As someone who has always had a PCI sound card, you just cant beat the audio quality and the features the program offers. Every build I say "this time I will just use on-board sound" and every time, it just does not compare to a dedicated card.
man I love mine so much, it really made my Corsair Virtuosos come alive! I was hesitant about it at first because my motherboard is pretty high end and has "really good" on board audio but its really a non comparison the AE-5 Plus is able to drive my headphones MUCH louder and they are more crisp as well. I am happy with my sound blaster for sure.
Just got one as well. It exceeded my expectations and I'm really pleased. Using it with a pair of Sennheiser HD(HUH-DUH😁)660S headphones. It really makes them sing, and brings out dynamics and detail my on-board audio doesn't come close to.
I'm so glad to know this, since I was concerned about the ugly cable. Mine just came in today, but it's going in a future build once the other parts are launched.
Question, do you have to plug everything straight into the card to work ? I have a usb mic and there’s no USB port on the card, so does that mean it won’t work with that?
You do NOT need the Molex connected for the on card RGB,the on card RGB is powered by the PCI-E slot,the Molex is only used if you want to use the RGB strips that came with the card.
after hearing this review, you made me decide on buying over my stock sound, as my soundblaster z is cracking and popping now and compatibility with windows 10 is useless. Cheers from Australia Mate!
after seeing your review, i definitely want to get one now! im a huge car audio person and itd be nice to have a nice sounding audio for in home as well.
You know, the same thing happened as my onboard sound which is the latest Reealtek ALC4080 from my Z690 motherboard claimed 5.1 but never gave me proper 5.1 until I used this card. The sound is just exceptional now.
I am REALLY hoping this will be windows compatible. i tried the AE5 and it worked fine on my 9 year old computer running Windows 10 but not on my new one. So ordering this one and we will see.
Sound cards made building computers fun. Main board sound improvements, GPU size and heat increasing lead to shrinking sound card market. Went to Burson Play external dac/amp in 2019. I used sound cards from creative and asus since 1998. I had this sound card and it was awesome, sold it for the AE-9, returned ae-9 for the burson
same here. tho i have to say: the way the ae5 processes audio is the best that ive ever heard, iam in love with the way it sounds without eqs or anything, but iam having hardware problems with the card and thus iam looking for a replacement but iam looking for something, that sounds like the ae5 and theres no answer out there, which device does
I have this card and didn't need the anything plugged in to the molex or the RGB-port to controll the RGB. I just set it to internal in the software and it's workng, no probs.
Mine is just arrived today and I need some guidelines in installing it since assembling PC is what I've never done, and you show me what I need to do, thanks man
@@RAVisuals I also found a bug where the speaker channel swap itself after use for some time when installed the card (I use 5.1), turns out it was a bug with MSI mainboard to AE series soundcard, it can be fixed by either update the mainboard driver and/or update the bios
@@LawAbidingSociopath69 MSI A320M A-Pro // no AE-5 don't make weird noise to me just swap its side if I use 5.1, if I use plain stereo it's fine (I now change my card to Asus Strix Raid Pro and now I can use 7.1 again)
Great review! Just curious what cable works. Did you use a SATA 15 Pin Male to Molex LP4 Female Power Cable? It looks like the molex pins on the sound card are male.
@@RAVisuals yeah got the card it's awesome and increased the level of sound and makes it the next level of my headphone and Sony speakers :) thanks bro :)
Owner of z906 and just bought this card.. I have seen quite a difference vs on board msi’s x470 gaming plus max. More clarity and better quality. Till now I have noticed some kind of bugs. While playing odyssey, randomly the sound changes direction. Surround left becomes the center speaker, etc. And some times I hear a clicking noise directly from the card. These might be bugs but I will have to see in time. Cause the first problem happened only during playing this specific game. The clicking noise happens generally...
@@RAVisuals This happens only with the analog output and the decoder on either dts or DD, without using spdif....maybe some bug...when I use the analog, and have encoder off, everything works fine..
Two questions...will this work with amplified PC speakers(Logitech Z625).These speakers even have the optical input.Also,would i have to disable the onboard Realtek audio in the BIOS?
This is installed just like the elgato 4k60 pro right? I DONT have to connect the audio panel cable if i want to use the card, right? Audio cable is just so i can switch the pc case audio connectors to the ones the card offers, right?
This soundcard & Razer Tiamat 7.1 v2 = game changer. Imagine being an amazing audio producer for gaming or movies and mastering surround sound for individual speakers and then finding out all these nimrods out there are praising stereo headphones and virtual surround What a bunch of fucking tools.
