Creative introduces the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Pure Edition in a white finish with added RGB effects

Creative has introduced the limited edition Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure Plus Edition in a white variant with additional RGB lighting. The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure Plus Edition also supports Dolby Digital and DTS encoding and uses the Sound Core3D DSP and the ESS Sabre 32 Ultra DAC for 32-bit 384 kHz playback and 122 dB SNR.

With motherboard audio being more feature-rich than ever before, dedicated soundcards have become somewhat of a niche proposition for the majority of use cases — not to mention a soundcard with RGB lighting. However, Creative believes that there is a still a sizeable market for pro users and PC gamers who want much more audio fidelity than what conventional onboard Realtek chips can offer while also not minding some extra RGB bling.

Creative has now introduced the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure Plus Edition soundcard as a limited edition variant to supplement the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure and Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus editions. The AE-5 Pure Plus comes in a metallic white finish with four additional customizable RGB LED strips that can be controlled via Creative's Aurora Reactive Lighting system. 

The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Pure Edition supports Dolby Digital Live and DTS encoding — a feature that was absent the AE-5 Pure. Available ports include 3x 3.5mm 5.1 Line-out, 1x TOSLINK Optical-out, 1x 3.5mm headphone-out, 1x 3.5mm Mic/Line-in, and 1x Intel HD audio front panel connector. The AE-5 Plus Pure Edition uses the same Sound Core3D DSP and the ESS Sabre 32 Ultra DAC found in the AE-5 Pure and AE-5 Plus Editions that allows for 32-bit 384 kHz playback resolution, a 122 dB SNR, and a THD of 0.00032%. The card also offers a discrete headphone amp but does not allow op-amp swapping, which is a feature in the flagship Sound Blaster AE-9. 

The Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure Plus Edition can be availed for SG$259 (US$182). Creative is also offering an upgrade program for those have purchased the Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure Edition directly from creative.com in the last 90 days. Users can purchase the new Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pure Plus Edition from Creative and file a return claim for their Pure Edition card. Refund for the original AE-5 Pure Edition soundcard will be initiated after the return claim is successfully verified. 

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Source(s)

Creative Press Release