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

This works in Linux without any special drivers. I bought it specifically for the MIDI synthesis functionality, which works as expected after awesfxload is used to load a soundfont. This card supports having many different programs send audio to it without any software mixing. I'd say its only flaw is audio recording. Its default mic capture is 8-bit mono, which is of course useless, and so to get good quality microphone recording, you have to utilize its 3rd capture device, which only supports 16-channel recording, as it seems to have a pair of channels for every recording source in the card. On the one hand this is kind of fabulous because it means there's probably many more options for recording here than you would get with any other card, but the downside is that you're going to have to get ChatGPT to help you write a /etc/asound.conf that creates a virtual device that exposes only the 2 channels of that 16-channel device that you want, as no recording software is prepared to record 16 channels and throw out 14 of them. In spite of that, I don't think there's a better card than this one that you can get for Linux.

If you buy a PC or a laptop these days, it almost certainly comes with a sound chipset that implements a standard called HD Audio. "HD, high definition, sounds good, right?" Well, no. All that really means is the chipset knows how to talk to a HDMI interface, like your TV. But HD Audio chipsets are actually terrible. Now, if you want to ADD a soundcard into a PC? You want the same thing, right? Well, no, you probably don't. Because why would you add in HD Audio to a PC that already has it? Creative's Audigy brand USED to mean high quality sound cards. But now, many Audigy models (like the Audigy Fx) are just cheap HD audio chipsets no better than what's already in your computer. The Audigy Rx is one of the exceptions. It is NOT a junk HD Audio chipset. It is built around an EMU10K1 digital sound processor, and it is capable of PHENOMENALLY good sound. You'll need good speakers, and possibly even an external amplifier, to let it really strut its stuff, but connect it to sound hardware capable of matching what it can put out and it will SHINE. If you're putting a sound card into a PC running Linux, this is the only one you will need. (You only need to enable one driver in the kernel, snd_emu10k1 along with its snd_emu10k1_synth module.) There's one "Gotcha!" to be aware of. This card has TWO sets of audio connections — a set of six 1/8" audio jacks, and an optical S/PDIF digital output. It DEFAULTS to using the S/PDIF, even if you have nothing connected to it. If you want to use the analog jacks, you will have to set the mixer control 'Audigy Analog/Digital Output Jack' to ON. ON is analog; OFF is digital. If it's set wrong you will have no sound out. Bottom line: A great price for a really good sound card that can do far more than other cards in its price range.

