Creative Launches its Sound Blaster AE-7 and AE-9 Audiophile Sound Cards

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 07/10/2019 07:46 AM | source: | 88 comment(s)

Creative continues its legacy by releasing a soundcard, the Sound Blaster AE-9 and Sound Blaster AE-7. Built with only the most premium components, and complemented with the latest technologies from Creative, these sound cards are designed to define a new performance standard in this class for the ultimate PC entertainment experience.

Up till 1989, the only sounds coming out of the PC were mere beeps. The same year, Sound Blaster was born, and PC audio was transformed forever. Since then, over 400 million Sound Blasters have been sold; and the Sound Blaster brand has become synonymous with the term sound card and high-quality PC audio - first for gaming, and then movies and music. With experience and expertise refined over three decades of audio innovation, Sound Blaster has continued to reinvent itself with the development of digital audio processing technologies. Each new innovation served to redefine what the ultimate audio experience really means, such as when it evolved beyond the PC in the form of external sound cards for platforms like gaming and entertainment consoles.

"The Sound Blaster philosophy is simple yet demanding. With every new product, we aim to break new ground in four key areas: technology, performance, function and platform. In our 30th year, we will make greater strides than ever before in redefining the Sound Blaster experience. The AE series, which represents our biggest leap in PCI-e sound card innovation yet, is just the beginning. Later this quarter, we will be introducing our latest addition to the "X" series of multi-channel audio external sound cards; it will be the first Sound Blaster product featuring Super X-Fi, our game-changing and award-winning headphone holography technology. And in the next quarter, we will unveil our latest products under the "G" banner of gaming-focused sound cards with better console compatibility and ease of use than before. Simply put, Sound Blaster makes great sound, and never stops making it sound greater," said Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Creative.

Sound Blaster AE-9: In a Class of Its Own
Sound Blaster AE-9 is Creative"s flagship PCI-e sound card, and it more than delivers on its promise to gratify the needs of pro-gamers and pro-audio users. It uses audiophile-grade components such as the top-of-the-range ESS 9038 SABRE-class reference DAC that delivers up to 129 dB DNR, PCM 32-bit 384 kHz sampling, DSD64 playback of lossless audio with ultra-low distortion and jitter elimination, and boasts Nichicon Fine-Gold capacitors, WIMA film/foil audio capacitors and swappable op-amps.

What really makes Sound Blaster AE-9 stand out against the competition is its CleanLine Technology, a new breakthrough in filtering a microphone path for clear and uncompromised voice communication. This latest technology features specially-designed circuitry and components which eliminates voltage rail issues and isolates unwanted noise caused by power supply ripple from high-performance GPUs. Sound Blaster AE-9 is the first ever to integrate this technology in its core, allowing users to forgo the need for a desktop mixer while still enjoying the benefits of having one.

Sound Blaster AE-7: Next-in-line, Yet Still an Audio Beast
It may seem to sport slightly "lesser" specs compared to the Sound Blaster AE-9, yet Sound Blaster AE-7 is very much a powerful sound card in its own right, being equipped with a hi-res ESS SABRE-class 9018 DAC that boasts up to 127 dB DNR, with 32-bit 384 kHz sampling and DSD64 playback. Audio clarity is the order of the day, with a THD of 0.0001% which represents an upgrade over its predecessor Sound BlasterX AE-5, and also the competition. At its price point, Sound Blaster AE-7 presents an excellent value proposition.

Common Features for Sound Blaster AE-9 and Sound Blaster AE-7

The Best Sound Blaster Processing Yet: Enjoy the full spectrum of Sound Blaster audio customization and enhanced audio realism with immersive 5.1 and 7.1 surround virtualization along with Dolby Digital Live encoding and DTS Connect encoding.
Award-winning Headphone Amplification: The custom-designed, award-winning fully discrete Xamp headphone amplifier with push-pull design ensures each audio channel is individually amplified to deliver a whole new level of pristine audio fidelity in an authentic, unaltered lossless model.
All-new Audio Control Module (ACM): Both sound cards feature ACMs built with user-friendliness in mind. Sound Blaster AE-9's ACM stands out with a display unit for direct and easy volume control, a headphone selector switch supporting different types of headphone impedance, a multi-function microphone input port with +48V Phantom power and a built-in amplifier.
New and Streamlined Software Interface: The newly designed Sound Blaster Command software sports a revamped user-friendly interface which drives Creative's signature Sound Blaster Acoustic Engine through achieving more audio control customizations with lesser clicks.

