NEW Creative Sound Cards! Bring on the Recon 3D!

Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore

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Hello

Creative Sound Blaster Recon 3D is here! The latest from Creative Labs bringing you the next Generation of Gaming audio over the previous flagship Sound Blaster, the Legendary X-Fi!


Take a look below at these two epic cards!


Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E Soundcard @ £89.99 inc VAT

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Accelerate your gaming audio
Upgrade to mind-blowing PC gaming audio with the Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe sound card powered by the revolutionary Sound Core3D quad-core Sound and Voice processor. Whether you’re on a headset or desktop speakers you’ll have a distinct tactical advantage over the competition with massively powerful THX TruStudio Pro audio technologies that deliver incredibly immersive surround sound with pin-point accurate audio placement. Lead your fellow warriors on the battlefield with CrystalVoice Voice and Clarity technologies that ensure even in the heat of battle your voice will be heard clearly. Choose the PC audio choice of Champions, and hear the sound of victory. Choose Sound Blaster.

- Powered by Sound Core3D quad-core audio processor;
- THX TruStudio Pro;
- CrystalVoice voice enhancement and clarity technology;
- Dolby Digital Live encoding;
- Dedicated high quality headphone amplifier;
- 1 Year Manufacturers Warranty;


Only £89.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW




Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional Soundcard @ £119.99 inc VAT

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Pro-gamer grade 3D Gaming Audio and Communications
Sound Blaster and Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel have once again teamed up to create the ultimate PC gaming audio card. Whether you’re on a headset or desktop speakers you’ll have a distinct tactical advantage over the competition with massively powerful THX TruStudio Pro audio technologies that deliver incredibly immersive surround sound with pin-point accurate audio placement. Go “headset-free” with exclusive CrystalVoice Voice Clarity technology and the included Sound Blaster advanced beamforming microphone for a new way to communicate with your team mates by allowing for advanced voice communication even while playing audio over speakers! Get PC audio choice of Champions, and hear the sound of victory. Get Sound Blaster.

- Powered by Sound Core3D - quad-core audio processor;
- THX TruStudio Pro technologies;
- CrystalVoice - voice enhancement and clarity technology;
- Sound Blaster beam forming microphone;
- Dedicated high quality headphone amp;
- Dolby Digital line encoding;
- 1 Year Manufacturer Warranty;


Only £119.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW
 
I have a Xonar DG. So i'll be interested to hear some reviews of it first.

I'd like to know if it has auto sensing front panel headphone changing support.
 
That's a rather bare PCB!

I guess they're gearing this in-line for integrated components for the portable market. The price seems rather high for such a card anyway.

Various posts around the web state that while gaming positional sound is slightly better than an X-Fi, musical and movie sounds seem better on the X-Fi although I guess that's to be expected, the components are higher quality are they not?

Oh and quite a lot of comments on Creative's famous control panel being rubbish (again) :p

I'd be interested in seeing how it compares to cards like the Xonar D2X, a very capable card for everything but costs less. Either way though, these are not making me want to ditch my STX, ever!
 
My Xfi XtremeMusic is starting to play silly games with me. I've tried loads of driver packs. Time to ditch it for either one of these or a Xonar.
 
I'd say go Xonar :)

But then again I would say that :p

Had enough of Creative!
 
I own a Xonar DX and really like it. Think it's in my brother's machine at the moment.

Currently, the only spare PCI-E slots I have are too close to the ram or will be too close to the graphics card. And I'm too scared to buy a PCI version, because my next motherboard probably won't have any PCI slots :D
 
These seem to be getting a rather tepid reception in general. Lack of OpenAL acceleration, ASIO support or 7.1 and poorer SNR compared to X-Fi. On the whole a bit of a backwards step. Nice red lights though.

The ROG Xonar Phoebus looks a much better offering for gamers.
 
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PC Gamer said:
What’s curious is that looking at the specs sheet, Sound Core 3D is an X-Fi in all but name, and like the Bard’s rose presumably sounds the same. For starters, the press release says that it’s powered by the Quartet DSP: that’s a four core digital signal processor that has been the heart of the X-Fi chips since their launch, but which hasn’t been promoted by that name for nearly six years. I may be wrong, but I don’t recall it appearing on any Creative literature since 2005.
Click to expand...

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/05/31/creative-launches-new-motherboard-sound-chip-but-wheres-x-fi/

Erm - short version is Recon3D is kneecapped X-Fi with fancy software.

On paper - these are better than XtremeAudio but worse than practically every other X-Fi.

Still - the main thing is how it sounds so I'll be interested to see the reviews.

