried other audio setting but none worked. Any Suggestions?

Summary Creative Technology founder, chairman and CEO Sim Wong Hoo died last week, his company recently confirmed. He was 67. Hoo founded Creative Technology (known as Creative Labs in the US) in mid-1981 but it wouldn't be until near the end of the decade before the company's dedicated audio processing card, the Sound Blaster, was released. Quotes My thoughts This is quite sad, and a huge loss to the PC community. I remember in the early days of PC building, using a Sound Blaster card was quite necessary to get proper audio. It wasn't really until many years later that onboard motherboard audio solutions were adequate enough or that DACs become ever so popular; that Sound Cards slowly died off or became a niche product. Creative also entered the MP3 Player market when they were still a thing. I remember having one myself in middle school and being able to put a whopping 10-12 MP3s on it. Later on their Nomad and Zen lines were able to fit much more music, but in the early days, it was still an interesting market to say the least. They also make pretty solid speaker systems too, and I've used those throughout the years. Even their recent products are pretty adequate at producing sufficient sound for the price. Nonetheless, hopefully his legacy is remembered, as he surely impacted my life with the products I've used from his company. I used to jam out on the bus on the way to school in 7th and 8th grade with my Creative MP3 Player every day. Also my early computers that used their sound cards were responsible for many mixes and remixes made, therefore Creative has a special place in my heart. Sources https://www.pcgamer.com/sim-wong-hoo-founder-of-sound-blaster-maker-creative-labs-has-died/ https://www.techspot.com/news/97208-creative-labs-founder-sim-wong-hoo-creator-sound.html

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

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

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

What is the sound card with the lowest objective latency over DirectSound? For reference, Realtek onboard audio and HDMI passthrough (on my hardware, at least) have around 30ms of latency, the Audigy Rx has around 45ms latency, and the STX II has 70ms latency. This low latency sound card I am looking for doesn't have to have any impressive specs like high SNR, EMI shielding, 600Ω headphone amp, 7.1 surround sound, ASIO, or 192/24 audio, but those things would be nice to have. All I want it to have is lower than 30ms of latency; the closer to 10ms latency, the better. Mind you, I am only looking for impressive numbers over DirectSound, not ASIO or WASAPI. Most, if not all, sound cards can achieve ultralow latency over ASIO, but there are no [rhythm] games that use ASIO that I know of. *cough* osu! *cough* This unicorn sound card or audio interface can be PCIe or USB, but not PCI, as modern motherboards don't have support for the antiquated PCI slot. Time to go from X99 to X79, amirite? Though, if you do find a low latency solution that is only available on PCI, I'll take it. Just say it won't work on my computer so I won't get too excited. TL;DR: Lowest latency sound card over DirectSound, less than 30ms.

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?

I'm thinking about buying the SBX AE-5 but I'm wondering if it's really worth the money. Right now I'm using my motherboard's built in Creative Sound Core3D with the Logitech Z906. The software is Sound Blaster Recon3Di control panel which is alright but starting to randomly crash on me when using some settings. I have to use Smart Volume on Loud, or my audio is very low and I have to turn the volume way too high. With this being enabled though I'm noticing some sounds get drowned out during heavy action. An example would be a loud explosion makes gunfire or voices go super low. Or a loud ambient sound like an engine drowns out voices or gunfire. I believe smart volume is causing this, unless this is an intended feature in games these days. So I was wondering how is the software with the SBX AE-5, and is the audio nice and loud when using 5.1 speakers?

