[13xflexplate]

both soundcards the ZXR and AE-9 are pretty dam good, depending on the range of music you listening to. I had changed the op-amps on both cards, with burson audio v5/v6 op-amps. resulting a well clear and solid sound with little to none adjustments. if you plan to adjust in software, have a lot of those settings bag and tag. here's some pic's.
https://flic.kr/p/2pEHeYy
https://flic.kr/p/2pEHeYo
https://flic.kr/p/2pEvWNJ

 

[Ghoostknight]

i had the Soundblaster Z as my first dac... it was better than mainboard output but the topping d10 beat it with ease, i would personally stay away from pcie soundcards... get something with usb that is nicely shielded and doesnt even sit in a noise main hub

Tho... if you ask me USB comes with other issues, sound trough usb is easly altered with isolators/filters/cables unfortunaly, so it definitely is not perfect by itself

 

[GotNoRice]

i had the Soundblaster Z as my first dac... it was better than mainboard output but the topping d10 beat it with ease

The Z was the lowest-tier card of that series, with the worst DAC, so it doesn't surprise me that you didn't find it to be that great. The ZxR was the card from that series that had the good DAC.