Creative Launches its Sound Blaster AE-7 and AE-9 Audiophile Sound Cards
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mackintosh
Who buys these things any more? Genuine question, I'm curious.
David Lake
Audiophile is just another word for placebo.
Alessio1989
Toslink output must die, buying a dedicated audio card for using digital output is simply stupid.
cpy2
2019 and we still DO NOT have pure digital audio connection for 7.1 audio. Shame.
DiceAir
LOL I would disagree. if you have decend headphones you need a dedicated amp and a good sound card or DAC/amp to get the most out of your sound card. Ok i must admit i don't have experience with the latest and greatest onboard sound and might come close but still this is good if you have a very high end audiophile grade headphones.
Take for example my hd 58x jubillee is better than most high end gaming headphones I've tried so far and connecting it to my onboard sound like trash. What i like in these sound cards is the way they do the the surround technology for FPS games it's not overly done and the preset just make it easier now I don't say you have to get the AE-7 or AE-9. Currently i have the AE-5 and in my work pc I have the Sound blaster-z.
My work pc is a z170 gaming pro carbon and that motherboard has above average onboard sound with dedicated up to 600ohm headphone amp and still my hd598 is way to soft even at 100% volume. Took my old sound blaster z and now i have to do 30%-50% volume and it's way better and louder than my onboard so yes sound cards do make a difference
OnnA
AE-09 Looking great from the bundle perspective.
You get "Best" SB + Xamp Discrete Headphone Bi-Amp and Audio Control Module
Good Xamp is a must for some 😉
IMO good H/W.
AE-07 Overpriced much.... Uhh
349€ & 199€
warlord
Why AE5 users won't take dd live and dts connect for optical output? Why this racism? Were we so damn idiots to give 150€. Last product from those morons. An hdmi atmos/dtsx receiver is far superior anyway imho.
They may shutdown. I am putting ae5 on sale, enraged.
RonanH
"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?
Keesberenburg
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.
Ricepudding
I don't have this one personally, but i've had sound cards for years now, but you need the right set up for it. so i've got two dedicated bookshelf speakers that benefit from the amp of a proper sound card. but for most the MB sound chip is often more than enough.
you also need good ears and good sound set up to get a good benefit from it
Raider0001
I bought AE5 for features and it does offer a bit better quality than integrated, on the other hand it is probably cheaper to run proper sound card bought once than it is to buy more expensive motherboard with optical out every time when upgrading
SHS
Hell no Toslink input is a must for me I used this every but the price is just insane I much rather buy AMD Radon RX 5700XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super then spent $500 on sound card even the AE-7 is not worth no $300 I guest Creative Labs has lost there marble after all.
Alessio1989
I wrote toslink output, for that even the cheapest embeded onboard audio controller is enough.
SHS
No motherboard has toslink input
TheDeeGee
I'm still rocking a ZxR.
Alessio1989
Never talked against toslink input.
Fox2232
What is placebo on blind test?
TalentX
Creative uses the Toslink/SPDIF port exclusively for DTS/DDL encoding. Realtek audio (for onboard sound) doesn't support that and has no dedicated SPU either.
The Encoder from the Creative SPU also operates simultaneously with the Soundcard for easy switch between digital and analog sound.
Nothing you can do with onboard audio.
Richard Nutman
I agree. While motherboard DAC's have gotten a lot better, they're still not great. Digital output and a decent DAC for headphones/speakers is all you need.
Unless you want Dolby Digital encoding, then I think that's the only reason you would need a soundcard.
Alessio1989
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.
outside the possibility to pair it with a decent analog speaker system or good headsets, onboard down-mix and up-mix capabilities suck, that's the main reason for me. Yes, there are tons of free and paid mixing software solutions, but outside simply graphics equations most of them suck, or add noticeable CPU overhead or additional audio latency. Best onboards audio chip-set have more or less the same analogue quality of an old midrange X-FI, good yes, but only on high-range MBs...
EDIT: additional reason: most of today's motherboards, outside full-ATX high-range models, do not provide analogue multi-channel output, but only stereo.