The Audigy Rx changed the way I think about Creative audio products, somewhat, well...at least *some of them* anyway seem to be developing to be different products than those I'd been used to in the 2006-2012 time frame anyway. Although still somewhat burdened by massive software packages that goes with the hardware they sell (to wit, when I was using the Creative Fatality Titanium sound card prior to 2010 when I discovered Asus and other brands of audio cards, that card was blessed/cursed with almost 1GB of software panels, sound packages, and peripheral enhancements to the card, so much so that the card was virtually useless if one actually tried to *use* several of the sound panels at once! So I leaned toward castigation when it came time to review/analyze and/or use Creative products prior to this sound card I'm reviewing tonight. The Audigy Rx is a much simpler system of performance and enhancements it seems, with a virtual array of control panels to the card that begs the imagination, however, these sound panels are much less intrusive and actually help the card perform vs previous experiences I've had with this company. or example, there's the EAX Studio, with multiple effect groups to use, of which I found the most helpful and defined was the simple graphic equalizer, itself with an array of effects and special tonal additions to the card's output. Still, I found that I got the most out of the Audigy Rx by simply leaving the controls set to "Living Room", and having just a simple special effect or two going on, a slight reverb or vocal effect perhaps, in order to derive the best sound possible out of a plethora of choices. I tried out most of the complex control panels that are offered in the software package but discarded them all for the purity of the sound card itself, and left the enhancements to simple balancing of my speaker system (5.1/7.1 Logitech Z906 Computer Speaker System, with five satellites pumping out some 50+Watts of power each, a midrange for clear voice and high-instruments like guitar or upper register horns and strings, and a thunderous sub-woofer that can crank out wall-bending thumps and low register bangs with some 220W of power behind it (all RMS readings). With those types of adjustments in mind, I was able to achieve fantastic effects and increases in the level of sound per musical component group in a recording, tape, or TV offering/BluRay movie rather than letting a crazy control panel take over and literally ruin the sound experience. If I indulged my constant fiddling with the system controls and actually *used* the Creative control panels that were available to try and balance or improve the music or sounds, I found myself fighting clipping and distortion of the worst order, just like with the Fatality sound card. Memories like that are not easily forgotten! But the Audigy Rx has many great qualities going for it, and I count among them a finely honed treble and high note group of sounds, while the bass is strong, but somewhat subdued vs the previous cards I used from Creative, a very nice balance of effects! For those reasons I rated the Audigy Rx 4-Stars, and it deserves all of that and then some. Were it not for the inclusion of unnecessary control panels which could potentially damage one's aural experience with this audio card, I'd have rated the card 5 Stars, but still...it's a VAST improvement over the other Creative offerings that I have used prior to this card. Much to my pleasure this card also embodies a very nice faculty for being able to push the sound up, up and away in the listener's experiential framework, and play music and live shows at much louder levels than one would normally associate with such things, and still maintain a very nice balance, ambience and verve. I might go so far as to say I think that this audio card is the creme de la creme of the lot of inexpensive audio cards from Creative, Asus, and others, and that it gets my "Kick arse" award for an inexpensive audio card being sold today! After all the price point of the Audigy Rx is somewhere around $60-$80, while the card actually costs just more than $65 shipped, a cool bargain in my book of tricks for audio cards. You might say that this card is Creative's turn toward more realistic and specifically less-enhanced audio cards, at least I can hope so, can't I? They mean well, they just don't know how to straddle the balance between "great sound" and "excessive sound" it seems. Well, maybe with the tendency of this audio card to minimize the audio experience and let the music do the talking, such as a great audio card generally does, it signals that Creative has been listening to people's comments about their products after all...again, I can hope right? I really do enjoy my bargain basement cost Creatvie Audigy Rx audio card over all others in this price range of say $60 to $110 or so, and I'm convinced that if you just simple do NOT indulge Creative's tendency to utility over-dramatic effects into music and other sounds that a computer can generate or enhance, and just simply take the sound and its message to a new and pure, easy listening sound effect device like other cards tend to do, and adjust accordingly! Suffice to say I really *like* this card a lot, or I wouldn't have given it such a great write up and wasted my time, you dig? Creative really could use more lessons in humble-pie sounds and simplistic tonalities such as other great audio card manufacturers have and use. The alternative is to go back to where they were 4-5 years ago with their products just filled to the brim with special effects and tedious attempts at trendy and cool control panels, panels which did nothing but help ruin a great listening experience in my view. I like what this audio card signifies for me with respect to Creative's contributions in the future of audio cards and sound...they can choose to make sounds better for the listener rather than bombard us with special effects, and ruin the output that their audio cards are capable of delivering, just like the Audigy Rx does WITHOUT indulging its control panels and special effects to the maximum levels. Take it easy, Creative, and continue to concentrate on improving sound rather than defining it in terms of all the special effects that you are capable of giving the listener. That is my advice to the company, and I hope that they take it and run with it. Wavey Davey - 9-10-2014

This card is fantastic and the (near) perfect replacement for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. In my opinion, the sound quality is better for your ears and is much more fun to play with and to record. The only flaw... No THX. But that's not a big deal to me. I bought this card to replace an old favorite of mine. You see, I have two computers with both Windows XP and 7 installed on both of them on separate hard drives. My old favorite is the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and both computers had one. They also have my least favorite, (In my opinion and for my reasons) Sound Blaster Recon3D. When I use XP on either computer I can use the Audigy 2, but when I use Windows 7, I have to use Recon3D because Audigy 2 is not compatible with Windows 7. Now here is why I wanted this card, the Audigy RX. First off, it is almost exactly like the Audigy 2 ZS but with one minor flaw. It doesn't have THX. There is a better side to this card though. It works both on XP and 7, 32 and 64 bit. So now I no longer have to keep plugging and unplugging my wires. The more expensive Recon3D has a great Surround feature, but it's more for Stereo Surround on 5.1. The card also has a hideous Crystalizer which wreaks my ears and kills your speakers. It's made for clarity but all it really is, an enhanced treble system. My speakers are not crap either. It is a like new Logitech Z-5500 Digital Speakers. A rare system that cost me over $500 and I haven't seen them sold again since I bought it a few years back. The reason I brought up the Recon3D is because I do not want anyone making the same mistake I did. I wanted a good sound card with my own custom settings for Windows 7 and I made the mistake of buying the Recon3D. You cannot custom hardly anything on the Recon3D. Only the surround and crystalizer from 0% to 100%. Nothing more. If you want a card for Windows 7 and XP that works exactly like the Audigy 2 ZS, get this card. The Audigy RX. I hope this helps anyone who needed to know.

