Creative Rolls Out Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Gaming Sound Card

[icase81]

I don't remember this. I've been recommending, selling and installing Sound Blaster cards for nearly 3 decades. If something like that had happened, I would have been one of the outraged. It either never happened, or it was one of those very short-lived decisions made by the idiot(can't remember who it was) they brought into the company for a short time and fired because he was making nitwit decisions.

This is patently false. Never happened.

You're just making things up. Why? Are you trying to troll Creative? Creative is a kick ass company making excellent and solid products. Misinformation is not welcome here.

LiveWare pulled from Creative's web site. Users must now pay.

NeoWin pointed out that Creative Labs is now blocking LiveWare downloads and is trying to force users to pay for it. Drivers are still available.quote:For Sound Blaster Live! users, the latest updates and coolest software applications previously offered in the Live!Ware program are now...

arstechnica.com

Here's people talking about it. It was the LiveWare software that enabled features on the boards that the base driver didn't. It was 19 years ago, but still. This is NOT misinformation.

 

[lexluthermiester]

LiveWare pulled from Creative's web site. Users must now pay.

NeoWin pointed out that Creative Labs is now blocking LiveWare downloads and is trying to force users to pay for it. Drivers are still available.quote:For Sound Blaster Live! users, the latest updates and coolest software applications previously offered in the Live!Ware program are now...

arstechnica.com

Here's people talking about it. It was the LiveWare software that enabled features on the boards that the base driver didn't. It was 19 years ago, but still. This is NOT misinformation.

Oh I remember that. Total nonsense that you and many others failed to understand. Yeah, 19 years ago and a situation that was a non-issue as it happened during the early days of the internet when licensing limitations included physical media VS download. Live!Ware was developed in partnership with a third party dev. At the time Creative Labs did not have the rights to make Live!Ware available for download, they only had rights to include it on CD. This was quickly worked out and Live!Ware became available for FREE download again. It was a contractual problem, not Creative being greedy. Seems like you're holding a grudge over a situation long since over that wasn't their fault.

Regardless, you were completely incorrect. Creative has NEVER charged money for driver downloads. Ever.

 

[metaleloi666]

Not really.

Again, not really. Anyone who has an AE5 is just going to keep it. Anyone who wanted the additional features has already got an AE7/AE9. This new card is aimed at creating an additional choice for buyers shopping for a new card and I think it's a great option.

I still have an XFi Titanium in one of my T3500's. DanielK's drivers are simply perfect(Thank You DanielK)!

Oh man, don't do that. It's ok, but it not the greatest sounding chipset. Get yourself an AE5 or SBZ, far better. You'll thank yourself later.


What do you mean? I've only ever had to RMA 2 SB cards(that I can remember) and the process was effortless and easy.

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD. I updated to Win 10 2004 but I had to roll back to 1909 cause no drivers were working and this still great soundcard was now useless. Do you know if the last pack from the always great Daniel K works for my soundcard under 2004 https://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/2020/08/sb-x-fi-series-support-pack-50.html ? Thanks!

 

[INSTG8R]

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD. I updated to Win 10 2004 but I had to roll back to 1909 cause no drivers were working and this still great soundcard was now useless. Do you know if the last pack from the always great Daniel K works for my soundcard under 2004 https://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/2020/08/sb-x-fi-series-support-pack-50.html ? Thanks!

Truly miss my Fatality but it was PCI so its days were numbered anyway

 

[metaleloi666]

Truly miss my Fatality but it was PCI so its days were numbered anyway

So, you have no idea if the drivers work for my PCI-e card?

 

[stinger608]

Do you know if the last pack from the always great Daniel K works for my soundcard under 2004

So, you have no idea if the drivers work for my PCI-e card?

I rolled back to 1909 because it would work for a day or so and revert right back to being funky.
Not sure if DanielK has fixed this issue yet or not.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD. I updated to Win 10 2004 but I had to roll back to 1909 cause no drivers were working and this still great soundcard was now useless. Do you know if the last pack from the always great Daniel K works for my soundcard under 2004 https://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/2020/08/sb-x-fi-series-support-pack-50.html ? Thanks!

Yup, those are the right drivers for that card.

BTW, Welcome to TPU!

I rolled back to 1909 because it would work for a day or so and revert right back to being funky.
Not sure if DanielK has fixed this issue yet or not.

I believe he has.

 

[INSTG8R]

Yeah rumour has it more updates are coming that will render my ZX control panel useless and I’ll be joining this thread needing work arounds too. I’ve used my onboard it may be ALC1220 with fancy caps etc. But it #till sounded like the same subpar Realtek it’s always been.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeah rumour has it more updates are coming that will render my ZX control panel useless and I’ll be joining this thread needing work arounds too. I’ve used my onboard it may be ALC1220 with fancy caps etc. But it #till sounded like the same subpar Realtek it’s always been.

At that point, you'll have two options. Turn off updates completely and manually install security/important ones or upgrade to a currently supported sound card. The AE series has been great, including the one in the article of this thread, the AE-5Plus.

