Kunal Khullar Social Links Navigation News Contributor Kunal Khullar is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. He is a long time technology journalist and reviewer specializing in PC components and peripherals, and welcomes any and every question around building a PC.
DS426 Why does this article say Creative is bringing back the Sound Blaster brand? All of their discrete soundcards and DAC/Amps have been using the name — it never went away from what I can recall. Reply
Spuwho It is good that Creative is pushing out into new spaces. Audio routing and rules are definitely needed in the world now, with cell phones, podcasting, gaming, and other audio related activities now in the compute space, this is where some advancement is needed. By having it Kick-started helps them deal with the start up costs and gauge interest. Reply
jg.millirem DS426 said: Why does this article say Creative is bringing back the Sound Blaster brand? All of their discrete soundcards and DAC/Amps have been using the name — it never went away from what I can recall. Came here to say this. I bought a Sound Blaster X5 earlier this year. Excellent, modern device. Reply
thestryker While this seems like a relatively interesting device the price combined with the limited output functionality immediately kill the device for me. Their somewhat recently released G8 seems to have better audio capabilities, does have better IO and costs a bit over half as much. I get that all of the additional functionality adds cost, but the base functionality shouldn't be sacrificed to get there. Reply
Chokkymalk I’m at this point where something like this just screams “I’m going to be obsolete in 3 years” Reply
rluker5 thestryker said: While this seems like a relatively interesting device the price combined with the limited output functionality immediately kill the device for me. Their somewhat recently released G8 seems to have better audio capabilities, does have better IO and costs a bit over half as much. I get that all of the additional functionality adds cost, but the base functionality shouldn't be sacrificed to get there. I just checked a review on the G8 and it looks like it has an EQ range of +-6dB. The G6 had +-12dB which was still fairly anemic, and the AE5(running SB Connect 2), Z(older software, in my daughter's pc now), and Recon 3D PCie all ran +-24dB EQ range. Also some of the older USB cards like the G1, Play 3!, and Recon3D usb also have +-24dB EQs with the Recon3D usb being able to run outside of other EQs and stack EQ effects with at least some others for anyone that wants that. Not very practical IMO, but I've done it. DhuPsHfWrpU:370 View: https://youtu.be/DhuPsHfWrpU?t=370 EQ APO can often restore this depending on the motherboard but often has issues with Windows updates, and anything external is often lacking in the power to support that range at an indulgent volume with good headphones, like the G6, G1, Play!3, Recon3d external for examples. Recon3d USB having the most power out of those but the worst detail, and G6 being second on power, best detail but worst built in EQ. Not an issue if you don't want it or have never experienced most of your headphones being able to sound better than high end floor speakers instead of sounding like very nice diminutive speakers. If you want to check it out EQ APO is free and easy to use with the Peace skin. Also Sound Blaster Play 3! is $18 on Amazon but has hissing issues on a lot of systems. And you have to lower the preamp with both EQ APO and the USB ones to prevent clipping with lots of EQ. But if you aren't that interested and don't want to find a new problem to fix you may be better off not trying them out. Because no solution is perfect in making the audio as good as you imagine it should be. None. But really my point was that Creative is going down the path of moving away from their greatest advantage over motherboard integrated audio solutions which was the raw power of their cards. Take that away and the reasons for using something that looks and touches different but sounds pretty much the same are just aesthetic. A lot of motherboards already have 32/384. Reply
thestryker rluker5 said: But really my point was that Creative is going down the path of moving away from their greatest advantage over motherboard integrated audio solutions which was the raw power of their cards. Take that away and the reasons for using something that looks and touches different but sounds pretty much the same are just aesthetic. A lot of motherboards already have 32/384. Definitely, and I'm not really sure why they've done it. When I found myself in a situation where I needed to replace my internal card it was somewhat amazing how hard it is to find an external that supports 5.1 (or higher, but that's all I needed). I ended up getting a SB X4 because Creative seemed to be the only ones actually making anything worthwhile and it has been good enough. It falls somewhat middle of the road and if I was willing to ditch my old Z5500s and go either stereo or headphones I'd be able to get pretty much anything which would do the trick. Reply
Pemalite I would rather we bring back full hardware accelerated 3D audio. R.I.P. Aureal A3D. Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/sound-cards/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/sound-cards/creative-labs-revives-sound-blaster-brand-with-modular-audio-hub-re-imagine-is-a-tactile-stream-deck-competitor-aimed-at-creators-and-audiophiles#main
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