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Sound Blaster AE-9 32-bit / 384 kHz PCI-e Sound Card and DAC $399.95 Delivered + Free Gift @ Creative Australia

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Discover Superior Audio with the Sound Blaster AE-9!

Looking to transform your audio setup? Look no further than the Sound Blaster AE-9! This premium sound card is designed to deliver unparalleled audio quality, perfect for both audiophiles and gamers.

Why Choose the AE-9?
  • Superior Sound Quality: Enjoy pristine audio clarity with the ESS SABRE-class 9038 DAC, delivering up to 32-bit / 384 kHz playback.

  • Xamp Headphone Bi-Amplifier: Experience unmatched headphone audio with our discrete bi-amp design, ensuring perfect balance and rich sound.

  • Versatile Connectivity: Switch seamlessly between devices with our external audio control module, offering extensive input/output options.

  • Crystal-Clear Communication: Enhance your voice with CrystalVoice technology, perfect for gaming and streaming.

Elevate your audio experience with the Sound Blaster AE-9. Whether you're immersing yourself in high-res music, diving into gaming worlds, or working on audio production, the AE-9 delivers exceptional quality and performance.

The current offer includes a Sound Blaster Blaze V2 gaming headset worth $69.95.

For more product specifications, check out here: https://au.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-ae-9

Or explore other offers on the sale page: https://au.creative.com/sale/

Cheers!

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closed Comments

  • +5

    What's the deal with internal soundcards making a comeback? Aren't you better off getting an external USB DAC?

    • +1

      Making a comeback? I got this 4 years ago.

      • +10

        True! they are still selling the Audigy!
        Reminds me of the days that you'd need to set the IRQ for each PCI card in the bios and make sure there are no conflicts!!

        • +10

          Thems were the days. Whippersnappers today wouldn't even know what an IRQ is!

          Come to think of it, I never really knew what it was neither. Just that you had to (profanity) around it with to make the games work.

        • +4

          LOL PCI… damn children and their fancy new technology. ISA Gravis Ultrasound is where its at :)

          • +2

            @DanielP2: PC Speaker or GTFO

            • @00: yeh, well my ZX81 didnt even do sound!

            • +1

              @00: As a much better alternative, you can build a covox from the LPT port with a bunch of resistors as dividers.

              • +1

                @DmytroP: I did build one of those… there was a driver for it in Win 3.1! It was absolutely amazing as I did not have a sound card back then.
                I could play my first WAV file with sound recorder.

    • +1

      I dont know.

      The main benefit of a dac is getting it physically away from the internals of a PC to reduce interference.

      Not sure why you would put one back into the case.

    • -1

      I kinda hate dacs, one more thing on the table.

      Tho I do have a Denon amp sitting on my computer desk connected to a 2.1 setup. If I wanted only headphones and to save space I'd have a dac

    • +1

      But USB only has 5Gb bandwidth. Audiophules can hear all the noise from over-compresssion.

      How could a $15 USB DAC possibly not sound like tin cans? /s

      https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/MU7E2FE/A/usb-c-to-35-…

      To get the theoretical best sound, you want digital to the amplifier with integrated DAC, of course.

      • Only?. 5Gbit/s is 500 MB/s of bandwidth which is what USB 3 is. Tell me even which audiophile sound system uses any where near 500 MB/s to stream audio? Heck even 24bit uncompressed audio uses no where near that amount of bandwidth. Even USB 2 has plenty enough bandwidth for uncompressed audio.

        Heck on TV Blu-ray players can stream 7.1 channel 24bit uncompressed audio and also 4K video at a max of 144Mbit/s which is no where near as fast as USB 3 500Mbit/s bandwidth.

        So you are wrong. USB is plenty fast enough for any audiophile sound system.

        • FYI, the "/s" means the preceding was sarcasm, as people can sometimes miss it when in text form.

          https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1rdj3t/w…

          I was saying that a $15 Apple USB DAC does the job very well. HDMI to a surround amplifier is even better.

          • @bargaino: No one gets sarcasm anymore on the internet it's wild, people are so joyless and anything that's extremely sarcastic just flies over them now.

    • +2

      I'm amazed Creative are still in business. Topping and SMSL should be eating their lunch.

      • I’m currently waiting for a SMSL to do lower in price on 3C.

        To the parents comment about external. My motherboard sound output is noisy from my graphics card. Scrolling etc generates buzzing. So yeah I’m currently using an old SPDIF-RCA DAC from the MB optical output, and it sounds much better.

      • Topping and SMS…

        …and Fosi, and Douk, and…

    • I use both. Internal sound card Asus xonar d2x for speakers and a topping dx3pro dac amp for headphones.

  • +2

    Still cheaper than the first sound card I got back in the early 90s

    • +1

      Tell me King's Quest 6 wasn't awesome on an 8 bit soundblaster!

      • "Girl in the tower…"

      • Still have my Sound Blaster card complete in box.

  • +5

    maybe because you get a headset with it?
    imagine spending $400 on a sound card to use with $50 headphones, lol

    here it is. $49.99
    https://au.creative.com/p/headphones-headsets/sound-blaster-…

    • +5

      Ewww… I'd rather have a discount than that as a free "gift".

    • $400 is nothing for sound hardware.

      • It's nothing if you start to consider the other hardware you need to buy to get this running properly on 5.1 speakers.

        Check out the price on 5-7 channel power amps.

  • +1

    Hi OP. Are the OPAMPS interchangeable? Thanks.

  • +1

    Better to go with Sound Blaster or Gravis Ultrasound?

    • +2

      GUS all the way. With the Wavetable 😃

    • I don't mind as long as they have a joystick port.

  • +1

    This 384 ksps sample rate has a Nyquist bandwidth of 192 kHz. My hearing and speakers go up to about 18 kHz. With all the supposed beat frequencies as well, it’s marketing at best. And 32 bits means over 4 billion steps in the waveform amplitude, again completely OTT. But well, DAC ICs are getting made that can do this for a few dollars so why not.

    • In practice what I like about this on pc is the way it can handle games and movies or a few other things. None of which are really high quality audio stuff but I think it would be harder to find anything for the pc that could do it much better.

      The headphone accessory is pretty cool but that could probably be done a lot cheaper if you just wanted headphones.

      I can't see how throwing in a cheap set of headphones will make any difference to people looking to buy this.

  • Just want to shout-out @CLPL for their customer service on the last deal. I'm a happy Creative customer.

  • +1

    Before anyone buys this, take a look at some reviews of the current wave of cheap Chinese HiFi gear; you can get those same ESS Sabre chips in cheaper hardware without the marketing budget.

    • -1

      Do they feature undocumented additional mic inputs?

  • This is actually not too bad for the money considering it’s not just an amp and descent dac but also a usb interface as well.
    Plus whatever those headphones are..
    So if you need all those things I’d say it’s worth considering.

    But if you only want a really good amp and DAC for the money, I don’t think you can go past the FiiO K5 Pro ESS for the sub 300 mark.

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