Creative Sound Blaster Audigy PCIe RX 7.1 Sound Card with High Performance Headphone Amp

Upgraded my computer, but my old sound blaster pci card wouldn't fit in the new mother board pcie slots. So I bought this.I thought I would just use the onboard audio on my new motherboard. But the quality wasn't anywhere near my old sound blaster card. Don't let these online YouTube comparisons fool you. They say you won't notice much of a difference between the onboard audio and a dedicated sound card. They are wrong. There is a very noticeable difference. Especially if you have somewhat decent speakers.This definitely worth it. Sounds so much better than the onboard motherboard audio.

If you're in need of upgraded sound on your PC for playback or in my case you also need top quality recording for transferring analog then this is the card to get! You'll be absolutely amazed at how much better this is than onboard integrated audio. The ASIO support is also excellent!

I have been hurting to get my 5.1 surround sound setup back after changing my PC set up(which didnt have the ports to use surround sound on the MB)I tried externals and other products but nothing could suffice. This went on sale and just said "cant hurt to try"I am running this on windows 10(the most recent version at the time of this review)The good: Installation was fairly easy, even on the current cramped set up i had. The software was easy to set up and (at least for me) worked like a charm after a restart.Once i tested it, my speakers worked amazing.with my pci ports being so close i thought there would be electrical hums coming through from the power supply and graphics card; but its nice and shielded.The volume and sound quality was a HUGE improvement compared to the motherboard's onboard sound.I can run the speakers at a good volume without cranking the knob to 100.Even with volume increased; no hiss or hum.The sound quality is nice and clean.even with my older logitech speakers, it actually makes em sound like a premium set of speakers. Even headphones sound amazing through it. I have yet to test the Amp to see how well it works so i may edit this review in the future.And surround sound actually works the way it is supposed to; no "simulated" or poorly eq'd trickery.With video games it is ESPECIALLY noticeable how well it works. And thankfully the software allows some adjustments and even adjustments under window's settings.Now overall a great product but there is one issue.The creative sound labs software is VERY janky. its very outdated looking and navigates kinda poorly. While it works well and I havent had many issues with it crashing, freezing, etc; your mileage may vary.As well it seems to have just very weird issues when running games/apps with 5.1 surround sound support. there is an option for a bypass so this wont happen but even that can cause issues which requires restarting. but that is worst case scenario.All in all, this card is definitely worth it. Isnt too overpriced and works well. And surprisingly never had the issues of crashing or any issues of the card somehow not being recognized.Highly recommend if you need this so you dont have to buy and install a new motherboard and go through that whole song and dance.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Best sound card for stereo sound. It also works amazingly with Dolby Atmos for headphones, the other modern sound cards force surround sound output only and Dolby Atmos for headphones require stereo output sound to work. Also this sound card has Dolby audio output through the optical out.

Installed and worked fine for about a week. Then during audio/video playing, would get loud static. Required me to reboot PC to get it working again. Reinstalled into a different slot/loaded latest drivers from website dated 2022 and still same problem. Returning this as Creative doesn't support it anymore and buggy drivers are one of the more common issues reported by numerous users online. Don't send money on this and get a better card. Very disappointed.

I built a new computer with a Gigabyte motherboard which unfortunately omitted the standard set of jack outputs for audio that all motherboards usually come with. So, to use my 5.1 set of Logitech computer speakers, I needed to add an additional sound card containing the jacks. Because I didn't want to spend a lot I decided on this Audigy RX sound card which seemed to have decent features at a reasonable price.As a standard PCI-E sound card, there's not much to it. Plug it in and go. Windows has the right drivers for it and I was able to add on the Creative control software so I can set it up as I like it. Standard Creative ease of use.Many reviews out there complain about low-quality sound but I don't hear that. It's easily as good as any other sound card or on-board sound any other motherboard has. Using it with my reasonably good Logitech 5.1 speakers and games or Youtube videos, there's nothing noticeable indicating the sound is of poor quality.So if you need an add-on sound card, there's no reason not to consider this Audigy RX card as it sounds fine and is very affordable.