[chicolom]

  Full range speakers.. on or off for the SBZ range? I've seen posts from various contributors who have offered up contrary opinions on the matter, and I know at least it's to do with compression, but what does it do exactly ?
 
You'd think enabling it would be the thing to do... any consensus here???

 
Do full range.  Headphones are full range after all.
 
If you want your bass to route to your a subwoofer instead of your 2.1 satellite speakers, than you can un-check it.
 

  J River works very well with the SBZ, Prefer it to Foobar for no other reason than it's easier to use. Some nice filters come as default, although I'm sure Foobar will do the same thing.

 
Foobar is ugly as hell at stock and also a bit of a pain to use.
 
My favorite music player by far is MusicBee.  Tons of features, easy to use, and perfectly layed out out-of-the-box.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

The z driver defaults windows to not have full range checked and will change back on reboot if you try full. I'm gonna go ahead and assume theirs a reason to do with the way 5.1 channels are sent to the z.

The real settings for full range on the z I assume are controlled in its own panel.

 

[chicolom]

The z driver defaults windows to not have full range checked and will change back on reboot if you try full. I'm gonna go ahead and assume theirs a reason to do with the way 5.1 channels are sent to the z.

The real settings for full range on the z I assume are controlled in its own panel.

 
 
Oh, I thought you guys were talking about the "stereo" configuration, not the "5.1".  In stereo, full range is checked, but in 5.1 full range it is NOT checked.  With 5.1 I imagine the Z is doing it's own mixing of the bass/subwoofer back into the output so you probably don't need full-range checked. 
 
I would probably make all your sound adjustments in the SB Z control panel, as it looks like changing settings there also changes them in the windows audio control panel anyways (and resetting it to default from the Z panel also resets them in the windows panel).  Interestingly though, changing settings in the windows panel doesn't seem to affect the Z's control panel. 

 

[Evshrug]

Just an FYI update for those interested, I just today uninstalled and removed my SB Z, so I am ready to install the Omni tomorrow night. I may not post impressions right away, but if I do it'll be later at night.

 

[m00s3]

I just got my zxr installed it's nice when it's working properly. I'm having an issue where the channels are being swapped seemingly at random. I skimmed through the post and I didn't see if anyone else mentioned having the issue. Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Apparently this is a common issue with botched driver installs and/or a dated OS install.

Uninstall, driver sweeper and reinstall.

Also if you are using Windows 8.1 there might be an issue with certain sampling frequencies above 48 kHz causing this. But I haven't had that issue. But I also have a clean OS install days old.

 

[SaLX]

Chico.... will have a look at Musicbee - actually looks really very very good, however I paid for J River so I guess I'll stick with it.
 
Thanks all for the insights on fullrange speakers etc.. well I was stoopid really asking about it. Creative automatically setting up it's paramaters on boot is a 'good thing' - no doubt about that.
 
@Eve.. you're Omni should perform exactly like your old SBZ.. I'd be surprised if it didn't.. but then computerland throws up weird **** all the time and I'm sure we're all of us looking forward to your impressions.

 

[Evshrug]

SaLX,
I'm... Well, I'm a guy, so eve doesn't really got Would be awesome to get some perspective from the fairer sex of course ;D

And yeah, the Omni ought to be near-identical to the Z (with a few bucks lower price tag, and digital volume knob), but I want to also see how the K712 performs plugged directly in to the unit.

I unboxed and installed my Omni, but I didn't have time for testing before a coworker's party at the Saloon. So happy 23rd to him, you guys gotta wait just a bit longer


I uninstalled the SB Z drivers using the windows Control Panel, so it'll also be a test to see if Creative's suggested procedure breaks the drivers. Been lucky so far, except that my second Recon3D USB seems to sound flatter than my old one (before it was an easy preference over DH from the turtle beach DSS, the new recon3D seems to have a harder time creating a believable virtual soundstage).

 

[SaLX]

Lol sorry Eve"s" .. damn ..made that mistake before so apologies. OK call me SheSal from now on..... I'll smear on the lippy, wiggle into a cheap dress and we can call it quits. (where is this going lol)..

 

[germanium]

Just bought the ZXR today. Did not care for the sound. Was lifeless & closed in compared to my modified X-Fi Titanium HD. Did the same mods to the ZXR& back to heaven. Same sound characteristics only slightly even better that Titanium HD that was modified after modification of the ZXR

 

[Radical_53]

Which mods did it receive? The sound of the two cards was/is very close (if not the same) in their original state, definitely.

 

[germanium]

  Which mods did it receive? The sound of the two cards was/is very close (if not the same) in their original state, definitely.

Direct coupling the I/V amps to the buffers & bypassing select power supply caps with large value (12uf which is a large value for a metalized film cap) metalized film cap. The Titanium HD was somewhat livelier sounding stock than the ZXR was to my ears but then again I'm going by memory concerning the stock Titanium HD sound. Treble also seemed a bit harsher stock as well on the Titanium HD but it was somewhat more open sounding than the ZXR stock

 

[x7007]

Is it worth to replace my Xonar Phoebus for ZXR ? Mainly I want the Headphones Surround, SBX and such. I have DT990 600ohms so I'm interested  on high quality.
 
I noticed too that the Frequency Response is 10-45 kHz, my headphones is doing 5-35 kHz, is the 5 no important ? So is the xonar doing the same Frequency Response.

 

[germanium]

  Is it worth to replace my Xonar Phoebus for ZXR ? Mainly I want the Headphones Surround, SBX and such. I have DT990 600ohms so I'm interested  on high quality.
 
I noticed too that the Frequency Response is 10-45 kHz, my headphones is doing 5-35 kHz, is the 5 no important ? So is the xonar doing the same Frequency Response.

If I remember correctly the Xonar Phoebus is very close to the ZXR in hardware, just one step down in the chosen DAC but I doubt you would hear the difference of the DAC choice as they both are very high performing Burr Brown DAC's.
 
It is highly unlikely you would here any difference between 5Hz & 10Hz extension as both are well below what the human ear can hear. I direct couple everything in order to have the flattest response with the least phase shift in the audio band & for the simple reason that it sounds more lively with much better sound stage. Bass sound tighter & just as extended but without any excess prominence that I hear from the stock ZXR. Highs are more extended sounding as well as smoother with my mods.

 

[x7007]

  If I remember correctly the Xonar Phoebus is very close to the ZXR in hardware, just one step down in the chosen DAC but I doubt you would hear the difference of the DAC choice as they both are very high performing Burr Brown DAC's.
 
It is highly unlikely you would here any difference between 5Hz & 10Hz extension as both are well below what the human ear can hear. I direct couple everything in order to have the flattest response with the least phase shift in the audio band & for the simple reason that it sounds more lively with much better sound stage. Bass sound tighter & just as extended but without any excess prominence that I hear from the stock ZXR.

So if it was your choice, would you recommend to skip the  SBX surround and to use the Razer surround ?
 
I'm really liking the surround option cause I played so much with the SteelSeries 5CHv2 it was really immersion  with the CMSS-3D.
 
Of course I'm now trying to go for Hi-Fi and to keep the surround, if you compare, is SBX surround better than Razer Surround ?