A question about Creative Sound Blaster cards

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by Twister, Nov 8, 2016.

  1. Twister

    Twister Guest

    Hi guys,

    I currently am a owner of a X-Fi Titanium Sound Blaster that i'm very happy about, however, I am looking to buy a new sound blaster card that offers the same quality or sound quality as this card got and with today's market I can't find this card anymore however I found a few else cards that are being sold and these are;

    Internal
    Sound Blaster Audigy Fx
    Sound Blaster Audigy Rx
    Sound Blaster Z PCIe Retail
    Sound Blaster Zx
    Sound Blaster ZxR

    External
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro
    Sound Blaster X-Fi HD

    Now what are the differences between these, besides the price tag, what is their release dates, what OS do they support, what software do they bring, what audio codec or model if such thing is on each one? (also if possible can find out which one Titanium uses?)

    I plan to use it on a Windows 10 64-bit system and right now I am using a
    Volume Panel for Creative SB X-Fi with 3 modes, Entertainment, Gaming and one other I forgot but i'm using Entertainment , and my settings are
    Speakers: 5.1
    EAX Effects: Enabled
    CMSS-3D: Enabled
    X-Fi Crystallizer: Enabled (Stereo Xpand)
    SVM: On

    So if a software have similar available options like this i'm happy, I tried google and look on youtube but I couldn't find anything about these sound cards nor the software they are running.
     
  2. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    Ignore the Audigy Rx and Audigy Fx cards. They're outdated. The Audigy FX is a rebranded X-Fi Xtreme Audio card. The Augidy RX is a rebranded EMU card. Both were entry-level products before....

    The X-Fi Go! Pro is a waste of money.

    If your motherboard has the Realtek 1150, either use it or invest in a SB Zx or ZxR....
     
  3. drac

    drac Ancient Guru

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    Take your pick of the SB Z cards, they're the best options for sure. Internal is the best option when it comes to Sound Blaster products.
     
  4. LesserHellspawn

    LesserHellspawn Master Guru

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    I have used Creative cards since 1993, but after the X-Fi they dropped 7.1 support, and that's what I am running. Nowadays I use my onboard Realtek with the Sounblaster MB3 software on top. No more hardware soundcard.
     

  5. Glidefan

    Glidefan Don Booze Staff Member

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    I'm very happy with my Sound Blaster Z. Headphones sound good as well and i have both speakers and headphones attached on it, along with an optical S/PDIF coming from another source.
     
  6. Twister

    Twister Guest

    The Audigy Fx was released 17th October 2013 and Rx 19th February 2015.

    I tried the onboard motherboard sound card and it sounded like night and day comparison to my X-Fi Titanium, my ears almost started bleeding.

    I got a SupremeFX on my mb (ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming MB)

    It would be the Z in that case, both the Zx and ZxR is out of my budget.

    What interface does SB Z use? and what is the small gimmicks included in the Z and Zx?

    Did you just purchase and download MB3 from their website and it works the same as a X-Fi card with the integrated sound from your motherboard? I don't have realtek though, I have a SupremeFX as mentioned above.

    I have a black, green and yellow optic cable from my logitech Z5500, will it fit in a SB Z?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 8, 2016
  7. Glidefan

    Glidefan Don Booze Staff Member

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    Dunno about the colors thing. As long as it's a normal optical cable it works.
    The card is using the standard TOSLINK plug.
    [​IMG]
     
  8. Twister

    Twister Guest

    Does SB Z run this console?

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Glidefan

    Glidefan Don Booze Staff Member

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    If it's the equalizer you want, yeah it has one. Just not the one you show.
    And yeah it has Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect support.
     
  10. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    No, it uses the "SBX Pro Studio" software.

    [​IMG]

    I'm aware of when the cards were released.

    The Audigy FX uses a CA0110 and ALC898.... The CA0110 was used on the Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeAudio PCIe. I actually have 2 of those cards laying around as well as a CA0106 based X-Fi XtremeAudio PCI. Not sure why the CA0110 is even on the Audigy FX, being that the ALC898 supports 5.1, which is the limit of what the FX supports. Either way, the card is entirely software based. It will sound like crap compared to the ALC1150.

    The Audigy RX uses an EMU-CA10300....which was last used on the Audigy 4 and E-MU cards. Since your motherboard has the ALC1150 audio chip, the Audigy RX will be a waste of money unless all you care about is the software features.

    The EMU-CA10300 was replaced by the EMU20K1 and CA20K1.
     

  11. Twister

    Twister Guest

    Okay but I have a few last questions.