I recently upgraded my system and the new board was missing the toslink optical output. I wanted a decent quality sound card that had this port and found this card. So far it sounds great and works well. I am not a big audio buff but it is at least as good as the onboard if not better. I am sure if I had the right speakers it would be amazing. Cons: I have the latest version of Windows 11 and the default drivers would not work. I had to download the creative drivers. This was easy but I am a minimalist and would rather use built in drivers.

I bought this to supplement/replace my so-so onboard threadripper audio (realtek). I had a dedicated SB Live! PCIe card for nearly 13 years prior to my x399 setup. It worked. The sound was decent. It wasn't magical, like the time I purchased a Sound Blaster 16 (which was a legendary card in the 1990s). So, with my handy dandy new x399, the onboard audio - realtek - was just not that great. (OTOH I wasn't a big fan of realtek's ethernet ICs; they are cheap and do not have features like hardware checksum offloading, etc which cheap intel/3com cards of old had working) Looking over the spec sheet for the x399 chipset's realtek stuff (rebranded to Asus, but still a realtek), it wasn't that impressive either. Sure, it looked good on paper, but many things look good on paper. So I decided to go back to my favorite brand from decades ago; Sound Blaster. I saw this card on sale and decided that it supported everything I needed (digital output, 7.1 sound, etc) Was delivered today; Disabled onboard audio on bios, shut down PC, installed card, installed drivers. No sound. At all. Rechecked cables, disconnected/reconnected cables, reinstalled/upgraded/downgraded drivers over the course of 3 hours. No sound. At all. Decided that either the card was faulty, or creative labs decided to get creative and just break the drivers. I found quite a few forum posts on reddit and countless others with problems with 'no sound after xxx windows update' or 'doesn't support VM isolation on windows 11' Big red flag there. Creative's support more or less told me that I shouldn't be overclocking my DDR4-3200 memory to, 3200 and I should go back to the stock (2166). What? This is just sheer lunacy. I decided to just send the card back for a complete refund, as it doesn't work. I will never ever buy a Creative Card again. Ever.

I had an old Asus Xonar DG, the legendary cheap-but effective-sound card w/amp for many years. But, from day one, it was super finnicky and often my computer would boot up and not see it at all, and I'd go into a tizzy turning my PC off, wiggling the card, turning my PC on, still not seeing the PC detecting, repeat ad nauseum until the PC finally managed to detect it, and all would be fine until one random day the whole process would need to be done again. For some reason, I put up with that for years. I FINALLY replaced it with this card, and it just works. No fiddling. No futzing. I look back at the lost years of my life, and just sigh. Now, there was one small hiccup. After getting it setup and enabling headphone/virtual surround sound (I find stereo in headphones while gaming to be almost a painful experience), it reset to stereo at some point, and it took me a few days to figure out that that had occurred. I was going crazy thinking my headphones were breaking, etc. It hasn't reset itself since then. The control panel and various options are definitely a HUGE step back from what the Asus Xonar line gives you, but the bliss of never having to futz around with the connection of the card to my motherboard easily trumps that.

