Creative launches Z Series Sound Cards

[Guru3D News]

Creative Technology Ltd today announced its new ultra high-performance Z-Series of Sound Blaster PCI-Express sound cards elevating the standards of technology and performance for the future of gaming...

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[Texter]

I've been waiting for this lineup...well not the stupid Z but the Core3D based cards with decent quality components.

[Mufflore]

They are one and the same, both Z and Core 3D.
Another thread on it running here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=367184

[Texter]

Originally Posted by Mufflore

They are one and the same, both Z and Core 3D.

Who would've thunk it...

[sykozis]

The "Z series" sound cards use chips from the Sound Core3D audio processor family, same as the Recon3D line.

[RavenMaster]

Difference is these cards have better DACs and can do Dolby DTS. Recon 3D do not have DTS support.

[Year]

they can keep their cards, not going to buy any creative card again, the last couple of cards i owned were nothing but trouble, on both my pcs, completely different specs with official and unofficial drivers.

so Auzentech from now on, even Realtek and Asus Xonar are great alternatives, never had any problem, if anything i gained up to 5 fps (depending on the game) with the Auzen card compared to my previous X-Fi Fatal1ty go figure.

[sykozis]

Originally Posted by RavenMaster

Difference is these cards have better DACs and can do Dolby DTS. Recon 3D do not have DTS support.

For most users, DTS is nothing but a gimmick. Unless you're connecting to a home theater system using a digital output it is exactly that, a gimmick....however, Creative claims all Sound Core3D based cards support DDL.

Originally Posted by Year

they can keep their cards, not going to buy any creative card again, the last couple of cards i owned were nothing but trouble, on both my pcs, completely different specs with official and unofficial drivers.

so Auzentech from now on, even Realtek and Asus Xonar are great alternatives, never had any problem, if anything i gained up to 5 fps (depending on the game) with the Auzen card compared to my previous X-Fi Fatal1ty go figure.

Auzentech is really no different from Creative. They use Creative's audio chips and drivers supplied to them by Creative. So, whether you buy Creative or Auzentech, you're supporting Creative....unless you buy one of the few C-Media based Auzentech cards.

[INSTG8R]

Originally Posted by sykozis

For most users, DTS is nothing but a gimmick. Unless you're connecting to a home theater system using a digital output it is exactly that, a gimmick....however, Creative claims all Sound Core3D based cards support DDL.



Auzentech is really no different from Creative. They use Creative's audio chips and drivers supplied to them by Creative. So, whether you buy Creative or Auzentech, you're supporting Creative....unless you buy one of the few C-Media based Auzentech cards.

Well Auzentech do use much better components than Creative on their cards. I mean the Forte which I believe is their "base" card is pretty well equipped. Has a Headphone Amp, replaceable OpAMPs and certainly using higher quality Caps. To me if I was to have to buy a new card I would go with Auzentech because I think they have put the X-Fi chip on a much higher quality base(X-Fi "done right")

Originally Posted by Year

they can keep their cards, not going to buy any creative card again, the last couple of cards i owned were nothing but trouble, on both my pcs, completely different specs with official and unofficial drivers.

so Auzentech from now on, even Realtek and Asus Xonar are great alternatives, never had any problem, if anything i gained up to 5 fps (depending on the game) with the Auzen card compared to my previous X-Fi Fatal1ty go figure.

I have had my PCI Fatality since they were released and I have never had any serious issues. It has travelled across 3 different builds now covering both AMD and Intel and not had much more than the odd hiccup(Used to Snap Crackle and Pop if I switched Modes) I have just always used Daniel K's drivers since there were available and have never had any kind of issue since. That said it, it does reflect poorly on Creative when "Jo Blow" has to fix your drivers for you

. But then hey ASUS is in the same boat and has it's own set of "Community Drivers" too because they don't make much more effort than Creative to update their drivers.