 

[INSTG8R]

Yeah when I figured AMDs hair brained setting was on and was causing all the horrible iss being reported yet nary a hiccup on Intel. I had every issue reportEd. Static, dropping channels, speaker swapping. I gave up, pulled the card and tried the onboard. Then I started looking at the AE. But it just clicked that a setting I hadn’t seen; in a dcade reappear on AMD latest and greatest was just odd but worse on by default Spread Spectrum so basically the card wasn’t getting ASIO Lock/bus lock because bloody Spread Spectrums purpose is to constantly “float” your frequencies for=the purpose I’d preventing interference with ot close by machines. Utterly an edge case scenario that would almost never to occur. Okay fine have that ancient setting available but OFF reinstalled the card used Daniel Ks drivers just to be safe and card ran exactly as it always had. I’ve had lengthy arguments with AMD staff as to why this setting is present let alone on but never get a good answer. But I’ve helped others with other audio solutions and similar issues with the same simple settings channow. Anyone trying to d9 any professional audio would be Iinfuriated with this issue

 

[Drash]

At that point, you'll have two options. Turn off updates completely and manually install security/important ones or upgrade to a currently supported sound card. The AE series has been great, including the one in the article of this thread, the AE-5Plus.

Still using an Audigy 2ZS (PCI) with W10 2004 as mobo sounds crap in comparison. Using DanielK drivers (6.2) but last i looked (a while ago) they had issues with 1903/2004 so had to d/l the Audigy RX driver pack and drop the wdm_emu.inf file over the top. Might be a similar fix? Did have to spend a few hours googling etc.

Edit: DanielK updated his pack - time to play. Cant believe the 2ZS is still viable after 15 (?) years!!!!

 

[INSTG8R]

Have a couple buried somewhere still and as always still a better option than onboard.. Some of us will fight anything MS does to try to stop using our cards We’ve already been hobbled since they messed with Direct Sound breaking most of our cool toys

 

[djisas]

I switched recently from a X-Fi Fata1ty champion to the pcie X-Fi fatal1ty titanium, I am using the drivers from creative with windows 10 2004 and is working smoothly.
Though I feel it's very sensitive to high frequency noise that I never experienced with the old model, I need to look into this Spread Spectrum setting though...

 

[INSTG8R]

I switched recently from a X-Fi Fata1ty champion to the pcie X-Fi fatal1ty titanium, I am using the drivers from creative with windows 10 2004 and is working smoothly.
Though I feel it's very sensitive to high frequency noise that I never experienced with the old model, I need to look into this Spread Spectrum setting though...

In so mad Daniel K has stepped up to ssolve “the AM4 issues“ whe it’s absolutely nothing hardware related

 

[metaleloi666]

Yup, those are the right drivers for that card.

BTW, Welcome to TPU!


I believe he has.

Hello,
Thanks for the welcome!

Something weird happened. As I mentioned, the 1st time I updated to Win10 2004, it never could recognize my XFI Titanium HD card so I has to switch back to 1909. Now, yesterday, as I heard about the tweaked Daniel K drivers which you say work with my card, I decided this morning to try 2004 again. Well, guess what, I don't even need Daniel K's drivers, Windows recognize the card and it works fine. Really weird.

In fact, the only annoying thing is that the Creative Console Launcher will always launch on Game Mode while I want it in Entertainment Mode after a reboot. Settings seem to have not saved, but in fact are cause the sound is the same as the last time I had tweaked them. Anyone knows a fix for this?

Thanks.

 

[INSTG8R]

Hello,
Thanks for the welcome!

Something weird happened. As I mentioned, the 1st time I updated to Win10 2004, it never could recognize my XFI Titanium HD card so I has to switch back to 1909. Now, yesterday, as I heard about the tweaked Daniel K drivers which you say work with my card, I decided this morning to try 2004 again. Well, guess what, I don't even need Daniel K's drivers, Windows recognize the card and it works fine. Really weird.

In fact, the only annoying thing is that the Creative Console Launcher will always launch on Game Mode while I want it in Entertainment Mode after a reboot. Settings seem to have not saved, but in fact are cause the sound is the same as the last time I had tweaked them. Anyone knows a fix for this?

Thanks.

Actually remember that with my Fatality but way back on W7 I would still use Daniel Ks drive regardless. Might even fix that I’m using his driver for my ZX he keeps them tweaked against Windows issues(like 2004 for you) so they will just be the most stable tweaked of the last curr official (which can be very old)

 

[jack121]

Hi. I am thinking of purchasing a soundblaster ae-9, or an external multichannel dac if i can get a recommendation please.

The ae-9 is £250 over here in britain, my budget for an external dac is £300 - £500.

What do you think, is there a good multichannel dac at this price. Do you have any experience or have heard anything anywhere.

Many thanks.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Hi. I am thinking of purchasing a soundblaster ae-9, or an external multichannel dac if i can get a recommendation please.

The ae-9 is £250 over here in britain, my budget for an external dac is £300 - £500.

What do you think, is there a good multichannel dac at this price. Do you have any experience or have heard anything anywhere.

Many thanks.

You might have been better off creating a new thread with your question instead of necroing this old one.

Maybe make a new thread in

Audio, Video & Home Theater​

ask for your comment her to be deleted

 

[xlen]

I am still using my 18 year old PCI Xifi Elite Pro from waaaaaay back when, in the day it was top of the range at £230+, still sounds good whether in Game or Entertainment mode...… it also has Music creation mode which I have never used but sadly after this motherboard and when I upgrade shortly it will be time to say goodbye as it's pretty much impossible to find a PCI slot on a Z390 or AM4 board which means I will pay a bit more for a new board that has Realtek ALC1220 and go on board.

That's false though, I'm using X370-A, which has 2 PCI slots along with 2x16 and 2x1 PCIe slots