[Axaion]

  Didn't Asus drop support for their Xonar cards, basically making everyone rely on 3rd party drivers for it to function well?

Cant drop support on something you never supported!

 

[DJINFERNO806]

'Line In / Microphone In jack: Connects to line-level sources (for example, MP3 players) or microphones with a 3.5mm (1/8-inch) plug'.

Basically Creative are saying that you won't get to use Headphone Mode unless you have a microphone or an MP3 player in the Line In (What); and no mention of Headphone Out or the Line Outs either which actually do use Headphone Mode.

Is Asus support like this?????

screw it. In terms of Headphone Mode/SPDIF question we know it works, even though Creative do not. *Edit* I only ask this because Feg confirmed that it works on the ZxR;  but the ZxR (unlike the Z) has it's digital out on a separate daughterboard. Is there a difference - again, I just want it confirmed?

Don't want to order up gear and find it dead on expectations (aka DOE).

The digital out should behave in the same manner on the z. At least in the way you want. I think the daughter board mostly just focuses on recording and supporting room that the ADC needs with the opamps. I'm sure it wouldn't have room on the zxr. Not without sacrificing separation of components at least.



I'm more curious as to how the daughter boards separate processor handles encoding of digital out. Is it faster to where there is no lag that z users are noticing? It would make sense since you aren't sharing processing power with other card effects.

 

[SaLX]

Unofficial new modded PAX drivers for both the Z, Zx and the ZxR.
 
SBZ, SBZx:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-drivers/223162-pax_sbz_cd_l13_1_00_22_2013_v1-00-official-live.html#post1493103
 
SB ZxR:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-drivers/223163-pax_sbzxr_cd_ld_1_00_22_2013_v1-00-official-live-driver-does-work-now.html#post1493104

 

[Anarion]

Don't as what I think about his so called modified drivers....

 

[SaLX]

What's wrong with them Anarion?

 

[benbenkr]

  Unofficial new modded PAX drivers for both the Z, Zx and the ZxR.
 
SBZ, SBZx:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-drivers/223162-pax_sbz_cd_l13_1_00_22_2013_v1-00-official-live.html#post1493103
 
SB ZxR:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-drivers/223163-pax_sbzxr_cd_ld_1_00_22_2013_v1-00-official-live-driver-does-work-now.html#post1493104
 
Well done Mr Robert McClelland

 
All he does is actually tweak the .ini files, of which you can do on your own.
He doesn't even own an SBZ/ZxR to begin with, IINM he said so in one of his other topics.
 
He's got a reputation of weird sounding drivers since the X-Fi days. Credit to him of course because he was the only one besides Daniel_K which fixed the horrendous, system-breaking Creative X-Fi drivers in the older days.
 
Then he has all these weird fancy way of naming his tweaks... Pure Tweak, Smooth Tweak, Softer tweak, DeepBass, SharpMids, CleanMids, clean this clean that... wth, I don't even... 

 

 

[DJINFERNO806]

LOL^ this!
 
This is why I never recommended them on here.  They will not fix stability or big issues from the sock drivers as they are just ini tweaks.
 
I even said in the overclock forums that I dont recommend them since the author doesnt even own the hardware and sais there are probably bugs.  yaa...nooo..
 
Gone are the days of full x-fi custom drivers.  Creative hasn't released(and probably never will) the source code for the z drivers.  Without it, there's not much more you can do except eq tweaks and profile changes.  Robert was always known to be a basshead so his drivers will reflect that taste in their tweaks.  Personally I dont like my sound being messed with unless I DO IT.

 

[Evshrug]

Not meaning to be in anyway contentious, but Creative sent me this just now:

Should I mail them back and tell them that they are wrong; screw up even?

Misleading and confusing email reply, but even if the guy doesn't know what he's saying, at least he's not cussing.

 

[SaLX]

Evshrug - yes of course you are right. Apologies.
 
Don't think we should let them off the hook though. Truly appalling advice. I wanted a definitive answer as to headphone mode/digital out officially from Creative. FYI and BTW all employees at Creative are called 'John'. Like all of them.
 