I will continue to use my Fatality until it dies or I can no longer buy a decent motherboard with a PCI slot(which I suspect will be where we will have to part ways)

[Year]

Originally Posted by sykozis

Auzentech is really no different from Creative. They use Creative's audio chips and drivers supplied to them by Creative. So, whether you buy Creative or Auzentech, you're supporting Creative....unless you buy one of the few C-Media based Auzentech cards.

you are correct, but even though my card is using the chip and drivers supplied by creative, it worked from day one, no more BSOD or weird stutters, why, i have absolutely no idea.

i even exchanged my creative X-Fi Fatal1ty with a different creative card, the X-Fi XtremeMusic, on both my computers (one Intel the other was AMD at the time) random BSOD during gameplay in many games, for example everytime i opened the medikit cabinet in Farcry2 = BSOD, in GRID i got severe stutters, in FEAR Combat the game used to freeze with looping audio before crashing to the desktop, and so on, same exact problem on both computers which was very weird, i tried every possible trick including bios flashing/tweaking, PCI Latency settings, different drivers, registry editing, countless hours wasted trying to find a solution, no dice.

ironically my ancient Audigy 1 and Audigy 2 waren't much better, both shared many of the X-Fi issues, the issues used to happen even after a fresh format with nothing installed except drivers and a couple of game, in XP and W7 running on Intel and Amd hardware.

anyway i bought the Auzen Bravura like a year ago, tested on both computers, 100% perfect and all problems solved.

i got nothing against Creative really, the hardware when it works it's 2nd to none, i used their cards since the very first SB up to the SBLIVE everything was perfect, but ever since the advent of the Audigy series i've been very unlucky, culminating into a massive disaster with the Creative X-Fi cards (all the issues of the Audigy series multipled by 10) so now you understand why i'm not willing to buy creative cards again.

and it's even more weirder the fact that the creative X-Fi chipset and drivers on Auzentech cards actually worked great for me, while the X-Fi "cards" from Creative didn't.

i've been using computers all my life and i swear sometimes i think they're possessed or something lol

[eat@joes]

Just don't get why they don't put the optical connectors directly on the card. I know there's more to their cards but they just seem stingy. If I were a true audiophile I wouldn't buy a creative chipset. Just put the damn connectors on your card and stop being so cheap.

Just a complaint. I know I use my onboard audio so don't harass me

[sykozis]

Originally Posted by Year

you are correct, but even though my card is using the chip and drivers supplied by creative, it worked from day one, no more BSOD or weird stutters, why, i have absolutely no idea.

i even exchanged my creative X-Fi Fatal1ty with a different creative card, the X-Fi XtremeMusic, on both my computers (one Intel the other was AMD at the time) random BSOD during gameplay in many games, for example everytime i opened the medikit cabinet in Farcry2 = BSOD, in GRID i got severe stutters, in FEAR Combat the game used to freeze with looping audio before crashing to the desktop, and so on, same exact problem on both computers which was very weird, i tried every possible trick including bios flashing/tweaking, PCI Latency settings, different drivers, registry editing, countless hours wasted trying to find a solution, no dice.

ironically my ancient Audigy 1 and Audigy 2 waren't much better, both shared many of the X-Fi issues, the issues used to happen even after a fresh format with nothing installed except drivers and a couple of game, in XP and W7 running on Intel and Amd hardware.

anyway i bought the Auzen Bravura like a year ago, tested on both computers, 100% perfect and all problems solved.

i got nothing against Creative really, the hardware when it works it's 2nd to none, i used their cards since the very first SB up to the SBLIVE everything was perfect, but ever since the advent of the Audigy series i've been very unlucky, culminating into a massive disaster with the Creative X-Fi cards (all the issues of the Audigy series multipled by 10) so now you understand why i'm not willing to buy creative cards again.

and it's even more weirder the fact that the creative X-Fi chipset and drivers on Auzentech cards actually worked great for me, while the X-Fi "cards" from Creative didn't.

i've been using computers all my life and i swear sometimes i think they're possessed or something lol

I had an original SoundBlaster card....remember the Creative Media kit that came with cheap speakers, sound card and 4x cd-rom back in the early-mid 90s? Yeah, I had that. I used that card up until it finally failed (all of 2 years later....lol). The card sounded decent but couldn't compare to the C-Media based card that replaced it. I used that C-Media based card up until WinXP then replaced it for a Yahama based sound card. Since then I've had 2 Audigy SE cards, 2 X-Fi XtremeAudio, X-Fi Go!, X-Fi XtremeGamer, X-Fi Titanium. Every Creative card I've owned has suffered from distortion of some sort...either from 1 day, or it developed over time. I'm hoping my current Recon3D USB proves to be a different story. Every Creative card I've had, excluding the X-Fi Titanium and Recon3D has resulted in at least 1 driver related BSOD. Believe me, I know the pain of owning actual Creative sound cards....lol. Personally, I don't recommend them outside of this forum at all.

