• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Creative Unveils the Sound BlasterAxx

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
13,791 (1.87/day)
If the MX5021 is the best pc speakers you've heard then you've set the bar extremely low. To be frank the bar on PC speakers are low to begin with.

Wouldn't swap real wooden cabinets, 10' woofers, 2.5' tweeters for something plastic. Never.

You don't need to be an audiophile or have a big room. £60 stereo speakers would shit over £200 PC speakers.

If you haven't heard BF3 coming from a Home Theatre System with Dolby Digital Live or atleast Dolby Prologic or DTS Neo, then you can't criticise the audio experience in games.

You should know by now that wood doesn't make the sound, speaker drivers do. For as long as plastic doesn't make vibrations, it doesn't make ANY difference what so ever and if you'd place same drivers in different frames, not even the best ear could tell the difference. Don't compare cheap plastic crap for 6 EUR and plastic speakers for over 150 EUR...

And those "normal" speakers for 60 pounds have piss poor bass. What good is superior sound detail if it sounds like goat pissing on a sheet of metal. The MX5021 offer good sound through the entire frequency range and doesn't focus only on low like most Logitech's do.

I also don't know what kind of difference would DD Live! or DTS Connect or Neo make to the BF3 experience. You just add additional encoding/decoding stage where in my case it gets decoded and playbacked directly from soundcard. First two are just real-time encoders, Neo is just a matrix filter. Considering i'm running a stereo+sub, i couldn't care any less for that.
I do care for an advanced 3D positioning filter that can deliver a correct 3D space positioned sound through just 2 speakers.
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2009
Messages
2,558 (0.46/day)
Location
United States
System Name Aluminum Mallard
Processor Ryzen 1900x
Motherboard AsRock Phantom 6
Cooling AIO
Memory 32GB
Video Card(s) EVGA 3080Ti FTW
Storage SSD
Display(s) Benq Zowie
Case Cosmos 1000
Audio Device(s) On Board
Power Supply Corsair CX750
VR HMD HTV Vive, Valve Index
Software Arch Linux
Benchmark Scores 31 FPS in Dalaran
Ok, ok, ok.

So the name it SoundblasterAxx, which to my eyes says SoundblasterAss.

Then they make it resemble a suppository. Oh, yes.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
6,731 (1.39/day)
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-13700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB(2x16) DDR5@6600MHz G-Skill Trident Z5
Video Card(s) ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo
Storage 2TB SK Platinum P41 SSD + 4TB SanDisk Ultra SSD + 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 3440x1440@100Hz G-Sync
Case NZXT PHANTOM410-BK
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIe
Power Supply Corsair 850W
Mouse Logitech Hero G502 SE
Software Windows 11 Pro - 64bit
Benchmark Scores 30FPS in NFS:Rivals
I remember back in the days when SB 16 was The King of the Hill, there were no other cards that could compete with it. Then AWE 32 came up... DOOM 2/Heretic/Hexen/Duke 3D never sounded better especially on the MIDI music. Then AWE 64 came, then Live!, etc...Nowadays? Completely total silence on the new significantly improvements for sound cards. Especially for gaming...
And then Craptive release BlasterAss...Somebody need to ball shot their CEO....Seriously.
 
Joined
May 18, 2010
Messages
3,427 (0.65/day)
System Name My baby
Processor Athlon II X4 620 @ 3.5GHz, 1.45v, NB @ 2700Mhz, HT @ 2700Mhz - 24hr prime95 stable
Motherboard Asus M4A785TD-V EVO
Cooling Sonic Tower Rev 2 with 120mm Akasa attached, Akasa @ Front, Xilence Red Wing 120mm @ Rear
Memory 8 GB G.Skills 1600Mhz
Video Card(s) ATI ASUS Crossfire 5850
Storage Crucial MX100 SATA 2.5 SSD
Display(s) Lenovo ThinkVision 27" (LEN P27h-10)
Case Antec VSK 2000 Black Tower Case
Audio Device(s) Onkyo TX-SR309 Receiver, 2x Kef Cresta 1, 1x Kef Center 20c
Power Supply OCZ StealthXstream II 600w, 4x12v/18A, 80% efficiency.
Software Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
You should know by now that wood doesn't make the sound, speaker drivers do. For as long as plastic doesn't make vibrations, it doesn't make ANY difference what so ever and if you'd place same drivers in different frames, not even the best ear could tell the difference. Don't compare cheap plastic crap for 6 EUR and plastic speakers for over 150 EUR...

