Anyone used a creative Z sound card?

I have the Zx and it works fine.
My Roccat Kaves died so I used the SB mic yesterday and a set of Bose headphones I usually use on my Ipod and I was very impressed, sound was great (much better than with the Kaves).
 
Just installed the ZX version tonight - very pleased with it - it's replacing a Xi Fi which I've had in my last 3 / 4 cases. I went with the ZX because the sockets on the front of my case got damaged when my daughter ran past while I was using an headset and it was getting harder and harder to get a reliable connection from them.
Quality wise it's not a massive improvement over the XIFi - more detail in the bass (for the love of god make sure you switch the bass enhancement off in SBX Pro WTH would anyone want to have the bass smeared all across the sound stage).
it's a very "pleasant" soundscape overall - makes it easy to listen for extended periods - I'm go through some of my .flacs atm and there's definitely more detail than I normally notice (but I'm probably listening more actively than normal as it's a new toy).
With lower fidelity tracks the crystallizer certainly adds more impact but it can make vocals a tad sharp for my tastes - I'm going to have to experiment a bit to get the best balance.

Is it worth it ? for me definitely - you'll need a decent set of headphones or speakers to get the most out of it which luckily I have (though I wish my old ovations still worked properly but I've got fed up of replacing the far too fragile cable at £20+ a pop). Might finally make the move to a set of Sennheiser 650s (my main HiFI is downstairs and I never use headphones with it so I've never needed a really high end set).

DinAlt
 
ShakeNBake - unless you have some serious problems with crosstalk in your case I wouldn't think the shield is worth paying out for personally - like any sound card I'd recommend getting it as far from your fans / graphic card as possible but with modern cases / components I wouldn't anticipate any problems. I bought the more expensive part specifically for the headphone and mic socket on it not for a red LED and some aluminium...

DinAlt
 
DinAlt said:
ShakeNBake - unless you have some serious problems with crosstalk in your case I wouldn't think the shield is worth paying out for personally - like any sound card I'd recommend getting it as far from your fans / graphic card as possible but with modern cases / components I wouldn't anticipate any problems. I bought the more expensive part specifically for the headphone and mic socket on it not for a red LED and some aluminium...

DinAlt
Click to expand...

Hmm problem is with my motherboard that the PCI-E 1x slot is right above the GPU slot XD

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z68A-GD55--G3-.html

thnx for the review anyway though, seems like it is probably worth the upgrade from an X-Fi after all :3
 
Well I've been listening to music none stop all evening so it's obviously doing something right - must get round to trying it on some games as well but the only game I'm playing seriously ATM is on hiatus (between Beta waves) so not sure what to use to give it a run - my fire up World of Tanks and give that a shot but I tend to get annoyed playing it :)

Liking the sound more and more as the evening goes on - still a little sharp on the treble but tons of detail.

DinAlt
 
ShakeNBake said:
Hmm problem is with my motherboard that the PCI-E 1x slot is right above the GPU slot XD

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z68A-GD55--G3-.html

thnx for the review anyway though, seems like it is probably worth the upgrade from an X-Fi after all :3
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry too much about the placing of the card. My only free PCI-E x1 slot is in the same place, and my OEM Z card doesn't suffer any interference/static/other stuff.

juda.jpg
 
Dont forget they will work in any pci-e slot. Mines in a x16 slot because the x1 slot is to tight to my graphics card
 
Hm interesting, didn't know they worked in the 16x slots XD
Might try moving mine around then.

Anyway, still can't decide 100% for sure. I guess it would be a nice improvement over an X-Fi Titanium, but for £50-80 I'm not 100% sure if it'll be THAT big of an improvement.

With the OEM vs the Retail version, I do have a) the Corsair 1300 headset (which has a mic already) and b) a Creative webcam (Live Chat HD I think?) so I don't think I really need another mic, unless the one you get with the Creative Z is awesome..?

Anyone got any personal reviews as to how they find the mic on the £80 version..?

Or any views on OEM version vs Retail version in general?

Like if I wanna have my speakers plugged in at the back, and then plug a headset in/out at the front as needed, will the OEM version let me do this too..?
 
ShakeNBake said:
Like if I wanna have my speakers plugged in at the back, and then plug a headset in/out at the front as needed, will the OEM version let me do this too..?
Click to expand...

The ports are the same on both retail and OEM - the only difference is the microphone and the red EMI shield. The nice thing about the Z rather than a Xonar is that you can plug both headphones and speakers into the back at the same time - with my Xonar I would've needed to swap cables around. This means I can leave both speakers and headphones plugged in 24/7 and swap them simply using software. The Z also has a front panel connection so if you still want to plug into the front of your PC you can.
 
Confused Stu said:
The Z also has a front panel connection so if you still want to plug into the front of your PC you can.
Click to expand...


Yeah I use the front panel currently with my X-Fi. Although the cable on the 1300 is insanely long (compared to my old headset anyway), so might just plug it in at the back.

When there is a headset plugged in at the back, can you switch between separately out-putting sound to the speakers / headset easily? Don't wanna have the headphones making noises when I'm not using them >.<
 
Yeah, sound only comes out of headphones or speakers. It's just a case of opening the software (I have it pinned to the taskbar), click the Headphones/speaker category on the left, click the slider at the top to switch headphones to speakers or back again - job done. It's about 5 seconds on my PC from decision to completed.
 
ok so my Creative Sound Blaster Z arrived today (Sat!) which was a nice surprise.

Spent some time setting it up testing stuff out etc.

Sound is a little bit clearer / better than previously (with my X-Fi Titanium)
Got both Speakers and Headphones plugged in round the back, as well as headphone mic. Very easy to switch between the two using the Creative console without ever having to plug stuff in / take stuff out.

Seems to sound really good whether in game or watching movies or listening to music, lots of custom settings to fiddle with, all in all pretty nice sound card. £54 is a decent price for it too.

My full audio setup is now made up of:
Creative Z OEM Sound Card - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-088-CL
Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II 2.0 Speaker System - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-116-CL
Corsair Vengeance 1300 Professional Gaming Headset - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-006-CS

No complaints, awesome sound quality.
 
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