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Up your audio game with the new Sound BlasterX AE-5

By Marcus Wong - on 13 Jun 2017, 3:26pm

Up your audio game with the new Sound BlasterX AE-5

Creative has just announced what they’re calling “the world’s best gaming headphone amplifier for PCs.” – the Sound BlasterX AE-5. It comes with a custom-designed 122dB ESS Sabre DAC, and an Xamp discrete headphone amp that uses audiophile-grade WIMA film/foil capacitors in a discrete dual-amp design.

The Sound BlasterX AE-5 is a premium audiophile grade DAC.

The high heat resistance of those WIMA capacitors greatly reduces noise and audio interference, and the Xamp’s extremely low output impedance of just 1W allows it to drive even the most sensitive of headphones with impedances of 16W to 600W.

Back to the DAC, this is a Sabre class DAC that is paired with a quad-core Sound Core3D audio DSP, giving you up to 32 times more clarity when compared to regular motherboard audio.

The underside of the Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5.

A premium audiophile-grade DAC in its own right, the custom DAC has a high dynamic range that allows for up to 32-bit/384kHz lossless playback with true audio fidelity for great sound in games, movies and music.

Pair that with Creative’s award-winning audio processing and you’ll definitely be able enjoy your audio just the way you want it. Throw the focus on vocal reproduction for movies, or switch it to in-game voice communications, or even enable 7.1 virtual surround sound. All of these are available with just a simple adjustment in the control panel.

Gamers will be pleased to know the Sound BlasterX AE-5 comes with Scout 2.0 – an upgraded version of Creative’s Scout Mode feature. This now comes with Scout Radar, an app that runs on your smart device that allows you to visualize where your enemies are on the Scout Radar, while Scout Mode lets you hear them before they’re seen on screen.

The Aurora Reactive Lighting system lets you create your own light show in your computer.

Finally, the Sound BlasterX AE-5 is the first sound card to feature a built-in RGB controller that has the popular Aurora Reactive Lighting system. This lights up the card through the PCB, and you can connect up to four LED strips to the card to create your very own light show with up to 16.8 million colors using the Sound Blaster Connect PC software.

The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure edition, comes with four LED strips with 10 LEDs each.

A special edition of the Sound BlasterX AE-5 will also be available on Creative’s online store. Known as the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure edition, this will come with four 30cm LED strips with 10 LEDs each.

The Sound BlasterX AE-5 will be available in July 2017 on www.creative.com and at authorized dealers for US$149.99, while the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure edition will be available exclusively on www.creative.com for US$179.99 in August 2017.

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