INTRODUCTION

   The move by all motherboard manufacturers to include low-cost (in most cases at least) onboard sound cards just over a decade ago may have been a good indication that audio was not nearly as crucial/important as graphics for most consumers and gamers but there's always been many who disagree and for those people there's one name that has been around since it all begun back in the late 80's and early 90's, Creative Labs (Creative now). It may have already been almost 30 years but it feels like yesterday that i got my hands on the Sound Blaster 16 model (remember, back then there was no integrated audio so to have sound you needed an ISA card - or a PCI card later on) followed by the AWE32 and AWE64 models (and eventually the entire Audigy series) so due to my very long history with their products I’ve always kept an eye out for updates by Creative. The Sound Blaster AE-9 Hi-Res PCIe Sound Card is their latest flagship model and it's been plugged on our primary test rig for almost 3 weeks now.

   Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Famous for its Sound Blaster® sound cards and for driving the multimedia revolution - which established a user base of 400 million - Creative drives digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions that include premium wireless speakers, wireless headphones, powerful audiophile-grade digital amplifiers and next-generation home-theatre systems. Aiming at the new mobile networked generation by bridging the worlds of the computer, smartphones, and tablets, Creative continues to reinvent the Sound Blaster, with its ground-breaking Sound Blaster Roar series and USB-audio class of products such as the Sound Blaster X7.

   The Sound Blaster AE-9 was developed by Creative with a simple goal in mind, to overwhelm the PC audio market with its specifications and features. To that end Creative equipped the Sound Blaster AE-9 with the audiophile-grade 8-channel ES9038PRO SABRE (current flagship of the ESS PRO series) DAC (digital-to-audio converter) which supports 32-bit stereo (analog output) playback at 384kHz (129dB SNR and THD of just 0.0001%) and the 8-channel SABRE9006A DAC which supports 24-bit discrete 5.1 surround sound (analog & optical output) playback at 192kHz. For optimal audio results Creative paired the ES9038PRO SABRE DAC with Nichicon fine-gold capacitors, swappable OP-AMPS (left and right channels are amplified separately), clearline technology (shields the card against voltage rail issues and microphone noise) and an external audio control module (ACM) which can be used both as a headphone amplifier and as an audio input device (6-pin power connector required). It also goes without saying that through their command software Creative has packed numerous features in the Sound Blaster AE-9 including a very detailed equalizer with 34 different presets, their various filters (virtual surround, crystallizer, crystal voice, bass and scout) and the very popular Dolby Audio and DTS Connect encoders (S/PDIF only).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Creative ships the Sound Blaster AE-9 inside a small box the front of which is taken by a large product picture placed over the main product features and beneath a sticker of a local award.

The how one can connect equipment to each of the available ports and connectors on the Sound Blaster AE-9 is showcased on the right side.

Contact information for Creative HQ and its branches is printed at the base of the box.

At the rear of the box Creative has placed in-depth descriptions of the products main features in 5 languages.

The card is wrapped inside a static-free bag and is placed in a piece of black foam.

Along with the Sound Blaster AE-9 and its audio control module you will also receive an shielded/reinforced stereo RCA to 3.5mm cable, digital S/PDIF cable, 3.5mm to stereo RCA adapter, warranty papers and the user manual.

THE SOUND BLASTER AE-9

The Sound Blaster AE-9 is a medium sized PCIe card (looks slightly larger compared to the ZXR).

The NU Audio Pro by EVGA is currently without doubt the primary competition for the Sound Blaster AE-9 so i thought it would be nice to have both of them next to each other.

Aside reducing the temperature of interior components, the top aluminum shroud also provides EMI shielding.

Creative has also placed LEDs on the top rear of the card right under the product name but unfortunately these aren't RGB ones.

A 6-pin power connector located at the rear of the card provides power to the external audio control module.

The rear of the PCB is painted black as you can see from the above picture (no backplate).

Let's not forget that the AE-9 features 4 swappable OP-AMPS, two for the line out and two for the headphones out.

At the front of the card we see the red and white RCA connectors (stereo output), two 3.5mm jacks (analog 5.1) and two S/PDIF (digital/optical 5.1) connectors for both input and output.

The audio control module (ACM) features a small VFW screen and a volume control knob and doubles both as a discreet Xamp headphone bi-amplifier (3.5mm & 6.3mm headphone outputs / up to 600ohm) and as an audio interface (XLR/TRS connector, 3.5mm microphone input and rear RCA connectors) and also supports +48 volt phantom power for use with condenser microphones (features an SNR of 123dB and a THD of up to 0.0004%).

Two long rubber feet are used to keep the audio control module in place.

A mini HDMI connector is used to attach the ACM to the Sound Blaster AE-9.

Here you can see how the rear top LEDs and the ACM look like when the Sound Blaster AE-9 is in operation.

SOUND BLASTER COMMAND

Once you download and install the Sound Blaster Command software it will detect and download available updates as seen above.

After that you will see the main tab which is quite overwhelming and certainly not what we see with any PC peripherals let alone audio related ones.

