[Wertzius]

Yes, not exactly the same but more or less similar functionality to simulate surround sound on headphone.

The difference is that Dolby Headphone uses a 5.1 signal as input, SBX in the E5 uses a stereo signal input to simulate surround sound.

Guess which should bring more realistic results in movies...

 

[ClieOS]

The difference is that Dolby Headphone uses a 5.1 signal as input, SBX in the E5 uses a stereo signal input to simulate surround sound.

Guess which should bring more realistic results in movies...

 
Yes, but not just that. Dolby Headphone can takes up to 5.1 channels and down mix it to 2 channels for surround sound effect, but it also works with 2 channels sound and simulate surround sound as well, much like SBX. As of which is more realistic, well, that's up to the individual listener.

 

[togiff]

Just bought one. Its nice.

 

[xnpu]

Just bought one. Its nice.

Your original post showed some disappointment. What changed your mind?
 
I received mine too this morning. I was somewhat underwhelmed initially until I realised I had the gain switch in the wrong position. I haven't listened enough to go into much detail, but the SBX and AAC bluetooth streaming from iPhone sound better than I expected.

 

[togiff]

The difference is that Dolby Headphone uses a 5.1 signal as input, SBX in the E5 uses a stereo signal input to simulate surround sound.



Guess which should bring more realistic results in movies...

 


SBX actually is a hardware processing system developed by Creative Labs. It has a virtual surround mode - it may be as limited as a home theater DSP, or as powerful as what Creative Labs says on YouTube (SBX 3D surround mode is awesome, fully 3D, from stereo headphones). A cystalizer which I think is just a fancy digital compressor. A bass enhancement system. An on the fly normalizer. Another one for enhancing dialog like spoken word. Plus a full EQ. How many other amps have a full EQ in hardware?

When you play games with this thing you are going to have full EAX hardware acceleration if the game supports it. In theory EAX can do a virtual surround and output it to stereo/headphones. When watching movies you are going to want to use PowerDVD and the headphone down mix for Blu-ray and DVD to get the 5.1 virtual surround effect. It should be equiv of Dolby Headphone, where 5.1 is mixed into a virtual surround mode for headphones.

If this device supports the full SBX Studio Pro, here is a demo of its 3D surround mode which is ******* HQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlsIPwSj6Q0&list=PLjs0Dp6OVhbk6aQJI0ElCFCXNU21TPwHm

 

[togiff]

Your original post showed some disappointment. What changed your mind?
 
I received mine too this morning. I was somewhat underwhelmed initially until I realised I had the gain switch in the wrong position. I haven't listened enough to go into much detail, but the SBX and AAC bluetooth streaming from iPhone sound better than I expected.

 


I think my ears were ****ed up last night when I first listened.

I did a recomparison. I tested my Galaxy S4, neurton app, all EQ off, I compared phone output then hooked up the dac. Turns out the E5 didn't bomb as much as I thought, as both sounded at least the same.

 

[togiff]

Your original post showed some disappointment. What changed your mind?
 
I received mine too this morning. I was somewhat underwhelmed initially until I realised I had the gain switch in the wrong position. I haven't listened enough to go into much detail, but the SBX and AAC bluetooth streaming from iPhone sound better than I expected.

 


Also i had a moment of extreme underwealmed ness when the volume was really low. Turns out android and the E5 have separate volume switches when hooked up to Galaxy S4. Didn't notice that at first.

I am gunna do some heavy comparison. I know the FiiO e18 had a unique sound, it made it clearer and more powerful. Gunna listen closely to see if I notice the same on the E5 or not.

 

[saflang]

Just received my E5 yesterday.
Love SBX, crystallizer works better than I thought it could.
Bass Boost, well it increases bass but without the deep punch. Eg. Mushy
EQ, great wish more amps had hardware eq's.

My biggest disappointment is the noise floor with IEM's (Sony Z5 and Shure 535). I can hear hiss, too much hiss.
My Sony Z7 headphones though sound great without hiss.