Are DSPs useless now in modern gaming. I got a sound card yesterday because the onboard audio on my pc kept whining when my rtx 2070 was under load. And I read in the discripion that the this sound card was hardware accelerated and i thought it was really cool not for performance sense, I doubt modern CPUs stress over sound but to have a chip that did all the sound work and enhanced it I thought it was pretty cool, I don’t know why .At least that’s what I thought it says EAX so I’m not sure if it just adds sound effects or just takes over the sound all together. Overall I thought it was kinda cool only to find out Microsoft banned EAX and direct sound 3D support in vista and Multiple sources have told me that they actually removed hardware accelerated sound all together in windows 8. So then does that make The EMU chip completely useless in modern day gaming and use like does that mean the chip literally does nothing now just pointless silicone in the board .If that’s true why does the latest SB AE5 RGB have that sound core 3D chip if they said hardware accelerated sound is no longer possible ?Is it just marketing.

I got a Sound Blaster Audigy RX a few months ago, and for at least a month now I've been getting audio with buzzing sounds. I'm not exactly sure what triggers it. Sometimes it happens when I tab out of a video game, seek to a different time in a video I'm streaming, or let my computer fall asleep by itself. If it happens when I'm streaming a video, it'll go away if I seek back to before where the buzzing started. Otherwise, I have to restart my computer for it to go away. Here's an example of what it sounds like (most audible starting at 0:11) Here's what I've tried: Unplugging & re-plugging speakers back in Plugging in my headphones (still buzzing, so it's not the speakers' fault) Plugging in speakers to the front panel audio jack Removing the sound card and putting it back in Dusting out the audio jack The buzzing can't be heard in screen captures, so I'd assume that means it's a hardware rather than software problem. Is there anything else I should try before using my limited warranty to get it replaced?

i have a razer syerin x and a sound blaster with a mic in and my ipad plugged into that so i can play my mice for my friends but ever time i want to talk i have to unplug it how can i get both to work at the same time

Good day friends I would like to ask you for advice, I purchased the SBx AE-5 sound card and I use the old Creative Blazer earpiece (no comment, thank you). - I'm looking for a headphone for games. Predominantly BF series, Red Orchestra series, Arma series (MMO / RPG) - - Requirements: position sound bass ( I have a lot, of course, exhausting the sound ) Prices somewhere around 250-300Euro MIC - with them or without them, I'm talking about the sounds of the game. The small room can be supplemented take + -100 Euro. Thank you very much for your power, for the cause, or for the reason why the headset is attached to the sound card. Uban

Will I get an increase in sound quality with my Logitech Z313 speaker and my Steelseries Arctis 3 headphones with a Creative Sound Blaster Zx?

Hello Guys, today I installed my new ZXR. I use the sound card with my Philips X2 connected with the V Moda Boom Pro into my ZXR but however i connect it, the mic is the only thing that's not working. I tried it with the desk desk thing or direct into the sound card nothing seems to work. But this is weird because I can listen to my voice when I enable on windows to listen through the microphone. But TS says it can't open my mic in a red color.

After installing my system on the Gigabyte Aorus Gaming Wifi, I hopped into a game of counter strike and the game volume was super low. I tried to go in to the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5 and it tells me that, "The current selected audio device is disabled,not present, not supported by the application, or has unplugged jack connections". I want to go in to it to boost my volume because my windows volume is at 100% as is my in-game audio. Literally everything is quieter and I'm very aggravated this has been such a pain to deal with. I've never posted on a forum but I cant find anything online that's helped. I've uninstalled ever driver and reinstalled it and I still cant get any progress. Any suggestions will help. Thanks!

I was looking at reviews of both cards online to see which would be best suited for my needs but I am getting a lot of mixed results. I am looking for a sound card to improve the audio quality for my DT990s as well as improve the mic quality for my ModMic. I am currently using the onboard Realtek ALC1150 which has okay sound and a preatty bad mic input. My ModMic is very quiet at 100% volume and +30db boost and has tons of background noise. What are some of the pros and cons of each card? As I see online they are fairly similar expect that the Xonar has no amp and uses Dolby whereas the Sound Blaster Z has an amp and uses SBX. I already have an O2 amplifier that does an excellent job so I am not interested in any amps on these sound cards, just sound quality, features, driver support, etc. Overall, which card would you recommend since they are roughly the same price.