    1. What CA and ALC does X-Fi Titanium use?
    2. Is Xtreme Audio weaker then X-Fi Titanium?
    3. What software do Audigy Rx/Fx use?
    4. Is there a guide or video demonstrating all features in Pro Studio somewhere?
     
  12. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    Answers to your questions

    1. CA20K1
    2. Yes. CA20K1 is an audio DSP. CA0110 and ALC898 are simple audio logic controllers. CA20K1 is an actual audio processor that supported hardware accelerated audio before MS removed support from Windows.
    3. SBX Pro Studio
    4. Google "SBX Pro Studio" There should be a link to Creative's site with said demo.
     
  13. Valken

    Valken Ancient Guru

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    I am using MB3 on W7 x64 as well and it sounds really good over ALC1150 onboard codec. But it will up CPU to decode 3D sounds as there is no DSP as found on a HW X-FI cards.

    I am unsure if it will work with the Supreme FX onboard or even Windows 10 so check Creative's website to be sure.
     
  14. Twister

    Twister Guest

    Alright thanks for your answers.
    So a Fx/Rx is a no-go for me then, it's a definitive downgrade.

    Can you answer these questions also?
    1. What CA and ALC does Sound Blaster Z, Zx, and ZxR use?
    2. Does the SB Z series use an actual audio processor aswell?
    3. Do the SB Pro Studio have similar settings or even the exact settings as the audio control panel software that X-Fi cards have? (Example Titanium)
     
  15. Glidefan

    Glidefan Don Booze Staff Member

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    #1, dunno, not going to turn off my pc and take the card out :p
    #2, Yes. A quad core chip doing actual work. (It's the same as the Recon3D cards but with better pcb/support circuit as far as i know)
    #3 Dunno what the X-Fi cards have, but the SBX Pro has equalizers, speaker distance/phase setup (probably same as X-Fi? the panel doesn't have the same art style as the SBX but more like the cyan/brushed metal of previous stuff.)
    Switch from speaker output to headphone output, and no it's not the same as the windows panel.
    It's switching from the speaker ports to the headphone jack on the card and to have positional audio with headphones you need windows set as 5.1 but SBX Pro at headphones with Surround on under the SBX Pro Studio panel.
    Also present are of course volume sliders for mixing the input output.

    Crap i sound like a fanboy.
     

  16. Twister

    Twister Guest

    Headphones is not relevant anyways, I am never going to use a headphone in my life.

    Hopefully sykoziz can give a answer too.
     
  17. Tacoboy

    Tacoboy Guest

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    The Recon3D cards and Z, Zx, ZxR cards all you the same Soundcore3D audio processor.
    The Soundcore3D comes with a built in DAC function, guessing(?) about equal to the DAC function built into the Realtek ALC1150.
    But the Z & Zx comes with a nice CS4398 DAC chip, which improves audio quality for the headphone and Front Speaker analog output, while the ZxR comes with 3 really nice DAC chips (PCM17XX series) for all 6 analog channels (including the headphone output).
     
  18. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

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    I agree with others, as far as cards go grab a Z series.....if you want to go external I would look to other companies.
     
  19. f14dude

    f14dude Member Guru

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    Thank you for the info. I too was wondering the status of the list of Sound Blaster cards and have ordered a Sound Blaster Z card to replace my old XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro. When I upgraded my old board to a 1151 board, I forgot to check to make sure there is a PCI slot... hence had to give up the trusty XtremeGamer card since new motherboard had no PCI slot. But I'm glad the Sound Blaster Z will be similar if not better than my old card.

    Now I have two questions on my own.

    1: Does the Sound Blaster Z include the ability to plug in the front sound header from the PC case to the card so I can hook up a headset to the front of my case? If not it's no big deal. I can still plug a headset to my speaker if needed mainly for listening.

    2- If yes, Will it block out the 'noise'? I remember trying to hook up my headset to the front header with the header hooked up to the motherboard and I can hear all sort of noises which had me promptly removed.

    3- About this Sound Blaster X-FI MB3 software, will it work on a laptop with ALC892 chipset and will it sound better?

    Thanks for any additional help.
     
  20. Glidefan

    Glidefan Don Booze Staff Member

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    It does have a front panel header, but it needs to be "HD-Audio" one, it's not compatible with the old AC-97. But if you are looking to have your headphones and speakers connected at the same time, then the card has a dedicated headphones connector on the back. So you can keep both plugged in.

    Keep the speakers settings in windows to 5.1 if you are using a surround sound and just switch speakers <-> headphones from within Pro studio.

    The noise you are talking about is most probably static picked up from the front panel.
     

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