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Creative Sound Blaster new série Z

post #1 of 595
8/16/12 at 6:17am
Thread Starter 

There are three new Sound Blaster : the ZXR ($ 250), the ZX ($ 150) and Z ($ 100).

 

 

The ZXR is offering: digital-analog converters (DAC) with an SNR of 127 dB, OP-AMPS replaceable, headset amplifier with a 600 ohm impedance supported. A control module including an headphone output.

 

She was presented at the Gamescom :)

 

Edit : added pictures

 

Edit2 : They deliver 80 mW with a 600 ohms headphone.


Edited by Migou67 - 12/11/12 at 1:52am
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post #2 of 595
8/16/12 at 3:44pm

Wonder if these new Creative sound cards will make the Asus Phoebus drop in price?

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post #3 of 595
8/17/12 at 6:58am

Nice, good to see they are stepping up the game, 127dB SNR sounds promissing. Wonder how ZX will be like specs wise tho, $250 is expensive for these kind of soundcard, $150 I'm still hoping it would be at least matching Titanium HD.


Edited by RPGWiZaRD - 8/17/12 at 7:00am
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post #4 of 595
8/17/12 at 10:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD View Post

Nice, good to see they are stepping up the game, 127dB SNR sounds promissing.

 

The 127 dB SNR most likely refers to the DAC chip only, not the entire card.

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post #5 of 595
8/17/12 at 5:27pm

Well that would probably be the specification for the DAC chip.  Which is an ideal, perfect situation where it would possibly hit that mark.  The real world performance is usually a few dB difference and the Decibel scale is logarithmic so a difference of a few dB is quite a bit.

 

My experience would suggest that in the real world, it would probably hit about 124dB, if the circuit used quality opamps and caps.  Which is similar to their TitanHD or the higher end Xonars.


Edited by ROBSCIX - 8/17/12 at 5:30pm
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post #6 of 595
8/18/12 at 12:26am
Thread Starter 

For a consumer audio card is nice to see a headphone amp delivering 80 mW under 600 ohms and a dedicated DAC. For me this card is a trade-off between the multimedia and the audio world.


Edited by Migou67 - 8/18/12 at 12:31am
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post #7 of 595
9/9/12 at 4:10pm

Any new info on these sound cards?

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post #8 of 595
9/20/12 at 4:58am
Thread Starter 

No, there are not available for the moment.

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post #9 of 595
9/21/12 at 6:22am
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post #10 of 595
9/21/12 at 6:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by insound View Post

 

Interesting new site despite being in russian though, they posted the first review also on Sony 1R and Sony XB600 & XB800 headphones.

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post #11 of 595
9/21/12 at 12:04pm

These cards could be quite promising in terms of analog audio quality...

 

...but if they rely on a software OpenAL device like the Recon3D USB does, then they will NEVER surpass the X-Fi line for gaming, not until Creative fixes the bugs in their software OpenAL implementation.

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post #12 of 595
9/21/12 at 5:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NamelessPFG View Post

These cards could be quite promising in terms of analog audio quality...

 

...but if they rely on a software OpenAL device like the Recon3D USB does, then they will NEVER surpass the X-Fi line for gaming, not until Creative fixes the bugs in their software OpenAL implementation.

 

 

From what I've seen so far, it seems most hardware features have been stripped, with the core chip being a simple pre-programmed DSP, without a hardware MIDI synthesizer, no hardware accelerated gaming audio features whatsoever, but I still haven't checked out for ASIO support.

 

The last true high quality Creative card is the X-Fi Titanium HD and the almost as good Auzentech variants.

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post #13 of 595
9/22/12 at 8:53am

ASIO will be with update driver, they said in an interview (Russian)
http://personalaudio.ru/review/sound-cards/intervyu_s_tekhnicheskim_spetsialistom_creative_na_prezentatsii_novykh_produktov_sound_blaster_z_zx_/

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post #14 of 595
9/22/12 at 1:44pm

*puts the site through Google Translate*

 

And they blatantly admitted that they're giving up on hardware sound acceleration in that interview...which wouldn't be so bad if Creative's software OpenAL renderer wasn't flawed compared to the hardware renderer used with their older cards.

 

Something tells me they're not bringing back the MIDI synthesizer with customizable SoundFonts, either. That little feature can make 1990s games with MIDI music sound really nice, much more than the usual software Microsoft synth can do.

 

*sighs* Someone needs to buy all of Creative's PC gaming audio tech from them, both their in-house EAX and everything they took from Aureal and Sensaura. They sure aren't doing much with it all.

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post #15 of 595
9/22/12 at 7:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NamelessPFG View Post

*puts the site through Google Translate*

 

And they blatantly admitted that they're giving up on hardware sound acceleration in that interview...which wouldn't be so bad if Creative's software OpenAL renderer wasn't flawed compared to the hardware renderer used with their older cards.

 

Something tells me they're not bringing back the MIDI synthesizer with customizable SoundFonts, either. That little feature can make 1990s games with MIDI music sound really nice, much more than the usual software Microsoft synth can do.

 

*sighs* Someone needs to buy all of Creative's PC gaming audio tech from them, both their in-house EAX and everything they took from Aureal and Sensaura. They sure aren't doing much with it all.

 

 

What's more troubling is that they have no need to avoid providing hardware sound acceleration, they hold all the cards and it would always be an ace up their sleeve. Software OpenAL isn't that great, Creative's software OpenAL is a bit better, but hardware OpenAL is indeed the best route.

 

Considering the way they were advertising the new cards, it would make sense to have a proper MIDI synthesizer.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with that, but who could be someone that could be trusted with all of Creative's proprietary features?

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