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Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D THX PCIE Sound Card - $77.50 Amazon US Shipped

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Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D THX PCIE Sound Card - $77.50 Amazon US ShippedAffiliate
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dreamscene on 28/09/2012 - 09:42 amazon.com (239 clicks)
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Hi guy's, saw this on Amazon. Aussie price is ~$105. What I found intriguing was the built in headphone amp to drive up to 600ohm headphones. It get's 4 stars on Amazon. I think it would be a cheap upgrade from the built in sound card most of us are using. Chime in with your thoughts.

Usual marketing blah blah..

  1. Quad-core (lol…sigh) Sound Core3D Audio Processor

  2. THX TruStudio Pro sound technologies

  3. Dolby Digital Live for compelling 5.1 surround sound from any source

  4. Dedicated high quality headphone amp; supports headphones and headsets with up to 600 ohms impedance

  5. Connects to your home theatre system through a single digital cable and enjoy cinematic DVD movies by transforming any stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 audio streams into high fidelity immersive surround sound

  6. The next generation Sound Blaster card - the Sound Blaster Recon3D - is powered by Sound Core3D™ and heralds a new age in 3D gaming audio and online voice communication. Hardware-accelerated THX® TruStudio Pro™ audio technologies deliver unsurpassed audio playback quality, while the innovative CrystalVoice™ processing lets you communicate with crystal clear vocal fidelity in your multiplayer games, online chats and video conferencing.

Engineered for low power consumption and high performance, the Sound Core3D processor is Creative's first sound and voice processor to integrate a quad-core high-performance digital signal processor (DSP) and high-quality converters onto a single chip.

Specs:

  1. 24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs (up to 96 kHz sample rate)
  2. 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources (up to 96 kHz sample rate to analog outputs)
  3. 16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates: 8,11.025,16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz

System Requirements

  • Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD equivalent processor, 2.2 GHz or faster
  • Intel, AMD or 100% compatible motherboard
  • Microsoft Windows 7 (32/64-bit)
  • 1GB RAM
  • 600MB of free hard disk space
  • Available PCI Express (x1, x4 or x16) slot
  • Available CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive

Cheers,
DS.

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.
Computing Computer Component Creative Sound Card

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closed Comments

  • Shlomo Scheinbaum on 28/09/2012 - 09:57

    Doesn't Asus make better value sound cards these days?

    • MATTDAMON on 28/09/2012 - 10:09

      No, but recon3D cards are a bit lame, the older Xfi were much better.

    • Untameable on 28/09/2012 - 10:11

      If you run old games you want Creative for their Alchemy driver.

      This card is actually pretty neat, looks like it has the individual speaker outputs (needed if you have a Cambridge Soundworks) AND digital out.

      • bentan77 on 28/09/2012 - 10:56

        Pretty sure the newer Creative cards don't support Alchemy

        • viggenn on 28/09/2012 - 11:53

          I think its software support? On my X-Fi Titanium I find Alchemy a little flaky at times.

    • Jabba the Hutt on 28/09/2012 - 12:02

      Maybe not for those who require the powerful amp raved about in the deal description - those who just want to drive HD-600s or DT-250s or other big-ohm cans straight from the PC's audio jack with decent quality at the lowest price.

  • hellbound on 28/09/2012 - 10:21
    +4

    Odds of the card working properly with Windows 8?
    A lot of people got burnt by Creative with the OS jump from XP to Vista, not sure I'd trust them to support future windows versions properly.

    • XeSSiV on 28/09/2012 - 10:29

      You'd think if they're releasing new cards then they'd cater for the standard Windows OS of today right.. Maybe they messed up before but I doubt they'd be that silly to do it again. Windows 8 shouldn't be an issue either.

      • FabMan on 28/09/2012 - 10:42
        +1

        It was appalling, something like 2+ years for drivers after spending a lot on their products. I do not intend to buy another of their products again.

        Plus by charging so much for EAX they prevented many companies taking it up.

        Why do we need this post processing technology?

    • Phoebus on 28/09/2012 - 10:41

      Not that I'd ever buy a Creative product again (I got burnt with their sound card and their ridiculous proprietary speakers), but Creative went out of their way to make sure Vista drivers for current products would not work for products that were no longer being sold.

      As for people with "soundworks" speakers…. double stupid.