I wasn't insinuating that wood makes it sound better. I was point out that the quality of material is better for your money. You are paying more for plastic, why?

Altec Lansing MX5021 cost about £100.

£40-50 gets you a pair of Wharfedale DIAMOND 9.0, CAMBRIDGE AUDIOSL20, Gale 3010S. Just to name a few and would sound much better!

I also don't know what kind of difference would DD Live! or DTS Connect or Neo make to the BF3 experience. You just add additional encoding/decoding stage where in my case it gets decoded and playbacked directly from soundcard. First two are just real-time encoders, Neo is just a matrix filter. Considering i'm running a stereo+sub, i couldn't care any less for that.
I do care for an advanced 3D positioning filter that can deliver a correct 3D space positioned sound through just 2 speakers.

For 2 speakers, Dolby Digital Live and DTS would be pointless, granted. You can still use Prologic and NEO, but without a center speaker the dialogue will be lost.

But for 2 speakers you can run 2.0 PCM 24-bit /192000Hz and with bookshelf speakers it would sound noticeably better.

I remember back in the days when SB 16 was The King of the Hill.

I used to have the SB 16. Amazing, also had the SB 128 which was even better.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 6, 2009
Messages
5,976 (1.04/day)
Location
Cybertron aka Canada
Processor Intel Core i5-3570K
Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory 8GB Mushkin Blackline DDR3-1600
Video Card(s) Gigabyte GTX 670
Storage Intel 520 60GB, Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB
Display(s) BenQ 24" XL2420T
Case Corsair 550D
Audio Device(s) Sennheiser HD600, Audeze LCD-3F, Mytek Stereo 192 DSD, La Figaro 339, Burson HA-160, Geek Pulse X
Power Supply Corsair AX650
Mouse steelseries Sensei MLG edition
Keyboard Cooler Master QuickFire Pro
Software Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium
plastic, aluminum and MDF can change the resonance, distortion and tonality. cosmetics are important in low cost speakers.. so plastic is a popular choice because it's cheap and malleable. you won't find high fidelity in PC speakers.
 
Joined
May 18, 2010
Messages
3,427 (0.65/day)
System Name My baby
Processor Athlon II X4 620 @ 3.5GHz, 1.45v, NB @ 2700Mhz, HT @ 2700Mhz - 24hr prime95 stable
Motherboard Asus M4A785TD-V EVO
Cooling Sonic Tower Rev 2 with 120mm Akasa attached, Akasa @ Front, Xilence Red Wing 120mm @ Rear
Memory 8 GB G.Skills 1600Mhz
Video Card(s) ATI ASUS Crossfire 5850
Storage Crucial MX100 SATA 2.5 SSD
Display(s) Lenovo ThinkVision 27" (LEN P27h-10)
Case Antec VSK 2000 Black Tower Case
Audio Device(s) Onkyo TX-SR309 Receiver, 2x Kef Cresta 1, 1x Kef Center 20c
Power Supply OCZ StealthXstream II 600w, 4x12v/18A, 80% efficiency.
Software Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
Joined
May 13, 2010
Messages
6,076 (1.14/day)
System Name RemixedBeast-NX
Processor Intel Xeon E5-2690 @ 2.9Ghz (8C/16T)
Motherboard Dell Inc. 08HPGT (CPU 1)
Cooling Dell Standard
Memory 24GB ECC
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Nvidia RTX2060 6GB
Storage 2TB Samsung 860 EVO SSD//2TB WD Black HDD
Display(s) Samsung SyncMaster P2350 23in @ 1920x1080 + Dell E2013H 20 in @1600x900
Case Dell Precision T3600 Chassis
Audio Device(s) Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 // Fiio E7 Amp/DAC
Power Supply 630w Dell T3600 PSU
Mouse Logitech G700s/G502
Keyboard Logitech K740
Software Linux Mint 20
Benchmark Scores Network: APs: Cisco Meraki MR32, Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC-LR and Lite Router/Sw:Meraki MX64 MS220-8P
Hey not everyone has ears of a dog. Me personally can't tell difference between 128 and 320kbit mp3 even on good speakers, so I don't think I could hear a difference between the latest Realtek chip and extra card.

you got to be kidding....
 