Upgrade Promo for Sound Blaster Users
As a gesture of appreciation for their support over the last 30 years, Creative is offering an exclusive promotion to its fans - the opportunity to upgrade from their old sound cards with an attractive 15% discount off the latest Sound Blaster products. This promotion will be valid for all upcoming Sound Blaster products launched between now and the end of the year.

Pricing and Availability
Sound Blaster AE-9 (on pre-order) and Sound Blaster AE-7 are priced at SGD439 and SGD299 respectively, and are available at Creative.com.

For more information, visit the product pages of the Sound Blaster AE-9 and Sound Blaster AE-7.

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MegaFalloutFan
Senior Member

Posts: 506
Joined: 2015-06-27

#5689911 Posted on: 07/10/2019 11:50 PM

What a waste, I hoped for Internal Sound Card that has both great Stereo, clean MIC and their new Super XFI technology, when i looked at the article name i was sure thinking Oh im going to buy me a sound card.
But they say to wait till the end of this quarter for External card with Super XFI, I hope its not a stick like their current XFI and has some PC oriented stuff, maybe software control , clean mic and some otehr stuff.

MegaFalloutFan
Senior Member

Posts: 506
Joined: 2015-06-27

#5689914 Posted on: 07/11/2019 12:08 AM

Who buys these things any more? Genuine question, I'm curious.

I for example, since 1996 my PC always had a sound card and always it was creative until this last PC when I got external Sennheiser1200 PRO with Sennheiser Game One headphones.
Sound card is NOT an expensive upgrade and unlike GPU it doesnt really gets outdated if you have PCIe or USB models.
After MS killed hardware 3D audio, sound card were more for QUALITY sound, instead that 50cent tiny trash chip made by trash company that to this cant make a good network card, you get a huge proper sound card with tons of shiny chips, central processing until, clean audio, 32Bit, surround, virtual surround, Creative ALchemy with proper sound, audio presets, equalizer and much more.
For me the #1 reason to buy creative was because with my PC I always have a bunch of consoles, so for PS3 and X360 I had Virtual Surround headphones and they always worked trough toslink from the console, so why waste them?
Creative sound cards always came with Dolby Digital Live feature, they can encode your PC sound be it stereo or 5.1 surround into 5.1 Dolby Digital Live and pass to the headphones so i could use my surround headphones with PC too.
This time with PS4Pro i decided to get sony wireless USB 3D audio headphones and keep them just for PS4, anyway they only do stereo on PC and there is no toslink, so i got what after my research came to best virtual surround sound on PC and great audiophile stereo if i wanted, Sennheiser sound card and Sennheiser headphones.

rl66
Senior Member

Posts: 2050
Joined: 2007-05-31

#5689927 Posted on: 07/11/2019 01:01 AM

No motherboard has toslink input

totaly agree, also most motherboard generate "noise" on the audio processing despite it is way better than 5 years ago, good enough for gaming and general use but not enough for audiophile.
nice point for the AE-9 connectivity

But i don't understand a thing: Why chose internal in 2019 (also why chose creative or asus... but that's another point )

Aura89
Senior Member

Posts: 7477
Joined: 2008-07-31

#5689960 Posted on: 07/11/2019 04:04 AM
"Sound Blaster AE-9 (on pre-order) and Sound Blaster AE-7 are priced at SGD439 and SGD299 respectively, and are available at Creative.com."

What kind of pesos are these?

Should be Singapore Dollar, of which if it was a direct conversion should be $323.67 and $220.45 USD.

