Creativeis celebratingthe30thbirthdayoftheSoundBlasterline-up
withtwonewcards,theSoundBlasterAE-9andAE-7.Theformeruses
audiophile-grade components, and is aimed both at gamers who want
to hear precisely what’s about to kill them, and people looking to use a
home PC as a serious music and media setup.
The hardware sounds impressive, with an ESS 9038 SABRE-class
reference DAC delivering up to 129dB SNR and 32-bit 384kHz sampling.
The AE-9 also packs CleanLine Technology, which is designed to
improve the quality of the microphone path for voice communication.
Meanwhile, the AE-7 has an ESS 9018 SABRE-class DAC with 127dB
DNR, 32-bit 384 kHz sampling and DSD64 playback. Look out for a full
review of the AE-9 in our next issue.
PHIL HARTUP
HyperXhasannounceda newwirelessheadsetforjust£80inc
VAT.TheCloudStingerhasa 2.4GHzwirelessconnectionanda
17-hourbatterylife,whilekeepingtheweightdownto270g.The
volumecontrolsarebuiltontotheearcups,andthemicrophone
hasnoisecancellinganda swivel-to-mutesystem.Theunit
hasa rangeofaround12m,andtheearcupsrotateaswell.
Thecircumaural,closed-backearcupscontain50mm
directionaldriverswithneodymiummagnets,andHyperX
saystheheadsetis‘builtonthecomfortandsoundDNAof
previousCloudheadsets.’TheHyperXCloudAlphahasbeen
onourElitelistforover 18 months,sowe’llbeinterestedto
tryit forourselves.TheCloudStingerisavailablenow.
PHILHARTUPLast month we mistakenly reprinted the same ‘What’s that?’imageas
the month before, so we’re going to run that competition foranother
month. If you can spot the image below anywhere in Issue192,email
the product’s name and page number to competition@custompcmag.
org.uk, with ‘What’s that? 192’ in the Subject field.Issue 191 winner
The winner from our Issue 191 competition was Stephen Rolph,who
correctly identified the MSI Radeon RX 570 Armor from p19.
Congratulations Stephen! We’ll be in touch to sort out gettingyour
prize sent to you.Ourpalsatbequiet!areofferinga DarkBasePro 900 Rev.2 Silvercaseto
oneCustomPCreader.Theimagebelowisa distortedclose-upofa piece
ofhardwareinthisissue.If youidentifyit,emailthenameandpage
[email protected],with
‘What’sthat?193’intheSubjectfield.WORTH
£Terms & conditionsPlease see p103 for our competition terms and conditions.A be quiet!
DARK BASE PRO
900 CASE!
WIN!
New Sound
Blasters
HyperX
£
wireless
headset
What’s that?
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