New external sound card to replace AE-7

sativa · Wednesday at 20:53

I have owned internal soundcard for the past 20 years, however, my current motherboard does not have space for an internal sound card: I have to retire my trusty AE-7.

Please can you recommend an equivalent external sound card?

I use the AE-7 sound card with goods quality headphones (no speakers), for gaming and listening to music/videos.

Also, which USB port do you plug these things into?

sativa · Wednesday at 21:14

Thank you Starvald: I have always had Creative, and am looking at the G8. I am happy to spend max. 200 GBP. I am more concerned that nothing external will match a PCIE internal card e.g. latency

sativa · Wednesday at 21:30

Fosi Audio K7 looks good..

sativa · Wednesday at 22:05

I am bout to purchase the Fosi..

I have DT PRO 990, I dont use a microphone

sativa · Wednesday at 22:27

It's between the (Creative) G8 and (Fosi) K7. I am going to give the purist sound a chance to shine, and therefore, try the Fosi!

Thank you all

sativa · 2025-08-14T22:50:32+0100

Thank you team: the product arrived this morning via the rain forest.

I was initially sceptical and worried, given my 20+ years of loyalty to Creative products: it was simply a black box with a power cable and a usb cable.

I plugged the power and usb in, then, powered up: it worked immediately...No convoluted drivers and bloatware. No selecting options. I had immediate sound: really clean, good quality sound.

I played some of my favourite tunes and games: it was like another layer, 2, maybe 3 "layers" of new sounds opened up. really don't understand, because the AE-7 is a very good card, and I would (despite this commentary) continue to recommend.

The device sits cleanly and proudly on my desk, with easily accessible buttons. Highly recommended.

If it wasn't for these forums I would never have known about these options! Thank you guys!