The mics work really well for phone calls.

Supplied USB cable is crap and won't allow OTG being hooked directly to a S5, my other cables are no problem.

 

[togiff]

Just received my E5 yesterday.

Love SBX, crystallizer works better than I thought it could.

Bass Boost, well it increases bass but without the deep punch. Eg. Mushy

EQ, great wish more amps had hardware eq's.



My biggest disappointment is the noise floor with IEM's (Sony Z5 and Shure 535). I can hear hiss, too much hiss.

My Sony Z7 headphones though sound great without hiss.



The mics work really well for phone calls.



Supplied USB cable is crap and won't allow OTG being hooked directly to a S5, my other cables are no problem.

 


For the OTG issue google "micro usb to micro usb otg" there is only one or two shops selling a micro to micro otg. This bad boy lets you connect the phone to the micro usb on the e5 with minimal cable.

Not a bad device as you say, could be better, more purist like..

 

[xnpu]

My only gripe so far: with multiple devices connected the E5 will occasionally change its volume.
 
In case anyone wants to reproduce this:
 
* Mac connected through USB, playing Qobuz at 6% volume.
* iPhone connected through Bluetooth.
* I trigger a sound effect on iPhone. This raises or lowers the E5 volume to iPhone level, in my case 32%.
 
So far it's all understandable, though I would prefer the iPhone would not alter the volume unless explicitly requested.
 
Now for the real issue:
 
* I then put my iPhone to sleep by pressing its power button. Volume on the E5 now jumps to 67%!
 
It's unclear to me why this is happening. It does not happen if you simply wake up the phone and put it back to sleep. You really have to produce some sound first.

 

[HotIce]

I noticed that too, but in my experience, it is not limited to the E5. Every device I tried, which has USB digital volume, when moved from one device/PC to another, changes the volume.
Even though not 100% positive, when a new device/PC attaches to a USB audio device (like the E5), it sets its own local current volume.
And if you think about it, it kind of makes sense to me.

 

[xnpu]

I was able to solve the jump to 67% by disabling the "Lock sounds" on the iPhone. Apparently these sounds are played at a fixed high volume.

 

[edward81]

  I want to share my experience with Creative tech support and Android USB host mode.
 
When I connect my E5 to my Oneplus One, two things happen:
 

• The battery in the E5 is charging my Oneplus One. This makes the E5 battery drain very rapidly.
• When connecting the Sound Blaster E5 USB DAC to my phone I am hearing lots of crackling noise in the right channel. It is only audible when sound is playing, there is no crackling noise when there is no audio playing. It is also only happening with Google Music player, not Poweramp, which leads me to believe it's related to the way it's playing the audio, which is potentially the offload or low latency path when using Google Music player

 
The second issue is perhaps specific to my phone - though it does not happen with my iBasso D10 Cobra.
 
The first issue however, charging the host in USB host mode, is happening on every device I connect it to. This basically kills that use case for me entirely because it depletes way too fast.

Creative tech support says that:

 When USB Host is used as point of connection on the Sound Blaster E5, the unit's normal behavior is to charge smartphone device eventually. This is part of the hardware design which cannot be prevented and there is no alternative option to disable it through the hardware.

 
So that's that. A bit disappointing.
 
Other than that, the apt-x low latency is working very well with my Avantree Priva aptx-ll transmitter, which is nice.
 
Last but not least, I too notice the noise floor. When connected to phone in host mode I notice a high frequency pitch, regardless of volume level. I blame the battery charging problem. And it probably can't be fixed. Connected to my PC something caught me off guard - when the E5 is connected to my linux box, it turns on the MIC and the MIC seems to loop back to the headphones on the device itself - no amount of muting or volume settings on my linux box will turn the mic off, so I can't test noise floor as USB DAC currently.

