New Sound Blaster Recon3D Fits Mac, PC, Consoles

[CPU666d1]

Onboard sound can't even compare with addon sound cards,so this will be a bonus to the market.

 

[Guest]

They haven't even gotten the drivers right for the X-Fi series... this will be a mess if they don't try harder on the software side of things. The brand new drivers, and the older drivers, for my two X-Fi (PCI and PCI-e) still sometimes forget they are installed, or change my settings to default, or stop allowing me to even change my settings forcing a re-install... I am intrigued however and I may try creative one last time before jumping ship to ASUS, M-Audio, or HT Omega...

 

[kanaida]

With HDMI offering superior quality, whats the point. Even my old Asus Xonar D2 had better specs than this, now I just use it for it's high quality line in and mic. It's > 104 SNR. But seriously, once you try HDMI on even a cheapy sony receiver, it's like day and night. Plus bluray and dvd's just work better when you decode those suckers via native DTS HD etc... It's also louder because there's no DAC/ADC doubling. There's just one, the receiver. Not like 4 conversions + a wire that looses power and quality.

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]But now everything is digital, there is no need for signal to noise ratio unless it is in your amp.We all have USB headphones, or S/PDIF optical, or HDMI to our receivers these days, so why bother? They could easily license their DAC and ADC tech to receiver makers, but they don't.They are in such a great position as far as technology goes that they could take over the audio industry... if only they would hire an 8 year old to take over and run the business end correctly...[/citation]

You obviously don't know shit about audio.

How can you sit there and say everything is digital now and then talk about licensing ADC and DAC technology? You DO understand that all digital audio signals HAVE to be converted to analog at some point... right? If your card doesn't do it, your headphones, speakers, etc will, and they probably don't have high quality DACs. In fact, I doubt any set of USB headphones have decent DACs.

I don't disagree that Creative is going about this all wrong. They are. But, not for any of the reasons you mentioned.

If they were smart, they'd make contracts with motherboard manufacturers to incorporate their technology on their boards. This would capitalize on people like you who apparently can't tell the difference between cheap DACs and quality DACs and those who don't want to spend extra money or can't fit another card due to their graphics cards.
Also, if they really want to provide a worthwhile product for gamers, they'd design a sound card that allows developers to create their own effects and use the sound card to offload processing. I'm not talking EAX effects where you're constrained to a specific set of effects, I'm talking about a universal audio processing unit (like PhysX did for physics).

Apart from that, I'd like to see front-audio connectors that aren't proprietary and FAR better ASIO performance. Why even have an "Audio Creation" mode if you can't even get the buffer below 256 without clicks and pops? My MOTU 828MK3 does it at 64 and my crappy Mackie Onyx Satellite does it at 128. That's just sad...

 

[johnsmithhatesVLC]

I love how you put Mac first instead of the order said by Sim Wong Hoo, Chairman and CEO of Creative Technology Ltd. I see someone prefers Macs.

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]hannibal[/nom]Motherboard integrated sound can never be as good as an separate sound apparatus. But yeah, you need good speakers or headphones to tell the difference. (The mobo causes allkind of electronic distorsion to the sound...)[/citation]

This is mostly true. Having all that circuitry next to your audio causes lots of EMI. That's why it's good to have either a card to process audio or buy a motherboard with on-board audio standing off the main board.

 

[apache_lives]

bla never buying creative again not worth the bother

 

[reggieray]

[citation][nom]cpu666d1[/nom]Onboard sound can't even compare with addon sound cards,so this will be a bonus to the market.[/citation]
Agree, I used my onboard sound until I noticed it was dropping sounds in some games with allot of channels running at once. Put in my older Audigy2 and no problems since.

 

[DaveUK]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Man, so sad to see such a great company continue to circle the toilet. I spent good money on an Audigy Platinum EX card with external breakout box. It did good game audio, and had very clean inputs for doing beginning audio recording. But now everything is digital, there is no need for signal to noise ratio unless it is in your amp.We all have USB headphones, or S/PDIF optical, or HDMI to our receivers these days, so why bother? And now on-board audio is more than good enough for all but the pickiest of audiophiles. And even for them there are much better sound card companies to go with.They had great sound cards until Vista/7 rendered them useless. They had several iPod killers that had superb audio quality in the Zen players that never got off the ground because of a crap advertising department. They have good on board chips, but they overcharge for them so nobody wants them. They have very clean audio inputs, but have never pursued breaking into the pro recording industry. They could easily license their DAC and ADC tech to receiver makers, but they don't.They are in such a great position as far as technology goes that they could take over the audio industry... if only they would hire an 8 year old to take over and run the business end correctly...[/citation]

I have used Creative sound cards for many many years, probably since the original Sound Blaster, and most recently an X-Fi Platinum... and I really couldn't disagree more with most of what you've said!

Onboard sound is rubbish, both in terms of audio quality and CPU overhead. The exact same problem goes for the majority of USB headsets/speakers.

Creative's hardware acceleration of audio processing tasks and delivery of 3D audio positioning is absolutely excellent as anyone who has tried CMSS 3D with headphones will attest to. The music enhancements and upmixing to 5.1 is also very good and certainly better than most low/mid-range Hi-Fi seperate systems (my own $1000 custom-picked setup included).

Creative are not the first company delivering a superior product hardware-wise to lose out to Apple's brand power and they won't be the last, so it is unfair to pick on them for that.

