Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus

I was a little apprehensive about buying a Creative Soundcard in 2021, especially after hearing many horror stories of poor sound quality, popping sound, drivers going mad, etc.. But so far, this has been well worth it. Installed the card in my Z490 Motherboard, downloaded the Creative drivers for the card, nothing comes with the card in the box. The drivers were tiny by comparison to most drivers today, even smaller than my motherboard realtek drivers. They installed first time, reboot PC, and they worked first time. The sound quality is superb. I wasn't expecting much better than my motherboard's Realtek alc1220 chipset, but the quality was night and day better. First thing I noticed was the increased headphone power, they now really give my headphones a real kick, you can feel them vibrating on my head due to the far superior bass. I had to tweak the sound via Soundblaster command's EQ adjuster, but after that it blew me away. Games now have presence, and the clarity is superb. Bass is massively increased, as well as decent 5.1 sound. The Realtek alc1220 was a little flat sounding, no presence at all, although 5.1 was there it didn't feel true 5.1, it just sounded like sound coming from behind you, rather than sound coming from all around you. Games like the modern Doom reboot, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Project Cars 2, etc..all sound amazing on my PC. And for looks, the RGB is actually nice and subtle, not in-your-face. Although this is for the on-board RGB, I haven't hooked up the external RGB strip that was included, it needs a spare molex power connector, and I don't have mine plugged into my PSU yet. Overall, a superb soundcard that, surprisingly, didn't cost that much - especially when you look at current GPU prices.

Bought as a gift for partner. He seems to really like it and says the sound is amazing. The difference it makes is huge. And I got one that was returned but like new for £40 cheaper, so it's a win win!

First the good points: It’s easy to install, 1 thumb screw and a push into a pcie slot and it will work, the molex cable is only needed if you want the external RGB strip to work and I’ll come back to that later… The software is pretty straight forward, although I did need to reset my Z906 speakers before the surround sound would kick in properly. EQ options are great and it’s as easy as drawing a line to get the balance you want. Onboard RGB is nice if you like that sort of thing, it’s fairly subtle and again there’s plenty of options and if you don’t like it you can turn it off. Audio wise… Well that’s the main point of buying this isn’t it? It’s a noticeable improvement over my motherboards (Z790 Carbon) sound output, although you’re going to want to pair it with a good set of 5.1 speakers to get the most out of it. There’s also a selection of encoder option if you’re speaker set up uses S/PDIF and a profile selector that gives “better” options for gaming, movies and music output which you can fine tune to your preference. All in all I'm happy with the audio performance. Onto things I don’t like… The card has a weird bevelled edge that makes it constantly look like it’s not mounted straight in my case. This may be in part to my case being wall mounted and me looking up at it, if the card was below my eye line the bevel wouldn’t be visible which then brings about the question of why have it at all. The external RGB… Honestly not something that I wanted, if I was going full on RGB with my case I’d get a hub and do the job properly. The strip provided with the AE-5 is only about 2/3rds the width of my case so wouldn’t work well anyway. It’s also white which doesn’t look great with black cases and has black cables which will stand out in white cases. But none of that is a big issue as you can just not use it. However… For some reason on an all black sound card Soundblaster decided to mount the RGB connector on the facing edge of the card and make it white… End result is my black and grey build has a single white socket facing the windowed side (Or if you did use the RGB strip you’d have a cable coming out straight towards the window making it annoying to cable manage, plus you'd also need to run the molex cable) They could easily have mounted the socket on the side of the card out of view, provided a black cover cap for it or just made the socket match the rest of the card. Yeah it’s a small thing (1st world problems right?) but it could have been avoided or just not included to start with. So a great card slightly spoilt by the manufacturer adding the "sUPer coolz RgBz!" that really aren’t needed and don’t help the card do what you want it to do.

Definitely improved my computer's sound. Much more detail and tone in the music. Needless to say, needs decent speakers or headphones to get the best out of it. On YouTube, for example, you will notice how variable the qualities of the various recordings are.

Bought this sound card as I have heard a lot of great things about it over many places, and I have to say I was skeptical at first due to some reviews here but oh man people must have been getting defective items as this sounds way better than the on-board audio, the crystalizer is great, and the surround is even better, previously wiht on-board audio my speakers were a bit on the bland-er side due to the board not seeing my subwoofer properly, but with this the bass is punchy and finally the subwoofer is doing its work, great product the drivers downloaded from the creative website were out of date as expected but there is an update with the Sound Blaster Command software that immediately prompted to update, updates were smooth a single restart only and boom it was working without issues. No complaints so far great sound as well as clear music the notes and sound effects are individually outstanding from each and every song I listen to, well worth it, 10/10 A little bit expensive but it is worth it as it will be a single purchase for many years to come. Possible issues after a couple days of usage buzzing noise under fullscreen software and fullscreen videos, driver reinstall did not fix, returned may try anothe model later on, but does sound great so do not let that discourage you.

