Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX 5.1 PCIe Sound Card with 600 ohm Headphone Amp

Pros: Works (with Sennheiser HD 580 phones) Affordable E.Q. is comprehensive Drivers worked with Windows 10 x64

Cons: Bunch of effects you really don't need that are toggled on by default. Treble sounds a little off. For 36 bucks, I'm not tripping, though. I have no reference source to compare to and prove its not a placebo effect, so... Yeah, idk.

Overall Review: My Halo Claro XT contacts got scratched by an ASUS P6T SE PCI slot. Pure B.S. So I tried the onboard sound. Turns out, it's such an ancient mobo that the drivers refuse to work on Win 10. So I looked for a new card. The '600ohm' in the title caught my eye, so I bought this thing. For 36 bucks, you can not beat this. I know the sound blaster amp is working because I tested my HD580s in another PC with working onboard audio and there was no bass.

Pros: Works as expected with 24 bit sound enabled. Good software set and W8.1 sees it every day. The onboard sound (RELTEK AC97) was not initializing reliably with W8.1 for some odd, and never figured out the reason. So, I replaced the ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe MB onboad RELTEK AC97 CODEC sound with this card, and now we're good to go again. - This is advertised as BASIC sound at or above onboard sound at the time the card was designed several years back so no, this won't be an Xgamer extreme or higher level of sound on newer Creative onboard sound chip enabled MB's. The sound quality meets the old MB's sound. It still PLENTY good for most all casual PC based uses and games with PCI based sound. So overall, the fit is perfect and as advertised. Can't complain. 24bit 96KHz sound is plenty good for basic PC usage.

Cons: I really don't have any issues with this card at all. Yes, there is some software to fiddle with, but hey, you at least HAVE some flexibility! So if some settings bother you, you'll need to fiddle at least ONCE and then leave it. Be sure to set it to studio quality 24 bit sound! I wish standard bass / treble were more easily found, though. It's not to be found. Odd.

Overall Review: I'm perplexed by others expectations of a $30.00 sound card. The speakers (cheap Chinese 2.1 verses Altec Lansing ACS500's) I use have a HUGE impact on sound way more than the card limits it. Fiddle with speakers and see.

Pros: Downloaded the latest drivers from their website instead of using the CD (something you should generally do anyway), turned off the onboard sound in the bios, and the sound quality is far better than the onboard.

Cons: nothing yet

Pros: I wanted a second sound card only for VLC player, to play movies on my home theatre.

Cons: None. I knew what I was buying and it does the job perfectly

Overall Review: The good thing with a second card is I can power off my main speakers and fall asleep watching movies without being afraid to be awake by random Windows notifications.

Pros: Windows 10 support, front audio support

Cons: no digital out

Overall Review: I purchased this card to replace an existing Sound Blaster card that was not playing nice with Windows 10. It seems that you need the newest card Creative puts out in order to get new OS support. This same thing happened going from WinXP to Win 7, poor driver support, new card. I didn't have the money for anything better, but this is still way better than the onboard junk my motherboard (Z87X-UD3H) has

Pros: 1) Easy to navigate and set up / change through the very user friendly interface 2) Awesome sound 3) Fully customizable equalizer

Cons: None really

Pros: -Excellent sound with headphones or speakers. -Very cheap (got mine on a Newegg Flash deal for less than 20 bucks). -Has input pins for front audio panel. -Software is easy to use, online drivers are kept up-to-date.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: If you are experiencing poor audio quality (buzzing/echo/down-sampling), and you are running Windows 8.1, check your sound properties in the Control Panel and disable the 5.1 Surround (select "Stereo" instead). My card initially had the same audio problems that many reviewers here are complaining about until I disabled this feature in Windows. Install the latest driver from Creative and let it handle the 5.1 surround instead, and select the headphone mode whenever using headphones.

Pros: The Soundblaster FX works in Windows 8.1 with included driver cd. Has great overall sound quality. Creatives software is very easy to use. Was having a very difficult time finding a compatible soundcard. But this does a great job.

Cons: I also use Ubuntu Linux 12.04 and so far this card has not been compatible. Though to be fair Creative does'nt say its supposed to be either. Hopefully this will get worked out. Not loosing an egg over that.

Overall Review: If you upgraded to Windows 8.1 you should get this card. Big thumbs up for me.