007vsMagua
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I use an older Recon3D PCIe which has worked fine for many years. The Recon3D is now at "end of life". I'm still able to find the driver at Creative and I'm wondering what I could upgrade to. When I go to the Creative support page I no longer see internal cards as an option to choose from in the product selection. Is Creative moving away from making internal sound cards for PCs? I found the Sound Blaster Z listed when searching the Sound Blaster address. It's now marked down and I would be interested in picking it up if I had confidence this product won't become "end of life" soon also.
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KenMcC
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/24 11:40:28
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seems to me that the internal Audio chip puts out great sound. You don't need a complete board when internal firmware on modern motherboards does the same thing. just my opinion. Yes I am still using a P55 but, I have purchased all new EVGA stuff that has arrived and I am reading up on how to install Win 10 and Office 2016.
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transdogmifier
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/24 11:53:29
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KenMcC seems to me that the internal Audio chip puts out great sound. You don't need a complete board when internal firmware on modern motherboards does the same thing. just my opinion. Yes I am still using a P55 but, I have purchased all new EVGA stuff that has arrived and I am reading up on how to install Win 10 and Office 2016.
My onboard sound seems just fine to me..but I don't do sound/music creation or editing..
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WackyWRZ
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/24 12:03:32
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They have a whole section of internal soundcards on their site... http://www.soundblaster.com/products/soundcards so I doubt they are discontinuing. Their support site just is catered to the most popular items - that's why at the bottom it says "If your product is not listed above click here". If there isn't anything wrong with the Recon3D I would keep using it. All computer hardware goes EOL at some point so you'll never avoid it. I've got a Sound Blaster Z myself that I have had for a year or two that works great. To me it sounds better than the onboard from my motherboard but it could be because the soundcard is amplified and I ONLY use headphones. The USB sound cards (or USB headsets with built-in DSP) have become more popular lately because they can be used on multiple devices and I have heard good things about them. If my soundcard were to die today I don't know that I would buy another one though... I think you could probably achieve the same thing just buying something like a Fiio headphone amp or DSP and hooking it up to the motherboard's sound.
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MSim
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/24 15:03:31
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Nothing wrong with using older PCI-E sound card, long as it has all the features and windows drivers you need.
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XrayMan
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/24 18:50:54
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I would update that sound card with a newer one.
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007vsMagua
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/25 12:04:48
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Thanks for the reply's. The way I currently use my Recon3D is running an optical cord to my Yamaha receiver. I have a nice 5:1 surround system in my computer room and the only time I wear gaming headphones is when I've played online games, like Left 4 Dead, and I also need to talk. I currently have the Corsair H2100 wireless USB headset, so I don't need a great soundcard for headphones. What got me interested in thinking about my soundcard was that I started having problems with switching "Playback Modes" in Windows > Sound. I've been trying to record Minecraft using Shadowplay. The mike on the Corsair headphone really sucks, the volume is way to low with no way to control it in their software. So I tried hooking up my inexpensive but nice Azden shotgun mic to the sound card, but it never recorded my voice even though I had selected Recon3D in "Recording" > Windows > Sound. So anyway, I thought that the software for my Recon3D was getting old and maybe the software for newer models might be better.
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rjohnson11
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/25 12:16:22
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Creative ticked a lot of people off with providing new drivers for the last few generation operating systems at a snail's pace. A lot of people moved to other sound card providers.
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007vsMagua
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/25 12:28:12
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rjohnson11 Creative ticked a lot of people off with providing new drivers for the last few generation operating systems at a snail's pace. A lot of people moved to other sound card providers.
Thanks rjohnson11, good to see you're still active.
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XrayMan
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/25 21:15:28
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Drivers work fine for me.
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MSim
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/26 15:04:22
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007vsMagua
rjohnson11 Creative ticked a lot of people off with providing new drivers for the last few generation operating systems at a snail's pace. A lot of people moved to other sound card providers.
Thanks rjohnson11, good to see you're still active.
Hes always active on here, just check Computer industry news section. After the creative audigy ZS line, people kept saying creative drivers were junk. I replaced my old creative audigy ZS platinum with HT Omega Claro+ (PCI slot). Not sure which sound card i will go with on my next build.
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WackyWRZ
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/26 16:35:15
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I've heard really good things about the Strix cards and the software that comes with them. The sonic radar stuff looks pretty interesting too.