Sempre tive placas de som da Creative. Minha primeira foi uma Sound Blaser 16, utilizando o famigerado kit multimídia deles, que veio junto com um computador 486 adquirido pela minha mãe na época. Depois eu tive uma Sound Blaster Live! e então uma Titanium, que perdurou até os dias de hoje. Mas aí você pode perguntar, por que resolvi trocar? É porque começaram a ocorrer incompatibilidades entre o Windows 11 e os drivers mais antigos, que a Creative deixou de atualizar, e também porque estavam ocorrendo uns chiados estranhos. Agora consigo ativar o recurso de "Integridade de Memória" no Windows 11 e rodar num novo modo de gerenciamento de interrupções chamado MSI, que melhora o desempenho. Além disto, eu li relatos de pessoas na Internet dizendo que a qualidade do som melhora muito, mesmo comparado a uma Titanium HD. Estou usando a placa já há alguns dias e posso dizer que, sim, houve uma melhora em todos os aspectos. Ela tem uma saída traseira dedicada a fone de ouvido, coisa que a Titanium não tinha. Eu precisava conectar na saída frontal, que todos falam piorar a qualidade do áudio. Outro ponto importante é que, acredito que pelo fato dela vir com uma capa, você não escuta interferências vindo da placa-mãe. Quando não havia nenhum som tocando, mexendo o mouse eu já escutava um chiado. Agora isso não ocorre mais, a saída é pura e cristalina. O microfone tem funções de cancelamento de ruído, de eco e um volume inteligente, que ajudam na jogatina. Eu estava tendo que conectar o microfone no som onboard porque estava vindo com um eco em loop que culminava num chiado ensurdecedor, como se houvesse um retorno. Há diversos perfis pra saída de áudio, como para jogos e cinema, por exemplo. Na Titanium só havia três. Há um modo chamado "Direto", onde a placa de som envia o áudio sem processamento algum, que equivale ao perfil "criação de áudio" da Titanium. Eu particularmente não gosto porque o som sai meio sem vida, e se você comprou uma placa supostamente pra processar e criar um som surround virtual em jogos num fone de ouvido estéreo, não faz sentido desabilitar isto. Eu já gostava do CMSS-3D, que agora evoluiu, então eu mantenho ativado o perfil de jogos, que é o padrão. Facilita identificar de onde você o som eu jogos de tiro. Uma dica é baixar o driver atualizado no site da Creative, já que ele vem com o Sound Blaster Command, que é indispensável pra gerenciar os recursos dela. A placa vem com toda uma firula de RGB, que optei por não ativar. Vi uma análise no Youtube do canal MW Informática mostrando que há um gasto de energia adicional com uso desses leds, e como é algo usado apenas pra estética, desativei. Afinal de contas, meu computador não é uma árvore de natal pra ficar piscando cores o dia todo, quando na realidade são apenas notadas à noite. Portanto, valeu a pena a aquisição. Não é uma placa barata. Mas se você preza pela qualidade sonora e se sente incomodado com a baixa qualidade do seu som onboard sempre que o ativa, então ela é pra você. A caixa dela é muito bem produzida, lembra a de uma placa de vídeo.

Trotz hochwertigem 7.1 Teufel-Soundsystem, nutzte ich bisher immer den Onboard-Sound diverser Boards, womit ich aber nie wirklich zufrieden war. Da mein aktuelles Board (MSI MEG X399) sogar mit Nahimic High End-Sound wirbt, war ich äußerst skeptisch, ob eine Soundkarte wirklich noch einen Unterschied machen würde. Aber die Antwort lautete definitiv JA! SOUNDQUALITÄT Die Höhen sind mit der SB AE5 Plus deutlich klarer und auch die Bässe sehr viel präziser. Bei allen Onboard-Soundchips klang alles immer irgendwie dumpf, wie bei einem zu stark komprimierten MP3-File, und auch der seperate Subwoofer konnte nie richtig separat angesteuert werden, trotz vorhandenem Center/Subwoofer-Channel auf den Boards. Offenbar fehlt allen Mainboard-Soundchips die notwendige Vorverstärkung, um einen richtigen Subwoofer auch anständig anzubetreiben - so zumindest meine Vermutung. Die AE5-Plus hat damit allerdings überhaupt kein Problem und der Bass ist präzise und kraftvoll. Ich musste ihn sogar etwas runterregeln, da der Subwoofer sonst meinen Schreibtisch spürbar vibrieren lässt *gg* Zum Kopfhörersound kann ich nichts sagen, da ich diese nicht nutze. Wer aber ein anständiges Boxenset besitzt, kann hier bedenkenlos zugreifen und sich über einen echten Zugewinn an Soundqualität ggü. dem altbackenen Realtek-Sound freuen :-) SOFTWARE Softwareseitig gab es keinerlei Probleme (Win10 Pro 64). Die Soundprofile scheinen gut abgestimmt, auch wenn ich bei weitem noch nicht alle getestet habe, und der Equlizer tut was er soll. Auch die individuellen Anpassungsmöglichktein (Surround, Crystalizer, Bass, Smart Volume und Dialog) sind ein tolles Feature, wodurch der Sound sehr schnell auf den individuellen Geschmack abgestimmt werden kann. Für Besitzer von 5.1-Systemen ist die manuelle Lautsprechkalibrierung ein tolles Feature, auch wenn ich mir eine automatische Abstimmung wie bei modernen Receivern gewünscht hätte. Auch die fehlende Unterstützung für 7.1-Sound oder Dolby Atmo passt nicht mehr ganz in die aktuelle Zeit und Creative Labs sollte endlich einmal eine neue Soundkarte auf den Markt bringen, welche diese ebenfalls unterstützt. Dafür bietet die Software sowohl Dolby Audio als auch dts-Sound, sofern die Karte via S/PDIF an einen Receiver oder entsprechendes Soundsystem angeschlossen wird. Analoge Soundsysteme werden dabei nicht unterstützt. SONSTIGES Die Beleuchtung ist ein mMn völlig überflüssiges Poser-Gimmick und lässt sich zum Glück im Command Center der Soundkarte deaktivieren, um sich zumindest den Strom dafür zu sparen, wenn man das schon zwangsläufig beim Kauf der Karte mitbezahlen muss. Die Packung enthielt auch noch einen zusätzlichen LED-Strip, der sich nach Belieben ins Poser-Gehäuse kleben und über die Soundkarte ansteuern lässt. Allerdings bietet die Soundkarte/Software nur vorgefertige Standardprogramme, wie Zyklus, Welle oder Pulsieren, und keine soundgesteuerte Beleuchtung, was bei einer Soundkarte ja eigentlich schon sträflich nachlässig ist. Den Scout Mode, der einem irgendwo visuelle Soundlokalisierungen in Shootern oä anzeigen soll, interessiert mich nicht und wurde daher ebenfalls nicht getestet.

