Sound Cards ? or my Creative ZXR is broken *replacments

[ViRuS2k]

ok guys my creative zxr that i have had for ages, i loved the sound quality it produced ..
but unfortunatly my watercooling system sprung a small drip leak that was undetected for ages and not noticed the drips proceeded to drip onto my sound cards ribbon cable and then dripped into the contacts of the sound card and eventually the card shorted out and does not product audio anymore so i need a replacment.

is there anything out there that is better than the ZXR in sound quality i was looking at the Creative Sound Blaster X AE-5 (Black) RGB Gaming Sound Card

as i have heard it has better audio than the ZXR but im curious is there anything out there thats better

 

[ViRuS2k]

i went for the AE5 just to test it out, as i need a sound card ASAP lol
should get some testing done at the weekend, i will be driving 2 heatsets astro A50`s for gaming and music and movies will be my trusty 8 year old Senhieser HD650`s

I dont really need dolby digital live and dts connect cause to get those i can just use the spdif out on my z370 gaming 7 motherboard to get dolby and dts to my cinema system and if i need to watch movies from pc with AE5 it still lets you decode dolby and dts just not through spdif but i have like i said other means for that

 

[ViRuS2k]

dam its great really like the command center they have much improved as of late creative software that is....

 

[ViRuS2k]

How are you finding the sound card, sounding better than the ZxR?

yes for sure better quality than the ZXR i had before it, more clarity and better bass production and detail in the highs and lows. are slightly better in the middle
im really impressed, also the software is much improved over the ZXR software, i really had problems on windows 10 with the ZXR software talking a horrendous amount of time to open and use the command center + connect 2 software installed loads up instantly....

the only thing that im missing is spdif out`s digital live and dts live but thats only if you want to get those formats to play in a cinema system or the like but for viewing all formats work when playing bluerays and music from within windows.
but i fixed that issue with the output spdif from my z370 motherboard or graphics cards hdmi to get those formats to my external system

also that scout 2.0 is pretty cool for a novelty most people say its crap but there are games that it does work very very well with

overall im impressed, my next sound card in the future will be the Ae9 or anything that comes out thats newer than that in the next few years but for now i made the right choice in getting the Ae5 its a fantastic card. just make sure you have the quality headset to back up the quality the card produces or you might fine its not that different... now i just wonder if there is even higher opamps for this card out there as the sound could probably be even better with higher end amps.