New Soundblaster Internal card coming

The Cobra

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I still keep a Soundblaster USB box around just in case the mobo audio goes on the fritz but I haven't needed it in a while. The Realtech 8xx,9xx and 1xxx have all worked well enough for me since I have (and need) only a pretty basic 5.1 on my gaming setup. Always cool to see if the new tech brings anything interesting though.
 
I saw this last week and didn't consider that the port on the rear does appear to be a mini-HDMI port. If that port will connect to and communicate with an AV receiver then I'll seriously consider buying that card and replacing my old X-Fi.
 
i realyl wish they would star doing more projected sounds liek the tried to do with te old A3max or whatever it was called intead of just applying filtering.
so we would have real 3d sound where the effect wher calculatoed form how it bounches in the 3D digital world.

Would make it possible to add some horsepower back on soundcards
 
I saw this last week and didn't consider that the port on the rear does appear to be a mini-HDMI port. If that port will connect to and communicate with an AV receiver then I'll seriously consider buying that card and replacing my old X-Fi.

That would be a game changer and I'd be highly interested.
 
It connects to external DAC&headphone amp. It's not a HDMI connector. Well, it could be but it doesn't talk HDMI (so to speak).
 
Looks like a great card but at that price you have a lot of options.
If I did not have a schiit bifrost dac (which starts at $400), I would have been interested in this card!
 
I am using a Soundblaster ZxR in my setup, only reason I have this model is that I got it for a really fair price from a member here, $140 shipped for the ZxR setup and a G610 mechanical keyboard.
IMG_2402.JPG
 
I use the ZXR currently and have no need for this card. I also have the KatanaX soundbar that I use by default. I use the ZXR with headphones when my other half is doing work in our shared home office.
 
Still enjoying my Titanium HD with CMSS surround, purchased in February 2011. Considering every card they have produced since then would be a downgrade, I'm interested to see how this stacks up.
 
Still enjoying my Titanium HD with CMSS surround, purchased in February 2011. Considering every card they have produced since then would be a downgrade, I'm interested to see how this stacks up.
Downgrade? In what way? If it's headphone usage then AE-5 is in another category entirely.
 
Have the ZXR now but contemplating USB SB for a future build. Worried a slight bit about latency through USB impacting games however.
 
Downgrade? In what way? If it's headphone usage then AE-5 is in another category entirely.

How so? I have not seen Creative come out with anything that compares to CMSS-3D yet and the X-Fi Titanium series is the last series that had it.
 
Creative's cocktastic drivers are the reason I originally got an external DAC. I weep for the children that will buy this new monstrosity.
 
Not too keen on yet another Sound Core 3D chip TBH, it sounds to me after testing multiple various Creative products using that as if the drivers were implemented in a way which goes through an "Sound Core 3D" API layer and impossible to bypass it no matter settings used which results in less clean audio signal (typically the longer software stack audio goes through generally the less clean end result). Particularly it doesn't sound particularly great with typical brickwalled EDM productions to me, even the Realtek ALC1220 produces generally cleaner audio with brickwalled content as the Sound Core 3D chip brings its own slight "colorisation" or how you'd put it to the sound. For me Creative have to re-engineer their software side completely to get the more "audiophile" side of me interested again. Works good enough for gaming casuals I suppose. I mean what sense does it make to use better hardware if you are not utilizing it to its fulliest capability, generally that's why similarly priced USB DACs sound better for music listening.

I'm interested in the S-XFI amp device though as I expect it not being implemented this way and should be less of a software clutter when Super X-Fi processing is turned off. I like surround sound algorithms if done right for specific things but I also like to have as clean signal as possible in some other cases.
 
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I would have considered the AE-5 except that it only does 5.1, not 7.1 so I went with the Asus Xonar U7 MkII which is really flexible and lets you switch between outputs. Just tap the volume to go from headphones to speakers (even works if I use HDMI for speakers).
 
you living in the past, like 20 years in the past.

creative has win10 drivers for cards that launched during win 7???? You are lucky if you even get working drivers for win10 for cards that launched during win8. On the other hand just about and other chip manufacture has kept up with microsoft OS's. last time i checked my core2duo's sound still works with the mediatek/realtek drivers and win10.
 