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ragevirusqq
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/26 16:40:45
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WackyWRZ I've heard really good things about the Strix cards and the software that comes with them. The sonic radar stuff looks pretty interesting too.
Most of that bundled asus software is pretty buggy. I have played with most of it on a z97 m7hero I had and none of it really worked 100% of the time. Most of it got uninstalled after a couple days. Also, some peeps consider sonic radar cheating. just mention it in a comp CSGO match and listen to the rage that ensues. Even though half the people playing are probably using it or something similar. HAHA my vote goes for just plain good quality sound. I use a Mayflower objective 2 DAC/AMP with some good quality headphones or monitors. It doesnt really get any better. Most of that software surround stuff sucks too.
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Vlada011
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/26 17:18:00
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Sound Blaster Z is great, ZxR is even better if someone want to pay 200$. But I think most people are satisfied with Z version. SBZ series is far better than Recon.
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candle_86
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/31 10:20:29
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no need to replace it if it still works, hell I still use an Audigy 2 ZS, why because it still works great and sounds awesome
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007vsMagua
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/08/31 10:31:50
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candle_86 no need to replace it if it still works, hell I still use an Audigy 2 ZS, why because it still works great and sounds awesome
Yeah, I finally got my audio codecs sorted out and the card is working great again.
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AngryAce
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/09/11 00:12:28
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ragevirusqq
WackyWRZ I've heard really good things about the Strix cards and the software that comes with them. The sonic radar stuff looks pretty interesting too.
Most of that bundled asus software is pretty buggy. I have played with most of it on a z97 m7hero I had and none of it really worked 100% of the time. Most of it got uninstalled after a couple days. Also, some peeps consider sonic radar cheating. just mention it in a comp CSGO match and listen to the rage that ensues. Even though half the people playing are probably using it or something similar. HAHA my vote goes for just plain good quality sound. I use a Mayflower objective 2 DAC/AMP with some good quality headphones or monitors. It doesnt really get any better. Most of that software surround stuff sucks too.
On-board sound doesn't have the power to drive a decent pair of headphones IMO. I am currently testing the differences between a Sound Blaster Zx and Asus Strix Raid DLX. the Asus card sounds pretty dam good and the software seems great but the sonic radar is just gimmicky, I never look at it when playing otherwise I am dead and isn't that accurate either, can't believe ppl think it is cheating. The aesthetics of the card sucks, black grey and orange. That odd owls eye faces the bottom and in the back near the PCI-e and has an orange LED. The Shield is stops about 3/4 down the card and you can see light blue CAPS plus the 6-pin power connector. Overall, think Asus needs to go back to the drawing board with card. The Sound Blaster has a quality feel about it, nice aluminum shield but it is red and it has BRIGHT red leds that clashed with my white theme build. I was however, able to remove the red leds and solder in some white ones and use the shield from my X-fi Titanium Fatal1ty pro.... Looks great. Sound quality is good as well.
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daddyd302
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/09/11 06:28:11
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I took my Soundblaster Z out when I added my old Pioneer Elite receiver. For some odd reason it was causing a weird static crackling noise in movies. It sounded fine when I was using my Logitech Z5500. I guess the receiver didn't like then soundcard.
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007vsMagua
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/09/11 09:37:24
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I eventually got my Recon3D working good again. I had to uninstall and reinstall the driver and control panel software about a half dozen times. The problem I had was that the software was not installing the Dolby Digital Live Pack and so no option for Cinematic. Eventually it took and I was able to select the Dolby Encoder. The other problem I was having was being able to switch playback devices in the Windows Sound Control Panel. Switching from my USB wireless Corsair Headset to Recon3d Speakers was just not working. What I eventually stumbled upon was that the Recon3D SPDIF-Out needs to set to "Ready". Now I know how to move between the two devices. All is good. Thanks for all the replies.
post edited by 007vsMagua - 2016/09/11 09:43:03
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XrayMan
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/09/11 16:53:35
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WgregB
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Re: Creative: Sound Blaster Internal Sound Cards?
2016/09/11 19:49:47
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Has anyone ever noticed that after Creative comes out with a new sound card they will shortly after stop support for the previous product. No improving the drivers or fixing compatibility problems. They just stop. So you'll buy the new one. Right?
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