Sound BlasterX AE-5 PCIE Soundcard $159.95, Sound Blaster X7 USB DAC $395, Sound Blaster ZxR $259.95 Shipped @ Creative Labs

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PEthicsGradient on 05/12/2019 - 16:19 au.creative.com (710 clicks)
Last edited 05/12/2019 - 18:52 by 1 other user

sludo posted the Creative Cyber Friday Deal for headphones a couple of days ago (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/user/73993). There are also pretty good discounts on a couple of sound card/DACs in this sale. All of these are significantly better than staticice pricing if you factor in the free shipping above $99.

https://au.creative.com/cyberweek/

Sound BlasterX AE-5, $159.95 (30%). Not a best ever price, but pretty bloody good. I've scored this so, keeping my fingers crossed on cleaning up noise from MB/GPU).

Sound Blaster ZxR, $259.95 (35%). I'm guessing this is a stock clearance with the AE-7 and AE-9 inbound.

Sound Blaster X7, $395 (39%). Still outrageously priced for what it is, better than the even more outrageously priced and slightly less discounted LIMITED EDITION X7 at $495.95/29%.

Sound Blaster G5, $139.95 (30%). Clearance again?

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  PlagueistheCheap on 05/12/2019 - 16:56

  I paid $140 for the ae-5 over a year ago and I'm sure the regular eBay specials could beat that.

  • 

    EthicsGradient on 05/12/2019 - 17:04

    +1

    Might well have been the case a year ago, but from checking ebay and staticice, I doubt you'd get close to that at the moment - exchange rates have not been kind to us over the last year, and ebay deals at the moment mostly suck kind of lightly.

    I also checked OzBargain, and the only deals in recent history for the AE-5 were $148 and $190 shipped.

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      PlagueistheCheap on 05/12/2019 - 17:20

      +4

      Sorry didnt mean to come accross as a d!ck. Im sure alot of people could get good benefit from this. Thankyou for posting.

      • 

        EthicsGradient on 05/12/2019 - 17:36

        +2

        No need for the apology - I thought your comment was reasonable and was just responding with things that have changed since last year (and are sadly outside our control). I'm also cheerful enough to point people away ebay just at the moment.

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  superroach on 05/12/2019 - 17:34

  +7

  My biggest shock is creative labs and sound blaster still exist!

  • 

    EthicsGradient on 05/12/2019 - 17:37

    +2

    If you want a bigger shock, dip into the Creative labs reddit. Not only do they have reps interfacing with gear owners, but they are even releasing driver updates based on feedback. Not the creative most of us know!

    • 

      roddy84 on 05/12/2019 - 17:40

      +1

      Check since Ryan left.

    • 

      thushan on 05/12/2019 - 19:51

      they've gone from being Creative to becoming creative! guess all that sound blasting them have helped!

    • 

      lostn on 05/12/2019 - 21:35

      my experience with creative is that they are lazy with drivers. They don't update them when they become obsolete and you have to use hacks and workarounds to continue using your gear.

      I once said I would never buy a creative sound card again. 10 years later, I assumed maybe they're different now and I bought a sound blaster Z. They were exactly the same. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

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  IJustKnowStuff on 05/12/2019 - 20:39

  What's the CPU toll on a USB sound card. I hear there's a bit of a toll when using USB WiFi adapters. I can imagine this wouldn't be too dissimilar.

  • 

    EthicsGradient on 05/12/2019 - 21:43

    I don't have personal experience with the Creative gear, but after several days of digging into it, it looks as though most owners of the G6 like it a lot and have no complaints about CPU impact (the G5 less so - some weird interface choices and a tendency to die younger than it should).

    That said, I used an Asus Xonar U7 for years before it got the blinky light disease, and it ran with minimal CPU load and nice clean sound, and I'd expect that any USB interface would be similar.