Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E Soundcard Mini Review (headset only)
Last night I was trying out the Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E Soundcard. The card was compared to my XFI Titanium Fatal1ty edition SC and both cards were used with Steelseries Sibera V2.
Intro
My choice for having the XFI Titanium is that i'm quite into competitive fps gaming and felt that out the cards I have trialed before, the Titanium always gave the clearest sound when it came to in game, as anyone who plays games competitively knows how important having decent sound is. Although the XFI Titanium is excellent in gaming, the sound quality for movies and music compared to such a card as a ASUS Xonar D2X was easily noticeably less, however with I reserved high hopes for the Recon3D.
Software
After installing the card and the drivers, I started to take a look at the features within the software. The software still had all the THX and Dolby Digital tweaks which previous Titanium software used and the software was very simple to navigate with very clear features.
[SCREEN WILL BE PLACED HERE]
The one feature which really excited me was the "Scout Mode" which was a setting dedicated to increasing in-game sounds for more accurate 3D positioning which is vital in many different games to have the advantage over the enemy. This was a feature I was very eager to try out. The style and description "Scout Mode" reminded me of what I normally use called SVM (Smart Volume Control) which in games makes quieter sounds louder (footsteps) and louder sounds quieter (gunfire) so I was interested how it would compare to this as on the software it also had it's own Smart Volume section in another tab.
Music Testing
I started off using the sound card to listen to some music, dubstep with a nice deep bass to test a good range of frequencies to make sure that it could handle all ranges whilst maintaining perfect quality. My first impression after turning the music on was that I could instantly notice the better quality compared to the XFI Titanium. The sound had a much deeper and rich feel but I could certainly notice that Creative wanted to make sure on this edition of the card they gave more of an impressive media experience along with gaming. The onboard AMP was highly impressive as I could increase the volume of the music with no quality loss and tweaking the bass settings in the dolby digital studio really gave a much more thrilling experience. To me this is a great upgrade for music on a Stereo headset, I am looking forward to testing it out with a 5.1 pair of Roccat Kaves.
Gaming
I finished listening and enjoying some music and moved onto gaming, I booted up Call of Duty 4 (still the best one) and went into a TDM server to begin with. I wanted to start playing without the Scout Mode to make sure I would easily make a difference between normal mode and with it enabled. I turned off all Dolby settings to make sure I would be listening to the sound card in it's native hardware format with no added features. In the game the sound was very clear and this was mixed with the high quality feature as experienced when listening to music. This was noticeable when firing the gun, I could notice that it had a much deeper and almost nicer sounding tone rather than a very short and snappy clear sound of the XFI titanium. I played for about an hour and I can compare it directly to the XFI Titanium as a gaming sound card which the have kept all the qualities of this.
Scout Mode
I then started to play SND (Seach and Destroy, one life per round) which with a decent sound card can mean either being shot down because you couldn't hear an enemy of hearing them from further away to have the advantage over them. I now enabled Scout Mode to see how this would perform. On enabling all sounds had increased, so my first impression of difference from SVM is that it keeps even the louder noises still pretty loud. I would listen to see how far away I could hear the enemy running and shooting and I was very impressed. In some cases I could hear them from half the map to their exact location. A gunfire would come out very clearly in the correct location meaning you couldn't miss it, or it being too quiet. Scout Mode was especially good for footsteps. SVM is fantastic for footsteps and small sounds as it really does increase the volume but Scout Mode made these quieter sounds even louder, it could be the amp working it's magic but for gaming and situations when you need to hear every step it really shines.
Final Thoughts
I am thoroughly impressed with Creative's latest launch, and anyone who has an XFI Titanium looking for the next step in audio upgrading but wanting to keep the qualities of a gaming sound card, I would highly recommend this Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E Soundcard. For me it's the perfect mix of sound quality and maintaining what I'm looking for in a soundcard for gaming. I'm going to be testing the same card with a 5.1 Headset so this will hopefully be an even better experience as I normally game with a 5.1 headset.
Couple of snaps I took of the card pre-installation.
