Creative Labs shows high-end Sound BlasterX AE-9
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cryohellinc
That's sweet. However, as a ZxR user, I wish they would release driver updates more often.
varkkon
Chechar51
They still try to sell a product they wont give support for.
Better stick to a DAC
SetsunaFZero
MK80
RavenMaster
This will be my next sound card if it supports DTS connect / DTS-HD
mgilbert
A dedicated, external amp/DAC - something like the JDS Element - is a much better option.
0blivious
I had 2 X-Fi cards (Platinum and Fatal1ty). The absolute worst experiences I've ever had with PC drivers. Creative went years between drivers, and then some of them just plain would not work. Both cards died anyways. My current SoundBlaster Z isn't a whole lot better experience (I got this one for $30 used).
They sound great when they work and are a complete nightmare when they don't. And they are not cheap.
Creative can bite me. I will never buy one of their cards again. Not even cheap on the used market. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....
DARKSF
So you bought a 3-rd one after the first 2 an yet you scream that you ain't going to take a new one 🙂 Yeah Ok.
Anyway the only real problem of Creative hardware has always been it's software which after 2-3 days of playing around is always starting to run in some usable condition.This never stopped me from migrating my X-Fi Titanium card on my 3 PC-s i have changed in the past 9 years there is no mobo integrated solution that sounds even remotely close to the X-Fi. And in order for your CAPs not to die just keep the audio card at the bottom slot not on the one above the GPU where it will be baked by the GPU , CPU and PVMs it is not hard to guess that tip given the fact where the mobo manufacturers are placing their audio components.
KBDE
I'm still hoping AMD, Nvidia and Intel get's their sh*t together and make the HDMI outputs actually usuable as a multi-channel audio output (by adding a dummy video signal). Right now you're either looping it through the amplifier or having windows clone or extend the desktop with all it's issues that come with it. Is there a technical reason this hasn' t been implemented yet?
rl66
rl66
Fergutor
spectatorx
José Fernandes
"Good soundcards are a dying breed....."
Yes they are, but blame the brands for stopping supporting their own products.
Fergutor
Fergutor
tunejunky
in a perfect world, the shortest (length) circuit is always the best.
with D/A and A/D conversion, it's still true but can be improved by removing the signal from a noisy environment (circuit boards are noisy by nature and the power regulation itself can introduce noise on the mobo).
there's a better case to be made for an add-on card than integrated sound. but even so the mobo has come from the point where the sound card was a necessity to a luxury.
but especially because there's a break-out box for this, this product is unnecessarily bulky and expensive, requiring at least a mATX case.
for less money you can honestly get better or as good quality by an outboard DAC/ headphone amp.
slyphnier
now days especially premium-mobo have soundcard as good as stand-alone-soundcard
lets just get one example, asus ROG zenith (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-ZENITH-EXTREME/specifications/)
is using ESS®SABRE9018Q2C DAC/AMP
so similar DAC compared to the new creative AE-9 that using ES9016
http://www.esstech.com/index.php?cID=359 -> ES9016 being said ultra-model that seems better than reference ES9018, so probably creative DAC version is better, but i bet for most people they wont find the difference between 2 dac
edit: after look on page, i found out that ES9018 and SABRE9018Q2C is kinda difference (http://www.esstech.com/index.php/en/products/sabre-digital-analog-converters/sabre-hifi-mobile-dacs/sabre-hifi-stereo-integrated-dacs/sabre9018q2c/)
Its more for headphone rather than speaker-system... but sound-quality wise i believe it should similar
so kinda wonder for people thinking inboard soundcard the quality still like10years back or more, most probably bought low-end mobo, because afaik even mid-level mobo also got good soundcard
for creative like many people saying, their product actually good
but their driver/software is bad... well i can say much for current situation
my last time using creative soundcard is back on windows7, and its driver causing random BSOD, until i install custom/modded driver which stop making BSOD
since then i replace it with asus xonar then latest build i just using onboard
GamerNerves
I'd say it is always worth to get a dedicated soundcard or USB DAC, unless you don't own a very high end mobo that usually cost close to 300 €. The difference maybe small and you may notice only slight nuances between a cheap integrated card and a dedicated one, but your ear will accustom to the sound and later you hear the difference better when you listen to the inferior audio source again.
Go for it if you have the extra cash, but not necessarily for this AE-9 because you can get that high end mobo for the price, but don't go for that mobo either!