Differences between Creative Sound Blaster AE-9PE and Creative Sound Blaster AE-9???

tecjim

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what are the differences between a Sound Blaster AE-9PE and Creative Sound Blaster AE-9?

which to buy from these 2 versions??? which is better/?

to buy the original ae-9 or to buy the Sound Blaster AE-9PE playback edition??

any help please/?

the most online shops has the Sound Blaster AE-9PE playback edition .

why the most online shops dont have the original AE-9?? and have only the AE-9PE playback edition .??
 
I believe the PE is missing certain inputs for recording.
 
I believe the PE is missing certain inputs for recording.
I believe the PE is missing certain inputs for recording.
i am interesting to buy the soundblaster ae-9 i have heard that the soundblaster ae-9 has issues and problems is is true?



they have told me that there is one another version of AE-9pE which doesn have issues and problems./.



have you noticed issues and problems with the soundblaster AE-9??
 
If you're running headphones, I'd look at good external DACs like Schiit. Otherwise, I'd be spending the money towards a pair of good studio monitors and running them off onboard audio. Sound cards are an interference collector and waste of money.
 
If you're running headphones, I'd look at good external DACs like Schiit. Otherwise, I'd be spending the money towards a pair of good studio monitors and running them off onboard audio. Sound cards are an interference collector and waste of money.
You advise people to pay good money for monitors and then run them off internal audio?
 
You advise people to pay good money for monitors and then run them off internal audio?

"Good money", subjectivity. I didn't talk about a certain amount of cash. There ain't nothing inherited wrong with running decent monitors with onboard audio. My mom's PC is running Mackie's with her Strix board's audio and it works very well. Just doesn't get as loud as my receiver setup, but that's because of the smaller sound stage of those speakers.

Active monitors can perfectly be ran with onboard audio. I'd suggest an interface IF he is editing music or such, but that doesn't sound like the case here. Passive on the other hand, benefit more sensibly from DACs and such. At least in these scenarios.
 
i am interesting to buy the soundblaster ae-9 i have heard that the soundblaster ae-9 has issues and problems is is true?



they have told me that there is one another version of AE-9pE which doesn have issues and problems./.



have you noticed issues and problems with the soundblaster AE-9??

Absolutely no problems, people who are having issues probably have old Windows installations with a bunch of junk installed. I highly recommend the AE-9, it is excellent.
 
If you're running headphones, I'd look at good external DACs like Schiit. Otherwise, I'd be spending the money towards a pair of good studio monitors and running them off onboard audio. Sound cards are an interference collector and waste of money.

Ok, that is absolute nonsense. First of all, a modern top of the line soundcard such as the AE-9 has a separate dac/amp for headphones, and a separate dac for speakers. On the AE9 the headphone dac/amp are inside the desktop ACM module which is linked to the soundcard with a digital cable, so no interference.

The soundcard itself is very well shielded from EMI, so its not a concern. It provides many more options that Schiit dac/amp do not - speaker output, several digital outputs, various inputs for recording, software suite with a lot of great features.

On my office PC I use headphones exclusively, HD650 paired to Schiit Modi/Magni DAC/AMP combo. Excellent setup, but limited to headphones only. At home I have the AE-9 and my wife has the ZxR - they are a lot more feature rich for not much more $ than the Schiit setup.

As far as onboard, its fine if used with cheap stereo desktop speakers, but it doesn't cut it with a good set of speakers or premium headphones.
 
Ok, that is absolute nonsense. First of all, a modern top of the line soundcard such as the AE-9 has a separate dac/amp for headphones, and a separate dac for speakers. On the AE9 the headphone dac/amp are inside the desktop ACM module which is linked to the soundcard with a digital cable, so no interference.

The soundcard itself is very well shielded from EMI, so its not a concern. It provides many more options that Schiit dac/amp do not - speaker output, several digital outputs, various inputs for recording, software suite with a lot of great features.

On my office PC I use headphones exclusively, HD650 paired to Schiit Modi/Magni DAC/AMP combo. Excellent setup, but limited to headphones only. At home I have the AE-9 and my wife has the ZxR - they are a lot more feature rich for not much more $ than the Schiit setup.

As far as onboard, its fine if used with cheap stereo desktop speakers, but it doesn't cut it with a good set of speakers or premium headphones.
What has better sound output, the ZxR or the AE-9? I am considering a sound card for my second PC which will be my new Main PC and I have a ZxR in my current Main PC.
 
