Creative Sound BlasterX AE-9 : First look and impressions

[RejZoR]

48 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

No it's not.  It's there to help power the ACM, such that the ACM can provide +48V phantom to a condenser mic.  That may not be important to you, but it's a thing.  And that's why it's there.

No, I meant in terms of power delivery purity. People have this weird impression that PCIe power is this incredibly dirty power source that has so much noise that you'll only hear loud hiss in all sounds like you're under a waterfall. Reality is, PCIe has very tight tolerances when it comes to voltage and interference. Certainly tight enough that it wouldn't cause problems for consumer playback and recording. If PCIe was so dirty it would cause problems to graphic cards as well as they all pull power from PCIe too.

[vogelspinnen]

20 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

No, I meant in terms of power delivery purity. People have this weird impression that PCIe power is this incredibly dirty power source that has so much noise that you'll only hear loud hiss in all sounds like you're under a waterfall. Reality is, PCIe has very tight tolerances when it comes to voltage and interference. Certainly tight enough that it wouldn't cause problems for consumer playback and recording. If PCIe was so dirty it would cause problems to graphic cards as well as they all pull power from PCIe too.

Well if it sets people's mind at ease, I'm not complaining. I actually like more cables in my build so I can get them sleeved and add to the prettiness 

[vogelspinnen]

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

Woohoo, just got notification that AE-9 has been delivered. Can't wait to check it out in the evening It said tuesday, but they already delivered it. Nice. I'm so hyped because the change from Sound Blaster Z to Sound BlasterX AE-5 was quite big. So my expectations are very high yet again

Nice! The difference will probably not be as big because the AE-5 is a pretty darn good soundcard already. I am really looking forward to swap opamps soon, as soon as I think my speakers have run-in enough.

[RejZoR]

I'm stuck (not in a bad way) with my Altec Lansing MX5021. They are like 15+ years old, but they are wall mountable which is a huge plus for me, they have enough raw power and I did fiddle with them a bit, using higher grade OP-AMP and replaced all main filter stage capacitors with Nichicon Fine Gold in subwoofer as well as mid and high drivers in the satellites. They now behave more like monitor speakers than PC speakers. And they just work.

 

I was looking at AudioEngine 2 A5+, but they are quite boxy and wall mounting is an issue. But people say good things about them...

[vogelspinnen]

3 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I'm stuck (not in a bad way) with my Altec Lansing MX5021. They are like 15+ years old, but they are wall mountable which is a huge plus for me, they have enough raw power and I did fiddle with them a bit, using higher grade OP-AMP and replaced all main filter stage capacitors with Nichicon Fine Gold in subwoofer as well as mid and high drivers in the satellites. They now behave more like monitor speakers than PC speakers. And they just work.

 

I was looking at AudioEngine 2 A5+, but they are quite boxy and wall mounting is an issue. But people say good things about them...

The A5+ was my first choice too, and I was already ready to buy them. I made a trip down to the shop and realised that first off, they are much deeper than I thought! The left speaker is 23cm deep because of the heatsink, and these speakers need quite a fair amount of rear space to breathe because they are rear-ported. This means that the speakers will almost be beside my ears. Also they honestly do not sound that great in very nearfield listening, the smaller HD3s sounded even better, and they are front-ported so not much of a space issue. They are great speakers, but not really for a desktop setup.

 

The Xeo 2 I am using now should be perfect for your needs. They are 15cm deep, and can go right up against the wall because they are downwards-ported. Hell, they even have settings for neutral, wall and corner. Along with a VESA mountable cabinet, they are pretty much made to be wall-mounted. The only issue is their price, but I heard them once and decided that they would be a good investment for many years to come.

 

The last I saw there are still one or two sellers selling them at $700ish, so it might be worth you considering.

[RejZoR]

I'll probably go with some soundbar in the end I think, coz they generally make good sound, are compact and wall mountable. Probably something like BOSE. They are generally highly regarded and not absurdly expensive.

[RejZoR]

Jesus this thing is broken and I don't even have Ryzen system. And to top it off, dumb fanboys on Sound Blaster subreddit are total douchebags. Like for fucks sake, stop defending a company which released a totally broken product. Fuck. I've praised Creative improving things when Sound Blaster Z hit the streets because there were really way less problems with it. But defending this shit is just absurd.

