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I disagree. I'd prefer they made heroics fun (and rewarding) instead of making them slightly faster to get through. If you run 5 heroics an hour you're still doing an hour of not-fun content.

IMO the best thing they could do would be to tune them to "Patch 2.0, Welcome to shadow labs: make yourself comfortable because you'll be here for 3 hours" difficulty and have them drop appropriate loot / frost badges.

I think they could start somewhere around the "5-manning Tier 7 raids" and scale up to "Remember when we said we'd never make another M'uru? We lied." Call it "Epic" difficulty or something. Leave "heroic" mode for badge farming 232 and have the new harder stuff assume you've got every possible heroic mode upgrade you can get.

That would be awesome. And I'd love to have it. It just wouldn't happen. So if farming heroics is how blizzard wants us to get gear (and whatever else) then making 'em quicker is there best bet.

The days of stuff requiring skill and not gear is long over and will (IMO) never been seen again. :(

As a person who has a very hard time getting into raids, I understand the need to make gear available through running not so difficult "heroic" dungeons. But I also understand that some people want to be challenged. My personal thought is that with the invention of GearScore, we have more and more people being singled out for not having leet gear and it makes it even harder for them to get into raid PUGS.

Last night I was trying to get into a regular difficulty TOC 25 man and I couldn't get in because my GS was not 5k. I even had the achievement for defeating the bosses. It didn't matter. So how are people like myself supposed to get into that content? Many people tell me to join a guild, but as I asked people to allow me to join their guild they all told me to hit 5k GS. I am running heroics all the time but heroics only get you triumph badges and at the very most I can get a few level 245 items but mostly I will have 232 with some 219 spinkled in. So what about starting my own guild? Great idea but building a guild up takes a huge amount of time and I don't know that I have the time to do that.

If the truth is that people just want challenging content, then Blizzard could easily create content that requires more coordination, but the reality is actually that people want difficult content that rewards them with significantly more powerful items... which creates a disparity of the haves and have nots. Middle ground might be to create difficult content that rewards with slightly more powerful gear or a lot rarer items such as mounts, titles, recipes, and vanity pets, customizations to armor and spell effects, unlocking new haircuts, stance and attack animations, etc. The idea is that reward for doing harder content should not necessarily be gear that creates a huge rift in the player base or the ability to access high level raid content, but perhaps content that allows the player to stand out in other ways.

I believe that Blizzard will continue to move in this direction because they have made it fairly clear that they want the people who pay their wages to be able to access the content they subscribe to. As a customer, I don't feel that being able to play through ICC should be earned through hard work and dedication, it should just be there for me to play and enjoy. This is a game after all, that I pay for. If I get to play in all the same content as the consumate raider, does that really effect anyone except those whose egos need to be massaged? I mean really, why are the high level raiders upset, and the answer always tends to be that the game has been dumbed down. What does that mean? It means that because they had the time to sit in a raid dungeon for 4-5 hours a night and coordinate difficult content, they should be rewarded with something that raises them to a class above everyone else. It's elitism in its purest form. I have enough of that in real life, trying to work my way up the corporate ladder, I don't need that in my entertainment as well.

I guess at the end of the day what I really need is for Diablo III to come out so I don't have too depend on other people to access content I pay for.

As a person who has a very hard time getting into raids, I understand the need to make gear available through running not so difficult "heroic" dungeons. But I also understand that some people want to be challenged. My personal thought is that with the invention of GearScore, we have more and more people being singled out for not having leet gear and it makes it even harder for them to get into raid PUGS.

Last night I was trying to get into a regular difficulty TOC 25 man and I couldn't get in because my GS was not 5k. I even had the achievement for defeating the bosses. It didn't matter. So how are people like myself supposed to get into that content? Many people tell me to join a guild, but as I asked people to allow me to join their guild they all told me to hit 5k GS. I am running heroics all the time but heroics only get you triumph badges and at the very most I can get a few level 245 items but mostly I will have 232 with some 219 spinkled in. So what about starting my own guild? Great idea but building a guild up takes a huge amount of time and I don't know that I have the time to do that.

