Review on Enhanced Metallic Gray Creative Sound Blaster AE-9 by Mateusz Walkowski ᠌

I bought a Creative Sound Blaster AE9 sound card. The difference in sound in contrast to the built-in Realtek is very large. The sound became clearer, the drawing of the sound is clearer, the basses are tighter. At high volume (80%), the speakers withstand the sound pressure of 32bit 17500kBit / s and do not fall into a mess. Since the PCI slot on the motherboard is close to the video card, I connected the sound card through the riser, which I bought on Ali. One of the differences between the AE9 and other internal sound cards is the ability to replace the operational amplifiers without soldering. If you want to get the full benefit of your sound card from its capabilities, you need to replace the cheap NE and JRC operational amplifiers that are in the drain in the low-pass filter and voltage converter with OTHER ones. Having studied numerous videos about operational amplifiers on YouTube, I ordered original op-amps for ebay. The range of operational amplifiers is large and their combinations give a varied and multifaceted sound. I made my choice. The sound has gotten MUCH better. But that's not all. For those whose speakers live for more than 10-15 years, I recommend making a small upgrade: it is advisable to replace the run-down electrolytic capacitors in the speaker circuit, and also make additional shunting with low-capacity film capacitors with high-capacity electrolytic capacitors in the power supply. You will definitely notice how your speakers come to life and pleasantly surprise you. I listen to music through the Foobar2022 player with Asio driver in Direct Mod mode. Definitely Foobar2022 gives the most correct and best sound. Realtek driver disabled in BIOS to avoid conflict with Asio.