 

Audio just randomly stopping, like every 5 minutes and when that happens whole system starts lagging like it's a single core Atom and all fanboys say is "but uh oh it's probably your system" and "you know, everyone like has like um loads of problems". No they fucking aren't. I've never had such idiotic experience breaking problems with ANY Creative product to date and X-Fi had quite some issues with crackling and own onboard audio memory. Not with AE-5 that only had some glitches, not with Sound Blaster Z that hardly had any issues, before that I had Auzentech's X-Fi Forte and before this X-Fi Xtreme Music with Xonar Essence STX in between. Don't sell me stupid excuses for something that should NEVER EVER have such ridiculous problems.

[jasonvp]

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

Jesus this thing is broken and I don't even have Ryzen system. And to top it off, dumb fanboys on Sound Blaster subreddit are total douchebags. Like for fucks sake, stop defending a company which released a totally broken product.

I think the "total douchebag" is the guy who started a thread on their sub, deleted it when he wasn't getting the traction he wanted, and then started another one.  The way you're acting on that sub is beyond childish and if you think anyone actually wants to try and help you at this point, you're clearly mistaken.

 

Basically, you're getting the responses you deserve.  RMA the card; it's clearly the wrong product for your system and your troubleshooting skill set.

 

[RejZoR]

28 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

I think the "total douchebag" is the guy who started a thread on their sub, deleted it when he wasn't getting the traction he wanted, and then started another one.  The way you're acting on that sub is beyond childish and if you think anyone actually wants to try and help you at this point, you're clearly mistaken.

 

Basically, you're getting the responses you deserve.  RMA the card; it's clearly the wrong product for your system and your troubleshooting skill set.

 

Really, getting a broken ass product and then having the fucking audacity to complain over it is... childish? And I deleted it? Oh mah god, haven't i? Or was it because dicks totally spammed the fucking shit out of it? Gee, what was it? Don't act dumb pal, otherwise I'm gonna ask you how much is Creative paying you...

 

EDIT:

Isn't it funny, when I was praising Creative for last few years, everyone was like "ok, whatever". But when I have the nerve to criticize it, everyone loses their shit and starts calling me "childish" and "disrespectful". Well, I'm not here or there to make friends with Creative. If they handed me AE-9 for free I'd eat it, but since I paid fair and square for it, I expect certain functionality form it. You say "just RMA it" for graphic cards where you have shit ton of them to chose from. You don't have this luxury with soundcards. So, that's a very bizarre response to say the least...

[vogelspinnen]

2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Really, getting a broken ass product and then having the fucking audacity to complain over it is... childish? And I deleted it? Oh mah god, haven't i? Or was it because dicks totally spammed the fucking shit out of it? Gee, what was it? Don't act dumb pal, otherwise I'm gonna ask you how much is Creative paying you...

 

EDIT:

Isn't it funny, when I was praising Creative for last few years, everyone was like "ok, whatever". But when I have the nerve to criticize it, everyone loses their shit and starts calling me "childish" and "disrespectful". Well, I'm not here or there to make friends with Creative. If they handed me AE-9 for free I'd eat it, but since I paid fair and square for it, I expect certain functionality form it. You say "just RMA it" for graphic cards where you have shit ton of them to chose from. You don't have this luxury with soundcards. So, that's a very bizarre response to say the least...

I think it's way more than just a few people having that problem, so it's definitely not a problem with your specific card, but rather your particular setup which has issues with the card. Contact Ryan on r/SoundBlasterOfficial and let him know your specs, the more data they have the faster they can narrow down which component or software is causing the issue and fix it asap.

 

I've been lucky and it works on my system, and I have never had it cut out even once before.

[RejZoR]

What's so exotic about super mature X99 platform?! Not to mention it's incredibly common. One would expect they tested things. At all.

[vogelspinnen]

3 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

What's so exotic about super mature X99 platform?! Not to mention it's incredibly common. One would expect they tested things. At all.

There are people on the Z390 who have the same problem, so it might not be mobo-related, but like I said, drop them a message with as much info about your system as you can, hopefully with enough data they can narrow down which is causing the issue and fix it.

 

I just see from their point of view, that sound cards, unlike video cards, are not that common. For video cards, almost every PC has one, so issues are more or less already ironed out over the years. Sound cards do not have that luxury, and you really cannot expect a company to be able to try every single combination of components/software to see if they are compatible.

 

Give them some time to sort out the drivers, and if they do not, then yes, that is the time for us to be pissed off.

[RejZoR]

I'm gonna try few things today, but my hopes aren't high...

