Anyone used a creative Z sound card?

MeatLoaf · 20 Jul 2013 at 19:42

ShakeNBake said:
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.

Ive got the same speakers and headset. So can you have the speakers and the headset connrcted at the same time at the back of the card or do you have to plug your headset into the speakers as i do now?

Confused Stu · 20 Jul 2013 at 19:54

MeatLoaf said:
Ive got the same speakers and headset. So can you have the speakers and the headset connrcted at the same time at the back of the card or do you have to plug your headset into the speakers as i do now?

The card has separate jacks for headphones and speakers, so you can have both plugged into the card at the same time and simply switch between then using the software.

If you have a look at the ports on the card (http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2013/02/creative-sound-blaster-z-review/sbz-5b.jpg) you can see from left to right the mic, then headphones, then speakers.

dfour · 21 Jul 2013 at 10:49

Top of the ss is the little tab that allows you to change from speakers to headphones its that simple

Genoma · 21 Jul 2013 at 22:08

the separate headphone jack was the key feature for me as I was getting horrible interference through the front panel cable. My opinion on it is here

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18528420

ShakeNBake · 22 Jul 2013 at 00:02

oh man, the special voice effects you can apply are priceless ^_^

Genoma · 22 Jul 2013 at 19:18

anyone get a loud "pock" sound from the speakers when the computer sleeps or leaves sleep mode? I'm sure this used to happen with my previous SB card too.

Genoma · 22 Jul 2013 at 19:18

ShakeNBake said:
oh man, the special voice effects you can apply are priceless ^_^

Remind me of all the kiddies on xbox live unfortunately grr

Confused Stu · 22 Jul 2013 at 20:59

Genoma said:
anyone get a loud "pock" sound from the speakers when the computer sleeps or leaves sleep mode? I'm sure this used to happen with my previous SB card too.

Yup, present in mine too since first install. My old Xonar had relays that clicked in after that point to avoid the "pock" during startup, but the Creative doesn't so I get a "crump" during boot up.

Genoma · 22 Jul 2013 at 21:16

ok not just me then! Good

MeatLoaf · 22 Jul 2013 at 21:50

Feature wise do you think the ZX is worth almost double the price of the Z OEM?

The OEM has all the same features obviously without the shiled and ACM

dfour · 23 Jul 2013 at 15:26

Anyone else have any problems with the last update?? Yesterday 1 day after updating the drivers the card refuses to use my rear speakers on my 5.1 logitechs and plays the rear out of the front speakers. I have looked at the windows sound panel and it will not allow 5.1 to be selected saying 'device is in use by another program and it might crash'. If you ignore it and keep going through the wizard when you click finnish it says 'format not supported by device'

Im going to uninstall and go back to the previous drivers and see if that clears it up.

rids57 · 23 Jul 2013 at 15:49

I've been using the 13.1.00.22 drivers since the day they were released (10/7) and haven't had any problems with them at all. Did you uninstall the old driver first before installing the new one?

dfour · 23 Jul 2013 at 18:07

rids57 said:
I've been using the 13.1.00.22 drivers since the day they were released (10/7) and haven't had any problems with them at all. Did you uninstall the old driver first before installing the new one?

Just used the auto update which I assume didnt remover the old ones.

Genoma · 23 Jul 2013 at 18:09

Mmm. I installed my card last Friday. The driver version is from 03/07 which I downloaded off the Creative site. There is a later version then? Where do I tell the driver version (device manager versions are very different to the format you mentioned).

rids57 · 23 Jul 2013 at 20:57

the top one on this page...
http://support.creative.com/downloads/welcome.aspx?nDriverType=1#type_1

MeatLoaf · 25 Jul 2013 at 00:24

rids57 said:
the top one on this page...
http://support.creative.com/downloads/welcome.aspx?nDriverType=1#type_1

That link brings up an X-Fi for me

casual_eze · 25 Jul 2013 at 00:49

quick question guys, on the SB Z, does sound quality change between using the headphone socket on the back of the card vs using my case front panel headphone socket connected through the HD Audio cable in my rig? Do i lose any quality using the front panel connector? i dont have any interference like some have reported on here.

thanks,

Marsman · 25 Jul 2013 at 02:14

If there is no interference, then you shouldn't hear any difference. I know using the connections on the card itself are always preferable, but unless the sound is being degraded in some way, you'd have to have magic ears to discern a noticeable difference.

casual_eze · 25 Jul 2013 at 11:23

thanks for confirming marsman!

dfour · 25 Jul 2013 at 12:34

uninstalled and went back tot he 1.00.16 drivers and surround in restored properly. Might try the newer after a uninstall and see if that solved the problem I had with them previously.