If the truth is that people just want challenging content, then Blizzard could easily create content that requires more coordination, but the reality is actually that people want difficult content that rewards them with significantly more powerful items... which creates a disparity of the haves and have nots. Middle ground might be to create difficult content that rewards with slightly more powerful gear or a lot rarer items such as mounts, titles, recipes, and vanity pets, customizations to armor and spell effects, unlocking new haircuts, stance and attack animations, etc. The idea is that reward for doing harder content should not necessarily be gear that creates a huge rift in the player base or the ability to access high level raid content, but perhaps content that allows the player to stand out in other ways.

I believe that Blizzard will continue to move in this direction because they have made it fairly clear that they want the people who pay their wages to be able to access the content they subscribe to. As a customer, I don't feel that being able to play through ICC should be earned through hard work and dedication, it should just be there for me to play and enjoy. This is a game after all, that I pay for. If I get to play in all the same content as the consumate raider, does that really effect anyone except those whose egos need to be massaged? I mean really, why are the high level raiders upset, and the answer always tends to be that the game has been dumbed down. What does that mean? It means that because they had the time to sit in a raid dungeon for 4-5 hours a night and coordinate difficult content, they should be rewarded with something that raises them to a class above everyone else. It's elitism in its purest form. I have enough of that in real life, trying to work my way up the corporate ladder, I don't need that in my entertainment as well.

I guess at the end of the day what I really need is for Diablo III to come out so I don't have too depend on other people to access content I pay for.

Since the release of WoW all content has been accessible to the people who had the time and, most importantly, the skill to reach those goals.

As a child I played for travel hockey teams. Teams you had to pay fees to play on (sometimes upward of 3 thousand). Just because I made the team and payed the fee, means I get to play? No it doesn't. You have to earn your spot, you have to earn your playing time. I simply want raid content to require that you earned it and you have the skill to perform as the levels get progressively harder. That isn't the case anymore. It was made clear with the release of LK and the ease of raiding and saw it continue onto the later forms of raiding.

You payed the fee, yes you should be able to access the content you are paying for. But it shouldn't be handed to you like it is currently. You should have to work for it and prove you can make it and hold your own weight. Content now and days is easy and you can carry anyone through an instance to snag the achievements. Last night we did the new VoA boss in 25 man with mostly alts. Myself and three other were mains, the rest all alts. Alts that had T5-T6 gear still equip'd. Had Naxx10 gear unenchanted and not gemmed. Wearing quest greens from level 70-80. It took us three tries and we downed him. That shouldn't happen seeing how he drops Frost Emblems and ilvl 264 gear. Content isn't difficult and doesn't provide much of a challenge.

As far as joining a guild Nubs, I'm sure you can find a guild progressing in Ulduar that would love to have you and you can progress from there. Don't expect just because ICC is out you should be able to immediately go and raid it. The whole point of raiding is to earn gear from one tier of level to help you progress into the next.

Ensidia also has kills on LK (and quicker than BL). They also are at LK in 25 man and I'm sure we will see there kill sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Hit 71, just trying to run The Nexus now as I have 3 quests for in there and hopefully it has some more pala gear. Upgart Keep or whatever it's called is **** apart from the axe.

Quest greens are starting to outclass my BC instance blues but I refuse to change, onto instancing for better gear kthx :p

Believe it or not I'm still tearing up DPS meters, I think the Axe is helping through with +55 strength. Plus I got a trinket that causes 6 secs of crit boost when I use my judgement spell.

Since the release of WoW all content has been accessible to the people who had the time and, most importantly, the skill to reach those goals.

As a child I played for travel hockey teams. Teams you had to pay fees to play on (sometimes upward of 3 thousand). Just because I made the team and payed the fee, means I get to play? No it doesn't. You have to earn your spot, you have to earn your playing time. I simply want raid content to require that you earned it and you have the skill to perform as the levels get progressively harder. That isn't the case anymore. It was made clear with the release of LK and the ease of raiding and saw it continue onto the later forms of raiding.

You payed the fee, yes you should be able to access the content you are paying for. But it shouldn't be handed to you like it is currently. You should have to work for it and prove you can make it and hold your own weight. Content now and days is easy and you can carry anyone through an instance to snag the achievements. Last night we did the new VoA boss in 25 man with mostly alts. Myself and three other were mains, the rest all alts. Alts that had T5-T6 gear still equip'd. Had Naxx10 gear unenchanted and not gemmed. Wearing quest greens from level 70-80. It took us three tries and we downed him. That shouldn't happen seeing how he drops Frost Emblems and ilvl 264 gear. Content isn't difficult and doesn't provide much of a challenge.