[freekymachine]

On 8/15/2019 at 12:46 PM, vogelspinnen said:

It is a never-ending chase in the end isn't it? I used to go crazy in car audio chasing better and better sound, until the point I realised that even the music I was listening to has changed, because I was after the best quality recordings I could find. I was enjoying the system, not the music. While that is definitely not a bad thing, I realised I lost track of what I had set out to do in the first place : musical enjoyment. I still like crappy-recorded MP3s, low-quality soundtracks, as long as it was music I liked. With music you like, even a $20 speaker can sound good. Better on a $99999 system of course 

Yes, at some point, you need, want ofc the best quality availible, or best like unkompressed direct from the studio where they recorded it.

For e.g. Even Linn, the people who built for years the best CD Player in the world, stopped building cd players, cause even CD cant deliver better Soundquality, than some unkompressed PC files..if you have em. Else you want good soundcard even for bad files, to get the max out of it.

[freekymachine]

On 8/19/2019 at 3:26 PM, RejZoR said:

Woohoo, just got notification that AE-9 has been delivered. Can't wait to check it out in the evening It said tuesday, but they already delivered it. Nice. I'm so hyped because the change from Sound Blaster Z to Sound BlasterX AE-5 was quite big. So my expectations are very high yet again

I wish you best luck, sinc eim surfing and chatting with creative and surfing tons of forums and web..it seems, the AE Line has troubles. AE5 has troubles even 1 year after release. For now it seems everyone who has a X99 Board cant run the card. X299 users have problems, even some Z390 Boards, nearly all PCI-E 4.0 Systems.

Seems bit luck-game if your Board/Config will runt he card or not.

I mean the AE9 is rly nice, compared to my old XFI Fatality it is better..but its not that hyperjump, like i had once from 1024 to Audigy or from audigy2 to Xfi.

Since i already have refined Soundsystem, there cant get much more out of it ?! ..hard to tell, need more test parts.

Im sending my AE9 back, since i cant run it and are able to live with my old Soundcard..istn that bad.

 

Else there are external DAC like Vincent NA6006 or Vincent DAC-7 - where the real High end Starts

[freekymachine]

On 8/19/2019 at 4:38 PM, RejZoR said:

No, I meant in terms of power delivery purity. People have this weird impression that PCIe power is this incredibly dirty power source that has so much noise that you'll only hear loud hiss in all sounds like you're under a waterfall. Reality is, PCIe has very tight tolerances when it comes to voltage and interference. Certainly tight enough that it wouldn't cause problems for consumer playback and recording. If PCIe was so dirty it would cause problems to graphic cards as well as they all pull power from PCIe too.

Well...technically, if you view it from an electrician view..energy is dirty, all the voltages in the powersupply are dirty, the income, the outcome, thats why someMainboards and Graphcards have so many Stages of flatening the voltage, before they give in the core.

So i put a freaking big Netfilter in front of my AMP, helps a lot, you can hear it..and i latley did the same with my computer..and it helps too! - people in the net said "no you dont need it" ...well i guess those people have a logitec 5.1 system...there you wouldnt be able to hear it. But on High End Class A..you hear it!! a lot!! ..cant believe i didnt do it earlier.

Tested btw the AE-9 without the PCI-E Power connector, runs aswell, is rly only needed for the external panel.

[freekymachine]

21 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Jesus this thing is broken and I don't even have Ryzen system. And to top it off, dumb fanboys on Sound Blaster subreddit are total douchebags. Like for fucks sake, stop defending a company which released a totally broken product. Fuck. I've praised Creative improving things when Sound Blaster Z hit the streets because there were really way less problems with it. But defending this shit is just absurd.

 

Audio just randomly stopping, like every 5 minutes and when that happens whole system starts lagging like it's a single core Atom and all fanboys say is "but uh oh it's probably your system" and "you know, everyone like has like um loads of problems". No they fucking aren't. I've never had such idiotic experience breaking problems with ANY Creative product to date and X-Fi had quite some issues with crackling and own onboard audio memory. Not with AE-5 that only had some glitches, not with Sound Blaster Z that hardly had any issues, before that I had Auzentech's X-Fi Forte and before this X-Fi Xtreme Music with Xonar Essence STX in between. Don't sell me stupid excuses for something that should NEVER EVER have such ridiculous problems.

+++ like it..true! true !!..again true!!

 

i mean, longtime creative was the only one for a long time and they do good stuff..but having done good stuff doesnt mean automatically the new stuff is good too.

And past years many other companys has risen in soundcards-area. Latest one is a EVGA SOundcard, which is rly good. Found nice one who told me like "buying creative, isnt creative" ..hehe damnit, right^^..especially after the AE9 deseaster i have on my X99. There are others too, and they arent like much worse in soundquality. Friend has the Xonar and its rly good, like i couldnt hear the difference between the Xonar II Essence and a Creative ZXR, they are the same..

