Hardware fans who like to listen to music on their PCs will soon be treated with a new external sound card by Creative Technologies. The new sound card will be called Sound Blaster E5 and will be a flagship solution by the company.
The new company product will have a USB 2.0 interface and a Cirrus Logic CS4398 102dB DAC processor that offers support for high-definition 24-bit 192 kHz sampling rates and a Texas Instruments TPA6120A2 amplifier that can drive high-end headphones with no difficulty. The integrated Cirrus Logic CS5361 114dB analogue-to-digital (ADC) converter handles input and it also offers support for 24-bit 192 kHz sampling. The line-in and dual headphone output jacks are gold-plated and the device also has an optical input.
There’s more to the Sound Blaster E5, though. The sound card also has an integrated 3200 mAh battery that allows it to be used for up to 8 hours away from a power outlet, which is great for laptop users. In addition to that the card supports both USB and Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy connectivity for iOS and Android devices, including AAC and aptX Low Latency codecs. The included NFC technology also allows pairing of supported devices.
Creative has also packed some of its own hardware into the design, including a multi-core digital signal processor (DSP) supporting the company’s SBX Pro Studio reprocessing system – designed, it claims, to improve the quality of audio compressed using a lossy algorithm and easily disabled when listening to lossless streams. The unit also includes built-in CrystalVoice beam-forming microphones, which can be used with a bundled desktop prop or mounted onto any standard microphone stand.
The new Creative sound card will go on sale in October for a price of GBP 169.99.
Source: Bit-tech.net