Actually no John. I believe you have made a number of mistakes that are
misleading. No offence mate (you've been very helpful) but if you could
kindly respond to these questions from your previous email:

1: (John) "Under the Sound Blaster Z PRO Studio Control panel: speakers
/ headphone tab you have two option to select your connections, speaker or
headphone, Please note that the headphone option is only available if
connected to a Line in/ Mic in jack".

John no....  basically what you're saying is that you won't get to use
Headphone Mode unless you have either a mic or MP3 player attached to the
Line in/ Mic in jack. Seriously plain wrong. You did not mention the
Headphone Jack nor the Line Out jacks which would be the correct way of
using headphone mode.

2. (John) " Which means that if the SPDIF connection is used your setup will
be recognized as speakers even if your used your headset, this will be in
stereo mode.

John.. people on the forums actually CAN select Headphone Mode using SPDIF,
and CAN actually use headphones via a 2 channel headphone DAC/AMP. Where
were you told this?

John, please escalate this if you haven't used this hardware before personally;
also please acknowledge that you got this reply.

Many thanks John,
Jamie.
 

***EDIT*** Am suitably chastised - shouldn't have been so rude

 

[Evshrug]

^ I mean, I'm not trying to police you or anything. I'm in tech support, so... I immediately think about how some days can feel like hell, especially when a customer starts to get upset. That said, he gave bad support, and hopefully he takes your feedback as an opportunity to improve.

We know why they're all named "John," it's usually because we'd have a hard time pronouncing their real name from India... unless they're just trying to stay anonymous so they don't have individual accountability. I always tell people my name.

Makes me think about the other way we use the nickname "Johns"...

 

[watsaname]

I don't know if anyone really cares about Alchemy with Source games, but I am currently testing it out in Black Mesa. I am not sure if it is working as intended. It seems like the audio is grabbed by Alchemy as SBX surround is turned off upon entering the game, and turned back on as soon as quitting the game. The issue I am having with it is that any directional audio outside of a ~30 degree cone front of you is almost muted and directional audio is not great. When I turn alchemy off via the command "snd_legacy_surround 0" I go into my creative control panel and turn on the SBX surround and it sounds much better volume and direction.
 
Black Mesa with ALchemy working.
 
Black Mesa with SBX Surround.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Sal,

I'll try to get my daughter board hooked in this weekend and run some tests if you'd like to add to feg's confirmation about optical out and hrtf modes.

 

[SaLX]

DJ - I feel mean, especially after your comments about support staff. He was only trying to help and although I was courteous to him during our exchanges, pointing out his errors like that was pretty rough of me.
 
If you've the time to drop in your DB then that would be great - thanks

 

[Evshrug]

^ SaLX,
What did DJ say?
IMO, you didn't actually cuss at HIM, so you respected him as a human being, but tech support knowledge is/was his job and he is supposed to represent a reliable source of info. If he didn't know, he had several avenues at his disposal to find out, theoretically more than you.

Specifying that his help wasn't helpful/clear and seemed irrelevant to the issue was actually helpful of you, although the funny part is that actually specifying a person's shortcomings can make that person feel worse than you getting frustrating and using "rubber stamp" cussing. But it's part of his job, he'll either get over it and better himself because of it, or honestly he might be weary and just ignore it. Support is a very wearying job.

[delete personal story about a friend who cussed in video games] I found that people listen to you and more when you include the positive benefit to a critique, for example "I was asking about outputting headphone surround processing from the SB-Z, I don't see how mic input on the SB-Z could be a solution. I do appreciate you spending time to find ways to help me, maybe we could find a solution in less time if you consult a peer, superior, database; meanwhile I'll ask the community on Head-Fi and test my gear, and I'll let you know for future reference if I find an answer for myself."

It's easier to guide someone the right way than to list off all the wrong ways.

 

[Radical_53]

They may not even know any better, or may not even have better reference material. Companies are trying to cut costs at every corner so they'll be fine with customer reps who can answer 90% of the questions. Stuff that is written in the manual, for example. Quite often it's down to the individual rep, and his interest in his job, to find those "hidden" answers. It's nothing he'd get from any of his company trainings.