The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Owners' Club

C64

C64

Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2007
Posts
12,884
Location
London
I thought that. I was confused at first because I was never aware any sound card ever received firmware updates.
yea same looks like a firmware section :p the cold boot issue is rare and maybe just my board or pci -e contacts as I dont use the power cable but it did only start happening since the very latest driver update
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jun 2009
Posts
5,967
Location
London
Just put one of these in my new PC build, previously had an Asus Xonar D2X.

Mighty impressed with the performance of this card, just ticks so many boxes.

Driving a pair of DT1990's with pleasure and has brought life back to my 8 year old M50's.

Using the card in direct mode and 32bit/384kHz, I presume this is the best setup if I don't want any additional processing and for the soundcard to serve purely as a DAC?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
91,141
You might find some applications don't like higher than 24/96 or 24/192 - though depends a bit on OS version, etc.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jun 2009
Posts
5,967
Location
London
You might find some applications don't like higher than 24/96 or 24/192 - though depends a bit on OS version, etc.

Yep just had the issue with Spotify, failed to play anything beyond 24/192 :p

Thanks for the heads up, I'd have been scratching my head for a bit otherwise!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
91,141
On mine if I set it higher it plays but I get a screechy sound in treble and intermittent pops/crackles.

Personally I don't notice any difference between 24/192 and higher upto my HD600s - I don't have anything higher quality to play with though and they aren't the most revealing compared with some higher end headphones.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Feb 2011
Posts
3,099
Complete noob with audio but would this card work driving some Q 3020i's? They advertise it as a headphone amp but it seems to cover the impedence range of the bookshelf speakers?
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Posts
4,815
Location
Cheshire
There s a cold boot issue on these latest drivers, sometimes when i boot up it's like the soundcards not plugged in the only thing that solves it is reseating the card in the slot
I know its the driver because its only happened on these newish updated firmware and drivers, doesn't happen all the time
I have this too.

It's almost repeatable... if I drop in to bios and then reboot, windows doesn't see the card. I have to reboot again for it to pick it up.

I don't have to reseat it mind. Although did once one my old mobo....but not on my new one.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Posts
4,815
Location
Cheshire
So I've not had any problems for a while. But i've just had my audio go muffled. Like all i was getting was bass and no mid or tweeter.

I restarted and rebooted, and with in seconds of a video it would do it.

noticed there was an update in the commander app...I've updated and rebooted and I don't think it is happening anymore.
 
Associate
Joined
28 Nov 2020
Posts
3
Hi All, I just bought a used AE-5 on eBay. Installed it last night but no matter what I do I cannot get output from the rear channels or centre/sub in my 5.1 set-up, connected to the 3 analog jacks on the AE-5. I'm running a Genelec 5.1 studio monitor set-up and it worked flawlessly with my previous card (Sound Blaster Recon3D THX). I removed that card and uninstalled all of it's software before installing the AE-5. Then I downloaded the latest SBC (3.4.94.0) and I've played with every setting I can find in SBC & Windows 10 but I get zero output from the rear & centre/sub. I have Windows 10 set up for a 5.1 config and when I hit "test" I hear left, right, then nothing, but I see from the indicators on screen that it's attempting to output to the various other channels as normal. Same thing when I click test in SBC. Just for fun I plugged my rears into the L/R jack and sure enough they're on and working, but this card appears to have no output from the actual rear & centre/sub jacks. Has anyone encountered this before? Could it be as simple as I bought a defective card on eBay? Before I take up the issue with the seller I want to be sure I've exhausted all the troubleshooting options. Thanks for any advice!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
91,141
Make sure the sound device is detected as speakers instead of headphones - I can't remember the details off the top of my head but I had the inverse problem due to output mode.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
91,141
Starting to sound like possibly a problem with the card itself then - and not something like it stuck in headphone mode.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Apr 2016
Posts
1,173
Anyone else having problems with their AE-5? Lately my sound keeps cutting in and out randomly while playing games, sometimes it cuts out completely and sometimes it goes all crackly, I can fix it by going to Windows Sound and disabling the Soundcard then re enabling it again. I'm having to do this quite often now, like once every minute when it starts playing up. My driver's are up to date and I use Sound blaster Connect 2 (3.2.28.0) which I recently uninstalled and reinstalled which seemed to fix the problem for a week but now it's back. It's nothing to do with my headphones and only happens when gaming, I use music software a lot and I never have sound issues then.

My issues sound a bit like those mentioned here (https://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=200261&c), but I am using SSD's and there are no Windows updates happening when I have sound problems and there are no high usage background tasks happening either? High utilization problems would make sense because it only happens when gaming and not when using other software. But, I've had this same system for 3 years now with the same soundcard and never had any problems until recently so the general utilization and hardware is the same as it always has been.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
15 Apr 2016
Posts
1,173
FYI the modmic hiss can be fixed by plugging the mic into a Sabrent USB Soundcard (about £8.0) rather than directly into the Soundcard. It's a common thing and a common fix, I did it to mine. See random video here:

https://youtu.be/CjFNWvqWhn

It's a very cheap easy fix with great results, just plug the Sabrent into a spare USB slot, plug the mic in and select the Sabrent in your Windows sound settings under the 'Recording' tab. No software or drivers required.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
15 Apr 2016
Posts
1,173
Anyone else having problems with their AE-5? Lately my sound keeps cutting in and out randomly while playing games, sometimes it cuts out completely and sometimes it goes all crackly, I can fix it by going to Windows Sound and disabling the Soundcard then re enabling it again. I'm having to do this quite often now, like once every minute when it starts playing up. My driver's are up to date and I use Sound blaster Connect 2 (3.2.28.0) which I recently uninstalled and reinstalled which seemed to fix the problem for a week but now it's back. It's nothing to do with my headphones and only happens when gaming, I use music software a lot and I never have sound issues then.

My issues sound a bit like those mentioned here (https://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=200261&c), but I am using SSD's and there are no Windows updates happening when I have sound problems and there are no high usage background tasks happening either? High utilization problems would make sense because it only happens when gaming and not when using other software. But, I've had this same system for 3 years now with the same soundcard and never had any problems until recently so the general utilization (about 50-80% CPU usage while gaming) and hardware is the same as it always has been.

Not sure this is actually a soundcard related issue so I'm starting a new thread about it.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
17 Feb 2009
Posts
1,240
Hi,

Looks like I'm joining the club as I've just purchased AE-5 at Ebay :)
But few seconds later I'm not convinced I've done well. I own two sounds cards already: M-Audio Delta 2496 and SB X-Fi Titanium, both used for different things. AE should replace X-Fi due to some small cracklings issues (and lacking of current drivers) - but this thread reminds me AE doesn't support CMSS 3D, which is main function in my X-Fi. I use 5.1 speakers config (no headphones at all), unfortunately with various "hearing" point, lol - during a day a sit at a desk when front speakers are closer, and during nights I'm on a bed, when rear speakers are closer (and CMSS 3D makes a big difference with movies without 5.1 track). I'd like to keep stereo -> surround converting capabilities, whatever it takes, so technology doesn't have to be named CMSS 3D - do I have any options here ?
 

C64

C64

Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2007
Posts
12,884
Location
London
relax its a fantastic card and its surround is good better than my previous sound cards xonar and various soundblasters down the years
 
Back
Top Bottom