And they have are involved in the recording market - try googling E-Mu. There are just other companies that specialise in professional audio that are already entrenched there, so it has never been a primary market focus for Creative.

Did I miss anything?

 

[apache_lives]

[citation][nom]DaveUK[/nom]I have used Creative sound cards for many many years, probably since the original Sound Blaster, and most recently an X-Fi Platinum... and I really couldn't disagree more with most of what you've said!Onboard sound is rubbish, both in terms of audio quality and CPU overhead. The exact same problem goes for the majority of USB headsets/speakers. Creative's hardware acceleration of audio processing tasks and delivery of 3D audio positioning is absolutely excellent as anyone who has tried CMSS 3D with headphones will attest to. The music enhancements and upmixing to 5.1 is also very good and certainly better than most low/mid-range Hi-Fi seperate systems (my own $1000 custom-picked setup included).Creative are not the first company delivering a superior product hardware-wise to lose out to Apple's brand power and they won't be the last, so it is unfair to pick on them for that.And they have are involved in the recording market - try googling E-Mu. There are just other companies that specialise in professional audio that are already entrenched there, so it has never been a primary market focus for Creative.Did I miss anything?[/citation]

You missed the random BSOD's, drop-outs, lack of driver support, general crappyness of there products.

Onboard is bland but it atleast is consistent at being there and producing sound.

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]apache_lives[/nom]You missed the random BSOD's, drop-outs, lack of driver support, general crappyness of there products.Onboard is bland but it atleast is consistent at being there and producing sound.[/citation]

It's consistently noisy, due to it's onboard nature.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a Creative card, but I think it behooves any user to get their audio circuitry away from their motherboards circuitry. Apart from the reduction in EMI, you'll also acquire much better converters and, in many cases, increase the number of voices your computer can handle before dropouts occur.

Again, since most AAA developers have moved away from EAX in favor of more customizable software solutions, I think it's most important to improve the quality of sound than it is to have a game-centric sound card.

However, I do agree with your list of Creative's performance issues. I bought the original Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music when it came out (the one with extra RAM didn't seem to be worth it, and I turned out to be correct). It's worked flawlessly on XP, but as soon as Vista/Win7 came out, it hasn't been the same.nThe drivers are an embarrassment. I'm sure any benefits of having hardware audio are offset by the bloated drivers and software that come with the card.

 

[someoneelse]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom] And now on-board audio is more than good enough for all but the pickiest of audiophiles.[/citation]
sorry dude but with my realtek onboard sound I can hear the feedback as the mouse moves over menus( IDK why ). The sound is dire compared with my creative £20 oem pci card. I wish mobo manufactures would stop using realtek sound. It's just the pits.

 

[Guest]

It'd be nice if Tom's did a comprehensive article on the current state of PC Audio. Especially under windows 7. I'd love something that covers the difference between on-board realtek, USB headphones like Logitechs G35's and offerings like sound blasters Xi-fi and this new line. Discussing the state of drivers, how they work, what's changed with Win 7 etc. I used to be a die-hard Sound Blaster fan, but since upgrading through Vista-Win 7 I had TERRIBLE experiences getting audio cards to work with games and just went on-board. Then I went USB/G35's. The audio quality isn't too shabby but it's not like what I used to have. But I have no desire to go back to BSOD ville with add-on cards in Win7.

 

[apache_lives]

[citation][nom]someoneelse[/nom]sorry dude but with my realtek onboard sound I can hear the feedback as the mouse moves over menus( IDK why ). The sound is dire compared with my creative £20 oem pci card. I wish mobo manufactures would stop using realtek sound. It's just the pits.[/citation]

Realtek onboard is 10000% better then other onboard sound chips trust me, realtek actually produce drivers every few weeks and one driver works for all - SoundMax/ADI on the other hand every chip requires different drivers, you cant get the drivers from SoundMax/ADI directly so you have to use outdated mobo manufacturers drivers BLA, same goes for Conexant (HP/Compaq etc) and Sigmatel (Dell)

The sound feedback you hear i know what your talking about, iv hear it on my older systems/speakers etc.

 

[skyjogger]

people who say on board is fine, need to get their hearing checked. im no audiophile but the difference between realtek (Apache_Lives i agree about the drivers realtek are a lot better than the others) on-board and any creative card is phenomenal. as far as drivers go i have used sound-blaster cards since the SB16 and i have never had any trouble with drivers. when i up graded to vista i just installed the new drivers and it just worked and has kept just working even now under win 7.
but i can see where people are coming from if you have a good AV receiver it replaces the need for this because you skip the processing in the computer and the receiver, i do this on my HTPC, but on my main PC i just have an analog speakers hooked up to an old amp and you need the sound processing then and most people do only have analog speakers connected to their computer and would benefit greatly from one of these but don't realize it.

 

[alyoshka]

Yeah, try that on 64bit systems and their drivers suck even if you can get them to work first.....

 

[Guest]

Heard Creative is further downsizing its workforce and many engineers had left before even the restructuring started. This results in projects stalling such as the smart phone. Foxcoon sue Creative previously for default payment. Guess this should be this. They already have a smart phone prototype long ago. Creative comes out with quad core sound card without explaining its significant benefits . It does not explain how it can achieve 3D sound effects on its audio api for software developers or how it can bring THX to another level. It needs to do a showcase to everyone on advantage of SoundBlaster 3D enable such as using EAX or OpenAL before we can agreed that it's a significant upgrade. How about the speakers? It either needs a strategy to win back the market share and responses more quickly to competitions.