As far as joining a guild Nubs, I'm sure you can find a guild progressing in Ulduar that would love to have you and you can progress from there. Don't expect just because ICC is out you should be able to immediately go and raid it. The whole point of raiding is to earn gear from one tier of level to help you progress into the next.

Ensidia also has kills on LK (and quicker than BL). They also are at LK in 25 man and I'm sure we will see there kill sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Slane,

The problem is that the vast majority of people who play this game see it differently, to them its the difference between playing a competative sport (your view) and watching a competative sport (my view). If I am paying 50 bucks for tickets to watch the Sharks beat the crap out of LA Kings, someone shouldn't come and block my view in the third period because I'm not wearing a sharks jersey. Why does it effect you if I am just handed the content?

edit:

On a side note I haven't been able to find any guilds that are doing Ulduar content except for the weeklies. Majority of guilds are doing TOTC 10 and 25 Heroic and Normal but the problem is that even those guilds are requiring 5k minimum GS just to get a chance at the raid. The other night I got in a PUG 25 TOTC and on the twins the bad ass trinket dropped, I rolled a 922 and the raid leader told me I didn't deserve it because I hadn't run the raid enough.

Slane,

The problem is that the vast majority of people who play this game see it differently, to them its the difference between playing a competative sport (your view) and watching a competative sport (my view). If I am paying 50 bucks for tickets to watch the Sharks beat the crap out of LA Kings, someone shouldn't come and block my view in the third period because I'm not wearing a sharks jersey. Why does it effect you if I am just handed the content?

That's the problem with WoW. You shouldn't be handed content, you should have earn to get the top raid instance of LK. Just like how you have to earn your 2467 5v5 arena team. It shouldn't be handed to you. That's my problem. I have no problems with them removing attunement and letting heroics be farmed so just about everyone can be in 232 gear (which is a great place to be for ToC10/ICC10 (tough but doable).

edit:

On a side note I haven't been able to find any guilds that are doing Ulduar content except for the weeklies. Majority of guilds are doing TOTC 10 and 25 Heroic and Normal but the problem is that even those guilds are requiring 5k minimum GS just to get a chance at the raid. The other night I got in a PUG 25 TOTC and on the twins the bad ass trinket dropped, I rolled a 922 and the raid leader told me I didn't deserve it because I hadn't run the raid enough.

I find the whole GS issue to be complete and utter BS. My tank gear, atm, falls short to be competitive in ICC25, but yet when I run other raids with said tanks. I do just as fine as them, in terms of TPS and raid awareness the only difference is, healers don't have such a huge cushion healing me. Which makes sense. Why take the 46k HP buffed tank when you can have the 54k HP buffed tank (all other stats also higher).

If you won that trinket and that's the level of PuG you have going on your server, you need to find a better server or/and find better PuG leaders. That's BS.

i loved WoW and played it alot from beta to release and then 10months later

but in the end i quit cause it took far to much time to do anything meaningful like raiding MC, BRS etc

basically i want to get back into it but i am no longer a student and i work the typical 9-5 but from what ive been reading from various places is

its not that much of a time sink any more and can i still get alot out of it by only putting 2 hours in every day?

can anyone vouch for this

want to be sure before i re-activate my account and start buying all the exp packs

i played on "deathwing" back in the day

basically i want to get back into it but i am no longer a student and i work the typical 9-5 but from what ive been reading from various places is

its not that much of a time sink any more and can i still get alot out of it by only putting 2 hours in every day?

It's really not much of a time sink, depending on what you want to get out of it. There's guild that put in 7 days a week for 4-7 hours on progression. Then there's guild that raid strictly 12 hours a week, regardless of progression (and can still be a top guild on a server). It all depends on what you want out it and the player you are. Couple of hours a day, via random dungeon/PvP you can get epic'd out real quick.

i loved WoW and played it alot from beta to release and then 10months later

but in the end i quit cause it took far to much time to do anything meaningful like raiding MC, BRS etc

basically i want to get back into it but i am no longer a student and i work the typical 9-5 but from what ive been reading from various places is

its not that much of a time sink any more and can i still get alot out of it by only putting 2 hours in every day?