Çocukluğumdan beri ses kartı alma hayalim olduğu için paraya kıyıp aldım. Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro 80 Ohm ile birlikte kullanıyorum. MSI A-320M A Plus üzerindeki Realtek ALC 892 ten Soundblaster AE-5 Plus'a geçerken 2 farklı ses kalitesi artışı oldu. 1 - Bass artışı. Tümleşik ses çipinizin verdiği bass ve equalizerı unutun. Çok farklı bir şey. Soundblaster Command uygulamasından bass arttırdığımız zaman normalde tizleri ve midleri yutan (yazılımsal) equalizer burada donanım seviyesinde equalizerda bu sorun oluşmuyor. Basslı müzik dinlemiyorum ki demeyin. Bass her şeydir. İzlediğiniz dizide hakimin tokmağı vuruşu da bir basstır. Gök gürültüsü sesi duymak veya oynadığınız oyunda silahı ateşlemeniz bomba atmanız vs. vs. vs. Bass sesin her şeyidir alfa ve omegasıdır. Uyarı : Command uygulamasında 20 hz 40 hz 60 hz gibi bantlara +5 db den fazla vermeyin ben sapıklık yapıp +7 db verdim DT 770 PRO da buzz sorunu oluştu(Bir odyofilin gözyaşları). 2 - Sesin netliği. Sesin netliğinin artışında elbette ki kulaklığın büyük etkisi var. Ses kartının ne kadar etkisi var bilemiyorum ama ses normaldekinden az bir şey daha net. Equalizerden tüm bantlara -2 db verdiğinizi düşünün. Sesin hafif soluklaşmaya başlar. İşte tümleşik ses çipinde sanki böyle de bu yeni ses kartında daha iyi gibi. Almanızı tavsiye ederim.

Allora , premetto che avevo già una scheda audio 7.1 per le cuffie , ma ne volevo un'altra per il 5.1 delle casse ( Logitech z906) perché l'audio relatek fa veramente pena , nonostante abbia una z690 mai Intel i9 13900 k ecc ecc quindi PC aggiornato. Ma l'audio integrato è una pena . Ovviamente ho disattivato i driver relatek. Con questa scheda è vero , si sentono suoni che prima non sentivo , con le cuffie si con le casse no .. la uso prettamente per il gaming e fa il suo sporco lavoro . La differenza si nota e parecchio , quindi la consiglio se avete un 5.1 e buone casse . Leggendo varie recensioni avevo letto quella di un tipo che diceva che scaldava .. in effetti scalda , se la si tocca con la mano scalda .... Io non l'ho collegata al Molex per le lucine a led , già ne ha abbastanza di luci il mio PC , ma in ogni caso il logo soindblaster è illuminato , quindi va più che bene così . La consiglio per chi come me ama giocare , davvero un bel salto di qualità . Se dovessi tenere il volume a bomba e giocare a cyberpunk,bhe si sicuro i miei vicini chiamerebbero i carabinieri... Oltre che a sfondarmi i timpani , questo per dire che il suono è al top ovviamente accompagnato da un buon impianto audio . Spero ci sia piaciuta la mia recensione e di essere stato utile a qualcuno di voi che la sta leggendo . Saluti , Alessandro

Fonctionne parfaitement bien