Sound Blaster releases Play! 3 USB Sound Card with Creative DAC
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sykozis
For $5 more....the FiiO K1 is a better option....
SirDremor
Let's try finding even a single soundcard without DAC...
Creative, be more clever creative rather than silly creative.
Also don't pretend your clients are that stupid.
schmidtbag
Anarion
schmidtbag
bigfutus
I had Audigy l33t something (the real deal, not the gimped crap) for years, and after switching to onboard Realtek with the new mobo, i don't hear any noticeable difference on the T6300 speakers. Onboard sound has come a long way.
SirDremor
gx-x
Fergutor
Many replies...
I did a full response before but I lost the text because of automatic log off...grrrrr anyway sorry for the lenght and bad english
Yeah, I didn't liked the "with DAC", but then you have to understand:
1-They have to play the market game. People say that "DACs are better than soundcards" for any excuse and companies do the same including saying that they're better due to no software involved...
2-Also it's about the type of product this one is, due to the fact that this product works as those other so called DACs and works without drivers, so is not taking clients as stupids...
As far as "products" go, true of course as far as I know at least (they do cover more ground, are more diversified than any competitors they have though). But in technologies and development of those, they are/were ahead many times, and still are I think.
They are relevant! How not!? Last christmas I tried to use a price cut in Sound Blaster Z in Amazon and they were all sold fast! And I couldn't get mine. Audigy series X-Fi PCI series, X-Fi PCI-E series, external sound cards, Recon3d, Z Series, the new Ae5...most of them impressive products being some even revolutionary... maybe you are simply not interested and did not pay attention, but they are highly relevant to people that appreciate good sound in their PCs.
I think (talking about sound cards) they're worth buying given that they're arguably better than the competition cards, and of course much better than the best onboard audio.
I read this critic many times, but never justified. High quality components and construction; high values of SNR, sampling, bit depth that is reflected in tests...Even Onkyo use an X-Fi chip in one of their sound cards that is held in very high regard! (maybe the rest of the card is the good part?) I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't know, just want to know the reason/explanation for that statement.
I tested personally CMSS3D versus Dolby Headphoes of an Asus card in 2009 when the Creative solution had 5 years already: only ego and denial could make one say that dolby was better. Also the flexibility of the Creative solution was amazing: you could downmix or upmix from any to any kind of speaker setup from headphones and stereo speakers (also using THX improvements you could even set the angle of the speakers apart from other many things) to 7.1 (also 6.1, 5.1 and 4.0/4.1) you couldn't do that with the Asus card en. wikipedia . org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi#CMSS-3D (remove spaces). Both brands "improved" their solutions (Asus list newer version of dolby but if it's similar to that one...) and I haven't tested those. What I'm saying is they aren't the same, they don't sound the same, and each onboard and dedicated brand have their different solutions, so is to expect that one could be better than the other.
In fact, just listen to this (use headphones and no effects) /watch?v=2BxO9cd-sYA The difference is gigantic. Creatives' sound that good, yes, and yes, dolby is THAT bad (and onboard...). So, no, not the same, not "decent" in some cases...
I have a X-Fi Xtreme Music bought in 2006, never had a problem with drivers in Win XP, Vista and 7 and there are drivers for 8, 8.1 and 10, also I have an Audigy SE and there are also Win 10 drivers, so what you say is a lie.
Chipsets can improve, see how the change from Audigy to X-Fi was huge, then they abandon that one for the Core3D (I read that the X-Fi was an expensive to manufacture programable processor and the Core3D is a cheaper DSP only...I don't know...). They can improve in capabilities, new technologies support, performance, adapt/take advantage to the new ways SO's use the audio...
bigfutus
0blivious
I was never going to again after my X-Fi issues, but I got my Z for $30 used.
Creative makes good consumer grade stuff but no doubt there's better options.
I can absolutely tell the difference between onboard and the SBZ with my z-5500 set.
schmidtbag
gx-x
Venix
Their legendary card for me was sb live! Was also my first speakers with woofer 4.1 so back then when i load medal of honor alied assault the nornandy stage maxed out woofer .. i can not really describe my experience i finished in my teen pants twice after the first time! Nowdays i have a soundblaster z ... does it sound beter than my onboard ?i... Think so might be placebo effect...do i recomend the card .,..not really
gx-x
yeaa, I still have soundblaster 16 somewhere in my cupboard 🙂 The difference in sound from PC speaker and loudspeakers while playing first Doom was just out of this world 🙂
schmidtbag
gx-x
Jitter is not a big deal, I just mentioned that it is there in higher amounts when using integrated s. cards. I don't even mind it, never "heard" a difference in sound anyway.
As for the differences, I use bit streaming wherever I can. I don't use enhancers except occasionally normalizer during the night since it works better than Yamaha's 'Night mode'.
Other than that - not using anything. My whole sound setup is made up of JBL monitor series speakers.
Every speaker is connected to the receiver. Xonar is used only for spdif to receiver.
I have zero use for those data rates except for DTS (since it's bit streamed, it's "auto-setup" so to speak, and since my receiver doesn't support anything above 96KHz means I really have no use for 192 🙂 ). For stereo i keep things 16bit 44.1. 🙂
what usually defines integrated sound is loose bass which makes it blurry in a way. As soon as you plug in, say even x-fi xtrememusic, you notice the difference if you have proper speakers (or decent headphones). You won't notice this on Z-5500 because that sub enclosure is made for SPL and driver is kinda...ok, let's just say meh. :P (edit: it's meh for my taste, it might be perfectly good for others, and that's fine)
Fergutor
gx-x
To be honest, all audiophiles I know would always take Asus over Creative. Though, that's just for listening to FLACs from PC, and they wouldn't use digital connection at all. So it's not that relevant to them since they rather pop in a CD and avoid using PC for "serious sound". Though, I personaly often find speakers they use add more properties (they call it "color") to the sound than an crappy soundcard would but you can't argue with people that spent tens of thousands on speakers. 😀
I trust that some guy that was payed 10 times the price of their speakers knows better then them, and he was using monitor speakers because they don't color anything and reproduce the sound that the sound engineer envisioned and intended. 🙂 And monitor speakers aren't nearly as expensive as some of the "audiophile" setups, depending on the power of the monitors you are looking for.
Though, if you can get one, SVS subs are probably the choice of both breeds atm. 🙂
Also, every loudspeaker is analog. It's just the way things are. Ok, Piezzo type highs are "digital" because of final crystal formation but those sound like crap anyways. 🙂
Maybe you meant Digital Amplifier?
edit: Problem with creative cards is - support! If I am not mistaken, there are no official win 8.1 / win 10 drivers for X-Fi cards anymore and you have to get some 3rd party ones? Same problem was with Audigy series, no windows 7 support and so on.
Creative does this on purpose because they don't care. Asus doesn't suffer from this, for now afaik. I personaly refuse to back a company like that.
schmidtbag