Configuring my Astro A40 Audio system with Z Blaster Sound card

[^decaP]

Hi guys,

So I have the Astro A40 audio system and the new Z Blaster sound card by creative, ticks all the boxes.

I want to know what is the best way to set this up to achieve true 5.1 surround sound?

Currently I have the Astros set up as normal to the mixamp and from the mixamp by Toslink cable connected to the Z sound blaster.

I have Dolby Digital Live activated via the z blaster software but I'm not noticing a huge difference in sound quality over just using the MOBO.

I take it I should deactivate the dolby surround sound button on the mix amp whilst I have DDL activated? Would this cause any difficulites if I had both enabled?

My sound system is for playing FPS games, deactiving the subwoofer is a good idea also I take it?

Finally I'm really not sure how I should configure the equalizer so as to be able to drown out bombs, grenades and to listen to footsteps gun reloads more.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Sorry for the essay!

 

[melmac]

You are connecting from the Creative Z by optical to the Mixamp? I hope you have a seperate speaker system that you connect to the creative z using analog!!

Anyway, try this, plug the headphones out of the mixamp and plug them directly into the creative Z. Then on the creative control panel switch to headphone mode. And in the SBX pro studio turn on surround to around 50%

Test it out on games. You can try it without surround enabled see if it's any good.

 

[^decaP]

Yep from the sound card to the mixamp via optical.

I don't use a seperate speaker system at all, should I??

Yeah good idea, I'll try this out when I get home and see what sounds better