@@RAVisualsseems many like myself are getting card that will not show the soundblaster x logo blue. It shows as more of a white. The rest like the side logo and lines on front are blue but that back logo is not 😓
I installed a RTX 4090 GPU card and that is thick and i se the slot for the soundcard is very close the RTX card so if i install this Sounblaster card can it almost block the fan's air supply on the GPU? it wil be maybe 2-3 cm up to the fan's any idea if that is any good?
Amazing video man!! I bought a new motherboard for my I9 CPU, (Gigabyte Z590 Ultra), The Realtek sound just SUCKS!! I can't hear many parts of sound (such as talking and many more things). If it's not enough I'm getting static sound all of the time! Will this Soundcard solve the problem? I'm not a gamer and I'm using speakers. Thanks!
this soundcard and the headphones I have makes audio sound pretty freaking awesome. Its not like super crazy audiophile level, but its damn good for the price
@@RAVisuals I got it, (It was hell to install that, I'm very disappointed form the quality, I'm using it for my speakers (5.1). It's not sound very rich..
my question is that if i install this card, do i have to plug in the speakers or headphones directly to it or can i still use Bluetooth headphones like my Airpods pro's and have the software or something know to direct the sound possessing through Bluetooth ?
I have the original AE-5 and I absolutely love it. I had a SBZ before that and it was TRASH in comparison. The headphone AMP makes 10000% difference, even on low end headphones. I drive a pair of HD6xx's with it and it sounds wonderful. Not sure I need the extra capabilities of the PLUS model though. This card is a galaxy away from most any MB audio solution.
Hello guys. i'd need a quick response. i'm about to buy an external dac for my Genius SW-HF5.1 6000 5.1 system,which is mediocre but not the worst. so do i benefit from this Creative Sound Blaster AE-5 PLUS or a Creative sound blaster Z is enough? which one you suggest? thank you
I want to get this soundcard so bad, but im deciding if i want to spend the extra $50 just got gaming. I am between Soundblaster Z and Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus. Strictly just for gaming.
The Z is the older one, from 2012. you will get better drivers and support in windows 10 with the AE-5. They both have high quality audio BUT soundblaster has a history of abandoning their old cards to launch "new and improved" products with the next generation of windows. I have several older marks, a audigy 2, and its sound was great. they just didn't support it when windows 7 rolled out.
Hehe I just bought a pair for Beyerdynamics DT-770 Pro 80 Ohms and a Blue Yeti X + Blue Compass and shockmount and now need this card to get a proper volume out of my headphones........... for gaming! ;D
The AE5 & AE5 plus are better, spend that extra $50, better sound and driver support, if your X-Fi is still working though, don't rush to get rid of it......... ;)
I love how this card sounds, have the AE5 since 2018.. but for a year now, it started to have problems.. it disconnects.. like: plug in a usb device like an HDD and sounds gone, the card is dead, no more audio device found.. same happens, when my pc goes into standby or sleep, after waking up, the card is gone. opening the creative up, makes the app crash when the card is gone. only way to fix this, is to reboot the computer, then the card is back and works fine. and it doesnt happen every time. sometimes, i can go for 2 weeks with usb devices and standby and nothing happens, other times, it happens 5x a day. its annoying so annoying that i would switch to an external card, due die space problems after installing a vertical gpu mount (thus i had to move the Ae5 to the back of the case with a pcie 1x riser cable) but i dont know which external audio device to get, that has the same audio "profile" as the AE5
For now i'm just using the card with a Logitech Z906. I know also that the sound card is really amazing with headset, but it is for every headset or just some that have really high quality ? I mean I have an old JVC HA-SZ2000 from 2014. The sound of this headset still rocks, but I didn't really hear any improvement with other jack output (like my phone or the others one of my computer)
Hi Mistyshade, I also have the Logitech Z906 5.1 speakersystem. I connected them to the Xonar AE soundcard, but I couldn't get 5.1/surroundsound to work properly. So I am going to returning this soundcard. I am looking to buy the BlasterX plus. How does this soundcard work for you? Did you connect the speakers using the 3 jack-cables (black, green, orange), or with the SPDIF optical cable? Do you need dolby/DTS to be able to use 5.1 surround? Does it work in movies/games?
