The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Owners' Club

R3X · 31 Oct 2018 at 19:36

JasonM said:
Yes I have an Asus ST (original legacy PCI version), and it's totally superior to the on-board that's disabled. But then my Creative Titanium HD is superior, my 90's Technics & Pioneer CD players are superior and my Pioneer Amp/Dac's are superior.

And i'll go on stage more, and say I have metal compact cassette tapes (recorded from CD with higher end separates), costing hundreds in the 90's, and the metal compact cassettes sound better and with less background noise than the Gigabyte on-board.

I'm actually planning on making a YouTube video that's compares the Gigabyte on-board audio to high end compact cassette, i'm thinking of calling it 'On board audio sounds worse then compact cassette tape', I would use some licence free YouTube music and A/B between two sources into a high end external DAC receiver.

Ill be leaving my gigabyte audio switched off in the bios...forever

That is certainly shocking to hear that information mind especially given how much most mobo manufactures claim their audio outputs the bees wax.

JasonM · 31 Oct 2018 at 22:49

R3X said:
Ill be leaving my gigabyte audio switched off in the bios...forever

That is certainly shocking to hear that information mind especially given how much most mobo manufactures claim their audio outputs the bees wax.

The Gigabyte on board audio is like paying £80 for some new black Levi 501's, accidentally putting them in the wash at 90 degrees with Daz and wondering why the jeans are now faded and grey, this is what the on board does to music.

V F · 1 Nov 2018 at 04:59

R3X said:
Ill be leaving my gigabyte audio switched off in the bios...forever

That is certainly shocking to hear that information mind especially given how much most mobo manufactures claim their audio outputs the bees wax.

I was so sure this was posted here?

Vassilis · 2 Nov 2018 at 01:21

sgavan said:
The optical only outputs 2.1 so for 5.1 you need the analogue, I have the z5500 and it sound great

Thanks for the reply

In fact, I was considering plugging a Klipsch Reference Theater Pack and a Denon amp via optical so the fact that I need analogue cables is an issue since the creative card does not have hdmi either. I guess that the sound card is not able to drive the 5.1 Klipsch kit without an AV receiver.

It would make sense to completely skip the sound card and go directly for audio over hdmi on the gpu (GPU -> AV Receiver -> computer screen) but my computer screen uses displayport 1.2 only (120hz AW ultra wide) so that would not work either. The limitation of HDMI is that you have to stream both audio and video at the same time, so the GPU will likely not accept video via displayport -> computer screen and sound via hdmi -> receiver.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone else got a good idea

Radox-0 · 2 Nov 2018 at 04:56

Vassilis said:
Thanks for the reply In fact, I was considering plugging a Klipsch Reference Theater Pack and a Denon amp via optical so the fact that I need analogue cables is an issue since the creative card does not have hdmi either. I guess that the sound card is not able to drive the 5.1 Klipsch kit without an AV receiver.

It would make sense to completely skip the sound card and go directly for audio over hdmi on the gpu (GPU -> AV Receiver -> computer screen) but my computer screen uses displayport 1.2 only (120hz AW ultra wide) so that would not work either. The limitation of HDMI is that you have to stream both audio and video at the same time, so the GPU will likely not accept video via displayport -> computer screen and sound via hdmi -> receiver.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone else got a good idea

The latter will work fine. I do it with my screen and AV receiver.

So DisplayPort from my GPU direct to monitor (ASUS PG348Q) then a second HDMI cable direct from same GPU into AV receiver. Now the AV receiver is treated as a second screen so you need to use extend Desktop (duplicate seems to not always work bizzarely) but the audio will then work fine. For context this is how things look / are set up with this combo:

In Nvidia control panel (see the GPU its hooked up to, both should be green)

Windows Display

And Sound panel

Vassilis · 2 Nov 2018 at 11:48

Radox-0 said:
The latter will work fine. I do it with my screen and AV receiver.