Edit: This was Daniel_K's (remember him?) recent post on the Creative Forums regarding the new cards:
Thanks to the user BF, I was able to see what the Recon3D is all about, just by analyzing the software and driver included in the Installation Disc.

About the card itself:

- Recon3D does have a DSP with pre-programmed functions for the THX TruStudio and CrystalVoice.


About the Sound Core3D quad-core processor:

- Not quad-core at all: even the original SB Live! could process as many sound effects at the same time.
- Design is based around the CA0110 PCI Express HD Audio controller with an embedded DSP and integrated DAC.
- EAX is software based, as it is supported through Host OpenAL.
- Pre-programmed DSP with as many sound effects you could find on any car stereo or home theater.


Pros

- Less compatibility issues, as it basically uses simple codec drivers and all EAX gaming effects are processed in software by the system's CPU.
- Dedicated Headphone amplifier.
- THX TruStudio surround sound effects are better than Creative's CMSS3D.
- Hardware accelerated THX TruStudio/CrystalVoice effects.
- Microphone enhancements by CrystalVoice.


Cons

- Really overpriced, not justifiable for such cheap design.
- Average sound quality, even worse than some motherboard integrated HD Audio codecs.
- Limited to 5.1 speakers and 96kHz, questionable for a cutting edge sound card, even if a gaming only card.
- Sound Core3D is just a simple pre-programmed DSP.
- No HDMI connector.
- No hardware EAX acceleration.
- No THX speaker calibration.
- No hardware MIDI synthesizer.
- No ASIO.
- Control panel written in Microsoft .NET, loads slowly and wastes 50MB of RAM when minimized to tray.
- No WHQL drivers.
- Questionable dedicated headphone amp, as the integrated DAC is of poor quality.


The included drivers are not WHQL signed and worse, are from a debug version (just open the .sys driver and you'll see it).

Did Creative improve the software/drivers?

No, if it has less compatibility issues or does not have any at all, is because the drivers MUST be simple, as it is just an HD Audio driver, like I've said before. Then we have the Control Panel which uses a DLL to access the registers in the embedded DSP to enable and adjust the sound enhancements.


Is this a revolutionary sound card?

Not a all.

THX TruStudio Surround is the only REALLY improved feature.

CrystalVoice enhancements have been around for years, being the hardware implementation the only improvement.



As Creative have just released X-Fi MB2 as a retail product, you should better buy this if you DO NOT have a Creative soundcard and want THX TruStudio and EAX5.

Curiously, X-Fi MB2 does not work with Creative cards.

X-Fi MB2 works with ANY soundcard or HD Audio codec, although it needs some tweking for the ASUS Xonar series.



X-Fi Titanium Features you'll be missing:

- Hardware accelerated EAX.
- Fully programmable DSP in Audio Creation mode.
- Hardware MIDI Synthesizer with SoundFont support.
- Very good sound quality for Creative designs, premium/audiophile sound quality for Auzentech/Onkyo designs.
- THX speaker calibration.
- DTS Connect (DTS Interactive encoder/DTS Neo:PC)
- HDMI connector for some models. http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=697046&page=2&p=532625&viewfull=1#post532625
Click to expand...

I'd previously assumed that THX Trustudio surround was rebranded CMSS-3D. He says it's better so I'm giving the cards the benefit of the doubt on that front.

Andrew Moore - if you could post comparisons of CMSS-3D Headphone vs THX Trustudio Headphone that would be handy. Cheers!
 
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I'll stick with my x-fi xtreme music card then if creative are going backward and not forward. I was wondering about this, as the pcb board looks a bit empty compared to my card.

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Blah, I'm still using my Creative Audigy (SB0090).. must be a good 11 years old now! I'm sure I'd notice the difference but I can't justify that amount of cash on a new one :o
 
Going off Creative - my xtreme music is having issues in a few newer games sounds will suddenly play loud/some missing and then cut out entirely with only the odd sound being played and intermitent loud screeches and I don't think its a hardware problem just software compatbility between Windows 7 64bit, Creative Drivers and some newer applications... could try the Daniel K drivers or similiar but I think its end of the road for me and Creative.
 
Rroff said:
Going off Creative - my xtreme music is having issues in a few newer games sounds will suddenly play loud/some missing and then cut out entirely with only the odd sound being played and intermitent loud screeches and I don't think its a hardware problem just software compatbility between Windows 7 64bit, Creative Drivers and some newer applications... could try the Daniel K drivers or similiar but I think its end of the road for me and Creative.
Click to expand...

Mine still workes perfectly in games and music. Famous last words:D But I am using like 2yr old drivers, as the drivers work perfectly and I refuse to change them, unless I have to.

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Actually I'm not interested in a D2X vs this comparison any more, I know which one is better already :p
 
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