    • lostn on 28/09/2012 - 13:54

      A lot of people got burnt by Creative with the OS jump from XP to Vista, not sure I'd trust them to support future windows versions properly.

      I remember that. Those bastards forced me to either stick to XP or start using on board audio, and on board back then was not that great.

      I might give them a miss just to teach them a lesson.

  • registradus on 28/09/2012 - 10:51

    ASUS has terrible driver support.

    • widden on 28/09/2012 - 14:13

      and so does creative :)

  • bargaino on 28/09/2012 - 10:56
    +5

    Sound Blaster? Does it come with a CD_ROM drive and a copy of Microsoft Encarta?

    • naphman on 28/09/2012 - 11:59

      …and the copy of "Syndicate"? (The original - not that NEW garbage one!)

      • Jabba the Hutt on 28/09/2012 - 12:04
        +1

        A copy of Return to Zork would have me sold.

        • naphman on 28/09/2012 - 12:11

          Laugh…we're all getting old to remember the bundled items for hardware from years past.

        • FabMan on 28/09/2012 - 12:55

          http://www.ebay.com/itm/Syndicate-Plus-Strike-Commander-Ulti…

          I owned these games and I couldn't remember how I got them until I saw this conversation.

        • Jabba the Hutt on 28/09/2012 - 13:07

          I still have my copy of Grolier's encyclopedia from one of those kits. Will have to see if it runs on Windows 7.

        • Russ on 28/09/2012 - 14:11

          My ISA bus soundblaster card came with a copy of Lemmings. That was a looong time ago. Still in use, still works.

        • Jabba the Hutt on 28/09/2012 - 14:19

          Hahaha, so did mine! Not to mention Indy 500 which made crashing just as fun as racing. And who could forget Dr SBAITSO and the talking parrot…

  • Black Hole on 28/09/2012 - 11:02

    I have the asus xonar essence stx for a year now and will never looked back. It has transformed my musical experience.

  • senc on 28/09/2012 - 12:28

    As much as I love the Creative… I have never had ANY of my warranty issues resolved… I suppose Amazon have a decent returns policy..

  • PlagueistheCheap on 28/09/2012 - 13:33

    I will never buy a creative product ever again, bought the titanium x-fi sound card a year ago and nothing but problems. The drivers are appalling.

  • lostn on 28/09/2012 - 13:52

    Sounds very tempting though I already have an Asus Xonar. What I want to know is, can you install Creative drivers without all the bloatware that comes with it?

  • widden on 28/09/2012 - 14:12

    Not a bad deal, but I still vote for an Asus Xonar DX instead. Only a few bucks more.

    • Vladdo on 28/09/2012 - 21:44

      I have a D2X and am ready to ditch it.. no driver updates for over a year, no win 8 drivers on the horizon, EAX 2/GX mode has never really functioned/crashed..

      At least theres a glimmer of hope from creative.. they've got X-Fi windows 8 drivers which isn't bad for a 4+ year old soundcard..

      Might go buy one from MSY tomorrow for $100.. CBF waiting a month for it to turn up to save $20 & no warranty..

      • lostn on 29/09/2012 - 01:26

        Isn't Recon3D the brand new successor to X-fi, i.e. better? If it's cheaper to get the better model, wouldn't it be a no brainer? I mean, what's the hurry. In the meantime you can use on board sound, or your existing card. Unless you need to start listening to stuff immediately that you can't do with your existing audio, makes more sense to buy the Recon if you ask me.

        • Vladdo on 29/09/2012 - 12:44

          Yes it is the successor, but every review I've read say that it's worse than the x-fi titanium.. So with that in mind, I decided not to buy it.. I have a xonar d2x so it would probably be a step backwards, but I'm ready to jump onto the win 8 bandwagon but there's no xonar d2x drivers..

          Anyway, going to wait a little while and see what happens with win 8, since hardware acceleration is now back, but it looks like no cards/drivers support it yet..

        • lostn on 29/09/2012 - 14:26

          I see. I'm skipping win 8 and waiting for win 9. Win 8 is the new Vista, as happens with every second OS from Microsoft.

          Win98, 2000 = good
          WinMe = bad
          WinXP = good
          Vista = bad
          Win 7 = good
          Win 8 = bad
          Win 9 = good?

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