Creative Sound Blaster Z Series

The highs on 558 are what they are, they don't really ping. you can mess with the EQ to achieve what you want, of course, with some limited results.

 

For the record, I have the ZxR hooked up to Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers using the supplied (and updated) Creative software. I have not had any problems whatsoever and the card sounds wonderful. The speakers are analog so that might be why I never had sound issues like those described above. Headphones also sound great (Denon AH-D7100).

 

I see, thanks for the anwser. My EQ settings with a little fidling are pretty good in my opinion, were they are: 31Hz>4db; 62Hz>8db; 125Hz>0db;250Hz>-10db; 500Hz>-3db;1k>0db;2K>1db;4K>3db;8k>3db;16k>2db.

If anyone is interest try for yourself and see if it improves your sound. Any tips is welcomed as well


Cheers

 

The Xonar DGX I had in my other rig took a crap last night, so I went out and purchased the SB Z. Man the sound difference is like night and day. My only gripe is that I can't adjust the amp like you can on the DGX. So I have to adjust my sound accordingly. But that's more of a first world problem than an actual issue. So far I'm liking it. I may end up replacing another DGX that my wife has in her computer with a SB Z.

 

Is there a way, a workaround for the loss of youtube sound when changing from speakers to headphones? I had it setup ok one time but then I had to reinstall and ever since I havent gotten it to work like that.

 

FYI while I lose youtube sound or video gets stuck in Chrome, it doesn't happen in IE11 :3eyes:
I don't have Firefox installed so haven't tested that one yet.

 

I'm on the fence with this bad boy, but I have a few questions...


Can anyone comment on the surround sound with headphones when the actual surround features are disabled? I ask because I have a stereo soundcard setup and an Xtreme Gamer. When CMSS3D is disabled in the Xtreme Gamer, it still has better directional audio than the stereo soundcard.


What's going on with this headphone amp gain selection; I see some people saying only the ZxR card allows choosing the impedance for the headphone amp. It seems if the Z card is too high, the only option is to move it to a different PCI slot version. Is this correct?

 

OMG really?

 

Same sold my Zx there was not much room in my rig anyway it had to go between my GTX 780s causing my top card to get rather hot, my onboard audio is actually really good on Asus rampage iv black edition motherboard so no great loss

 

shame.

 

Sorry for slight offtopic

but I love my XFI titanium HD more and more (have it 1 year), it sounds crazy good @ winamp with ASIO output (x64 intel edition v0.71), such fidelity. Really happy )

 

Anyone know what the best settings might be for headphones for gaming and simulated surround sound?

 

IMHO anybody complaining about the Soundblaster Z series is doing something wrong.

This has been the best soundcard with the BEST software I've ever used.

And that is someone that came from an ASUS Xonar DX2.

This thing is Crystal clear, no software issues, no sound popping at all ever.

 

Agree, I also came from a Xonar and the SQ is comparable but the amp on the card for headphones is freaking awesome.

 

Z is not a bad soundcard. But from my experience Titanium sounds better and it provides hardware eax instead of software based solution on Z. Titanium also have better headphone positional audio.

The problem with Titanium is the drivers. They have flaws in Windows 8 like not savings settings.

Best thing about Z is the possibility to have both headphones and speakers plugged in, and switch between them with just a click.

But the worst problem with Z is the complete lack of linux support and that for me is a big letdown, considering that all previous creative hardware have linux support.

 

Not remembering audio has been fixed with y2014 driver, dunno about regular Titaniums, I think its fixed for all now.

 

Wondering if someone can comment on this...

When I run stereo soundcard through headphones and games, some games have great directional audio like Borderlands 2. Games that don't have great directional in stereo sound better with an Xtreme Gamer card, but I have CMSS3D and all disabled. All I did was set Xtreme Gamer card settings to headphones and set windows configuration as 5.1 in control panel.

Is this a good way to go about getting surround audio without nasty virtual quality? I feel like this is just fooling windows though, so I'm not sure if it's actually bad to do it this way.

This question pretty much determines if I buy the Z or not; I don't like virtual surround usually (haven't tried SBX), but if it allows me to get surround without enabling those features, I'll definitely do it.

 

I have a ZxR, and the virtual surround on my stereo headphones is fantastic. I have Win 7 audio set to 5.1, and in the Sound Blaster control panel I have the switch set to Headphones and the SBX Pro Studio - SBX Surround set to 45%.

When I listen to music I turn off the SBX Pro Studio settings.

 

Thanks! Does music not sound different with it set to 5.1 instead of stereo? Have you tried games with it set to 5.1 but with SBX off?

 

When I switch to my headphones profile in the Sound Blaster control panel, I do not touch the Windows sound control panel settings at all. The output is only stereo when I do that (tested by listening to music, not in any games).

To get the headphones to output virtual (5.1/7.1) surround, you have to set SBX Pro Studio - SBX Surround to On.