Honestly, at their flagship level they are about the same. The AE-9 is more future proof, since they won't be discontinuing the software/drivers for it anytime soon, but ZxR still gets excellent support. Also, the AE-9 is a bit louder if you have high gain headphones, but you'll never crank the volume all the way up with either card unless you want to become deaf.

The ZxR ACM is analog, so the headphone amp on the card can potentially be affected by EMI, but it's got such great shielding that it doesn't matter. Also, the volume button on the ZxR ACM sometimes makes a static noise, at least on the early versions of the ZxR. On the plus side, the ZxR ACM has a built in mic, which is surprisingly decent. With the AE-9 you'll have to get the mic separately.
 
P.S. I also used to have a Sennheiser GSX1200 headphone amp, and while it had excellent virtual surround effects, it just didn't have enough juice to drive HD650 quite like the AE-9, ZxR, or the Schiit combo.
 
Honestly, at their flagship level they are about the same. The AE-9 is more future proof, since they won't be discontinuing the software/drivers for it anytime soon, but ZxR still gets excellent support. Also, the AE-9 is a bit louder if you have high gain headphones, but you'll never crank the volume all the way up with either card unless you want to become deaf.

The ZxR ACM is analog, so the headphone amp on the card can potentially be affected by EMI, but it's got such great shielding that it doesn't matter. Also, the volume button on the ZxR ACM sometimes makes a static noise, at least on the early versions of the ZxR. On the plus side, the ZxR ACM has a built in mic, which is surprisingly decent. With the AE-9 you'll have to get the mic separately.
I primarily use my 20+ year old Alesis Monitors, I do have a pair of Sennheiser headphones but I hardly use them.
I still have an ACM from my old Soundblaster ZX so I could use that as a Mic as I do use the ZxR's ACM as a mic when I play games.
IMG_1496-mosaic.jpg
 
With speakers you probably won't have much difference at all. I think the ZxR is limited to 5.1 vs 7.1 on the AE-9, but it does apply to you since you are using stereo speakers.

Thats a pretty cool looking setup by the way!
 
Ok, that is absolute nonsense. First of all, a modern top of the line soundcard such as the AE-9 has a separate dac/amp for headphones, and a separate dac for speakers. On the AE9 the headphone dac/amp are inside the desktop ACM module which is linked to the soundcard with a digital cable, so no interference.

The soundcard itself is very well shielded from EMI, so its not a concern. It provides many more options that Schiit dac/amp do not - speaker output, several digital outputs, various inputs for recording, software suite with a lot of great features.

On my office PC I use headphones exclusively, HD650 paired to Schiit Modi/Magni DAC/AMP combo. Excellent setup, but limited to headphones only. At home I have the AE-9 and my wife has the ZxR - they are a lot more feature rich for not much more $ than the Schiit setup.

As far as onboard, its fine if used with cheap stereo desktop speakers, but it doesn't cut it with a good set of speakers or premium headphones.

The only people who glorify sound cards are absolute boomers who don't know any better, you mentioned that only the headphone DAC is on the desktop module, so that leaves you EMI bound on the speaker end. We've seen many sound cards in past with all these pointless shields on them against EMI fail at it. You also didn't talk about the price of this junk, it costs at least 250 when you can even find it. For that kind of price, I've gotten myself a Presonus interface which has capabilities way beyond that piece of crap. It even has coaxial outs for changing Hz / time.
 
Ok, that is absolute nonsense. First of all, a modern top of the line soundcard such as the AE-9 has a separate dac/amp for headphones, and a separate dac for speakers. On the AE9 the headphone dac/amp are inside the desktop ACM module which is linked to the soundcard with a digital cable, so no interference.

The soundcard itself is very well shielded from EMI, so its not a concern. It provides many more options that Schiit dac/amp do not - speaker output, several digital outputs, various inputs for recording, software suite with a lot of great features.

On my office PC I use headphones exclusively, HD650 paired to Schiit Modi/Magni DAC/AMP combo. Excellent setup, but limited to headphones only. At home I have the AE-9 and my wife has the ZxR - they are a lot more feature rich for not much more $ than the Schiit setup.