So DisplayPort from my GPU direct to monitor (ASUS PG348Q) then a second HDMI cable direct from same GPU into AV receiver. Now the AV receiver is treated as a second screen so you need to use extend Desktop (duplicate seems to not always work bizzarely) but the audio will then work fine. For context this is how things look / are set up with this combo:

Thanks a lot for the explanation. I have a few questions for you:

1) If you extend your desktop instead of duplicating, don't you have issues with your mouse "going out of the screen", especially while gaming?

2) Did you have to plug a second screen in the AVR?

3) There is no issues with running 3440x1440 120hz while gaming, even though the AVR is not compatible with the resolution?

Radox-0 · 2 Nov 2018 at 13:52

Vassilis said:
Thanks a lot for the explanation. I have a few questions for you:

1) If you extend your desktop instead of duplicating, don't you have issues with your mouse "going out of the screen", especially while gaming?

2) Did you have to plug a second screen in the AVR?

3) There is no issues with running 3440x1440 120hz while gaming, even though the AVR is not compatible with the resolution?

1) Nope, never had that issue when in fullscreen mode and this is playing with nearly 100 games + with such a setup (including ones you scroll with mouse like XCOM2, Command and conquer etc). In all the games I have played usually in fullscreen being set to the ultrawide you will snap to that monitor. With that said, Duplicating does work, when I meant not always work I should have specified with it being XCOM 2 for whatever reason and even then only half the time and in other instances I get a screeching sound from the speakers with duplicate now and then which sounds terrifying lol. I expect this is down the the refresh rate being higher on my monitor and AV receiver being forced to match in duplicate.

2) no there is no second screen you have to plug into the AVR. Its just the AVR unit iself. From GPU single cable run into the HDMI In on my AVR. Set said AVR to HDMI mode and job done.

3) No there is no issue. Like yourself my main monitor is 3440 x 1440 @ 100hz with G-Sync (rather then 120hz) and works flawlessly. I have paired it with various other monitors and its not a problem and had a similar setup with Maxwell GPU's.

Literally only issue I get in extend is when taking screenshots on the desktop (not ingame in fulscreen mode) which has my main screen then a small off screen representing the AV receiver like so:

Rvf-Stu · 2 Nov 2018 at 14:08

Apologies if this was answered elsewhere and I have missed it but I was wondering if someone could confirm if the AE-5 outputs the optical and line out at the same time?

Vassilis · 2 Nov 2018 at 17:48

Radox-0 said:
1) Nope, never had that issue when in fullscreen mode and this is playing with nearly 100 games + with such a setup (including ones you scroll with mouse like XCOM2, Command and conquer etc). In all the games I have played usually in fullscreen being set to the ultrawide you will snap to that monitor. With that said, Duplicating does work, when I meant not always work I should have specified with it being XCOM 2 for whatever reason and even then only half the time and in other instances I get a screeching sound from the speakers with duplicate now and then which sounds terrifying lol. I expect this is down the the refresh rate being higher on my monitor and AV receiver being forced to match in duplicate.

2) no there is no second screen you have to plug into the AVR. Its just the AVR unit iself. From GPU single cable run into the HDMI In on my AVR. Set said AVR to HDMI mode and job done.

3) No there is no issue. Like yourself my main monitor is 3440 x 1440 @ 100hz with G-Sync (rather then 120hz) and works flawlessly. I have paired it with various other monitors and its not a problem and had a similar setup with Maxwell GPU's.

Literally only issue I get in extend is when taking screenshots on the desktop (not ingame in fulscreen mode) which has my main screen then a small off screen representing the AV receiver like so:

Thanks

Did you notice any audio input lag or fps drops in games?

Radox-0 · 2 Nov 2018 at 18:00

Vassilis said:
Thanks Did you notice any audio input lag or fps drops in games?

Nope. Audio is perfect and as expected in years I have used this. No FPS drop. Have compared in past system connected and disconnected while doing synthetic tests, namely 3D mark and all that with no change in results.

brakeinup · 4 Nov 2018 at 13:41

Radox-0 said:
Nope. Audio is perfect and as expected in years I have used this. No FPS drop. Have compared in past system connected and disconnected while doing synthetic tests, namely 3D mark and all that with no change in results.