I own a titanium xf -I as well and certain games really stand out with their sound design. BF5 with CMSS-3D and 3D headphones enabled in the game is a great experience. I just cant stand the on board gimmicky sound.
I have not looked at any other sound cards out there but, the fact that XF-I does DTS Digital Surround will make it play on my PC forever...;)
 
creative has win10 drivers for cards that launched during win 7???? You are lucky if you even get working drivers for win10 for cards that launched during win8. On the other hand just about and other chip manufacture has kept up with microsoft OS's. last time i checked my core2duo's sound still works with the mediatek/realtek drivers and win10.

Maybe you could clarify your incoherent rant a bit? As someone who actually uses Creative cards and doesn't just rant about them, I can say that Creative had fully functional Windows 10 drivers out for my X-Fi Titanium HD, X-Fi Titanium, and even my older X-Fi XtremeMusic available and ready to download less than a month after Windows 10 was released back in 2015. Which card exactly are you claiming that they didn't have Windows 10 drivers for?

https://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331&h=13a
 
Is there a reason anyone would want an internal card anymore? External interfaces aren't exactly large, and can be built into any output device you'd care to use, including amplifiers, at pretty much any price/quality point you care to look at. Internal motherboard-based sound is pretty ubiquitous at this point and has been for years... it may not be high quality, but it's there.

I don't get it. It's not like they need PCI bandwidth or power. It's just going to sit next to a hot video card inside an electrically noisy case.
 
Maybe you could clarify your incoherent rant a bit? As someone who actually uses Creative cards and doesn't just rant about them, I can say that Creative had fully functional Windows 10 drivers out for my X-Fi Titanium HD, X-Fi Titanium, and even my older X-Fi XtremeMusic available and ready to download less than a month after Windows 10 was released back in 2015. Which card exactly are you claiming that they didn't have Windows 10 drivers for?

https://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331&h=13a


Interesting. Ive hunted and hunted for win10 drivers for a SB1350 Recon3D so i could get dolby digital live back.
 
Is there a reason anyone would want an internal card anymore? External interfaces aren't exactly large, and can be built into any output device you'd care to use, including amplifiers, at pretty much any price/quality point you care to look at. Internal motherboard-based sound is pretty ubiquitous at this point and has been for years... it may not be high quality, but it's there.

I don't get it. It's not like they need PCI bandwidth or power. It's just going to sit next to a hot video card inside an electrically noisy case.

If all you want is a DAC and aren't looking for any kind of advanced features, you probably are better off going with something external at this point. With that said, cards like the X-Fi Titanium HD and Creative ZxR have fantastic DACs onboard that really don't give anything up compared to most high-end DACs. I have had no electrical noise issues with my Titanium HD in my computer with either my RTX2080 or with the 3x GTX680s in SLI that I was using before. Really when it comes to using an internal card, it's more about it's capabilities than about it's DAC. Things like CMSS-3D where you can take a game that uses 5.1 or 7.1 and downmix it for headphone usage, etc.

And keep in mind that using an internal card and using an external DAC are not mutually exclusive. You can always run digital output from your card to an external DAC. USB has come a long way but I still don't think it's the best interface for sound.
 
How so? I have not seen Creative come out with anything that compares to CMSS-3D yet and the X-Fi Titanium series is the last series that had it.
In terms of hardware the amp in AE-5 is way, way better (Titanium HD doesn't even compare). The so called headphone out in Titanium HD was a joke. I also like the fact that it's possible to disable bypass the DSP entirely and get pure unprocessed audio. The DAC in AE-5 is great too - it's pretty much aimed for headphone users.

Whether or not one likes CMSS-3D or their new thing is rather subjective. I never liked either when it was doing 5.1 to stereo. It was miles behind the proper hrtf compared to proper OpenAL implementation like in Mirrors Edge (not just better sound positioning but also height simulation). That being said, I personally think that SBX Pro Studio and the AE-5 surround sound are both better than CMSS-3D when doing virtual 5.1/7.1.

Here's pretty good comparison video:
 
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In terms of hardware the amp in AE-5 is way, way better (Titanium HD doesn't even compare). The so called headphone out in Titanium HD was a joke.