From here you can either load one of the 24 available SBX profiles or you can adjust the available filters placed right beneath.

Inside the equalizer tab Creative has placed the bass and treble sliders and of course the equalizer with its 34 available presets (some are shared with the profiles tab).

The playback tab is where things really get interesting since from here you can choose your speaker configuration (stereo/5.1 surround) and the speaker size (desktop/bookshelf/tower/custom), calibrate the speakers based on their position/distance, enable direct mode (found this to be ideal for watching movies and listening to music), use one of the 7 available filters and set the desired audio quality (32-bit/96kHz for 5.1 surround analog, 24-bit/192kHz for optical and 32-bit/384kHz for analog direct).

Everything related to recording is placed in the recording tab and aside volume, noise reduction and quality (up to 32-bit/96kHz) you can also enable several filters like voice morphing (18 modes), voice clarity, acoustic echo cancellation smart volume and microphone equalizer (11 presets).

For FPS gamers (especially multiplayer ones) the scout mode may actually come in handy since it does enhance effects like footsteps.

If you happen to be using the S/PDIF output then you can use the Dolby enhancements found in the encoder tab.

Just like with the Windows volume mixer the mixer tab allows you to adjust volumes.

Finally, you can check for software updates, enable/disable the software from starting with Windows and reset the software to its factory settings from the settings tab.

CONCLUSION

   As with previous audio cards I used the Sound Blaster AE-9 with two surround sound systems (5.1 Yamaha Amp with Crystal Audio Speakers / 7.1 Yamaha Amp with Tannoy Speakers - optical) and two stereo speaker sets (Harman Kardon Nova / Edifier S1000DB - analog) and even though these are far from the best speakers out in the market they do point out possible differences between cards, quite effectively I might add. So as expected I compared the Sound Blaster AE-9 to the previous X-Fi Titanium HD and ZxR models and the EVGA NU Audio and NU Audio Pro models for a total of 17 days with several movies (Blu-Ray), lossless audio tracks (FLAC) and games (Star Citizen, Forza Horizon 4, Doom Eternal, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, Grand Theft Auto V and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey). Just like in the case of the EVGA NU Audio/Pro cards sound quality is very noticeable between the X-Fi Titanium HD and ZxR models and the Sound Blaster AE-9 (in pretty much everything) but when comparing the former with the latter (NU Audio/Pro & Sound Blaster AE-9) things get somewhat complicated. You see in movies and audio all 3 cards (NU Audio/NU Audio Pro/Sound Blaster AE-9) perform roughly the same (with the NU Audio Pro model leading by a very small margin) but when moving to games (especially like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Doom Eternal) the Sound Blaster AE-9 is the clear winner thanks to its incredibly detailed audio, probably because of its several cutting edge gaming enhancements, scout mode included. This is not really a surprise since Creative has been in the business of making gaming oriented cards since the 90’s but that difference didn’t exist with the ZxR so it’s obvious that they put more effort in the development of this model. Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier I was surprised to see that the rear top LEDs are neither RGB nor can they be controlled from within the Sound Blaster Command software. Another issue is with the ACM since it’s made out of plastic and feels quite “cheap”. Granted the material used comes second to its features but when you pay such an amount for an audio card you expect more, at least i do. Also, i did reach out to a certain OP-AMP manufacturer since I did want to swap the stock ones out and see what gains one can get by doing so but no reply as of yet (if that changes i will be sure to update the review).

   With a price tag currently set at USD351.54 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 380.82Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Sound Blaster AE-9 by Creative is probably the most expensive gaming audio card in the market today. Because of its price the Sound Blaster AE-9 needs to be perfect in every single thing and honestly, it’s not. It does excel in games and does extremely well in movies and audio but it lacks RGB LEDs (we are in the RGB era after all / I think the AE-5 model does have RGB LEDs), backplate (would improve looks, reduce temperatures and increase durability) and even though the external audio control module can be very useful to some people it lacks the “finesse” I’d expect in terms of build quality. Some people may say that I’m nitpicking and i just might be but remember that this is an audio card that costs the same as a GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card (or a Radeon RX 5700 XT) so i need to (just like i always do with products that carry hefty price tags). This of course doesn’t mean the Sound Blaster AE-9 isn’t worth your money because if you're an audiophile it obviously does (especially if you’re also a gamer), it’s just that i hope Creative puts more weight in all aspects of their next cards. All said and done the Sound Blaster AE-9 is without doubt the best audiophile-grade gaming audio card in the market today and for that it deserves our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Premium Audio Components (ESS / Nichicon)
- Excellent Audio Clarity / Detail
- Impressive 3D Positioning Audio
- Swappable OP ΑMPs
- Creative 3D Enhancements
- External Audio Control Module
- 5.1 Analog & Digital Surround Sound Outputs
- Optical Input & Output
- EMS Shielding Shroud
- Sound Blaster Command Software (Available Settings)

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- ACM Build Quality
- Lacks RGB LEDs & Backplate