Creative Sound Blaster Z Series

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

  1. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    Okay, this is probably a stupid question but sometimes one can miss the most obvious stuff when new stuff arrives, have you plugged in you speakers/headphones in the ACM?
     
  2. harkinsteven

    harkinsteven Guest

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    Yes everything is connected. It seems the ACM only controls volume with headphones and not speakers. I plugged headphones in and it worked correctly. This is a bit of a downer I basically paid the extra money for this to control my speakers.
     
  3. nikavelli

    nikavelli Master Guru

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    ROBSCIX, you workin on a review buddy???
     
  4. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

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    I am going to see what I can do with this one. If I do a review of this card it may be a bit later but I will try and get one done.
     

  5. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    I ordered Zx. I'm going to give Forte to my mother, Sennheiser HD 598 and onboard Realtek ALC1200 is pretty bad combo... Lack of ASIO and audio creation mode is a bit meh (both are handy in Cubase) but it's not deal breaking issue.
     
  6. harkinsteven

    harkinsteven Guest

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    Nice, I'm well impressed with this card. Everything is crystal clear. I wasn't sure I would hear a difference from my Prelude but there definitely an improvement. Haven't done much gaming just been listening to all my music again haha. It's like listening to new songs. Did you order from Creative directly?
     
  7. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    I ended up ordering from local shop, it's only about 10 € more so not big difference (but in case it breaks RMA procedure is easier). Doesn't Prelude have same DAC than Forte?

    I wonder how OpenAL games are going to sound Zx, Mirror's Edge sounds awesome with Forte with CMSS-3D on (speakers set to stereo). I recorded a clip so that I know how it sounded.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2013
  8. cskamacska

    cskamacska New Member

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    Or everyone else. :) Sound "clearness" can be observed by anyone with an average ear, like you can hear the difference between Asus Xonar D1/D2 and Essence ST models without a problem. In theory theres only a minor difference in SNR, but boy that difference is noticable.

    Other things:
    Driver Sweeper: dont use it, or only with moderation. It can mess Windows installs up by deleting built in drivers or needed system components.

    7.1: As far as i know it was a marketing fad in the middle of 2000's, it never became too popular in the home theater market, and its more dead than alive by now. Bigger number means better right? Well some people still think this, and the plus 2 channels are some insane space age technology they need it nao. Current gaming(yuck) headset makers are abusing this to no limit, and are trying to jam 8 or more tiny speakers into normal sized headphones. But the kids are loving it, anything thats not 7.1 is now "low".:3eyes:


    And back to Creative stuff: I find it very interesting Creative doesnt have the PR dominance they had before. I remember Audigy2 and even the X-fi launch, gaming and IT media was full of Cratives newest offerings(both international and local hungarian).
    Now? I cant find a fully fleshed out review of the new cards across teh intarwebz from a semi decent/reputable source 2-3 months after release.
    This kinda happened with Titanium HD too, they started selling it locally out of the blue and we needed to search the net back and forth, to get up to speed about it. No big announcements, no local reviews, nothing.
     
  9. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

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    It should also be pointed out that even a difference of a few dB, is quite a difference as the decibel measurement is based on a LOG scale.
     
  10. playst

    playst Guest

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    My sound blaster Z just bought recently uses the expensive Nichicon Gold capacitor. :hatty:

    [​IMG]
     

  11. fighterisr

    fighterisr Guest

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    use your logic:
    if the acm connects to the headphones port and you connect your headphones to it, then you control the volume of the headphones port.
    if you would have connected the the acm to the line out speakers port, then it would control the speakers volume.
    the point of this thing is so when you change the output in the driver from speakers to headphones, you could still control the volume of the headphones.
    thats why i am going to buy a ZXR with the acm so i can at last connect my headphones straight to the headphones amplified port and control their volume.
    right now they are connected to my speakers' headphones output and it sucks because it's a bit malfunctining right now.

    i hope they fix their ZXR manufacturing problems quickly and sell that card already.
     
  12. fighterisr

    fighterisr Guest

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  13. scorpian007

    scorpian007 Guest

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    Currently have an oldskool PCI X-Fi Elite Pro from back in 2005, looking to update to this :)

    Is there a big difference between the Zx and the ZxR apart from the daughterboard? I'm not really interested in recording these days.
     
  14. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    Damn Forte drivers refused to uninstall so I have to clean my system and registry the hard way. I hope that I didn't delete something good in the process... When I'm ready I swap the Zx in.

    EDIT:
    Okay, this card is unusable with HD 595s if you do not use the ACM. Volume is so high. I need some time to comment about audio quality. It definitely has different sound signature, I'd say warmer. Definitely need some time to get used to.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2013
  15. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    That Suck The Forte didn't want you to leave it,So it decided to mess up your system.
     

  16. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    Sorry about smallish pic spam but for those that are curious, here's the CP:
    [​IMG]

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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  17. nakquada

    nakquada Guest

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    have a Zx ordered, will be here tomorrow, along with my Edifier S550.
    Not sure what Im gonna make of it!
     
  18. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    Yea that is exactly how the CP looks on my Recon3D minus not having the DTS encoders and being blue.
     
  19. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    Using the line out, the quality is definitely better than on Forte. But there's one thing... Line-out does seems to sound better than the headphone out. Line-out on this card is more powerful than on Forte (so ACM is pretty much must even when using line out). Forte line-out sounded a bit sloppy. The sound is more natural on Zx than Forte, vocals and string instruments sound more natural. It does sound great from line-out. Without ACM, the line-out is too loud even at 4% without ACM.
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2013
  20. MaxBlade

    MaxBlade Master Guru

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    Theres a big difference between Recon3D and sound blaster Z at least to me.. I have tested both.
     

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