@@hisgen01 you need SPDIF for DTS and DOLBY. I wanna buy AE5 plus but I'm not sure if it is worth buying this card for my z906 Logitech? Because they are currently connected to the z390 Gigabyte Aourus Realtek 1220VB
@@Patryk9933 Hi Patryk, I'm affraid I can't tell you that. I have the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max with ALC892 codec. In my case the difference between onboard sound and the Soundblaster AE-5 plus is very big in my opinion. I am using this soundcard for a couple of months now and I am still very happy with it. The 5.1 works flawless with both SPDIF and 3x jack cables (green, pink, black). The software is nice, but updates for the software are a bit of a nightmare. I often needed to completely remove software and drivers and re-install everything in order for everything to work great again. Other than that, great product in my opinion
So when the voice clarity is turned off, AEC is greyed out. Does the mic pick up game audio or system sounds when it's turned off? The realtek chip on the x99 gaming godlike its pure garbage. I can't install new realtek drivers so I'm using a driver from like 2010. The only one that I can turn on AEC. When I try to use a software like Soundpad it installs its own driver and AEC it's turning off automatically. That causes to mic pick up game and system audio etc. So if I get this soundcard, would my problems solved?
...but the old AE-5 also has a digital output on the back? So what is the actual difference? How does a PC know which is which? I just bought a used 'AE-5 Plus'(apparently) but I'm not seeing the 'Plus' bit anywhere - neither in the Command software nor in Device Manager. Does anyone know how to verify which version you have, when you only have the card to go by?
should show in device manager as AE-5 Plus, you might of installed the wrong driver, go to the creative site and download the correct package off the AE-5 PLUS page, lmk if that corrects things.
im not a sound guy and i just bought this card hoping to get my 5.1 surround system to work properly, but i can't even get any sound out of my back speakers or sub when testing. they do work fine when watching youtube/gaming etc.. no idea of what i should do
Great video man! I recently purchased them myself, but for some reason I cannot get the RGB strip to work. I have the cable plugged in from card to psu, I have the application downloaded, nothing seems to trigger the strip though. RGB on card is working great though
@@leeb79 Wrong, the molex is for external RGBs. The LEDs on the card will work without any cables connected. I have this card, no molex or external RGB-strips plugged in and it's working fine.
Hey I am a bit confused. Does the card need that molex connector to power the card or is it for that RGB only. Can I just install the card in the pcie slot and run the card without installing the molex connector? Will it run? I don't need rgb. And if I connect my front panel audio connector to the card, will I get the same quality on the front panel as connecting my headphones directly to the jacks on the card?
The front audio isn't shielded so it's more sensitive to static noise. But if you're not an audiophile you'll probably not notice the difference. You still need to plugin your headphones to the headphone jack on the back of the i/o. The molex port is for driving the RGB, but for some reason I didn't need it connected. It's working without any cable connected at all. When I plugged it in it immediately turned red like the rest of the RGBs in my PC. I then installed the software and set the RGB controller to internal and after that I could change the colors, etc. So I have no idea if the molex is really need at all. Maybe I have magic fingers.
The molex is for the external RGB strip that is sent with the Sound Card. I use it cause I don't have much RGB in my case right now. You can still change the RGB that is physically on the Sound card with the software without the Molex strip plugged in. Just installed it today, I love it so far!!!
Mine and several others on Reddit, the sound card is not detected on windows after putting the pc to sleep. The light turns static red on the logo and it’s not detected by windows until pc is restarted very frustrating.
Ive been using an asus dgx on my maximus apex for the past 5 years i just upgraded to a Asus crosshair viii hero and didnt reinstall my card thinking the on board would be enough it is so bad i hate it so now im looking into updating my sound card to maybe this ae5-plus or the asus xonar ae
Not supported? It's a pci-e x1 slot-in card, all motherboards and chipsets should support anything! Must been some specific conflict you was unlucky to have. Did You try and move it around to different slots? Check if you got adress conflicts or if the slot u tried shared lanes with hte GPU?
EVGA actually does the same upgrade program. They call it the "step-up" program. I have the original version of this powering my Sennheisser PC37X. It's amazing!
I would actually want the EVGA Nu Pro over this Creative card, but the price is insane since you can't buy the version without the dedicated 7.1 card combo here in EU. So Creative it is for me.
Ah, so that's why it's working without any cables connected. I was surprised the RGB turned on without the molex plugged in. I got it today and the audio is insanely clean :-D
I bought the card new and installed it, but the SB command, I downloaded it ( twice & restarted twice ), but it won't work. it says it's missing command.exe. Any clues people?
