Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 - The Return of Sound Cards!?

[NumLock21]

5 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

You had me, right until RGB.  That stuff is a cancer on the gaming scene.  Every manufacturer thinks every single piece of equipment needs MORE RGB!  MORE RGB!  MORE COWBELL..err, RGB!

 

Frankly, I miss having a dedicated sound card in my system, though I can't say  miss it terribly, since my onboard isn't too bad (it even has Sound Blaster software, though I never installed it).

Until I switched to Ryzen, I was still rocking a vanilla Audigy 2.  That card lasted me for over a decade, and the only reason it's no longer in my system is because of a lack of PCI slots.  I ended up leaving it in my old FX system that I sold.

Time for a new sound card then.

Can't tell if this new one runs on hardware or software. I know most of the old creative premium sound cards runs on hardware.

[Jito463]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Time for a new sound card then.

Can't tell if this new one runs on hardware or software. I know most of the old creative premium sound cards runs on hardware.

For $150, I would hope it's hardware.  Otherwise, that kind of defeats the purpose in my eyes.  I know with modern CPUs, the software based ones aren't really a performance drag like they used to be, but I'm still old school about that stuff.  The less that runs off my CPU, the better.

[NumLock21]

14 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

For $150, I would hope it's hardware.  Otherwise, that kind of defeats the purpose in my eyes.  I know with modern CPUs, the software based ones aren't really a performance drag like they used to be, but I'm still old school about that stuff.  The less that runs off my CPU, the better.

Can't seem to find any official info about the DAC used in that sound card. Specs for it, 32bit at 348KHz, well it's a upgrade to the previous 24bit/192Khz, but other specs seems to be a downgrade. The card can only do 5.1 with 7.1 virtual, while older cards can actually support 7.1. dB is at 122 and that's not amazing either, when older cards can also do 122dB as well as 124dB.

And where are the other features for this? Looks like it's only for gaming and nothing else?

 

edit: The new AE-5 is still using their old Core3D

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blasterx-ae-5

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-zx

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-zxr

 

[pas008]

Lol

99% can't even tell 16/48 from 24/48 output. 

 

 

[zMeul]

sound cards never went away

still rocking a X-Fi Fatality on PCI; with replaced caps

 

on-board RealTek are utter shit

[Dackzy]

this is a joke, a schiit fulla 2 beats it for 99$. The only reason to ever buy a soundcard is.

A. You need optical and your motherboard doesn't have it.

 

B. You have very very bad onboard or dead onboard and you are only willing to spend 30$.

 

Also all that 32bit 192kHz and whatnot doesn't matter, for stereo all you need is your normal 16bit 44.1 kHz, for surround sound the higher bitrate would matter, but if you use such a card for surround sound, then you are probably just using one of the bad logitech sets.

[leadeater]

44 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

this is a joke, a schiit fulla 2 beats it for 99$. The only reason to ever buy a soundcard is.

A. You need optical and your motherboard doesn't have it.

 

B. You have very very bad onboard or dead onboard and you are only willing to spend 30$.

 

Also all that 32bit 192kHz and whatnot doesn't matter, for stereo all you need is your normal 16bit 44.1 kHz, for surround sound the higher bitrate would matter, but if you use such a card for surround sound, then you are probably just using one of the bad logitech sets.

When they don't bother to list the actual DACs being used you know it's a shit product, if they list the actual DACs and the Op Amps you at least know it's a decent product (assuming you don't show off how shit you are on purpose).

[Dackzy]

4 minutes ago, leadeater said:

When they don't bother to list the actual DACs being used you know it's a shit product, if they list the actual DACs and the Op Amps you at least know it's a decent product (assuming you don't show off how shit you are on purpose).

This is just classic marketing towards people that don't know much if anything about audio, they just see the high bitrate and then the typical 0,0x% distortion or whatever they list, which makes this seem impressive. 

 

We must remember this is made by creative and they love to make colored sound.

 

TBH i feel like they're trying to revive a dead horse. 

[TOMPPIX]

384KHz audio. overkill!

[Master Disaster]

The ONLY benefit a dedicated sound card offers a home user is lower latency. I'm sorry but very few home users are running $500 headsets and those that are already have a decent DAC to power them. 328hz support? Great for a professional studio but useless at home. Now add to that the fact Creative have amongst the worst software and driver support in existence and the other OS support is 'Limited' (understatement of the year) and all it means to anybody except the pros is hassle hassle hassle.

 

Realtek is now beyond what's required at home, has working software, supports 23ms Latency (great for home producers and DJs although Creatives 16ms support is better) and these days even allows for splitting rear and front outputs into separate channels (so when I DJ I can have my master coming through my Speakers and my cue coming through my headphones plugged into the front port), something external sounds cards DO NOT allow.

