Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus SABRE32-class Hi-res 32-bit/384 kHz PCIe Gaming Sound Card and DAC with Dolby Digital and DTS, Xamp Discrete Headphone Bi-amp, Up to 122dB SNR, RGB Lighting System

My Experience with Fixing Popping Sounds and Poor Audio PlaybackHey everyone, here’s the deal:I’ve been battling nonstop audio issues on my system since I built it. My setup includes:Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-E Gaming WiFiAudio: Onboard Realtek soundSpeakers: Dell Altec Lansing ADA995 THX 5.1The Problem:From day one, I’ve had relentless popping sounds. It wasn’t terrible for music or movies, but every new audio event caused a pop at the start. To make matters worse, only the left and right speakers worked properly. During a Windows speaker test, I could hear sound from all speakers (center, left, right, and rear), but in actual playback, I couldn’t get all speakers to work together, no matter what I did.I’ve spent 20+ years in IT, so I tried everything:Disabled power-saving modes for the Realtek card using a registry hack (worked temporarily on another system).Tried installing the latest drivers through ASUS Armory Crate.Disabled the virtual driver, installed Realtek's app from the Microsoft Store, and downloaded every piece of software from ASUS and Realtek.Reinstalled drivers at least 10 times (as of January 2025).Nothing worked. The sound quality remained poor, the popping persisted, and my speakers refused to cooperate in harmony.The Solution:This week, I hit my breaking point and decided to try a dedicated sound card. I ordered the Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus SABRE32-class Hi-res Gaming Sound Card off Amazon for around $130.Holy. Crap. What a difference.All my speakers now work beautifully.The card includes an amazing built-in EQ, which lets me adjust individual speaker volumes. I cranked up the rears, boosted bass, treble, and mids, and tweaked everything to perfection.No more popping sounds. My system now sounds 3X better.I also downloaded Sound Blaster Command (Creative’s software), which is surprisingly excellent. I typically avoid letting extra software run on my system, but this one stays. It’s my digital EQ and totally worth it.Pros:Crystal-clear audio, no more popping.Full control over individual speaker volumes and EQ settings.My 5.1 system finally delivers the sound quality I’ve been chasing for years.Music sounds incredible, and my system cranks like never before.Cons:There’s a bit of reverb from Sound Blaster Command that I’d love to reduce by about 25%, but I haven’t found the setting yet.Final Thoughts:If you’ve been suffering through Realtek’s onboard audio issues like I have, do yourself a favor and invest in this sound card. This upgrade has been a total game-changer for me.Thanks, Sound Blaster, for bringing joy back to my audio setup. Realtek, on the other hand... well, you know where I stand.I hope this helps someone out there!Cheers,A happy human (soon to be deaf).

I listen to a music library stored on my computer. Expensive Yamaha receiver and Dynaudio speakers. I replaced an ASUS Xonar AE card ($70) with the Sound Blaster AE5 ($159). The Xonar was slightly better than the system sound on my motherboard. The AE5 is a notable improvement over the Xonar. It's quieter with a lower noise-floor, yet with more power and authority. It offers better separation and sound stage. My system was able to reflect the improved sonics of the AE5. I value music and was pleasantly surprised that this card was actually worth the money. Recommended.

Took a little effort to get set up, but once it did. The money and effort was worth it. I love the sound quality and power. I love it

Works with Windows 7 , 10 and 11 , I have windows 11 Pro . Easy to install and setup , just make your fine tuning adjustments and away you go . Is a great sound card but could be better , but it blows the onboard sound of the motherboard away ! You can also adjust the LED lighting thru the program you install which is from there site , Use the Windows 10 program for windows 11 . I have my setup at 5.1 , it will do 7.1 as well !

There is nothing better than Creative Sound Cards, I always install them in everyone of my computers. The quality is top notch. The light on this card I think are a nice touch if you have a windowed case to see them. Love it!!

This is the singular worst sound card I've ever had, which mostly comes down to the terrible software and drivers needed for the device to function.- Sound randomly cuts out for seemingly no reason. Sometime it'll happen once in a day, sometimes it'll happen 10 times in 20 minutes.- Audio will randomly include static while streaming or watching videos for seemingly no reason.- Sound Blaster Command is the singular worst piece of software I've ever had the displeasure of using and is required to use the majority of functions on the device. I've had to completely reinstall the software and driver multiple times because they just randomly stop working, the program would just crash when starting and would never run again. Uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it in the same file location would cause the new installation to crash immediately. I would have to choose a new file location when reinstalling every time to get the program to run again. The program is slow and unresponsive even when running and would constantly cause issues, such as swapping my left and right channels and taking forever to swap settings when functioning normally. The driver and software would also cause significant negative impact on my computer, causing the system to slow down and games to run poorly while the software was running. The only solution I've found is to completely uninstall all related software, making this sound card a fancy paper weight. The software also has not had an update in 4 years and it seems unlikely the manufacturer has any interest in improving the software needed to run this device. After encountering these problems and doing further research online, these issues seem to be common and unsolvable even when working with the manufacture, as most people have just purchased a different device.This was in a brand new rebuild of my computer using Windows 10.Avoid this sound card at all costs.