Great card, dynamic, clear and powerful sound, unfortunately with the new software Sound Blaster Command the equalizer has been limited to only 12dB on both the AE-5, AE-7 and AE-9, early versions of the AE-5 software allowed EQs up to 24dB. Because of this my Sound Blaster Z whose software allows equalizing up to 24dB still sounds better than my AE-7 on my new Sennhaiser 560s, Sad .... Please Creative give us back the 24dB EQ, let full power flow.
As someone who has always had a PCI sound card, you just cant beat the audio quality and the features the program offers. Every build I say "this time I will just use on-board sound" and every time, it just does not compare to a dedicated card.
True story my man!
10/10 A +
10/10 A +
You're better off just using Nvidia's HDMI audio connected to an AVR. Sound cards are done.
I just bought this jewel, and I confirm the amp is insane!
man I love mine so much, it really made my Corsair Virtuosos come alive! I was hesitant about it at first because my motherboard is pretty high end and has "really good" on board audio but its really a non comparison the AE-5 Plus is able to drive my headphones MUCH louder and they are more crisp as well. I am happy with my sound blaster for sure.
Great to hear! I feel the same way
Just got one as well. It exceeded my expectations and I'm really pleased. Using it with a pair of Sennheiser HD(HUH-DUH😁)660S headphones. It really makes them sing, and brings out dynamics and detail my on-board audio doesn't come close to.
Great card with lots is features. The onboard rgb actually works without the molex, it’s only necessary if you want to use the led strip.
it definitely is!!
I'm so glad to know this, since I was concerned about the ugly cable. Mine just came in today, but it's going in a future build once the other parts are launched.
@@RAVisuals what definitely is? the card having lots of features, or the card needing molex???
how can it work without hte molex?
So you can use the card without cables?
this card is simply AMAZING with Edifier 1850 II
Such good review. And congratulations on 8k m8 love your videos(you should probably clean your exhaust fan in your pc) HUGE LIKE from me 👍
haha thank you so much! Yah I cleaned it earlier this year but it already looks like it may need another cleaning!
@@RAVisuals I'm getting a new pc in a couple days and I'm definitely going to get one of those
This sound card is life changing!!
Question, do you have to plug everything straight into the card to work ? I have a usb mic and there’s no USB port on the card, so does that mean it won’t work with that?
You do NOT need the Molex connected for the on card RGB,the on card RGB is powered by the PCI-E slot,the Molex is only used if you want to use the RGB strips that came with the card.
Correct!
Thank for info
after hearing this review, you made me decide on buying over my stock sound, as my soundblaster z is cracking and popping now and compatibility with windows 10 is useless. Cheers from Australia Mate!
Is it worth buying a sound card ? if I have FiiO FD 3 headphones.
after seeing your review, i definitely want to get one now! im a huge car audio person and itd be nice to have a nice sounding audio for in home as well.
It’s a game changer! Literally! Haha
Just bought this and it is amazing! Also fixed my 5.1 problems.
You know, the same thing happened as my onboard sound which is the latest Reealtek ALC4080 from my Z690 motherboard claimed 5.1 but never gave me proper 5.1 until I used this card. The sound is just exceptional now.
im also use this because of MY ON BOARD HISSING PROBLEM ALC4080
I have the logitech z906 5.1 and it seems like since it has dolby live or dts I think it'll activate the decode on the speakers to give out proper 5.1
CONGRATS ON 8K MAN UR CHANNEL IS GROWING FAST
Thanks dude! Appreciate the love!
Recently discovered the channel. Great content so far. Good luck and godspeed!
Great to have you around!
I am REALLY hoping this will be windows compatible. i tried the AE5 and it worked fine on my 9 year old computer running Windows 10 but not on my new one. So ordering this one and we will see.
Sound cards made building computers fun. Main board sound improvements, GPU size and heat increasing lead to shrinking sound card market. Went to Burson Play external dac/amp in 2019. I used sound cards from creative and asus since 1998. I had this sound card and it was awesome, sold it for the AE-9, returned ae-9 for the burson
same here. tho i have to say: the way the ae5 processes audio is the best that ive ever heard, iam in love with the way it sounds without eqs or anything, but iam having hardware problems with the card and thus iam looking for a replacement but iam looking for something, that sounds like the ae5 and theres no answer out there, which device does
I have this card and didn't need the anything plugged in to the molex or the RGB-port to controll the RGB. I just set it to internal in the software and it's workng, no probs.
Mine is just arrived today and I need some guidelines in installing it since assembling PC is what I've never done, and you show me what I need to do, thanks man
Glad I could help!