But according to their websites, the USD equivalent is $229.99 and $349.99

LesserHellspawn
Senior Member

Posts: 626
Joined: 2010-03-27

#5689991 Posted on: 07/11/2019 08:11 AM
I've been using Creative soundcards since the Soundblaster Pro all the way back in 1993. My last one was an X-Fi. After that one Creative abandoned 7.1, which is what I'm running. I found a good compromise by using my onboard Realtek in 7.1 and adding the Soundblaster MB3 software on top, which gives you most of the X-Fi features in software, namely EAX for older games and stereo to 7.1 upsampling, which the onboard does not support. I'm happy with that. But my next build might get a Soundblaster again, since 7.1 is back on their cards.

AlmondMan
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Posts: 444
Joined: 2007-09-03

#5690004 Posted on: 07/11/2019 08:46 AM

Who buys these things any more? Genuine question, I'm curious.

I would be interested. My current sound card is an Asus Xonar D2X and it is probably in need of an upgrade. Mostly because it has to use open source drivers from some project that's been dead for years. And there's a tendency for it to short out or something while in use causing instant reboots...

Onboard audio just does not sound quite as good - I did try for a while using my onboard audio (which is some sort of fancy stuff on this X470 prime pro) and there's some amount of difference in the sound - also I need to boost volume on my amplifier more to get the same volume that the dedicated card outputs.

But I don't use headphones - except 2-3 times a year at a LAN party, so I've very little use for all this focus that goes in to making this something for headphone users.

TyrantofJustice
Senior Member

Posts: 5018
Joined: 2006-05-18

#5690008 Posted on: 07/11/2019 08:57 AM
I just upgraded my ASUS xonar STX Essence to a EVGA NU Audio and on my klipsch monitors and 12 inch sub I am blown away. Next step is to get some good cans.

insp1re2600
Senior Member

Posts: 603
Joined: 2018-01-03

#5690159 Posted on: 07/11/2019 01:37 PM
Think I'll stick with my ae-5, 300 is. Bit much for a sound card for me, nearly same price as my new Ryzen 3700x lol

Humanoid_1
Senior Member

Posts: 941
Joined: 2009-10-14

#5690224 Posted on: 07/11/2019 04:45 PM
I really like the toslink connector for stereo listening, but for surround sound it does not have the bandwidth to deal with HD surround encodes (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-Master HD) so has to make do with "SD" lossy surround sources (some that have HD in the name are still SD lossy versions really).

This was particularly a problem for my MSI gaming laptop (GT60 1QD) as MSI went Out Of Their Way to disable surround audio over HDMI, leaving you with only stereo over HDMI lol -_-"
I went to significant lengths to get this working again with no luck, online solutions never worked on my exact model. (some were even specifically for it, but still no joy)
It was only when Windows 10 updated how it handles aspects of PC audio and HDMI audio worked again !

That was a few years ago, is Toslink still so bandwidth limited today on more modern hardware?

I've had SB products since their very early days, my last was an X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro which I was hapyp with for some time - until Creative announced they would not update drivers to be compatible with Windows 10 after MS changed how windows handles the audio stack during the beta..... had to go with a 3rd party driver to be able to continue using my Not Cheap sound card

Creative bowed to pressure and Eventually released a driver update thankfully. (though a quick search just now shows there are again issues with 1803, 1809 and 1903 updates, shame.)
The audio jack port on my card broke so have not used it for years.

Now for surround sound, with a high end Pioneer amp (originally retailed for £1600) I have the best sound for movies and games that I have ever had. That though is in my basement for my projector setup, but am considering a real sound card for my PC in my bedroom / office.

I must admit I am impressed with the onboard sound from my MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon AC (Realtek ALC 1220) for which they seem to have made a decent effort on the sound side of things to my mind. Onboard sound is definitely making progress.

