The headline is a bit misleading, suggesting the price for the addon board like it would be for the real thing, isn't it.

nevcairiel:

The headline is a bit misleading, suggesting the price for the addon board like it would be for the real thing, isn't it.

Absolutely. When I read 79 USD I was disgusted. Bad journalism right there.

Silva:

Absolutely. When I read 79 USD I was disgusted. Bad journalism right there.

There's a "S" in front of $, so that means... Singapore Dollar? Yep. In fact, checking Creative.com, the card is 60$USD which give or take lines-up with the Singapore dollar. And, yes, the title is misleading. It's the daughter board that's 18$USD (25$Singapore). Still a good price for a low-end dedicated sound card.

Lebon30:

Still a good price for a low-end dedicated sound card.

Nowadays, low-end discrete sound cards are kinda... dumb. Modern integrated audio is plenty good enough for most people. If you use a digital interface like HDMI or SPDIF, there's no point in buying a discrete card. For headphone users, they're better off getting a USB DAC, which would likely cost similar but have higher quality being outside of the electrically noisy environment of a PC interior. Drivers are pretty much the only thing that make a noteworthy difference, but... Creative is notorious for prematurely abandoning their drivers.

Next funny product .Sound card without optical exit .

Krzysztof:

Next funny product .Sound card without optical exit .

optical audio is irrelevant in 2021.

Astyanax:

optical audio is irrelevant in 2021.

How so?

Most modern motherboards have better sound chip than this as it uses realtek 1200 sound chip , just beware of that guys. I see it useful with older mobos with old bad sound chips , nonetheless price is a little high for what it is.

You guys ever heard of transducers? That's why we need cards with no bs outputs. With 6 of them running you need more than just 1 sound card, let alone real L/R separation outputs.

Astyanax:

optical audio is irrelevant in 2021.

My HiFi system is optical. Its as digital as I could make it and its killer good.

vestibule:

My HiFi system is optical. Its as digital as I could make it and its killer good.

no, its not. its dead tech that requires third party encoders for the majority of content which is rendered in PCM.

Astyanax:

no, its not. its dead tech that requires third party encoders for the majority of content which is rendered in PCM.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's not good....

sykozis:

That doesn't necessarily mean it's not good....

its not good, in 2021 its legacy mediocre tech with limited sample rates and no capabilities above the first generation of dolby digital/dts

Astyanax:

optical audio is irrelevant in 2021.

I use optical with a 1000w (RMS) 5.1 setup and its fantastic both for games and for movies etc, my motherboard actually has optical out built in with ALC1220 but the sound card is way better as it has DTS, Dolby etc plus of course alternate profiles I can setup, I also have the flexibilty to use direct output and a digital coax and can swap between them at a click.

I'm still rock'n my PCIe X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional! How else am I gonna get EAX?! 😀

TrevorK:

I'm still rock'n my PCIe X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional! How else am I gonna get EAX?! 😀

With audigy app through for instance AE-5

schmidtbag:

Nowadays, low-end discrete sound cards are kinda... dumb. Modern integrated audio is plenty good enough for most people.

Maybe but, still, what tells you it'll be used in a state-of-the-art PC? And, some people just like the cheap placebo. I used to rock one with my old PC (I mean a dedicated sound card) and, when I moved to this PC, I used the on-board one and I agree that it equals the cheaper dedicated ones. It's able to drive my ATH-M50x easily. Still, the card is still pretty cheap all things considered and, yeah, we can't decide for somebody else.

suty455:

I use optical with a 1000w (RMS) 5.1 setup and its fantastic both for games and for movies etc, my motherboard actually has optical out built in with ALC1220 but the sound card is way better as it has DTS, Dolby etc plus of course alternate profiles I can setup, I also have the flexibilty to use direct output and a digital coax and can swap between them at a click.

1000W RMS? Do link your setup as I'm curious!

Astyanax:

its not good, in 2021 its legacy mediocre tech with limited sample rates and no capabilities above the first generation of dolby digital/dts

I take it you don't have a good understanding of how sample rates or human hearing works. You want to record above 48KHz, because the extra detail in the track allows you to fine-tune your editing. Certain effects and post-processing work best with more data, and you can easily truncate what you don't need. This is also why a lot of movie producers record in a resolution much higher than what they intend to publish. But when it comes to actual playback, 48KHz is all you need because humans can't hear beyond that. Anyone who claims they can is hearing a placebo, or, is some rare savant. Technically, 40KHz would be enough for most people, but aliasing could potentially be noticed. As for DD/DTS, sure, audio processing from the 90s isn't going to be as good as today's stuff, but it's not bad - it still makes watching stereo videos just a little more enjoyable in surround sound. So yeah, SPDIF is plenty good enough to use today.

Lebon30:

Maybe but, still, what tells you it'll be used in a state-of-the-art PC? And, some people just like the cheap placebo. I used to rock one with my old PC (I mean a dedicated sound card) and, when I moved to this PC, I used the on-board one and I agree that it equals the cheaper dedicated ones. It's able to drive my ATH-M50x easily. Still, the card is still pretty cheap all things considered and, yeah, we can't decide for somebody else.

Well seeing as this is a budget sound card, that doesn't tell me it's a state-of-the-art PC. And sure, to each his own: if you like a cheap placebo, by all means, go for it. Not my problem it's burn money. But I don't care who I offend if I say it's burnt money. You could possibly argue that this would be a good modern upgrade to an old PC with inadequate integrated audio. But again, this is Creative we're talking about here. Good luck getting proper drivers on anything that isn't the current version of Windows. Even today, a discrete sound card can have something to offer, so it's not like I'm shunning all of them. Not likely to the average person, but definitely somebody. This one though? No - it's just a gimmick.

schmidtbag:

I take it you don't have a good understanding of how sample rates or human hearing works. You want to record above 48KHz, because the extra detail in the track allows you to fine-tune your editing. Certain effects and post-processing work best with more data, and you can easily truncate what you don't need. This is also why a lot of movie producers record in a resolution much higher than what they intend to publish. But when it comes to actual playback, 48KHz is all you need because humans can't hear beyond that. Anyone who claims they can is hearing a placebo, or, is some rare savant. Technically, 40KHz would be enough for most people, but aliasing could potentially be noticed.

I take it you don't have an understanding of compression limits and the age of spdif/optical. HDMI has long since made optical redundant.