Last night I was trying out the Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E Soundcard. The card was compared to my XFI Titanium Fatal1ty edition SC and both cards were used with Steelseries Sibera V2.
Intro
My choice for having the XFI Titanium is that i'm quite into competitive fps gaming and felt that out the cards I have trialed before, the Titanium always gave the clearest sound when it came to in game, as anyone who plays games competitively knows how important having decent sound is. Although the XFI Titanium is excellent in gaming, the sound quality for movies and music compared to such a card as a ASUS Xonar D2X was easily noticeably less, however with I reserved high hopes for the Recon3D.
Software
After installing the card and the drivers, I started to take a look at the features within the software. The software still had all the THX and Dolby Digital tweaks which previous Titanium software used and the software was very simple to navigate with very clear features.
[SCREEN WILL BE PLACED HERE]
The one feature which really excited me was the "Scout Mode" which was a setting dedicated to increasing in-game sounds for more accurate 3D positioning which is vital in many different games to have the advantage over the enemy. This was a feature I was very eager to try out. The style and description "Scout Mode" reminded me of what I normally use called SVM (Smart Volume Control) which in games makes quieter sounds louder (footsteps) and louder sounds quieter (gunfire) so I was interested how it would compare to this as on the software it also had it's own Smart Volume section in another tab.
Music Testing
I started off using the sound card to listen to some music, dubstep with a nice deep bass to test a good range of frequencies to make sure that it could handle all ranges whilst maintaining perfect quality. My first impression after turning the music on was that I could instantly notice the better quality compared to the XFI Titanium. The sound had a much deeper and rich feel but I could certainly notice that Creative wanted to make sure on this edition of the card they gave more of an impressive media experience along with gaming. The onboard AMP was highly impressive as I could increase the volume of the music with no quality loss and tweaking the bass settings in the dolby digital studio really gave a much more thrilling experience. To me this is a great upgrade for music on a Stereo headset, I am looking forward to testing it out with a 5.1 pair of Roccat Kaves.
Gaming
I finished listening and enjoying some music and moved onto gaming, I booted up Call of Duty 4 (still the best one) and went into a TDM server to begin with. I wanted to start playing without the Scout Mode to make sure I would easily make a difference between normal mode and with it enabled. I turned off all Dolby settings to make sure I would be listening to the sound card in it's native hardware format with no added features. In the game the sound was very clear and this was mixed with the high quality feature as experienced when listening to music. This was noticeable when firing the gun, I could notice that it had a much deeper and almost nicer sounding tone rather than a very short and snappy clear sound of the XFI titanium. I played for about an hour and I can compare it directly to the XFI Titanium as a gaming sound card which the have kept all the qualities of this.
Scout Mode
I then started to play SND (Seach and Destroy, one life per round) which with a decent sound card can mean either being shot down because you couldn't hear an enemy of hearing them from further away to have the advantage over them. I now enabled Scout Mode to see how this would perform. On enabling all sounds had increased, so my first impression of difference from SVM is that it keeps even the louder noises still pretty loud. I would listen to see how far away I could hear the enemy running and shooting and I was very impressed. In some cases I could hear them from half the map to their exact location. A gunfire would come out very clearly in the correct location meaning you couldn't miss it, or it being too quiet. Scout Mode was especially good for footsteps. SVM is fantastic for footsteps and small sounds as it really does increase the volume but Scout Mode made these quieter sounds even louder, it could be the amp working it's magic but for gaming and situations when you need to hear every step it really shines.
Final Thoughts
I am thoroughly impressed with Creative's latest launch, and anyone who has an XFI Titanium looking for the next step in audio upgrading but wanting to keep the qualities of a gaming sound card, I would highly recommend this Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E Soundcard. For me it's the perfect mix of sound quality and maintaining what I'm looking for in a soundcard for gaming. I'm going to be testing the same card with a 5.1 Headset so this will hopefully be an even better experience as I normally game with a 5.1 headset.
Couple of snaps I took of the card pre-installation.