One thing I would mention, I used to be happy with the analogue stereo through my bedroom's Technics SU-VX600 Class AA amp until I heard the stereo through my newer Pioneer SC-LX75.
- running on Tannoy Sensys DC2's
I was blown away by the difference in quality, night and day better sound.
For the 1st time it felt like I could reach out and touch the various instruments and vocals as if they were in the room with me. That was with the Pioneer running the inner pair of 4 speakers in a semi circle while the Technics had the outer pair and advantage yet still had Much better audio that jumped out into the room by comparison.
I was impressed that Stereo could improve So Much from a good older amp to a well built modern one!

Yeah, I need an upgrade for my bedroom amp now as well as perhaps a sound card if I get one lol

Valken
Senior Member

Posts: 1452
Joined: 2011-01-05

#5690241 Posted on: 07/11/2019 05:13 PM
Most of the functions I already have with X-Fi MB but I want to see the Super X-Fi feature... the demos on the net are amazing...

I just wish someone would monopolize real 3D audio such as TrueAudio or whoever and make it a standard again...

alanm
Senior Member

Posts: 8725
Joined: 2004-05-10

#5690275 Posted on: 07/11/2019 05:58 PM

... An hdmi atmos/dtsx receiver is far superior anyway imho..

Totally agree, esp for multi-ch speaker systems. Full bandwidth 7.1c h audio, all lossless formats supported, multi-ch amplification, superior flexibility, etc, just makes it a no brainer. Plus you get to use proper hi-fi speakers, subs (no PC crap). And the icing on the cake is no more Creative drivers to mess with or failing to handle multi-ch formats, etc. Windows sound API is simple, doesnt muck about, you tweak your sound not through software, but directly through your receiver.

DmitryKo
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Posts: 214
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#5690290 Posted on: 07/11/2019 06:39 PM

Who buys these things any more? Genuine question, I'm curious.

I would. Should be great for my Sennheiser HD600 headphones and KRK Rockit5 studio monitors.

The difference between my Titanium HD and onboard sound is night and day. I'm using Sennheiser HD650's with an amplifier.

I kind of regret I did not move to buy X-Fi Titanium HD when they were briefly available, somehow I thought they would keep making it forever.

That said, build quality of Creative drivers, Windows software, and (to a lesser extent) DSP firmware is plain awful. Has always been since Live!/Audigy (Emu10K) through X-Fi (Emu20K), and this does not change a little bit for SoundCore3D series cards. All kinds of stupid glitches which are never fixed (unless someone is able to mod a package from a newer driver for some supposedly different card). Old cards have absolutely zero Windows 8/10 support since Windows 7 binaries would not even work.

Why AE5 users won't take dd live and dts connect for optical output?
You can install the new drivers released for AE-7/AE-9, they should also support AE-5 - though the new control panel does not (yet?).

TalentX
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Posts: 45
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#5690291 Posted on: 07/11/2019 06:40 PM

So you buy an "expensive" dedicated audio card just for DTS/DDL software encoding? Than you are probably using a crap digital speaker set without a proper receiver.

I never said that I'd only use it for the DTS/DDL encoding (I didn't even mention that I am using it at all), as I was only referring to the Toslink issue that has been discussed prior my posting. So I'd appreciate if you read properly before you make an insulting speculative assumption next time someone shares a post. Thank you.
Nevertheless the dedicated sound card isn't just for the encoding anyway.

DmitryKo
Senior Member

Posts: 214
Joined: 2011-08-08

#5690292 Posted on: 07/11/2019 06:41 PM

Audiophile is just another word for placebo.

To be fair it does get pretty placeboish at the high end, especially when people start getting thousand dollar power conditioners, speaker cables, DACs, etc.

Yep, most of the high-end stuff would qualify as placebo. However Sound BlasterX G6 and AE-series are just good quality boards, designed around a premium DAC. Much better real-world performance than all those external high-end DACs from unknown Chinese companies which retail for like 5-10 times as much.

Hyderz
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Posts: 80
Joined: 2017-10-20

#5690313 Posted on: 07/11/2019 07:32 PM
i think sony should tap into the gaming headphones sector,
i think they can bring more stylish headphones as well great comfort
but its probably a losing market to get into since logitech, razer etc etc has a strong hold on it.
just i dont really like the design of those headphones and they generally feel cheap

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