@@RAVisuals I also found a bug where the speaker channel swap itself after use for some time when installed the card (I use 5.1), turns out it was a bug with MSI mainboard to AE series soundcard, it can be fixed by either update the mainboard driver and/or update the bios
@@ahha6304 what mobo are u using also does this sound card don't make alot of annoying noise?
@@LawAbidingSociopath69 MSI A320M A-Pro // no AE-5 don't make weird noise to me just swap its side if I use 5.1, if I use plain stereo it's fine (I now change my card to Asus Strix Raid Pro and now I can use 7.1 again)
@@ahha6304 are sound cards worth it they cost like 150$ to me
Great review! Just curious what cable works. Did you use a SATA 15 Pin Male to Molex LP4 Female Power Cable? It looks like the molex pins on the sound card are male.
Yes and yes! It provides lighting as well
@@RAVisuals Sweet thank you for the response!! Subbed!
Is it pointless to have this card if i use wireless bluetooth headphones?
Can you use it without the cables attached? I dont need the rgb strip.
just ordered it from amazon
hope this will boost the sound and clarity with my V-Moda M-100 Master headphone
oh, it will!
@@RAVisuals yeah got the card it's awesome
and increased the level of sound and makes it the next level of my headphone and Sony speakers :)
thanks bro :)
Are the molex cables available on Amazon? Where on the mother board do these cables connect?
Which speakers would you recommend with this?
If I have a 2 pc setup, should I have this in the gaming rig of the streaming rig? I'm using the wave xlr on the streaming rig.
if you want to use this then youll need to have it in your gaming PC
Nice informative review! Can you plug other brands of RGB strips?
as long as they have the same connection I dont see why not! You may just not be able to control them in the app
Owner of z906 and just bought this card.. I have seen quite a difference vs on board msi’s x470 gaming plus max. More clarity and better quality. Till now I have noticed some kind of bugs. While playing odyssey, randomly the sound changes direction. Surround left becomes the center speaker, etc. And some times I hear a clicking noise directly from the card. These might be bugs but I will have to see in time. Cause the first problem happened only during playing this specific game. The clicking noise happens generally...
Oh wow! never had any problems like that (I haven't tried odyssey with this card) but thank you for letting us know!
@@RAVisuals This happens only with the analog output and the decoder on either dts or DD, without using spdif....maybe some bug...when I use the analog, and have encoder off, everything works fine..
What A cool intro bro! Wish I had one like that hahaha subscribed!
Adel thanks very much! Welcome to the channel!
would this help with a wireless headset or do you need the jack?
You have to plug into it!
Just bought this card for youtube and tarkov along with some dt 770's. Hope its awesome!
Two questions...will this work with amplified PC speakers(Logitech Z625).These speakers even have the optical input.Also,would i have to disable the onboard Realtek audio in the BIOS?
this does work with speakers!
YES you have to disable usb audio on bios beacause it will auto update driver by windows
oh! Volume set to 20 is normal. lol. I thought something was wrong with mines.
Cool vid, but you completely left out how you would route your inputs and outputs. You also didn't include all this in your dual pc vid either.
This is installed just like the elgato 4k60 pro right? I DONT have to connect the audio panel cable if i want to use the card, right? Audio cable is just so i can switch the pc case audio connectors to the ones the card offers, right?
This soundcard & Razer Tiamat 7.1 v2 = game changer.
Imagine being an amazing audio producer for gaming or movies and mastering surround sound for individual speakers and then finding out all these nimrods out there are praising stereo headphones and virtual surround What a bunch of fucking tools.
this thing makes my game audio sound so much better! I cant wait to have my main rig up and running with it again.
I'm using SB Recon3D Fatal1ty Champion with Logitech Z906 5.1 via optical
Do you recommend it or should I go for AE-7???
depends on your needs! are you happy with your sound?
Which version of software is this? Mine doesn't have LED control!!!!
does you cards back logo show solid blue if set to blue? Seems to be some confusion around regarding this card and the onboard RGB
mine seems to set at whatever I set it to. The colors might not be 100% perfect but are pretty dang close!
@@RAVisualsseems many like myself are getting card that will not show the soundblaster x logo blue. It shows as more of a white. The rest like the side logo and lines on front are blue but that back logo is not 😓
well. you dont have to connect molex, to have the RGB onboard working ... it's only for the external rgb stripe
I installed a RTX 4090 GPU card and that is thick and i se the slot for the soundcard is very close the RTX card so if i install this Sounblaster card can it almost block the fan's air supply on the GPU? it wil be maybe 2-3 cm up to the fan's any idea if that is any good?
Amazing video man!!