[GoodBytes]

26 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

The ONLY benefit a dedicated sound card offers a home user is lower latency. I'm sorry but very few home users are running $500 headsets and those that are already have a decent DAC to power them. 328hz support? Great for a professional studio but useless at home. Now add to that the fact Creative have amongst the worst software and driver support in existence and the other OS support is 'Limited' (understatement of the year) and all it means to anybody except the pros is hassle hassle hassle.

 

Realtek is now beyond what's required at home, has working software, supports 23ms Latency (great for home producers and DJs although Creatives 16ms support is better) and these days even allows for splitting rear and front outputs into separate channels (so when I DJ I can have my master coming through my Speakers and my cue coming through my headphones plugged into the front port), something external sounds cards DO NOT allow.

No.

A dedicated (decent) sound card gives you (same for a dedicated DAC solution):

• Better sound that is more detailed, richer, and more lively, pushing your 30$ headphones, to its limits.
• Static free sound. The sound is clean, with no audible interference.
• Distortion free sound when amplified at high levels.
• More simultaneous audio channel support. Never miss a sound when the game throws you a multitudes of sounds at the same time.
• And technically (used to be impact in the 90's and early 2000's due to the slowness, and single core natures of CPUs. Today, it should not affect gaming performance, due to the ease of doing the work), reduced CPU usage due to its own SPU (Sound Processing Unit). One board sound chip needs the CPU to drive it.

 

[mach]

2 hours ago, leadeater said:

When they don't bother to list the actual DACs being used you know it's a shit product, if they list the actual DACs and the Op Amps you at least know it's a decent product (assuming you don't show off how shit you are on purpose).

This is not a serious audio product why would they do so? The main point is RGB A few meaningless audio buzzwords are all the target customers of this product ever need.

4 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

Can't seem to find any official info about the DAC used in that sound card. Specs for it, 32bit at 348KHz, well it's a upgrade to the previous 24bit/192Khz, but other specs seems to be a downgrade. The card can only do 5.1 with 7.1 virtual, while older cards can actually support 7.1. dB is at 122 and that's not amazing either, when older cards can also do 122dB as well as 124dB.

And where are the other features for this? Looks like it's only for gaming and nothing else?

 

edit: The new AE-5 is still using their old Core3D

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blasterx-ae-5

 

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-zx

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-zxr

 

What the dac chip is capable to do has nothing to do with what you get from the output. It doesn't represent anything to the actual performance. Heck this thing don't even have line level output!

[leadeater]

8 minutes ago, mach said:

What the dac chip is capable to do has nothing to do with what you get from the output. It doesn't represent anything to the actual performance. Heck this thing don't even have line level output!

The DAC is extremely important to the actual sound output, Digital to Analogue Converter. It's practically the most important thing combined with a good reference clock and high quality power supply, more things not found on this or basically any computer sound card.

 

Professional recording studios used dedicated rackmount DACs and reference clocks which the DACs connect to so there is a common master clock that everything is in sync with.

[TrigrH]

10 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

I personally prefer ASUS over Xonar, 

?
 

[mach]

9 minutes ago, leadeater said:

The DAC is extremely important to the actual sound output, Digital to Analogue Converter. It's practically the most important thing combined with a good reference clock and high quality power supply, more things not found on this or basically any computer sound card.

 

Professional recording studios used dedicated rackmount DACs and reference clocks which the DACs connect to so there is a common master clock that everything is in sync with.

Yes I know what a dac means and it's importance. That's why I have a high end dac in my audio system. What I wanted to say is we don't know the performance of other components in the chain (analog stage). Creative doesn't provide any data regarding the actual analog output. Simply stating 122dB of the dac chip doesn't guarantee good sound. 

[Master Disaster]

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

No.

A dedicated (decent) sound card gives you (same for a dedicated DAC solution):

• Better sound that is more detailed, richer, and more lively, pushing your 30$ headphones, to its limits.
• Static free sound. The sound is clean, with no audible interference.
• Distortion free sound when amplified at high levels.
• More simultaneous audio channel support. Never miss a sound when the game throws you a multitudes of sounds at the same time.
• And technically (used to be impact in the 90's and early 2000's due to the slowness, and single core natures of CPUs. Today, it should not affect gaming performance, due to the ease of doing the work), reduced CPU usage due to its own SPU (Sound Processing Unit). One board sound chip needs the CPU to drive it.