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
967 (0.16/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Motherboard MSI MAG X570S Tomahawk Max WiFi
Cooling EK Supremacy EVO Elite + EK D5 + EK 420 Rad, TT Toughfan 140x3, TT Toughfan 120x2, Arctic slim 120
Memory 32GB GSkill DDR4-3600 (F4-3600C16-8GVKC)
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Radeon RX 7900XTX Gaming OC
Storage WDBlack SN850X 4TB, Samsung 950Pro 512GB, Samsung 850EVO 500GB, 6TB WDRed, 36TB NAS, 8TB Lancache
Display(s) Benq XL2730Z (1440P 144Hz, TN, Freesync) & 2x ASUS VE248
Case Corsair Obsidian 750D
Audio Device(s) Topping D50S + THX AAA 789, TH-X00 w/ V-Moda Boompro; 7Hz Timeless
Power Supply Corsair HX1000i
Mouse Sharkoon Fireglider optical
Keyboard Corsair K95 RGB
Software Windows 11 Pro
Audiophiles of TPU, UNITE!!!!


Hey, I don't know... could be a nice gag gift. Oh, yeah; your Yamaha/Onkyo/Denon (etc)AVR & Totem/Klipsch/Cambridge/Polk (etc) are garbage now! Look! I bought you a Creative Dildozer Ass *fuck* I mean... Creative SoundblasterAxx!
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
3,966 (0.61/day)
Location
Maryland
System Name HAL
Processor Core i9 14900ks @5.9-6.3
Motherboard Z790 Dark Hero
Cooling Bitspower Summit SE & (2) 360 Corsair XR7 Rads push/pull
Memory 2x 32GB (64GB) Gskill trident 6000 CL30
Video Card(s) RTX 4090 Gigagbyte gaming OC @ +200/1300
Storage (M2's) 2x Samsung 980 pro 2TB, 1xWD Black 2TB, 1x SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB
Display(s) 65" LG OLED 120HZ
Case Lian Li dyanmic Evo11 with distro plate
Audio Device(s) Klipsh 7.1 through Sony DH790 EARC.
Power Supply Thermaltake 1350
Software Microsoft Windows 11 x64
lol I run 7.1 surround with onboard sound. I bought a few sound cards, both creative, both were absolute garbage. It is because of that experience that I have not purchased a sound card for over 5 years..
So basically if someone is straight creative would make them gay.
Yes they ruined sound cards for me..
 
Joined
May 18, 2010
Messages
3,427 (0.65/day)
System Name My baby
Processor Athlon II X4 620 @ 3.5GHz, 1.45v, NB @ 2700Mhz, HT @ 2700Mhz - 24hr prime95 stable
Motherboard Asus M4A785TD-V EVO
Cooling Sonic Tower Rev 2 with 120mm Akasa attached, Akasa @ Front, Xilence Red Wing 120mm @ Rear
Memory 8 GB G.Skills 1600Mhz
Video Card(s) ATI ASUS Crossfire 5850
Storage Crucial MX100 SATA 2.5 SSD
Display(s) Lenovo ThinkVision 27" (LEN P27h-10)
Case Antec VSK 2000 Black Tower Case
Audio Device(s) Onkyo TX-SR309 Receiver, 2x Kef Cresta 1, 1x Kef Center 20c
Power Supply OCZ StealthXstream II 600w, 4x12v/18A, 80% efficiency.
Software Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
lol I run 7.1 surround with onboard sound. I bought a few sound cards, both creative, both were absolute garbage. It is because of that experience that I have not purchased a sound card for over 5 years..
So basically if someone is straight creative would make them gay.
Yes they ruined sound cards for me..



I had the Creative X-fi Forte to my receiver via SPDIF. It sounded great for DDL and DTS Connect, but the card was just too buggy. After about a year I sold it!

When I upgraded to a HDMI capable receiver, I decided that I would hook it straight my ATI video card and use DTS NEO or DD Prologic on my receiver. No fuss, no buggy creative drivers, dont have to worry about Creatives software suite hanging or using up all the resources. I have no complaints.
 
Top