Yeah that is true, because the main outputs on the Titanium HD are unamplified RCA-jacks designed to be used with an external amplifier. The headphone output on the card is a secondary output that doesn't even use the same DAC. There are so many nice external headphone amps out there, not sure why one would insist on having their headphones plugged directly into their soundcard anyway especially when using a desktop computer.
 
Yeah that is true, because the main outputs on the Titanium HD are unamplified RCA-jacks designed to be used with an external amplifier. The headphone output on the card is a secondary output that doesn't even use the same DAC. There are so many nice external headphone amps out there, not sure why one would insist on having their headphones plugged directly into their soundcard anyway especially when using a desktop computer.
I have Objective 2 amp too but sound quality the AE-5 amp is clearly ahead. In my case the difference isn't even small, especially in crosstalk and dynamic range. AE-5's advantage is so large that I wonder if my O2 is defective or there's something wrong in the line out. Though, AE-5 is pretty much designed in headphone use in mind. The headphone out is rather isolated and doesn't even touch the back bracket.
 
Interesting. Ive hunted and hunted for win10 drivers for a SB1350 Recon3D so i could get dolby digital live back.

Ummm.. there are Windows 10 drivers and firmware for the Recon3D.

Go to:
Soundblaster.com -> Support
At the bottom of the page click the link that says : If your product is not listed above, please click here

The select: Recon3D Series

Select your card, then click: Next

Scroll down and use the dropdown to change the OS to Windows 10 64-bit and click: Submit

And then you have the page with the Windows 10 drivers, etc.


And here is some info on enabling DDL:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3657244/surround-sound-sound-card.html

https://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=99203
 
The only way I'll go for a new one is if it supports DDL over Optical.
 
With my hearing damage, it's a waste for me.
A regular on-board sound device or a USB DAC on a headset is perfectly acceptable.
The only people I can see looking at this, or the new EVGA card are "sound snobs". You know the type, the ones who profess to having hearing that that'd make the sharpest-eared dog seem like your totally deaf uncle Horace (the one with the ear trumpet big enough to drive a double decker London bus into). The ones who profess to being able to tell the difference between MP3 encoded at 128 bits vs MP3 encoded at 129 bits.
 
Still enjoying my Titanium HD with CMSS surround, purchased in February 2011. Considering every card they have produced since then would be a downgrade, I'm interested to see how this stacks up.

I'm with you.

I own a titanium xf -I as well and certain games really stand out with their sound design. BF5 with CMSS-3D and 3D headphones enabled in the game is a great experience. I just cant stand the on board gimmicky sound.
I have not looked at any other sound cards out there but, the fact that XF-I does DTS Digital Surround will make it play on my PC forever...;)

If you're running CMSS-3D and the sound profile in game you're nullifying the effects of CMSS-3D. You should be using the hifi setting in game nad setting it to 5 or 7 speaks so the game feeds the system multiple speakers and the sound card, not the game, down mixes for your head phones.

Is there a reason anyone would want an internal card anymore? External interfaces aren't exactly large, and can be built into any output device you'd care to use, including amplifiers, at pretty much any price/quality point you care to look at. Internal motherboard-based sound is pretty ubiquitous at this point and has been for years... it may not be high quality, but it's there.

I don't get it. It's not like they need PCI bandwidth or power. It's just going to sit next to a hot video card inside an electrically noisy case.

CMSS-3D. DACs are just clean left and right audio which is fine. But Sound Blaster pretty much perfected virtual surround sound. None of the other cards get close. The Razer software implementation is close.
 
My motherboard, interestingly enough, has a built in sound card. When I play music and or play games, audio comes out from the speakers. So I'll probably pass on this.
 
I'm with you.

CMSS-3D. DACs are just clean left and right audio which is fine. But Sound Blaster pretty much perfected virtual surround sound. None of the other cards get close. The Razer software implementation is close.

They probably eventually used some of the Aureal 3D tech (albeit in software).
 
They probably eventually used some of the Aureal 3D tech (albeit in software).

Either that, or they're saving it for a last-ditch effort, should their competitors overtake them in the 3D sound arena.

Not really sure how much R&D they've been doing on that Aureal tech ...
 
I'm quite happy with the Creative software that my ASRock board came with- Cinema something- using the board's optical out to a DAC and then headphone amp or balanced studio monitors.
 
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