Thanks for confirming no performance loss as I was wondering if I was losing anything with this setup. I have a similar setup - video card to screen via DP (1440p), HDMI to AVR for audio with no second screen (1080P as I believe it has to be this setting to pass DTS HD Master audio and True HD). I use headphones for gaming plugged into the AVR (AKG 712 Pro and Yamaha RX-V373 amp) with a ModMIc 4 + USB soundcard for mic. For music and movies a pair of Wharfdale 220's.

Before I settled for this set I tried various soundcards, including the AE but just found it had too much interference/background noise. I even tried to use the onbard video via the onboard Intel HD4000 & HDMI, but I couldn't get the Intel HD Audio to detect and install.

Vassilis · 4 Nov 2018 at 14:10

Radox-0 said:
Nope. Audio is perfect and as expected in years I have used this. No FPS drop. Have compared in past system connected and disconnected while doing synthetic tests, namely 3D mark and all that with no change in results.

Do you connect your microphone + headphones directly on the integrated sound-card for gaming when you need a mic?

V F · 4 Nov 2018 at 14:30

brakeinup said:
Thanks for confirming no performance loss as I was wondering if I was losing anything with this setup. I have a similar setup - video card to screen via DP (1440p), HDMI to AVR for audio with no second screen (1080P as I believe it has to be this setting to pass DTS HD Master audio and True HD). I use headphones for gaming plugged into the AVR (AKG 712 Pro and Yamaha RX-V373 amp) with a ModMIc 4 + USB soundcard for mic. For music and movies a pair of Wharfdale 220's.

Before I settled for this set I tried various soundcards, including the AE but just found it had too much interference/background noise. I even tried to use the onbard video via the onboard Intel HD4000 & HDMI, but I couldn't get the Intel HD Audio to detect and install.

Strange...

brakeinup · 4 Nov 2018 at 15:15

V F said:
Strange...

It is, but I saved a bit of cash as I already had the amp and speakers so no need to buy a card. Audio is crystal clear and as I don't use any surround 'toys' I have no need for a software package to manage audio.

Radox-0 · 4 Nov 2018 at 17:15

Vassilis said:
Do you connect your microphone + headphones directly on the integrated sound-card for gaming when you need a mic?

No. For headphones I have a dedicated amp and dac which connect to the PC via optical and on rare occasions I do use mic, which has been Probs over a year now I have an extension set up which does plug directly into the pc.

V F · 4 Nov 2018 at 17:40

brakeinup said:
It is, but I saved a bit of cash as I already had the amp and speakers so no need to buy a card. Audio is crystal clear and as I don't use any surround 'toys' I have no need for a software package to manage audio.

Wise. I haven't used virtual settings in a long time. Software though can be finicky.

Rroff · 4 Nov 2018 at 17:48

Output wise I've very low levels of noise, etc. with the AE-5 but mic input is another matter but that seems to be a problem with most if not all PC soundcards.

V F · 4 Nov 2018 at 18:57

I don't think there has been any that spent time on quality components for the microphone.

brakeinup · 4 Nov 2018 at 21:10

V F said:
Wise. I haven't used virtual settings in a long time. Software though can be finicky.

Some people like it and can't do without it. To me it sounds muddy or too much of some sounds and not others, etc. With my current setup the audio is clear, I can pinpoint sound direction, height and distance very accuratley.

Also agree on the mic not having great support on mid to high end cards. Creative mic support is pretty poor (I tried the ZS and the AE, even tried the Omni - all seem to fail in the mic department). USB mic for the win.

R3X · 4 Nov 2018 at 23:48

Got my AE-5 finally.

So far playing around with my AKG K550 headphones (32ohm) I left it on direct HP mode so it bypasses every setting, ohm set to Low 16-31 ohm, any higher it didn't do anything just slight volume increase oddly so left it to 16-31 ohm.

Is this the best setting for movies and music listening ?