[SEALBoy]

Define better. In what way better?

In terms of sound quality, and its handling of surround sound in games. How well does the virtual surround sound of the Z work with headphones?

 

[Anarion]

In terms of sound quality, and its handling of surround sound in games. How well does the virtual surround sound of the Z work with headphones?

In terms of DAC quality, Titanium HD has better DAC and ADC (Z/Zx have headphone amp option though). Some like SBX better, some prefer CMSS. I prefer SBX over CMSS. ZxR has better hardware than Titanium HD and it would be the most logical choice from Titanium HD.

 

[Monir]

Recently purchased this card to slim down on equipment, amp, DAC etc. And boy was that a bad move. I haven't been this disappointed since I bought Xonar Phoebus.
 
The features and DAC section is totally fine, which is one of the reasons I bought the card. But the amplifier is just on par with my $20 Xonar DGX. I have to use MAX volume to get the same effect I got when using Xonar Essence STX @ 40% volume. And the volume controller is rendered useless as well. The mic is ten times worse than my clip-on mic from a very old Siberia headphone, and on lowest volume you can still hear sound - ie you can not mute the sound entirely, only reduce it to a certain extent. I guess this soundcard has very low output power, lower than a portable FiiO. Or maybe it's only designed for high impedance headphones (that is, only 600ohm), my 300ohm Sennheisers had higher volume than my 40ohm Fidelio X1 and IE-80, but still unable to mute the sound via the external volume controller.
 
I really hope this is a defect of sorts, but I really doubt it. I'll try and return this product tomorrow if they allow it. If I can't get the money back and just get it replaced, in which case the new one works - which I really doubt - I'll edit this post. But as for now, I'm really disappointed with Sound Blaster.

 

[Radical_53]

Which card did you get? The mic is very bad, yes. I tried it out once, for Teamspeak, but got convinced that I should put it back into the box right away

 

[Monir]

  Which card did you get? The mic is very bad, yes. I tried it out once, for Teamspeak, but got convinced that I should put it back into the box right away

 
ZxR

 

[Radical_53]

Oh ok. It shouldn't have issues driving headphones, neither high nor low impedance. I'm running a fairly high volume setting with my cans too, on the low impedance setting of the card, but apparently many other people actually had issues that the card had too much volume (running their cans at 4-6% or so).
Did you try the line out also?

 

[Skipshrike]

I recall the ZXR's control panel having an option to switch between low or high impedance headphones. I know my Z doesn't have that. Maybe that will help?

 

[Monir]

  I recall the ZXR's control panel having an option to switch between low or high impedance headphones. I know my Z doesn't have that. Maybe that will help?

 
Thats one of the first things I tried, the difference in volume is marginal and still doesnt remedy the issue with not being able to mute all sound at minimum volume via the external controller

 

[Radical_53]

I didn't use the ACM for long but I can't recall such an issue. Does the card "click" when you turn on your PC? 

 

[Anarion]

Something is clearly wrong there. Are you sure that nothing is messing the volume level? Like this:


This can cause issues unless you do not select the do nothing option.

Just by the way, I have to use 3% windows volume when using line out (and when using ACM at 100%, which reduces the volume a bit even at 100%).

It could be faulty card too. In terms of hardware it annihilates DG in every possible way.

 

[Monir]

I've had 'Do nothing' option on since forever since it messes with Skype calls and so forth. So yeah, hopefully faulty card, but I honestly still doubt it. A soundcard that doesn't use external power via a molex (like Phoebus and STX) is liable to have insufficient output power for headphones.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Ya this isn't a video card. It doesn't require external power other than the pcie lanes can provide... I believe up to 75 watts for a full height card.

I highly doubt it uses even more than 25w. You need to remember you are sending power in the milliwatts(1/1000 of a watt) to headphone drivers. Not even 1 watt. So the amp shouldn't require that much power plus whatever the card itself needs to power the DAC,opamps and the spu plus its circuits. Even if we factor the impedence it still shouldn't equal more than a few watts I'm sure just for the amp.

I think the whole extra molex to the Asus cards was to fortify the whole "cleanest power possible " theme they were going for. But not needed with modern motherboards or power supplies. I also think originally the essence stx was a PCI card(st) and maybe power draw from those connectors was limited perhaps? Meh who knows. That famous Russian site measured the stx and zxr power output and the zxr just barely measured higher if I remember correctly.

Lol any who point being I think you card is just faulty. Especially if gain settings dont make a difference. Like one of the other members suggested do you hear the relay click when ur PC boots into windows? A bad driver install could impede the amp from engaging or something along those lines.

My DT 770 250 ohm is definitely not easy to drive yet on the 32-300 ohm gain setting I have to have it on 25-30 % volume or it'll blow my ears lol.

A member on the overckock.net forums had the same problem as you with the zxr. So not the first time. Before you return it try to clean yours drivers up or an os install. You never know.

 

[Anarion]

^^Yep, also trying it on another computer would be good thing. If that's not possible, I'd try different slots.

I've had 'Do nothing' option on since forever since it messes with Skype calls and so forth. So yeah, hopefully faulty card, but I honestly still doubt it. A soundcard that doesn't use external power via a molex (like Phoebus and STX) is liable to have insufficient output power for headphones.

PCI-E x1 can give 25 W (at least if I read it right). That should be enough. These are PCI-E native stuff, Xonars are really power inefficient with their PLX chips and all.

 

[Radical_53]

Absolutely, a card doesn't need an additonal molex. It can draw plenty of power from the slot. If you've measured the power draw of a regular amp before you'll know the juice provided by the slot is more than enough.

 

[Monir]

Ya this isn't a video card. It doesn't require external power other than the pcie lanes can provide... I believe up to 75 watts for a full height card.

I highly doubt it uses even more than 25w. You need to remember you are sending power in the milliwatts(1/1000 of a watt) to headphone drivers. Not even 1 watt. So the amp shouldn't require that much power plus whatever the card itself needs to power the DAC,opamps and the spu plus its circuits. Even if we factor the impedence it still shouldn't equal more than a few watts I'm sure just for the amp.

I think the whole extra molex to the Asus cards was to fortify the whole "cleanest power possible " theme they were going for. But not needed with modern motherboards or power supplies. I also think originally the essence stx was a PCI card(st) and maybe power draw from those connectors was limited perhaps? Meh who knows. That famous Russian site measured the stx and zxr power output and the zxr just barely measured higher if I remember correctly.

Lol any who point being I think you card is just faulty. Especially if gain settings dont make a difference. Like one of the other members suggested do you hear the relay click when ur PC boots into windows? A bad driver install could impede the amp from engaging or something along those lines.

My DT 770 250 ohm is definitely not easy to drive yet on the 32-300 ohm gain setting I have to have it on 25-30 % volume or it'll blow my ears lol.

A member on the overckock.net forums had the same problem as you with the zxr. So not the first time. Before you return it try to clean yours drivers up or an os install. You never know.

 
If that's the case I'll try a roll back in driver first and see if I notice any difference.
 
Last time I checked I didn't hear any clicking noise during start-up.