I bought a new motherboard for my I9 CPU, (Gigabyte Z590 Ultra),
The Realtek sound just SUCKS!! I can't hear many parts of sound (such as talking and many more things).
If it's not enough I'm getting static sound all of the time!
Will this Soundcard solve the problem?
I'm not a gamer and I'm using speakers.
Thanks!
this soundcard and the headphones I have makes audio sound pretty freaking awesome. Its not like super crazy audiophile level, but its damn good for the price
@@RAVisuals Thanks! I'm about to get it.
@@RAVisuals I got it, (It was hell to install that, I'm very disappointed form the quality, I'm using it for my speakers (5.1).
It's not sound very rich..
@@Dmwntkp99 True, I found that this sound card isn't that good as well...
@@anthonyhershko why ?
Just got this today, I had the old one a while back and sold it.
my question is that if i install this card, do i have to plug in the speakers or headphones directly to it or can i still use Bluetooth headphones like my Airpods pro's and have the software or something know to direct the sound possessing through Bluetooth ?
Will this work with my bose speakers that already had an external amp?
Im sure it will! It has the inputs for that!
do sound cards matter even if you use a wireless headset ? (steelseries arctis 1 wireless in my case)
Cards like this wouldn’t matter. This requires and analog connection
AE-5 BASIC, in 90 DAZE, AND FROM THEM. Covers about 19 peeps.! GRR a HOLLOW GESTURE.!
The connection on the side is only for LED? dont need this?
My software doesn't have the lighting control option. WTF? Which software has the LED control?
I love this video so much ❤
Love the Keyboard! What brand and model is it? Link? THANKS!
I am using Asus Xonar Dx 7.1 , and itsupports 116 db Snr. Is this card significantly better in sound clarity? I am not interested in RGB, just music.
not sure! Ive never tried the asus card
I have the original AE-5 and I absolutely love it. I had a SBZ before that and it was TRASH in comparison. The headphone AMP makes 10000% difference, even on low end headphones. I drive a pair of HD6xx's with it and it sounds wonderful. Not sure I need the extra capabilities of the PLUS model though.
This card is a galaxy away from most any MB audio solution.
I have the old ZxR. Will it make a difference getting this?
Nope, not much
Hello guys. i'd need a quick response. i'm about to buy an external dac for my Genius SW-HF5.1 6000 5.1 system,which is mediocre but not the worst. so do i benefit from this Creative Sound Blaster AE-5 PLUS or a Creative sound blaster Z is enough? which one you suggest? thank you
This sound card already has a DAC built in so im not sure if youd benefit from this very much
I want to get this soundcard so bad, but im deciding if i want to spend the extra $50 just got gaming. I am between Soundblaster Z and Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus. Strictly just for gaming.
i love the ae-5 plus. Looks really cool and the sound is sooo damn good.
The Z is the older one, from 2012. you will get better drivers and support in windows 10 with the AE-5. They both have high quality audio BUT soundblaster has a history of abandoning their old cards to launch "new and improved" products with the next generation of windows. I have several older marks, a audigy 2, and its sound was great. they just didn't support it when windows 7 rolled out.
Hehe I just bought a pair for Beyerdynamics DT-770 Pro 80 Ohms and a Blue Yeti X + Blue Compass and shockmount and now need this card to get a proper volume out of my headphones........... for gaming! ;D
The AE5 & AE5 plus are better, spend that extra $50, better sound and driver support, if your X-Fi is still working though, don't rush to get rid of it......... ;)
I love how this card sounds, have the AE5 since 2018.. but for a year now, it started to have problems.. it disconnects.. like: plug in a usb device like an HDD and sounds gone, the card is dead, no more audio device found.. same happens, when my pc goes into standby or sleep, after waking up, the card is gone. opening the creative up, makes the app crash when the card is gone. only way to fix this, is to reboot the computer, then the card is back and works fine. and it doesnt happen every time. sometimes, i can go for 2 weeks with usb devices and standby and nothing happens, other times, it happens 5x a day. its annoying so annoying that i would switch to an external card, due die space problems after installing a vertical gpu mount (thus i had to move the Ae5 to the back of the case with a pcie 1x riser cable) but i dont know which external audio device to get, that has the same audio "profile" as the AE5
Do the cards work in the longer pci-e x16 slots or do they have to be those compact ones. My GB b650 aorus elite only has a couple of spare long ones.
they do work in large pcie slots but you would need to set in the bios the pci gen to gen 3 for this card to work the best.
For now i'm just using the card with a Logitech Z906.
