The Sound Blaster Z on it's own is perfectly good if you have easy to drive headphones. Don't go over the top if you're new to this.

  Yup - we know what that's for  

  Seriously, £45? I got mine ages ago for I think £22 from Amazon UK. They must be very low on stock atm, thus the silly markup. Try going to Amazon.com and I bet you'll get it much cheaper from there (the US site will estimate the import charges to import to Britain). I bet maybe £28 tops...

Looks like the Compass 2 has gone from the line-up: http://www.audio-gd.com/Products-EN.htm. I'll still be using this thing for many years to come so **** it.

Thanks for the tip there Bay.  Will lend my X1's to my old man (he loves his Samsung tab S) and see what he thinks of it. He has a hearing aid in one ear...... difficulty on horizon :)

@Zennheiserie8: Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" is incredibly powerful on the X1's. You'd think Philips had designed these 'phones for that album. Incredible.   Great write-up btw and thanks.

@Fafner Try a complete uninstall, remove the cards and then run this: http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion to make sure every reference is gone from the PC. GL.

Maybe there are supply issues atm? I would hope they're not being phased out richbass - you could always drop them an email as they will respond without a doubt.

Razer Surround clearer?   H.A.H.A.H.A.H.A.H.A [hahahahaha] interjection   The spleen bursting response from a person who is especially interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction, but thinks your argument is complete bollocks. Music is another matter of course, obviously.     ****s...

He won't get surround that way if I'm not mistaken genclaymore (you must've forgotten!) . Quite a few people have the O2 connected via the headphone out on their SBZ and I've never read of anybody having this same problem, even though they are double amping.   Maybe it's a latency issue??

@rwpritchett: I got the same cable in January, so it's nice to see they're still being sold. This cable is indeed well made and good looking and I haven't had any problems with it. BTW I got the same measured impedance as you did. So yes... as rwpritchett says... this is a very good option for...

Nice review, thanks for the link Purple. The meme that onboard is as good as discrete get's slightly blown out of the water here, but I agree with the reviewer's verdict that the Z is all you need really.    @RPGWiZaRD - you still not sold your ZxR yet!! :)

You could of course get the Compass 2 which would allow you to swap out the WM and Sabre depending on what you want.

SBZ plus X1 works great. My external amp has improved it, but not by any major leap in performance. @zDezor> the mic is pretty good actually I've found.

The "PU" lol... ok.. that's just as bad. I get your point   CH Products - thanks for sealing the deal on that for me. Shame there's no twist to the stick, but I guess that full analogue mini-stick on the throttle could be bound to that with a modifier. I'd also hope to use it as a POV or...

Yeah Nameless.. only saw you there when I was investigating controllers in that subforum. CH or x55?? I think I'll go the former myself.   I flatly refuse to say the "'Verse" btw - I hate that term. Anybody says that and they will become cold dead floating and badly butchered meat in the cruel...

@NamelessPFG ..    I saw a MP vid on Youtube yesterday where another player was called 'Nameless' (it was from a streamed vid with Nyaandere, the Romantics guy and others). I wrongly connected the dots as I'd seen a couple of your posts (same name) on the RSI forums; I thought that it could've...

@NamelessPFG : Is that indeed you playing multiplayer Star Citizen??

conquerator2 - thanks for the insights on the AKG's - very much appreciated. Basically buy the headphones first, then check out if the other boards are required or not. I guess that's the beauty of the Compass: it's totally configurable.   I seriously doubt I'll be buying another amp/dac combo...

Glad to hear you're liking it Conquerator - yeah it's most certainly not cold and clinical as you point out :) You'll need a lot of burn in to get the sound to mature btw, exactly as Kingwa recommends!   I've got to step up and seriously get better headphones to match this amp, but my eyes are...

Evs - Great to see you trying to shoot people in the face on Twitch /CoD. Nice stream. You're too way too laid back to be a stone cold killer. Also Stillhart - great chatting with you too :)   Here's Ev's link btw, seeing as he's not a shameless self promoter:http://www.twitch.tv/evshrug/...

Well, that's a slight bummer. I'm sure they'll get better in the long run.

Great post benbenkr   I think whether for good or ill, many PC users now accept the meme that onboard is as good as a physical addon card. Given that, it's entirely logical that Creative wants a piece of the action, so it's not such a weird move after all. I can only speculate (but I'm pretty...

@TwoEars yes.. optical out works absolutely flawlessly - it's a superb solution. An external amp is recognised as the best way to power your cans.. and this solution is pretty much perfect for a PC. A year back, a consensus was formed here on this subforum via discussions/cross posts from the...