As far as onboard, its fine if used with cheap stereo desktop speakers, but it doesn't cut it with a good set of speakers or premium headphones.

the ae-9 has better dac and amplier from ae-5 and ae7??



also the ae-9 is better in gamiing and music from, ae-7 and ae-5?




which are the differences between a Sound Blaster AE-9PE and Creative Sound Blaster AE-9?



i have read that the Sound Blaster AE-9PE has some ,missing some inputs/



which inputs are missing from Sound Blaster AE-9PE??

the - Audio Control Module (of ae-9 has all these things

1 x 3.5mm Mic Input

1 x 3.5mm Unbalanced 4-pole HP/Headset (CTIA)

1 x 1/4" HP Output

1 x RCA (L/R) Stereo Aux Input

1 x 1/4" TRS/XLR Combo Mic Input

1 x HP/Speaker volume knob/switch

1 x 48V Phantom power switch (ON/OFF)

1 x 3-way HP gain switch (IEM, Normal, High)

1 x 4 digit 7-segment LED Volume/Status display

1 x ACM Link Connector

Built-in X-amp

Cable Length: 1.4m



from all these things which ae-9pe doesnt have?? from this list??
 
The only people who glorify sound cards are absolute boomers who don't know any better, you mentioned that only the headphone DAC is on the desktop module, so that leaves you EMI bound on the speaker end. We've seen many sound cards in past with all these pointless shields on them against EMI fail at it. You also didn't talk about the price of this junk, it costs at least 250 when you can even find it. For that kind of price, I've gotten myself a Presonus interface which has capabilities way beyond that piece of crap. It even has coaxial outs for changing Hz / time.

LOL, take your meds bro.
 
the ae-9 has better dac and amplier from ae-5 and ae7??



also the ae-9 is better in gamiing and music from, ae-7 and ae-5?
Yes, the AE-9 is the flagship card, much like the ZxR before it and Titanium HD prior to the ZxR. Don't listen to the haters, its an excellent card, its headphone dac/amp is at least as excellent as the Schiit combo, and it has options for speakers, inputs and great software with a bunch of proprietary features.
 
LOL, take your meds bro.

This just goes to prove your mentality of being a jerk who doesn't understand anything, thank you.

Also, I wouldn't put Mackie CRs to the "cheap desktop speaker" echelon. They may be cheap on a wallet $$ respect, but they're good speakers for the money. Especially the new X versions are being preferred by smaller audio editors and such. Nevertheless, they can perfectly be ran with onboard audio as they also do RCA anyway. Yes, higher end speakers with XLR can make use of those interfaces and such, but you can perfectly buy monitors worth 100 bucks and get proper performance using onboard. Especially if it's just a room environment.

I'm also seeing that the OP already decided on buying this garbage, without even telling what kind of audio rig he has. So I'm wasting my time here.
 
Its only problem is its line in mic. Its sound is awesome but weak line input. Kind of ongoing problem with Creative. I have AE-9 but also looked at asus STX II 7.1. Also looked at Nu 7.1. Stuck with Creative. Each has drawbacks. I have edifier 760d speakers so its least good speaker. Also have Gigaworks 7.1. No longer available. Was just as good speaker with option of adding extra powered bass speaker.
 
Honestly if you're gaming and watching movies. Then the AE-5 and AE-7 are more than enough. The DAC's are good on all of them and noise you may get from the cards being internal is rather trivial. They will also absolutely blow away most on-board's both in analog sound quality and feature sets. Some on-board audio can be great, but generally only in the higher-end boards. And even then, Creatives AE series will tend to match or exceed them.

Games no longer really use hardware acceleration. So you really don't need to worry about who's better for gaming. They are all relatively equal. The differences for gaming are going to come down mostly software stuff like...

1) Legacy Support for old games. The Creative's setup for making that all work is just better outta the box. Allowing you to get things like hardware acceleration and full EAX support where it existed in old games.
2) Virtual surround headphone modes. Creatives built in SBX for this is pretty good, easily one of the best, meaning that again you get better outta the box performance for this. There are other, and potentially better for some, options. But then it's it's an extra cost, more setup or worse than SBX.

So again, if your primarily gaming and movie watching... than the extra features offered by the higher end stuff is kinda pointless (As it's geared to things like audio recording or for stuff that will make subtle differences on higher end gear for critical music listening). You can save allot of money by going with an AE-5 or AE-7 as all of the AE series are equal for gaming and movie watching.