 

And for the people from creative on reddit...yap!! ..since i had talk with ryan from creative, its fine, i mean is his job..what to expect, but he had like one comment "calling the creative AE9 just a soundcard is like calling the Bugattiy Chiron just a car"..

well..if it were bugatti..the customer support would lick peoples shoes ..and send mails of sorry, take care of the problems, etcetc..thats a bugatti Chiron in Audio terms ; "Vincent DAC-7" ..thats quality, pure sound.

[freekymachine]

17 hours ago, RejZoR said:

What's so exotic about super mature X99 platform?! Not to mention it's incredibly common. One would expect they tested things. At all.

yep, wouldnt call it exotic either, the server-chipset for the 2011 you could start calling exotic...i would thought too, "hey creative, youre big, you have money, you must have like all platforms in your lab ? right?? right ??..."no?""

 

My card goes back today to creative..too bad for 30th anniversary.. the chaos, how many people have problems is hard to cope, i bet also not everyone starts visiting forum and telling i have problems. Who knows how many have problems, ofc creative wouldnt make that public, bad advertisement..

[freekymachine]

so..yeah well, thy for all the input, im leaving, since my card leaves today^^

good luck with your cards and all future readers, who knows how it develops, im off internal soundcards it seems and going the external dac way in future.

 

byebye .)

[RejZoR]

AE-5 had problems. Minor glitches in controls. But other than that, it worked without any issues. Audio just dropping dead ENTIRELY is pretty damn big problem.

[PradeepRajkumar]

On 7/20/2019 at 2:34 PM, vogelspinnen said:

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!

Hi Vogelspinnen,

I am getting my AE-9 for me from NEWEGG- NY,USA after 2004-AUDIGY 2 ZS Platinum three year wait from Australia. Building my machine in the first week of Jan 2022 New Year in MSI Z590 UNIFY motherboard which has single PCI-E 3.0 Slot and can I connect with 850v2 80 plus gold available cables which 6 x 2 pin to connect from SMPS to the Soundcard.

My room length is damn big with a powerful 7.1 or 9.2 mate with a THX certified receiver with powerful JBL or DALI speakers with TOWER and combo or Onkyo THX 7.1 system. Meanwhile will use Z906 connected via optical.

Had enough with G6- External one with 2CH sound from optical which gives fake 5.1 surround- I get the dialogues including front speakers ,waiting for the pure sound via optical 5.1 with from my FLAC, Mp3 - Indian, American , British titles from 90s till now and Blu-ray Collection with Blu-ray rip dumps.

During 2004 - 2007, I used CREATIVE Audigy ZS Platinum(Previous version of AE-9) connected with LOGITECH Z680( Z906 previous version speakers) connected via OPTICAL- replaced with 16 gauged wires.- USED my MP3 and DVD including Dvdrip those days were excellent but AE-9 has improvised leaps and bounds.

Will be connecting the THX certified 7.1 AV receiver aka home theatre system via optical in the start of 2024.

Need to verify if I am doing the right thing with AE-9 with Z906(I got the speaker wires changed to 16 GUAGE wires already) and will replacing it after a year with an AV receiver connecting with proper speakers.

Kind regards,
Pradeep Rajkumar.
Pollachi, Tamilnadu- South India.

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by PradeepRajkumar

[PradeepRajkumar]

On 7/21/2019 at 10:15 AM, vogelspinnen said:

Installed the AE-9 at last! Installation is pretty simple, just remove plug it into any of your PCIE slots.

 

 

Creative has designed the backplate pretty nicely, this looks much better than the green PCB I've seen on other friend's soundcards. I would have liked if they had a completely add-on backplate so you do not see any of the PCB, but I guess this isn't a bad look either.

 

 

The SoundBlaster logo and AE-9 logo lights up in a cool white. I was hoping for RGB lighting, but strangely Creative has opted not to use them. I was worried it would clash badly with my orange lighting theme, but it looked surprisingly good. It was a very nice subtle effect, and the white brings an element of maturity and seriousness to my build. So no real complains there!

 

 

Power is provided via a 6-pin PCIE cable, I had already bought an orange one in preparation for the build. It's nice that there are no proprietary cables, unlike the ribbon cable on the ZxR which to me is very ugly.

 

 

Breakout box looks nice too, with its subtle white lighting, it looks very minimalistic and modern. The option to turn off the light is available, but I'll keep it on thank you very much.

 

All in all the soundcard fit in very nicely in my build. In fact I love how it looks!