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Creative Sound Blaster new series Z, Zx & ZxR
Aug 16, 2012 at 9:17 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 3,462
Migou67

Migou67

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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.
 

 
They deliver 80 mW with a 600 ohms headphone.
 
Product page:
http://www.soundblaster.com/gaming/soundcards.aspx
 
Creative Labs SoundBlaster ZXR Review:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/soundblaster_zxr_review.html
 
Aug 16, 2012 at 6:44 PM Post #2 of 3,462
Wonder if these new Creative sound cards will make the Asus Phoebus drop in price?
 
Aug 17, 2012 at 9:58 AM Post #3 of 3,462
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.
 
Aug 17, 2012 at 1:00 PM Post #4 of 3,462
Quote:
rpgwizard said:
Nice, good to see they are stepping up the game, 127dB SNR sounds promissing.
Click to expand...

 
The 127 dB SNR most likely refers to the DAC chip only, not the entire card.
 
Aug 17, 2012 at 8:27 PM Post #5 of 3,462
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.
 
Sep 9, 2012 at 7:10 PM Post #7 of 3,462
Any new info on these sound cards?
 
Sep 21, 2012 at 9:26 AM Post #10 of 3,462
Quote:
insound said:
The first pictures from inside the cards Z and ZxR
http://personalaudio.ru/review/sound-cards/foto_kart_sound_blaster_z_i_zxr_iznutri/
Click to expand...

 
Interesting new site despite being in russian though, they posted the first review also on Sony 1R and Sony XB600 & XB800 headphones.
 
Sep 21, 2012 at 3:04 PM Post #11 of 3,462
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.
 
Sep 21, 2012 at 8:06 PM Post #12 of 3,462
Quote:
namelesspfg said:
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.
Click to expand...

 
 
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.
 
Sep 22, 2012 at 11:53 AM Post #13 of 3,462
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_/
 
Sep 22, 2012 at 4:44 PM Post #14 of 3,462
*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.
 
Sep 22, 2012 at 10:32 PM Post #15 of 3,462
Quote:
namelesspfg said:
*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.
Click to expand...

 
 
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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