Creative Sound Blaster AE-9 Ultimate Sound Card Review

Given that I was already very familiar with many of the Sound Blaster products I decided to use the Sound Blaster AE-9 in a very similar manner.  Testing was performed for quite a long time where I used the AE-9 in a variety of different configuration including with 5.1 channel desktop speakers, a Sound BlasterX H5 Gaming Headset, Pioneer HDJ-2000 headphones and a R0de Procaster microphone.  During this time I tried a variety of different sound settings all based on some of the default profiles and a few that I had created myself. 

Overall I found the audio reproduction to be extremely good with excellent imaging both in virtual surround and standard stereo.  Audio amplification was also very good as the built in amplifier drove the Blaster H5 Gaming Headset quite well.  The H5 Gaming Headset requires quite a bit more power than my Pioneer headphones and found myself setting the volume at -30 for the H5 and then dropping it down to -45 for the Pioneer.

32-Bit 384kHz playback is supported on Windows 10 using the latest Sound Blaster driver.  You can set any bitrate you like directly from the Command software with no need to go into direct mode.  Keep in mind that direct mode will bypass any Sound Blaster audio effects and send the smooth bit-rates directly to your ears.

As part of my testing I used the XLR microphone connection with my R0de Procaster.  This is the same microphone we use to record the Hardware Asylum Podcast and is far superior to anything else I had access to, including the mic on the H5 gaming headset.

One of the features in the Sound Blaster Command software is “Voice Clarity”.  When enabled it will enable a noise reduction filter to remove background sounds.  You also get some additional options to remove echo, dynamically change the recording volume and tweak the EQ settings to enhance aspects of what is being recorded.

I did a quick video to illustrate how well this feature works and what impacts it may have on your voice.  To be honest I was extremely impressed with how well it filtered out noise but wasn’t too impressed with how it changed my voice.  It isn’t bad but does impact one of the key reasons for why we use high quality microphones.

No Audio review would be complete without a sound test and for this I used the RightMark Audio Analyzer.   This test was performed using a loopback cable which is basically a cable that connects the analog line-out plug back into the analog line-in.  That way we can remove almost all of the variables and concentrate on what is actually being reproduced and recorded.

Specs
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: +0.01, -0.09 - Excellent
Noise level, dB (A):  -105.8 - Excellent
Dynamic range, dB (A): 106.0 - Excellent
THD, %:  0.00979 – Very Good
THD + Noise, dB (A):  -77.9 - Average
IMD + Noise, %:  0.020 - Good
Stereo crosstalk, dB: -87.5 - Excellent
IMD at 10 kHz, %: 0.00784 - Excellent

General performance Very Good

For the RightMark test I disabled all of the audio processing and set the output to Direct mode Stereo.  Both input and output frequency responses were left at the default 24-Bit/48kHz which was then programmed into the RightMark software. 

Loopback Testing
I would like to take a moment and discuss how the loopback test was preformed.  Normally when I do a RightMark Audio test I plug a loopback cable (dual male 3.5mm three pole cable) from the primary speaker output into a microphone input and then set the input to “Line In”.  Leaving this input on “Microphone” introduces a bunch of excess noise and can lead to poor results so whenever possible a Line Level setting is used.

The first time I tested the AE-9 I used the included RCA to 3.5mm Stereo cable and connected everything using my loopback cable and the Microphone input on the ACH.  There was no way to convert the Microphone input to Line Level and as a result I got extremely bad results. 

After speaking with Creative I discovered that the speaker outs all use a common ground that introduces noise into the crosstalk measurements.  These eventually degrade Signal to Noise and Total Harmonic Distortion and when combined with an amplified microphone input was a disaster.

Resolving this was quite simple and required a short RCA cable that connected the right and left outputs into the right and left AUX inputs found on the back of the ACH.  Using RCA cables isolated the ground and the AUX input is already set to Line Level.  After a quick configuration change to set the default input device we get the results as seen above.