Creative Sound Blaster Z Series

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by IanM, Aug 15, 2012.

  1. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

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    Actually the volume knob is not new to either company as it has been seen for a long time in the recording world.
     
  2. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    It has TI 6120A2 headphone amp, which definitely isn't crappy. It uses PCM1794 DAC for stereo out which isn't crappy either. This should good in terms of audio quality.
     
  3. remicius

    remicius Guest

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    does it will have 5.1 or 7.1 through the optical input?because i have x-fi titanium but i just cant activate in the control panel the surround sound when i watch movie on my desktop blu ray player and the sound via optical cable,i have only stereo.i heard that the creative was not buy the license for DTS.So will i have 5.1 DTS from my desktop blu ray player,wich is connected to my pc through optical cable?
     
  4. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    ZxR does have optical input on the daughter board.
     

  5. cskamacska

    cskamacska New Member

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    As far as i know, the "Creative Sound Core3D quad-core sound and voice processor" is nothing more than the newest incarnation(CA0132 on last years Core3D cards, CA0113 on 3rd party products like the Asrock Gameblaster) of their codec chip they have been using on low cost Creative cards(like the PCI-E X-fi Extreme Audios CA0110, and CA0106 in the golden days of Audigy LS and Live! 7.1 24 bit) since forever.

    I was kind of shocked last year to find that Creative replaced their mid range EMU20K2 DSP powered Titanium X-fi cards with a glorified Extreme Audio with less fatures(they did add extra stuff in drivers though) and worse analog out quality.:3eyes:


    They will undoubtedly fix some of Core3D-s flaws with the new series(maybe they redesigned their chip even:grin:), but we have to say good bye to any hardware acceleration features for the near future.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2012
  6. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    There havent been a Hardware/Software openAL game in a while any way, it been mostly Xaudio2 and then some FMOD EX using titles. So we way past that line where hardware audio in games hasnt been used. We can have MS Xaudio2 to blame that on, as I don't like what Xaudio2 does to the sound. So I wished they stuck with openGL, but I guess all good things has to come to a end.
     
  7. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    I'd so hope that they would release these soon. I can't stand this integrated crap, the difference is staggering even when compared to my Galaxy S (which does have semi-decent DAC though).

    EDIT:
    It seems that when you select headphone when you plug this in, it changes things with this Realtek. It feels like some kind of amplification kicks in since volume level changes noticeably (funnily according to Realtek it has headphone amp) and the volume output is higher than in Forte line out (which isn't necessarily a good thing... though this has more play room with volume). But still, audio quality isn't anything to write home about. HD 595's when amped are just too loud.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2012
  8. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    @cskamacska

    Thanks for the info :)

    True, but there are still some "older" games that have full openAL support, and if im not mistaken most U3E games (U4E will have it too, not 100% sure though).


    I would be disappointed to see weaker or faked openAL by those games. Or forced to buy a ASIO2.0 SB just for occasional audio creation/production :)
     
  9. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    I know older games have it. But the Unreal engine 3 games that coming out are switching to Xaudio2. I have bunch of UE3 games that all uses Xaudio2 instead of openAL. The only game that installed that UE3 that has openAL is Unreal tourment 3. Borderlands 2 uses Xaudio2 and thats UE3.
     
  10. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    Or Wwise. It seems to be pretty common now. BioWare switched to it in ME2 and used it in ME3 too. Codemasters used OpenAL in F1 2010 & 2011 but now they use Wwise too.

    Technically it's pretty irrelevant whether or not the new cards have hardware or only software OpenAL support. They will have full EAX support up to 5. In my own test the hardware acceleration has made zero difference in terms of performance. You can do all the same things with software too than with hardware and since Creative pretty much owns the OpenAL (and EAX) so to speak, their software EAX is probably just as good since they don't have to emulate or mimic anything.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2012

  11. Kaleid

    Kaleid Ancient Guru

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    RMAA shows that Recon3d has a poor frequency response.
     
  12. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    And what it has to do with Z series?
     
  13. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    Ok all fine and dandy, but what about ASIO support, any news about that?
     
  14. Meocene

    Meocene Master Guru

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    what...?... like rapture3d?

    wasapi would do the trick, surely?
     
  15. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    Well rapture3d openAL is still better (if set right) then Xaudio2 or FMOD.


    No, wasapi or ASIO4all is no go in Audio production software.. I guess i'll just stick with this X-FI if there is no ASIO support :p
     

  16. EarlZ

    EarlZ Guest

    I currently have a X-Fi Extreme Music and I got this since it came out, I like how the crystalizer and SVM works and I might be forced to change to another sound card in the future since I might be going with an mATX or PCI-less mobo in the future, is the Z series a good replacement ?
     
  17. RagDoll_Effect

    RagDoll_Effect Ancient Guru

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    Only 5.1 support, that's the deterent for me. Was gonna possibly get one till I realized no 7.1 :(

    regards,
    RagDoll.
     
  18. elpsychodiablo

    elpsychodiablo Master Guru

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    I hope Guru3d test the ZxR, if its in everything better as the Titanium HD i want to replace it.
     
  19. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    ZxR might since it has that second board.
     
  20. RagDoll_Effect

    RagDoll_Effect Ancient Guru

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    Well, technically I think you're right, but if they made it 7.1 and 2 extra channels for cans, that would be better :)

    Edit: I think the add on card might be 7.1 and the control pod has another for headphones and mic, I hope :)

    regards,
    RagDoll.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2012

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