I know also that the sound card is really amazing with headset, but it is for every headset or just some that have really high quality ?
I mean I have an old JVC HA-SZ2000 from 2014. The sound of this headset still rocks, but I didn't really hear any improvement with other jack output (like my phone or the others one of my computer)
Hi Mistyshade, I also have the Logitech Z906 5.1 speakersystem. I connected them to the Xonar AE soundcard, but I couldn't get 5.1/surroundsound to work properly. So I am going to returning this soundcard. I am looking to buy the BlasterX plus. How does this soundcard work for you? Did you connect the speakers using the 3 jack-cables (black, green, orange), or with the SPDIF optical cable? Do you need dolby/DTS to be able to use 5.1 surround? Does it work in movies/games?
@@hisgen01 you need SPDIF for DTS and DOLBY. I wanna buy AE5 plus but I'm not sure if it is worth buying this card for my z906 Logitech? Because they are currently connected to the z390 Gigabyte Aourus Realtek 1220VB
Mistyshade
How do the Z906 on this sound card compare to the mobo?
@@Patryk9933 Hi Patryk, I'm affraid I can't tell you that. I have the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max with ALC892 codec. In my case the difference between onboard sound and the Soundblaster AE-5 plus is very big in my opinion. I am using this soundcard for a couple of months now and I am still very happy with it. The 5.1 works flawless with both SPDIF and 3x jack cables (green, pink, black). The software is nice, but updates for the software are a bit of a nightmare. I often needed to completely remove software and drivers and re-install everything in order for everything to work great again. Other than that, great product in my opinion
Can I easily switch between speakers and earphones by using hotkey?
Trying to decide between the AE-plus or the external Zen Dac? Any suggestions ?
I would be using this to run my sound studio.
I'm listening to this vid using that card. Sounds awesome with Skullcrusher headphones. Excellent clarity.
It does! Its staying in my rig for sure!
i use a soundblaster play 3. how much of a upgrade from that is this? i also run it through my stereo.
this is some of their brand new tech so it might be an upgrade for you!
So when the voice clarity is turned off, AEC is greyed out. Does the mic pick up game audio or system sounds when it's turned off? The realtek chip on the x99 gaming godlike its pure garbage. I can't install new realtek drivers so I'm using a driver from like 2010. The only one that I can turn on AEC. When I try to use a software like Soundpad it installs its own driver and AEC it's turning off automatically. That causes to mic pick up game and system audio etc. So if I get this soundcard, would my problems solved?
sounds like a commercial rather than a review
I guess I’ll take that as a compliment 🙌🏼
Great Video, can you please make an update to this video using the Optical out, say to a sound blaster Katana sound bar? Thanks.
Coming soon!
@@RAVisuals So.... how about that Optical Out surround sound review? You must be still working on that.
Can it use any PCI-e slot or does it have to be 2X or 3X???
most pcie products these days need at least a 2X slot if I'm not mistaken
Where is the joystick port? How are you able to do MIDI without the joystick port?
Here because im thinking about getting one and I've never owned a soundcard before
I still use it! The thing makes videos and music sound great!
...but the old AE-5 also has a digital output on the back? So what is the actual difference? How does a PC know which is which? I just bought a used 'AE-5 Plus'(apparently) but I'm not seeing the 'Plus' bit anywhere - neither in the Command software nor in Device Manager.
Does anyone know how to verify which version you have, when you only have the card to go by?
should show in device manager as AE-5 Plus, you might of installed the wrong driver, go to the creative site and download the correct package off the AE-5 PLUS page, lmk if that corrects things.
im not a sound guy and i just bought this card hoping to get my 5.1 surround system to work properly, but i can't even get any sound out of my back speakers or sub when testing. they do work fine when watching youtube/gaming etc.. no idea of what i should do
It is intended to be used with external speakers so I'm not really sure what might be going on.
@@RAVisuals nvm, i got it working finally. i had the wrong setting on my speakers. now it's working as intended.
@@Level-ts7xl was it worth the buy?
Bought one yesterday after your review.. Paired with Edifier r2000db and Hifiman Sundara
Out of the world
Love this!
...it needs an additional cable???
well, where do i find that?!
can i use my soundbar with 5.1 surround through optical with this ? :D
Great video man! I recently purchased them myself, but for some reason I cannot get the RGB strip to work. I have the cable plugged in from card to psu, I have the application downloaded, nothing seems to trigger the strip though. RGB on card is working great though
Hold up, so the Molex is for the RGB only? So if we dont want the RGB, we can leave it unplugged?
