Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Review

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“A USB sound card with its own PCIe connection​

The ASMedia ASM3042, designated U2 on the board, handles the connection to the motherboard. It supports PCIe 3.0 x1 and provides two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, each with a theoretical bandwidth of 5 Gbit/s. However, USB 2.0 High-Speed, with a maximum of 480 Mbit/s, is sufficient for the connected Realtek ALC4082. Even an uncompressed stereo data stream at 32 bit and 384 kHz requires only around 24,6 Mbit/s of raw audio data. This design is therefore not constrained by the available bandwidth. The Realtek ALC4082 is thus the card’s main communications hub. It receives the digital audio data, provides serial audio interfaces, and has its own D/A and A/D converters. However, the separate ESS DAC is used for high-quality rear stereo playback. According to the architecture mapping available, the internal front-panel connector instead uses the Realtek codec’s audio stages.“

Source: https://www.igorslab.de/en/creative-sound-blaster-ae-x-review-internal-sound-card/13/