[---TK---]

I had a few creative cards, never any problems here. just wanted something better this time around

[Year]

Originally Posted by sykozis

I had an original SoundBlaster card....remember the Creative Media kit that came with cheap speakers, sound card and 4x cd-rom back in the early-mid 90s? Yeah, I had that. I used that card up until it finally failed (all of 2 years later....lol). The card sounded decent but couldn't compare to the C-Media based card that replaced it. I used that C-Media based card up until WinXP then replaced it for a Yahama based sound card. Since then I've had 2 Audigy SE cards, 2 X-Fi XtremeAudio, X-Fi Go!, X-Fi XtremeGamer, X-Fi Titanium. Every Creative card I've owned has suffered from distortion of some sort...either from 1 day, or it developed over time. I'm hoping my current Recon3D USB proves to be a different story. Every Creative card I've had, excluding the X-Fi Titanium and Recon3D has resulted in at least 1 driver related BSOD. Believe me, I know the pain of owning actual Creative sound cards....lol. Personally, I don't recommend them outside of this forum at all.

[GhostXL]

Originally Posted by Year

they can keep their cards, not going to buy any creative card again, the last couple of cards i owned were nothing but trouble, on both my pcs, completely different specs with official and unofficial drivers.

so Auzentech from now on, even Realtek and Asus Xonar are great alternatives, never had any problem, if anything i gained up to 5 fps (depending on the game) with the Auzen card compared to my previous X-Fi Fatal1ty go figure.

I thought this too, until I've noticed ASUS hasn't updated my sound drivers in going on 2 years.

Yeah...2 years...

There is some sound looping in games that I like to play, no matter the KHz I set it to in windows AND in the Xonar Audio Center. Dead Island I love to play with friends, and it has a terrible issue with the xonar. It spazes out and sounds like a siren going off, and I have to keep opening and closing the game until it stops.

The hardware it's self is amazing, but their drivers need updating, and sound glitching in BF3, TERA Online, Dead Island, CS:GO, just to name a few needs fixing.

Recon3D isn't as bad as people make them out to be. They have a headphone AMP that sounds VERY nice, and the software has improved greatly. All the games I listed above that has issues on my Xonar...works with the Recon3D just fine.

Man I so do love the sound of my Xonar at 192KHz, but it's just up-sampling. Once you realize this and play around with the Recon3D's software, it sounds fantastic in games.

It could just be that my Xonar DX2 PCI is getting old. It's been out for quite some time now, and it's been deactivated on most websites.

[ASLayerAODsk]

i quit using Creative years ago....due to their bogus marketing and fake 'promises' of what their hardware could do..and then couldnt except for one way only...

[Ven0m]

Originally Posted by GhostXL

I thought this too, until I've noticed ASUS hasn't updated my sound drivers in going on 2 years.

Yeah...2 years...

There is some sound looping in games that I like to play, no matter the KHz I set it to in windows AND in the Xonar Audio Center. Dead Island I love to play with friends, and it has a terrible issue with the xonar. It spazes out and sounds like a siren going off, and I have to keep opening and closing the game until it stops.

The hardware it's self is amazing, but their drivers need updating, and sound glitching in BF3, TERA Online, Dead Island, CS:GO, just to name a few needs fixing.

Recon3D isn't as bad as people make them out to be. They have a headphone AMP that sounds VERY nice, and the software has improved greatly. All the games I listed above that has issues on my Xonar...works with the Recon3D just fine.

Man I so do love the sound of my Xonar at 192KHz, but it's just up-sampling. Once you realize this and play around with the Recon3D's software, it sounds fantastic in games.

It could just be that my Xonar DX2 PCI is getting old. It's been out for quite some time now, and it's been deactivated on most websites.

I'm using UniXonar drivers for my D2X (PCIe) and there are no issues whatsoever - it just works as it should in both 5.1 and headphone modes.

I wonder if these Creative cards would offer any better positioning in games, as the raw quality of Xonar is more than enough.