Soundblaster z / zx...any real difference?
- Thread starter Dazz0r
- Start date
No difference at all. The specs are exactly the same looking on their site. More Creative nonsense, making people pay more for the same thing. Bundle a control pod thing and charge an extra £30 for it. In fact, they don't include the microphone with the Zx by the looks of it, meaning they are charging more than £30 for that control pod thing.
Soldato
The difference between the z and zx is just the module. However the zxr is significantly different as it has different hardware. The SNR is higher and it has a dbpro daughter board. It also has changeable op-amps. Etc.
We know for sure what the Z has and we are pretty sure what hardware the Zxr has but We don't know the exact components of the Zx yet. I know Marsman said it doesn't, but all the Z series cards come with the creative beamforming microphone.
The only thing I know about the Zx for sure is that it uses Nichicon FG capacitors the Z doesn't. What the other changes between the two are apart from the ACM I don't know yet.
Whether there is any difference in sound quality or not, nobody knows yet. Just have to wait and see.
Only the ZxR uses Nichicon capacitors. The Zx is the same card as the Z, it just has the module thing included. The specs are exactly the same. If different components were used for the Zx, the specs would not be the same. There is no mention at all on Creative's site of the microphone being included with the Zx. If you look at what is included with the Zx, it's not there.
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Ah, you don't understand, the beamforming microphone array is built into the audio control module
And a creative support guy on another forum confirmed that the Zx and Zxr have the Nichicon FG caps. Only the Z hasn't.
The type of CAPS don't make any difference to the audio quality that's why the specs are the same, I suppose,maybe, the FG caps do a better job of smoothing out voltage spikes.
While the SNR ratio and specs are the same, the Zx's external Dac could be driving all 5.1 channels. The external dac on the Z is only driving the front channels the integrated dac on the core3d is driving the others. The rear channels on the Z only get a 103 Db SNR measurement in RMAA. The front channels get the full 116 Db. The Zx might be able to get 116 Db for all channels.
But most of that is just speculation, apart from the FG caps and the microphone. It will be interesting to see what the actual differences are when the cards are finally released.
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