Correct
@@leeb79 Wrong, the molex is for external RGBs. The LEDs on the card will work without any cables connected. I have this card, no molex or external RGB-strips plugged in and it's working fine.
Hey I'm looking for a soundcard for listening to lofi hiphop or chill late night vibes. How is this card for playing FPS games and listening to music?
THX
Hey I am a bit confused. Does the card need that molex connector to power the card or is it for that RGB only. Can I just install the card in the pcie slot and run the card without installing the molex connector? Will it run? I don't need rgb. And if I connect my front panel audio connector to the card, will I get the same quality on the front panel as connecting my headphones directly to the jacks on the card?
The front audio isn't shielded so it's more sensitive to static noise. But if you're not an audiophile you'll probably not notice the difference. You still need to plugin your headphones to the headphone jack on the back of the i/o. The molex port is for driving the RGB, but for some reason I didn't need it connected. It's working without any cable connected at all. When I plugged it in it immediately turned red like the rest of the RGBs in my PC. I then installed the software and set the RGB controller to internal and after that I could change the colors, etc. So I have no idea if the molex is really need at all. Maybe I have magic fingers.
@@NedransVikingar thank you
The molex is for the external RGB strip that is sent with the Sound Card. I use it cause I don't have much RGB in my case right now. You can still change the RGB that is physically on the Sound card with the software without the Molex strip plugged in. Just installed it today, I love it so far!!!
Mine and several others on Reddit, the sound card is not detected on windows after putting the pc to sleep. The light turns static red on the logo and it’s not detected by windows until pc is restarted very frustrating.
Ive been using an asus dgx on my maximus apex for the past 5 years i just upgraded to a Asus crosshair viii hero and didnt reinstall my card thinking the on board would be enough it is so bad i hate it so now im looking into updating my sound card to maybe this ae5-plus or the asus xonar ae
I have From my soundbar one oni one green and one black cable but there no color to in . Csn you help me pls ?
Hi, where i can get that nissan skyline wallpaper ?
Bought AE-9 late last year but it didn't supported for X570 then so I had to returned it
Not sure about the AE-9 but this card definitely supports it!
Not supported? It's a pci-e x1 slot-in card, all motherboards and chipsets should support anything! Must been some specific conflict you was unlucky to have. Did You try and move it around to different slots? Check if you got adress conflicts or if the slot u tried shared lanes with hte GPU?
EVGA actually does the same upgrade program. They call it the "step-up" program. I have the original version of this powering my Sennheisser PC37X. It's amazing!
I would actually want the EVGA Nu Pro over this Creative card, but the price is insane since you can't buy the version without the dedicated 7.1 card combo here in EU. So Creative it is for me.
Have you got a link for that background on your PC please ? The one with the rain and car on it. TIA
Call wallpaper engine on Steam
Where is that wallpaper from?
wallpaper engine on steam
Thank you!
What headphones will go in to my it???
u only need molex if u want to drive external RGB strips, normally u dont need thet molex even for internal RGB!
Ah, so that's why it's working without any cables connected. I was surprised the RGB turned on without the molex plugged in. I got it today and the audio is insanely clean :-D
I bought the card new and installed it, but the SB command, I downloaded it ( twice & restarted twice ), but it won't work. it says it's missing command.exe. Any clues people?
Bro where did you get the livewallpaper ?
wallpaper engine on steam
@@RAVisuals thanks maan i got you
nice. no captions and no audio coz my headphones are not setup
will it work on intel dual core processor 2.8GHz?
Youd have to check the system requirements man!
AE-5 + AKG K702 epic combo for gaming, music...
should I need to uninstall all realtek audio drivers after installing this card and install its own driver/software for output ?
yep you can even deactivate the realtek audio controller from the bios
Amazing review bro. I want one of these so bad, but I have to get a pc first hmmm lol
get one!!
Ill sell you mine. 😁😊🤣😜
@@セ千尺丂セ LOL
@@セ千尺丂セ I just seen your youtube page. I am going to check out your pc videos
I can't understand why my LEDs are not working?
Great card, dynamic, clear and powerful sound, unfortunately with the new software Sound Blaster Command the equalizer has been limited to only 12dB on both the AE-5, AE-7 and AE-9,
early versions of the AE-5 software allowed EQs up to 24dB.
Because of this my Sound Blaster Z whose software allows equalizing up to 24dB still sounds better than my AE-7 on my new Sennhaiser 560s,
Sad .... Please Creative give us back the 24dB EQ, let full power flow.
How do you setup the mic on this card?