can anyone vouch for this

want to be sure before i re-activate my account and start buying all the exp packs

i played on "deathwing" back in the day

If you are gonna play casual I think now is a great time to start back up just for the simple fact of the Dungeon Finder which makes PUGS easy to get in a short time in 2 hours you could prob run about two lvl 80 heroics a day and if you have more time on the weekend get into a guild that runs 10 mans on your schedule. Running 1-2 heroics a day will get you semi geared for the casual Raid you might attend on a weekend

It's really not much of a time sink, depending on what you want to get out of it. There's guild that put in 7 days a week for 4-7 hours on progression. Then there's guild that raid strictly 12 hours a week, regardless of progression (and can still be a top guild on a server). It all depends on what you want out it and the player you are. Couple of hours a day, via random dungeon/PvP you can get epic'd out real quick.

If you are gonna play casual I think now is a great time to start back up just for the simple fact of the Dungeon Finder which makes PUGS easy to get in a short time in 2 hours you could prob run about two lvl 80 heroics a day and if you have more time on the weekend get into a guild that runs 10 mans on your schedule. Running 1-2 heroics a day will get you semi geared for the casual Raid you might attend on a weekend

thanks for the info will give it another try

only problem is its been nearly 4.5 years since i last played so i will need to relearn everything

also all my friends on that server are probably long gone so.. im pretty much all alone :(

Please don't tell me you'd wear that in public :laugh: ?

I'd stab my eyes out before I would wear anything WoW related outside.

I already wear my alliance hat outside in public, which I may put a druid patch on the back of... soonish..

I may wear the Druid hoodie to Blizzcon if I can scrounge enough together to go.

I already wear my alliance hat outside in public, which I may put a druid patch on the back of... soonish..

I may wear the Druid hoodie to Blizzcon if I can scrounge enough together to go.

Well, props to you (Y)

I personally couldn't live with the shame and embarrassment :/

Well, props to you (Y)

I personally couldn't live with the shame and embarrassment :/

It's not bad, it stirs up some pretty interesting conversations..

EG:

Them: ALLIANCE SUCK..

Me: No.. actually, they have better lore and better quests, therefore, they are better. At least we're not stuck grinding in a desert for the first 20 odd levels.

Them: Well.. uh.. uh.. YOUR CLASS SUCKS.

Me: I didn't mention my class...:blink:

Bought myself another piece of WoW merchandise tonight:

<snipped>

Can't wait to be my Worgen druid. :)

You just convinced me to buy some WoW merchandise :)

Might get one with my guild logo on it.

It's not bad, it stirs up some pretty interesting conversations..

EG:

Them: ALLIANCE SUCK..

Me: No.. actually, they have better lore and better quests, therefore, they are better. At least we're not stuck grinding in a desert for the first 20 odd levels.

Them: Well.. uh.. uh.. YOUR CLASS SUCKS.

Me: I didn't mention my class...:blink:

Wouldn't call that interesting, more like cringeworthy :laugh:

I'm sorry to come over all condescending but WoW is such a taboo subject these days and you will be considered a loser of epic proportions among your peers

and probably among most sane people as well when you announce that you are, in fact, a World of Warcraft player. And then to wear clothes as well? I'm getting a rush of cold sweat right now just thinking about it. And yes, I am a WoW player but I'd never go around saying it like I'm proud or wear anything to tell the world ...

It's like having clothes stating you enjoy Golden Showers and Anal Beads, it's just weird and it's something you should just keep in the private of your home :rofl:

But all power to you my friend if you can wear stuff like that in public and stand by the fact you play WoW and still keep your head high - I couldn't.

A few people asked me about my UI, so here it is. You should be already familiar with setting up addons cause this is somewhat advanced stuff.

Enjoy!

That is a nice UI, I just finished updating mine tonight, ill post a screenie tomorrow when our guild raids ICC. :)

I'm sorry to come over all condescending but WoW is such a taboo subject these days and you will be considered a loser of epic proportions among your peers..

I am a first class geek / nerd already.

There's nothing more I can do to harm my self image, if they don't like me for who I am.. they're not worthy of being my friend in the first place and they can go take a flying **** off a very, very high cliff.

I don't care what people think of me, those who have gotten past my quirkiness have come to realize that quirkiness is what makes me so likable.

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  • Posts

    • Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
    • Thanks
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