 

• Users of $30 headsets/speakers don't care and won't notice
• See #1
• $30 headsets/speakers will suffer from distortion at high volume no matter what
• My Realtek has 32 channels, name me any HOME use case where I need more
• Really not a problem, I'm sure my 6700K can handle the extra 0.000001% load of decoding an audio stream

Its like I said, anybody who is enthusiast enough to own expensive audio equipment will already have expensive external driving hardware and everybody else wouldn't notice the difference and/or doesn't care.

[mr moose]

12 hours ago, YoloSwag said:

 

 

 

• Hi-resolution gaming DAC
• Plays up to 32-bit, 384 KHz high resolution pristine audio with SABRE-class DAC with 122dB dynamic range that satisfies the most demanding needs of pro-gamers and pro-audio users (More resolution means more room for audio processing for compromise signal quality)

 

 

 

What the hell is a "gaming dac"  hahahahahahaha, marketing at it's finest.

 

Also with all those Khz and decimabells, you'll be able to isolate and stabilize gas particles taking them to near absolute zero without the need for laser confinement.

 

 

In real terms.  This is just a wank product.   sound cards are only worth getting if you have a noisy onboard or usb condition.   

[GoodBytes]

3 hours ago, TrigrH said:

?
 

Oops I meant over Creative

[GoodBytes]

4 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

• Users of $30 headsets/speakers don't care and won't notice
• See #1
• $30 headsets/speakers will suffer from distortion at high volume no matter what
• My Realtek has 32 channels, name me any HOME use case where I need more
• Really not a problem, I'm sure my 6700K can handle the extra 0.000001% load of decoding an audio stream

Its like I said, anybody who is enthusiast enough to own expensive audio equipment will already have expensive external driving hardware and everybody else wouldn't notice the difference and/or doesn't care.

Those are your opinions. And the point that even 30$ headphone will hear some improvements over onboard, shows.

And StarCraft 2.. by default is set to 70 channels.

 

Most games don't have a sound channel limiter like in StarCraft, and just pushes what it can.

[Godlygamer23]

14 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

The real problem with internal Sound Cards comes down to the fact it puts the outputs on the back of the case, furtherest from the user. So you either need a really long cables or attach it to the front panel.  First causes a lot of wonky problems for either headphones or most speaker systems, while the latter kills a huge amount of the improved quality.

 

And, for that cost? Just get a Schitt Stack. (Magni 2 + Modi 2) You'll actually get far more utility for your computer and more direct control.  That's really the problem Soundblaster finds itself in.

I actually have both speakers and headphones connected to my sound card, and while it's true that the outputs are at the rear of the card, it's not a huge problem as you can use the software to switch what output you want to use(headphones or speakers), so I almost never need to adjust things. 

 

The headphones I'm using are indeed studio headphones, so the cable length is pretty generous, but I hope someone isn't using earphones with their sound card. 

[agent_x007]

Personally I don't care for 32-bit/384kHz.
Give me values for 16/44.1(48) and what Caps/Amps are used exactly.
I use Xonar Essence ST Deluxe (since 2012) and recently I bought a used Auzen Forte 7.1 R1.20 as backup in case I need PCI-e good soundcard (X-Fi 64MB X-Ram 109dB for stereo).

I borrowed my sister Titanium HD (since I don't need it right know).
So, how does this "AE-5" compare to Forte 7.1 and Titanium HD in terms of actual sound quality (do I need a "1k" sound system to hear the diffrence) ?

[Misanthrope]

Last soundcard I owned was intended to replace the integrated one after it died. In the past I considered one for music recording but nowadays USB mixers, direct boxes and dacs are probably a better bet. 

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Those are you opinion. And the point that even 30$ headphone will hear some improvements over onboard, shows.

And StarCraft 2.. by default is set to 70 channels.

 

Most games don't have a sound channel limiter like StarCraft, and just pushes what it can.

And I could say the exact same thing to you too...

 

 

And as it happens the ALC 99x and 11xx codecs actually support up to 128 audio channels (so anything Z87 or newer).

 

Listen, I'm not saying people can't have one if they want, only that for 99% of the people who use PCs having a dedicated sound card is a pointless waste of money when it won't offer them anything more than their onboard can do and I've already said twice, the 1% that would see the benefit don't need one because they already have expensive external DACs anyway.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Total junk. All internal sound hardware is useless. It has to be external and shielded in some fashion. 

[YoloSwag]

9 hours ago, pas008 said:

Lol

99% can't even tell 16/48 from 24/48 output. 

 

 

I could tell it a bit, only if the studio mixing done was really good that would be the absolute difference but then again, very rare. But anything beyond 48KHz is really hard.