Thought I'd create an owners' club for the Sound BlasterX AE-5.
https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blasterx-ae-5.
https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blasterx-ae-5.
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The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Owners' Club
- Thread starter Skynet5
- Start date
One slight issue I'm having - though it might be related to an older issues that predates this soundcard - I have to keep changing it to speakers and back to headphones each time I start up Windows or I get no sound output on the headphone port/doesn't recognise headphones are plugged in.
My issue at the moment is the mic level is not fantastic. I've moved away from onboard and razer headphones. Moving first to the game one headphones with onboard, the volume was not much better.
Moving to the ae-5 the mic sound volume is much better but not great.
I have to enable either noise or echo enhancements to remove a noticable level of background hiss, and this is with the windows boost setting at 0%. Either of these setting hurt the voice quality.
Mic sound quality on my surface pro is better!
Moving to the ae-5 the mic sound volume is much better but not great.
I have to enable either noise or echo enhancements to remove a noticable level of background hiss, and this is with the windows boost setting at 0%. Either of these setting hurt the voice quality.
Mic sound quality on my surface pro is better!
I'm using a cheap XLR condenser mic on an arm and don't have this issue, sounds pretty darn good to me.
Never the response you want to hear lol!
There are a few threads around with people having similar issues. So it might be environmental or variance in tolerances on the card.
It's by no means bad. But I expect better.
Ill just try another mic to compare perhaps. And double check the headset on my surface again. Mine is a gaming headset mic, I don't know what a cheap XLR mic costs...but likely better.
It's the volume I'm confused about. 50% is blow your ears off loud lol.
My mate has a hyper X cloud with onboard and his voice sounds amazingly clear. Maybe it's just the way I talk lol.
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Ah, the low steady white noise issues.
I'm using a Condenser Microphone SUMGOTT Recording Microphone with 3.5mm Jack and arm, around £35 fyi.
Thanks. I've just check with my Game Ones plugged into the surface pro again and it sounds awesome. However....I checked the settings and Enhancements is "enabled" (doesn't say what the enhancements are). Disabling that and I get the same level of hiss that I hear on the AE-5.
So assuming those enhancements are doing the same thing I would put it down to the headphones itself. Shame, as although they are gaming focused, I would expect more from Sennheiser.
I've just enabled Echo cancellation on the AE-5 and that clears up the hiss and gives just a small loss on voice clarity. I would say enhancement on the SP3 does a better job then the AE-5 though.
So in summary...I think not the AE-5s fault more the headset is the issue. But I will perhaps borrow a high quality mic from someone (I know a professional DJ...so he some have something good!) and try it out.
So assuming those enhancements are doing the same thing I would put it down to the headphones itself. Shame, as although they are gaming focused, I would expect more from Sennheiser.
I've just enabled Echo cancellation on the AE-5 and that clears up the hiss and gives just a small loss on voice clarity. I would say enhancement on the SP3 does a better job then the AE-5 though.
So in summary...I think not the AE-5s fault more the headset is the issue. But I will perhaps borrow a high quality mic from someone (I know a professional DJ...so he some have something good!) and try it out.
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Sennheiser's premium headsets such as the Game One/Zero are known for having good microphones, so I don't know what's going on.
Is it possible that there is some problem with the microphone that is being covered up by enabling enhancements?
Whether that is possible, I don't know.
A friend using a HyperX Cloud headset and sounding very clear compared to your Game One headset is kind of ironic, because the HyperX Cloud's microphone is the weak point of the headset and not on par with Sennheiser's microphones.
Very odd.
Is it possible that there is some problem with the microphone that is being covered up by enabling enhancements?
Whether that is possible, I don't know.
A friend using a HyperX Cloud headset and sounding very clear compared to your Game One headset is kind of ironic, because the HyperX Cloud's microphone is the weak point of the headset and not on par with Sennheiser's microphones.
Very odd.
I’ve got the same issues with the Mod Mic 5 but it’s very minimal now. I had to use one of those USB sound cards for it. Not perfectly silent though.
I've always had problems with microphones with my main PC setup (and anything else TBH) seems to be something to do with the electrics here - if I run my laptop on battery (and use that for voice comms) or take my PC to someone else's house it clears up. One of the guys I used to chat with on voice when playing Eve Online reckoned it was some kind of ground imbalance with the house wiring.
That said it doesn't clean up when running my PC from the UPS so not sure on that.
Wouldn't surprise me if it was related to the house wiring though - its a 1930 build which had a botched job of overhauling it in the 1970s.
That said it doesn't clean up when running my PC from the UPS so not sure on that.
Wouldn't surprise me if it was related to the house wiring though - its a 1930 build which had a botched job of overhauling it in the 1970s.
never have I repeated the same sentence so often testing all combinations of options.
connect: all voice clarity options off.
windows mic properties: mic level: 50 mic boost +10 dB.
That seems to give only the slightest of audible hiss/white noise which is more than acceptable for talking to my mates on discord and in-game.
Not ideal when you want perfection but don't know if you're asking too much for what you spent, but this works for me.
connect: all voice clarity options off.
windows mic properties: mic level: 50 mic boost +10 dB.
That seems to give only the slightest of audible hiss/white noise which is more than acceptable for talking to my mates on discord and in-game.
Not ideal when you want perfection but don't know if you're asking too much for what you spent, but this works for me.
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It was running off the battery.
What was weird with my setup when I was using a Mic AMP through the Prelude I could hear this white noise very clearly but through Discord with voice processing off other people couldn’t hear it. I asked them to listen carefully but they couldn’t hear white noise. Just my voice when I was talking. They said it was extremely clear. I never heard it through their streams and it was perfectly clear. It is bizarre but if I listen to the mic through the optional listen to this device or do a recording I can hear that white noise clearly.
It appears about -70dB.
Either my ears are too sensitive or I just don’t know. As I’ve heard that faint white noise hiss for people reviewing Mod Mics. It’s faint but there. I wish the Mod Mic was as silent as my sound card. Complete silence until sound is played.
You can hear that same faint hiss when Jay reviews the Mod Mic 4.