What are the headphones and speakers you will be using tecjim?
 
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Use the card for gaming and if you are that worried get another separate USB DAC for music. I doubt most would really notice that much difference unless using esoteric oldd load headphones.
 
noise you may get from the cards being internal is rather trivial.

This thread was created in 2021 and the OP is probably long-gone, but this specific reply really goes against what I have encountered in practice. The bottom line is that background electrical noise / interference is going to depend not so much on the card itself, but rather (unsurprisingly), it will instead depend on what else in your system is actually creating that electrical noise / interference. The card could be fine in one system, but noisy in another system, just depending on the power supply and what else is located near the card.

When I used my Titanium HD in my main gaming system, there was background noise that I just couldn't get rid of. It was clearly coming from the PC because the pitch of the noise would change as I moved the mouse. I moved the card to a different PC, a dedicated PC for my 2-channel music stereo. This PC has a very sparse internal layout, using only Integrated video, etc. No major components located anywhere near the card. The card has zero background noise in this system and it allowed me to continue to utilize the great DAC in the Titanium HD for a good purpose. For my gaming system I switched to a regular X-Fi Titanium, with optical SPDIF running to an external DAC instead. Running optical SPDIF from the soundcard to the DAC negates the possibility of interference, even moreso than USB, since electrical signals can't physically travel over the optical cable, and it still allows me to use all of the features on the soundcard.

Use the card for gaming and if you are that worried get another separate USB DAC for music.

If someone went this route then they should just get an external DAC that allows them to run SPDIF from their soundcard. Use them together and harness the strengths of both devices simultaneously while only having to deal with a single Audio output device. Using the USB connection on the DAC in addition to the soundcard would result in an overly-complicated setup where different things would be using different devices/outputs, etc.
 
This thread was created in 2021 and the OP is probably long-gone, but this specific reply really goes against what I have encountered in practice. The bottom line is that background electrical noise / interference is going to depend not so much on the card itself, but rather (unsurprisingly), it will instead depend on what else in your system is actually creating that electrical noise / interference. The card could be fine in one system, but noisy in another system, just depending on the power supply and what else is located near the card.

When I used my Titanium HD in my main gaming system, there was background noise that I just couldn't get rid of. It was clearly coming from the PC because the pitch of the noise would change as I moved the mouse. I moved the card to a different PC, a dedicated PC for my 2-channel music stereo. This PC has a very sparse internal layout, using only Integrated video, etc. No major components located anywhere near the card. The card has zero background noise in this system and it allowed me to continue to utilize the great DAC in the Titanium HD for a good purpose. For my gaming system I switched to a regular X-Fi Titanium, with optical SPDIF running to an external DAC instead. Running optical SPDIF from the soundcard to the DAC negates the possibility of interference, even moreso than USB, since electrical signals can't physically travel over the optical cable, and it still allows me to use all of the features on the soundcard.



If someone went this route then they should just get an external DAC that allows them to run SPDIF from their soundcard. Use them together and harness the strengths of both devices simultaneously while only having to deal with a single Audio output device. Using the USB connection on the DAC in addition to the soundcard would result in an overly-complicated setup where different things would be using different devices/outputs, etc.

*derp* I should have checked the dates.

True enough. Going external un-complicates the issues allot. I also do remember having a system in the distant past with that same issue as yourself.
 
NERCO THREAD!!! But hey, sound cards don't get a lot of press these days. I'll chime in to say I have had my AE-7 for over a year now and it has been a great card and worthy upgrade over my SBz (which was moved to another PC and uses Optical for DTS 5.1 for streaming when TrueHD does not exists for the service/show). Music, gaming, movies... all sound great on my z906's using the Analog Signals on the AE-7. Also worth noting that SoundBlasters software and drivers are wayyyyy better these days. 0 issues. :)
 
I had AE-5 in my system for quite some time but the problem is... I can't obviously use it with my work laptop and the audio it outputs is garbage (just using it with headphone amp isn't enough). So now I'll use Topping E30 + L30 instead in terms of performance and power it does wipe the floor with anything that Creative has to offer. That being said, AE-5 is not too bad and considering all the features it offers, it's quite decent choice for the price. Assuming that you will not get ground loop issues etc.
 
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