The Sound Blaster Z on it's own is perfectly good if you have easy to drive headphones. Don't go over the top if you're new to this.

  Yup - we know what that's for  

  Seriously, £45? I got mine ages ago for I think £22 from Amazon UK. They must be very low on stock atm, thus the silly markup. Try going to Amazon.com and I bet you'll get it much cheaper from there (the US site will estimate the import charges to import to Britain). I bet maybe £28 tops...

Looks like the Compass 2 has gone from the line-up: http://www.audio-gd.com/Products-EN.htm. I'll still be using this thing for many years to come so **** it.

Thanks for the tip there Bay.  Will lend my X1's to my old man (he loves his Samsung tab S) and see what he thinks of it. He has a hearing aid in one ear...... difficulty on horizon :)

@Zennheiserie8: Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" is incredibly powerful on the X1's. You'd think Philips had designed these 'phones for that album. Incredible.   Great write-up btw and thanks.

@Fafner Try a complete uninstall, remove the cards and then run this: http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion to make sure every reference is gone from the PC. GL.

Maybe there are supply issues atm? I would hope they're not being phased out richbass - you could always drop them an email as they will respond without a doubt.

Razer Surround clearer?   H.A.H.A.H.A.H.A.H.A [hahahahaha] interjection   The spleen bursting response from a person who is especially interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction, but thinks your argument is complete bollocks. Music is another matter of course, obviously.     ****s...

He won't get surround that way if I'm not mistaken genclaymore (you must've forgotten!) . Quite a few people have the O2 connected via the headphone out on their SBZ and I've never read of anybody having this same problem, even though they are double amping.   Maybe it's a latency issue??

@rwpritchett: I got the same cable in January, so it's nice to see they're still being sold. This cable is indeed well made and good looking and I haven't had any problems with it. BTW I got the same measured impedance as you did. So yes... as rwpritchett says... this is a very good option for...

Nice review, thanks for the link Purple. The meme that onboard is as good as discrete get's slightly blown out of the water here, but I agree with the reviewer's verdict that the Z is all you need really.    @RPGWiZaRD - you still not sold your ZxR yet!! :)

You could of course get the Compass 2 which would allow you to swap out the WM and Sabre depending on what you want.

SBZ plus X1 works great. My external amp has improved it, but not by any major leap in performance. @zDezor> the mic is pretty good actually I've found.