[nike290]

I am looking for a new sound card and Amazon is going to have a limited time deal on the Sound Blaster ZXR tomorrow. Does anyone know if the Sound Blaster ZXR is as good as or better than the Xonar Essence STX and would it be worth getting the Sound Blaster ZXR on sale (assuming the price will be less than the STX) or should I just pay a little more and get the Xonar Essence STX?

 

[oronga]

I believe they use the same DAC chip so sound quality should be similar. I would go with the SB ZXR if you can can it for significantly less.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I am looking for a new sound card and Amazon is going to have a limited time deal on the Sound Blaster ZxR tomorrow. Does anyone know if the Sound Blaster ZXR is as good as or better than the Xonar Essence STX and would it be worth getting the Sound Blaster ZxR on sale (assuming the price will be less than the STX) or should I just pay a little more and get the Xonar Essence STX?

The STX and ZxR both use the same TI 6120A2 headphone amplifier chip.
The STX's PCM1792A DAC chip and the ZxR's PCM1794 DAC chip for all practical purposes are the same DAC chip.
So music thru headphones or 2-channel speakers should really sound about the same with both.
(the ZxR has a slightly better buffer op-amp, for the line-out (speaker) audio.
The ZxR should have a slight advantage for audio quality for analog 5.1 speaker setup, as it has a slightly better buffer op-amp and two extra DAC chips for rear and center/sub-woofer channels.
If the ZxR is cheaper, might as well get the ZxR.

 

[Sslayer777]

I personally use Sennheiser 558s for my audio currently, so the audio quality would be about the same on the two? I've heard that the Xonar STX has cleaner sound since it pulls power from the PSU directly instead of using power from the PCIE slot. I've also heard that the ZXR has been tampered with in software and is artificially base boosted making music sound muddy. Can anyone confirm? I am also trying to decide between these two cards for my next purchase.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I personally use Sennheiser 558s for my audio currently, so the audio quality would be about the same on the two? I've heard that the Xonar STX has cleaner sound since it pulls power from the PSU directly instead of using power from the PCIE slot. I've also heard that the ZXR has been tampered with in software and is artificially base boosted making music sound muddy. Can anyone confirm? I am also trying to decide between these two cards for my next purchase.

I would think you would find answers to the ZxR on this thread.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/623079/creative-sound-blaster-new-s-rie-z