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Catalog   /   Computing   /   Components   /   Sound Cards

Comparison Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 PLUS vs Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5

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Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 PLUS
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 PLUSCreative Sound BlasterX AE-5
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The sound card is based on the ESS ES9016K2M SABER32 Ultra DAC. The DAC supports a maximum bit depth of 32 bits and a sampling rate of up to 384 kHz, a dynamic range of 122 dB, a THD plus noise of 0.00032%.
The BlasterX Acoustic Engine sound processor consists of two chips: CA0113-4AG HF and CA0132-4AN HF. The Xamp amplifier, assembled from four L4562 chips, uses a dual mono circuit with four discrete BD139 transistors and four capacitors.
Operation in 384 kHz/32 bit mode. 122 dB dynamic range. High quality multi-channel sound. High quality headphone preamp. Support for high impedance headphones. Aurora Reactive lighting sync.
Featuresgaminggaming
Specs
Typeinternalinternal
InterfacePCI-EPCI-E
Channels7.15.1
AudiochipSound Core3DBlasterX Acoustic Engine
StandardsX-Plus, Scout Mode
ASIO
Additional power
DAC
DAC resolution32 bit32 bit
Max. sampling rate384 kHz384 kHz
Dynamic Range122 dB122 dB
ADC
ADC resolution24 bit
Max. sampling rate96 kHz
More features
headphones amplifier
headphones amplifier
Inputs
mini-Jack (3.5 mm)11
Outputs
mini-Jack (3.5 mm)44
Optical S/P-DIF11
Added to E-Catalogmay 2020august 2018
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Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus SABRE32-class Hi-res 32-bit/384 kHz PCIe Gaming Sound Card and DAC with Dolby Digital and

SUPPORTS DOLBY DIGITAL AND DTS – Now with support for Dolby Digital Live and DTS Encoding for even more delivery options to y... moreour external audio devices The AE-5 Plus also supports 5.1 discrete and 7.1 virtual surround, as well as Sound Blaster’s Surround Virtualization technology POWERFUL DISCRETE HEADPHONE AMP – Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus features Xamp, our custom-designed discrete headphone amp that utilizes bi-amplification technology to power each earcup individually with 1 ohm output impedance and drives studio-grade headphones of up to 600Ω, including high-end planar-magnetic headphones PRISTINE AUDIO QUALITY – Featuring the SABRE32 ultra-class PCI-e DAC to deliver up to 32-bit / 384 kHz playback with a 122 dB DNR, ultra-low distortion and jitter, the AE-5 Plus is more than capable of hi-res audio for games, music, and movies. put simply, for discerning audio lovers of any kind, the AE-5 Plus is set to blow past your expectations with pristine audio and powerful performance RGB YOUR GAMING RIG – The AE-5 Plus has customizable RGB LEDs on its body, and also features an included RGB LED strip. Enjoy a symphony of lights and sound with 16.8 million colors in different patterns to choose from, all via the Sound Blaster Command software for PC INDUSTRY-LEADING AUDIO PROCESSING – The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus rides on Sound Blaster’s long legacy of audio processing and enhancements, available through the Sound Blaster Command software and featuring fully customizable audio processing technologies to deliver clearer vocals, accurate cues, and bass boost
Amazon.com
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$142.39

Creative Labs Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Sound Card for Gaming 78332410

The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus is a perfect convergence between aesthetics and performance that features a SABRE ultra-class hi... more-res PCI-e gaming sound card and DAC with customizable RGB LEDs on its body, and comes with an included RGB LED strip.
Lenovo.com
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$142.49

Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus SABRE32-class Hi-res 32-bit/384 kHz PCIe Gaming Sound Card and DAC with Dolby Digital and

SUPPORTS DOLBY DIGITAL AND DTS - Now with support for Dolby Digital Live and DTS Encoding for even more delivery options to y... moreour external audio devices The AE-5 Plus also supports 5.1 discrete and 7.1 virtual surround, as well as Sound Blaster's Surround Virtualization technology POWERFUL DISCRETE HEADPHONE AMP - Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus features Xamp, our custom-designed discrete headphone amp that utilizes bi-amplification technology to power each earcup individually with 1 ohm output impedanc
Newegg.com
Delivery: in USA
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$149.99

Creative Creative Labs Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus 70SB174000003

Dolby Digital Live & DTS Encoding/ Custom Xamp Discrete Headphone Bi-Amp/ SABRE-class DAC/ Aurora Reactive RGB Lighting Syste... morem/ Sound Blaster Acoustic Engine/ Black Finish
Abt.com
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$149.00

Creative Sound BlasterX AE 5 Plus Sound Card

SABRE-class DAC. The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus is a SABRE-class PCI-e DAC that is perfect for high-resolution audio for games,... moremusic and movies. It delivers extremely clean audio stream playback with ultra-low distortion and jitter. Scout Mode. Activate Scout Mode to give yourself a distinct tactical advantage! This technology enhances important in-game audio cues - such as footsteps and weapon switching sounds - allowing you to quickly and accurately pinpoint your opponents' location before they pinpoint yours! Custom Xamp discrete headphone bi-amp. Maximize your prized headset's potential! Powerful headsets require audiophile-grade headphone amplifier to drive outstanding audio performance, and that's where Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus comes in. The hi-res sound card features Xamp, the custom-designed discrete headphone bi-amplifier. Aurora Reactive lighting system. Enjoy a symphony of lights and sound with the Aurora Reactive lighting system! The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus has customizable RGB LEDs on its body, and also features an included RGB LED strip.
Officedepot.com
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$149.99

Channels

The most advanced multi-channel audio format that a sound card is capable of outputting.