I miss the glory days when sound really mattered for gaming. When the sound effects of the game were designed around SoudBlasters EAX technology it really made them come to life. Today it seems that sound is good. it is immersive but it feels like it is missing that sharpness. the crispness of the environment around you. Part of my problem is that I bought into the Razer Tiamat 7.1. true surround headset. not the virtual stuff. I have 9 speakers within 3 inches of my head. that is kinda where the impressiveness stops. but that is an entirely different review. When I got the headset, I also purchased the Asus Strix raid 7.1 sound card. which comes with this external controller that you must use. It was okay as long you used the software to boost everything. It was worthless otherwise. Built a new system that has the SoundBlaster Recon 3Di chipset on board. It sounded pretty good. However, I had to do a shutdown the system once a week because the sound would get all garbled. And you have to use the mobo mfg drivers. All this lead me back to the Audigy RX. 7.1 card. It works well now. Had to disable the GeForce audio passthrough to my monitor speakers in order for the card to retain being the default setting. Or it would be default but apps would go out the GeForce output. It would be fine one day and then poof out the wrong device. And it would look fine when you navigated to the screen to change the setting. Change it to how it was playing save the change it back and it would work for a while. So, ended up just disabling GeForce audio all together. After that it’s been pretty stable. However, another small print. Is that its only 7.1 if you have the sound blaster speakers. Otherwise it too is only 5.1. The latest driver is from 8/14/2018. Sound quality is what you’d expect from a Audigy card. Still only 24bit audio. Seems most of the 32bit audio is external cards which.. I just don’t understand why they went that direction. Anyway, hope this helps someone decide if they want it.. or.. don’t want it.

très bon produit

A little pricey but a very good quality card. Please check for PCIe X1 slot & space if you already have a graphics card. Mine is a snug fit but does fine. The sound quality is awesome and discover a new level of sound quality while listening to your usual music. Other special features are dual mic and powerful headphone amp. Best experienced with Media monkey player or winamp. The bass is prominent and using it with my old Creative inspire 4500 (4.1) speakers. Its worth spending a few bucks for crisp music experience.

Bought this card because of the background hiss, speckled crackling and hums from the on-board sound. Initially very disappointed as I got very similar problems from the Audigy. I had read somewhere regarding the same problem, that you needed to use the card for a couple of days before these background noises resolve themselves. Couldn't see how that could work. Tried reseating the card with no improvement. Persevered for a couple of days checking drivers and sound applications. I had recently updated my Slackware system to 14.2 and was having trouble anyway with to the move to pulse. Gave up and decided to return the card and try one of these USB external sound adapter but it was a couple of week before I could get round to shutting down and removing the card. At this stage the problems were so bad I stopped listening to sound fed from the computer On the appointed day before I started I fired up BBC iplayer and lo and behold the sound was perfect. With some excite I then tried Spotify. Utter silence between tracks. If I'm not playing something I forget that I have the amp turned on, it is absolutely silent. I'm astonished. Why this happens I have no idea but the sound quality and stereo separation is now better than anything I have had in the last 20 years. My speakers are still the old Wharfdale based boxes that I built over 45 years ago while still at college. The amp is an old Trio that I inherited nearly 10 years ago. The combination is perhaps a bit boomy on the bass (I don't even have the sub-woofer connected at the moment) but this is just joy and bliss.

The sound card looks very nice and the sound is perfect, worth the money.

Der Sound Blaster Audigy 5 kommt mit PCIe- Anschluss und der Möglichkeit, vom Kopfhörer bis zum 7.1 Sound alles anhören, dabei noch zwei Mikrofone gleichzeitig zu betreiben (oder ein Mikro und ein Line-in Eingang anzuschließen) und einen optischen Toslink Anschluss zu verwenden, darüber hinaus besitzt sie noch über einen kräftigen Kopfhörer-Ausgang. Es gibt kaum ein andere Soundkarte, die diese Vielfalt anbietet, den Creative auf dieser Karte mit ihrem eigenen E-MU Soundchip realisiert. Ich verwende die Karte in einem Intel-Serverboard, das von Hause aus keinen Soundchip enthält und virtualisiere sie unter Windows Server 2016. Board und Software sind bekannt für ihre Anforderungen: die Software von Creative läuft jedoch einwandfrei, die Karte funktioniert hervorragend und liefert auch in den Gastbetriebssystemen was sie soll: Musik zum Abwinken. Creative liefert hier eine hervorragende Consumer-Karte, die alles für den Hausgebrauch zum auch fortgeschrittenen Musik hören liefert. Wer dagegen Musik selbst produzieren und in das halbprofessionelle Lager einsteigen möchte, wird am ehesten mit einem Gerät wie dem Steinberg UR22 MKII USB Audio Interface inkl. Apple iPad Support glücklich werden.