The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Owners' Club

Mick-1965 · 1 Mar 2020 at 17:13

clone said:
When im in game I listen to the radio online and every time I shoot the music goes down how can I stop it?
Ive done the don't let blah blah ajust volume thingy.
thanks.

Have you tried turning off "smart vol" in connect

Skynet5 · 4 Mar 2020 at 22:20

Thinking of retiring mine. Just got an aorus x570 master. Sound ain't bad at all.

Annoyingly it doesn't have headphone jacks at the rear.

Tweedilderp · 10 Mar 2020 at 03:07

Anybody having issues with the center/sub flipping randomly if you have windows set to 5.1 while using the AE-5? If I set it to stereo in windows it's fine and I can get surround via the acoustic engine but I would like pure sound while gaming not post-processed....

This is on a 3900X with an X570 Aorus Xtreme.

b00merang69 · 10 Mar 2020 at 03:17

Seem to remember that issue on Creative forum (AFAIR if it was still open then) for this card or possibly previous cards.

I have a ZxR but never happened AFAIAA.

clone · 13 Mar 2020 at 08:58

Mick-1965 said:
Have you tried turning off "smart vol" in connect

Yeh got it sorted was a pain but all working great now.
Thanks

Skynet5 · 14 Mar 2020 at 21:47

lnoton said:
Thinking of retiring mine. Just got an aorus x570 master. Sound ain't bad at all.

Annoyingly it doesn't have headphone jacks at the rear.

I'm staying. Plus this is the longest thread I've ever created. Lol.

X570 master is very good. But just listening to some hi def on YouTube and you can tell the difference.

Plus positional audio in games is better.

Stu · 31 Mar 2020 at 14:16

Onboard sound is better than it has ever been, but I don't think any are superior to the newer SB products, like the AE-5.

Rroff · 31 Mar 2020 at 14:20

Stu said:
Onboard sound is better than it has ever been, but I don't think any are superior to the newer SB products, like the AE-5.

Problem I find is that in most cases onboard audio is the last thing they think about so even when a good sound processor is used you often find that somewhere in the circuit for the sound side there are traces that are less than ideally positioned relative to sources of switching noise or other interference, etc. and/or some cheapest possible general purpose electronic parts used in or close to the signal path, even when most of the implementation uses decent parts, which do result in an impact on the sound however subjective it might or might not be (though no guarantee a soundcard is free of that).

BraveHeart95 · 2 Apr 2020 at 15:37

hello
i have this amazing card for more than year and a half now and it is been really good
i bought dt 1990 pro couple of days ago and have been running it through the headset input and direct mode which would basically turn off all filters and pretty much make the sound card work as a DAC AFAIK
is this the best or i would need to by a DAC or something like that

Rroff · 2 Apr 2020 at 15:42

BraveHeart95 said:
hello
i have this amazing card for more than year and a half now and it is been really good
i bought dt 1990 pro couple of days ago and have been running it through the headset input and direct mode which would basically turn off all filters and pretty much make the sound card work as a DAC AFAIK
is this the best or i would need to by a DAC or something like that

You would have to buy a very expensive DAC to do better than the AE-5 in direct mode (subjective taste in audio aside). The only thing is in direct mode it does limit how many applications, etc. can access the hardware so if you are using multiple sources of audio you might find some aren't audible in the headphones in direct mode.

C64 · 17 Jul 2020 at 19:25

Just got the ae5 plus can confirm it's fantastic only thing im missing is volume pot on my schiit magni
have to adjust sound in games now if its too low or loud, no biggy though as i'll swap to a keyboard with volume control buttons

directional audio is much better than dolby headphone on my dx, it's actually crazy how good the directional audio is on these

No idea what dts and dolby ecodings for though presuming just for when you connect something dts ?

C64 · 10 Sep 2020 at 14:17

There s a cold boot issue on these latest drivers, sometimes when i boot up it's like the soundcards not plugged in the only thing that solves it is reseating the card in the slot
I know its the driver because its only happened on these newish updated firmware and drivers, doesn't happen all the time

V F · 11 Sep 2020 at 18:17

C64 said:
There s a cold boot issue on these latest drivers, sometimes when i boot up it's like the soundcards not plugged in the only thing that solves it is reseating the card in the slot
I know its the driver because its only happened on these newish updated firmware and drivers, doesn't happen all the time

Hmm, there is a firmware update for this card?

OZONE · 11 Sep 2020 at 19:25

Is there an actual discernable difference between onboard audio and a dedicated sound card, particularly if you use wireless headphones?

C64 · 13 Sep 2020 at 08:29

V F said:
Hmm, there is a firmware update for this card?

driver sorry you have to update it in the settings on the software

V F · 13 Sep 2020 at 16:55

I thought that. I was confused at first because I was never aware any sound card ever received firmware updates.

Ploppy2k3 · 13 Sep 2020 at 21:11

OZONE said:
Is there an actual discernable difference between onboard audio and a dedicated sound card, particularly if you use wireless headphones?

cant answer the wireless headset bit but I have used onboard audio since 1996 when they introduced the ATX format as it was convenient. I was tempted for ages to upgrade as I always had SB16, AWE32, AWE64 etc but only upgraded this year to the AE-5 plus and WOW WTF was I thinking all these years. Chalk and cheese is a ruddy understatement.

I suppose if you are using an expensive wireless set then it will be pointless but I use my Sennheiser's on the cable now so I can better shape the sound and also with 5.1 encoding the audio quality for video and audio is just soooo much better than with onboard. Kinda makes you wonder why one of the OEM's like ASUS or MSI dont add the Creative chip on to the board especially on there Uber priced boards, it would be a killer feature.

Rroff · 13 Sep 2020 at 21:18

OZONE said:
Is there an actual discernable difference between onboard audio and a dedicated sound card, particularly if you use wireless headphones?

Depends how the wireless works.

The AE-5 in direct mode has a punch and quality I've not heard from any onboard solution yet - it is even noticeably better than the AE-5 in normal modes (in direct mode only 1 or a limited number of applications can access the audio device so it isn't great for 24x7 use - but great for music use on its own).

OZONE · 14 Sep 2020 at 01:34

Rroff said:
Depends how the wireless works.

The AE-5 in direct mode has a punch and quality I've not heard from any onboard solution yet - it is even noticeably better than the AE-5 in normal modes (in direct mode only 1 or a limited number of applications can access the audio device so it isn't great for 24x7 use - but great for music use on its own).

I have the Logitech Pro X Wireless. Uses Lightspeed USB. No idea how it works though.

Rroff · 14 Sep 2020 at 01:36

OZONE said:
I have the Logitech Pro X Wireless. Uses Lightspeed USB. No idea how it works though.

I don't know off the top of my head whether they use their own DAC or the soundcard.