I'm an linux only user (and android) and I'm interested in this amp. You tried to change the mic in alsamixer? You can look how is the device recognised from linux? (a quick look at dmesg when you connect it should tell you what driver is using or http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/60078/find-out-which-modules-are-associated-with-a-usb-device)
 

If this device supports the full SBX Studio Pro, here is a demo of its 3D surround mode which is ******* HQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlsIPwSj6Q0&list=PLjs0Dp6OVhbk6aQJI0ElCFCXNU21TPwHm

Sorry, but this look like binaural recording. Funny the fact that they have disabled the comments.

 

[togiff]

I'm an linux only user (and android) and I'm interested in this amp. You tried to change the mic in alsamixer? You can look how is the device recognised from linux? (a quick look at dmesg when you connect it should tell you what driver is using or http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/60078/find-out-which-modules-are-associated-with-a-usb-device)
 
Sorry, but this look like binaural recording. Funny the fact that they have disabled the comments.

 


Binaural recording? What do you think virtual surround sound through headphones is?

It is playing with your brain and ears listening ability to enable you to have a sense of direction through headphone stereo source. When I listened, it worked, I could tell when the sound was meant to sound from all points as he walked around me in the demo from right, left, center, and near my head/ear.

That is some HQ ****. It actually worked through my Westone 4r.

Keep in mind, this demo is an example of SBX 3D surrounds processing given the necessary recording. I am assuming SBX 3D surround will only make use of the data from the 5.1 or 7.1 signal or as mixed in game in real time in supportive games, down mixing to stereo with the right effect given the channel. Games should in theory be capable of more because the location sound positioning info is rendered based on your position in game, versus a movie recording which is fixed 5.1/7.1 recording mixed in studio. Also PowerDVD has a similar effect as of version 9, called Dolby Headphone, will pass through that signal on E5 perhaps making the 3D SBX unnecessary when using it.

Yes it sounds like they are pulling out a trick with binaural effects to increase quality and enhance the effect. It sounds pretty darn good to me. Wish i could make a 3D recording as they did and compress it into a stereo signal myself..

 

[edward81]

Binaural recording? What do you think virtual surround sound through headphones is?

It is playing with your brain and ears listening ability to enable you to have a sense of direction through headphone stereo source. When I listened, it worked, I could tell when the sound was meant to sound from all points as he walked around me in the demo from right, left, center, and near my head/ear.

That is some HQ ****. It actually worked through my Westone 4r.

Keep in mind, this demo is an example of SBX 3D surrounds processing given the necessary recording. I am assuming SBX 3D surround will only make use of the data from the 5.1 or 7.1 signal or as mixed in game in real time in supportive games, down mixing to stereo with the right effect given the channel. Games should in theory be capable of more because the location sound positioning info is rendered based on your position in game, versus a movie recording which is fixed 5.1/7.1 recording mixed in studio. Also PowerDVD has a similar effect as of version 9, called Dolby Headphone, will pass through that signal on E5 perhaps making the 3D SBX unnecessary when using it.

Yes it sounds like they are pulling out a trick with binaural effects to increase quality and enhance the effect. It sounds pretty darn good to me. Wish i could make a 3D recording as they did and compress it into a stereo signal myself..

I mean, if they wanted to make a real demo of their technology the should have made a video of a game or movie. Not a stereo recording from a dummy head. Is like taking this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA and putting the SBX 3D logo on it. I doubt that they have recorded the speech and the drill sound from a mono mic, mixed on 5.1 with position effect and then downmixed to stereo with the amp. But of all of this you know what, I previous owned the soudblaster x-fi with cmms3d now an xonar d2x with dolby headphone (done in software with the drivers btw), I also tried the powerDVD with the same dolby headphone. Is always nice to listen but not too good, actually the more realistic positional sound that I have hear is the simple HRTF, now I'm using it for movies and games (when the games can output 5.1 channels) with a custom impulse response. Simply awesome. But i don't want to go off-topic wit this.