2. Standard stereo sound on two channels — left and right. This format allows you to provide a sense of surround sound (especially when using headphones), which is quite enough for most simple tasks. However, it noticeably loses to multi-channel sound in terms of the "immersion effect", which can be critical for demanding gamers and audiophiles.

5.1. The classic and most popular multi-channel surround sound format today: a centre channel, two front and two rear channels allow you to achieve a full-fledged “surround effect”, and a separate subwoofer channel provides rich bass sound.

7.1. The 7.1 format differs from 5.1 by the presence of two additional channels. There are several options for localizing these channels — for example, a pair of side speakers, a pair of additional speakers above the front ones, etc. Anyway, the 7.1 format provides a more reliable surround sound transmission than 5.1, but such cards are more expensive, and there is less specialized content for 7.1.

When choosing a sound card by the number of channels, it is worth considering such moments. Firstly, multi-channel options are capable of producing sound in simpler formats (for example, a 7.1 card can be used for 5.1 acoustics), and stereo sound output is support...ed by all models in general. Secondly, modern multimedia software (in particular, codecs) allows you to output multi-channel audio through a card with fewer channels — for example, play 5.1 sound through a two-channel card with stereo speakers without quality loss. Thirdly, for the full-fledged operation of multi-channel sound, you will need not only a card, but also appropriate acoustics; therefore, it makes no sense to specifically look for a multi-channel model if you plan to use exclusively stereo speakers.

Audiochip

Brand of the audio chip installed in the sound card.

The audio chip is one of the most important parts of a sound card, a kind of "heart" of the whole circuit, and it is on its characteristics that the sound quality and other capabilities of a particular model largely depend. Knowing the brand of the chip, you can easily find various information on it — official specifications, test results, reviews, etc. — and based on this, draw a conclusion to what extent this sound card is able to meet your requirements. Of course, for ordinary video cards (see "View") there is no need to delve into such details, but when choosing a gaming or audiophile model, they can be very useful.

Standards

Various standards and special digital audio technologies that the sound card is officially compatible with. For example, the Dolby and DTS standards in various variations are used primarily for multi-channel audio tracks in films, while DirectSound and EAX provide high-quality “surround” sound in games. In fact, the ability to work with one or another standard is largely determined by the software part of the system, and not by the characteristics of the sound card; however, official compatibility means at least the full compliance of the card with the requirements of the standard and the minimum risk of conflicts at the hardware level.

ASIO

Sound card compatible with ASIO standard.

ASIO (an abbreviation for Audio Stream Input/Output, i.e. “audio stream input-output”) is a technology designed for professional work with sound in the Windows environment; in particular, it reduces latency and improves the accuracy of the audio stream. If you do not plan to seriously engage in recording, mixing tracks, etc., most likely you will not need this function, but for musicians, sound engineers and other similar professionals, it can be very useful. The ASIO standard provides both software and hardware requirements; therefore, to fully use it, you must have a compatible audio card.

ADC resolution

The bit depth of the analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) of the sound card. An ADC is a module that encodes an analogue audio signal into a digital format; it is he who is responsible for transmitting sound "to the computer" — for example, through a microphone when communicating via Skype or from a guitar pickup when recording a track. The bit depth is one of the main parameters that describe the quality of the ADC: the higher it is, the less distortion will be introduced into the digitized sound and the higher the maximum possible quality of its recording. Of course, the properties of the actually recorded sound will depend on many other things (hardware, software, settings, file format, etc.), but for high-quality recording, you will definitely need a good ADC.

A bit depth of 16 bits is considered quite sufficient for everyday use, however, even fairly simple models of audio cards are increasingly acquiring 24-bit ADCs.

Max. sampling rate

The highest sampling rate that the analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) of a sound card can provide when digitizing sound. Without going into details, we can say that the role of this parameter is almost completely similar to the bit depth described in the paragraph above. And its standard values, found in modern audio cards, correspond to the following sound quality indicators:

44.1 kHz — Audio CD;
48 kHz — DVD
96 kHz — DVD-Audio 5.1
192 kHz — DVD-Audio 2.0 (two-channel audio has a higher sampling rate than multi-channel audio for a number of reasons), the highest value in modern consumer-grade sound cards.
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 PLUS often compared
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 often compared