[NoOneLt]

My firs impressions about ZxR itself: so far i'am happy, though some time need to pass to check it in different modes and situations, listen to more music. What i found first is that You can turn up volume and it don't hurt ears as it was before (X-Fi Titanium). Headphones feels bit more alive.
 
What i liked: SBX surround in games, real step over CMSS-3D i used with my X-Fi Titanium.
 
What i disliked: ACM microphone, it still catches all the noises, if TV is on my friend hears it better then ever.. Beam forming and stuff not working at all. So still waiting for Modmic 4.0, seems there is no better solution. Can't tell for sure if ACM degrades sound, made few quick tests and din't noticed difference, maybe will do some more tests.
 
Can't talk about sound quality, i like it, but i haven't  heard lot of stuff to compare, and i'am not a huge specialists

 

[AUserName501]

I made some comparison audio of SBX Pro Studio to CMSS-3D 5.1 and Dolby Headphone 5.1 DH1, 2 and 3.
 
The FLAC links are here. The difference between all of them is quite large.

 

[NoOneLt]

 
The FLAC links are here. The difference between all of them is quite large.

Nice job keep it up! Will check this at home, have few questions, write it here, as don't want to register there Maybe You should make new thread here?
 
1. Your opinion, witch sound the best/accurate? I only heard SBX and CMSS-3D and SBX seems to be more fun.
2. I noticed all recordings has "Full Range Speakers Off" i don't know why but i always tick it (windows speakers configuration is 5.1) i use headphones. Should i try to turn it OFF?
3. SBX Surround - i came to setting it to something like 45% as with default 67% it seems to make a mess, i mean it feels like it is too much of surround effect
4. Bass - i also keep it Off, in headphone it seems to ruin sound.

 

[Anarion]

My firs impressions about ZxR itself: so far i'am happy, though some time need to pass to check it in different modes and situations, listen to more music. What i found first is that You can turn up volume and it don't hurt ears as it was before (X-Fi Titanium). Headphones feels bit more alive.

What i liked: SBX surround in games, real step over CMSS-3D i used with my X-Fi Titanium.

What i disliked: ACM microphone, it still catches all the noises, if TV is on my friend hears it better then ever.. Beam forming and stuff not working at all. So still waiting for Modmic 4.0, seems there is no better solution. Can't tell for sure if ACM degrades sound, made few quick tests and din't noticed difference, maybe will do some more tests.

Can't talk about sound quality, i like it, but i haven't  heard lot of stuff to compare, and i'am not a huge specialists

Yep. The mic in ACM sucks big time. It seems to pick computer fan noises and amplify them to ^10. Yet, when I talk I have to shout or the other person doesn't hear me. It's also muddy sounding. Somehow I think that the mic that comes with Z is better (because this is feking bääääd).

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Fullrange should theoretically be ticked in case you use 5.1 speakers and headphones as the listening device to make sure it simply outputs down to 0Hz. But I only think it truly matters if crossover frequency is used, then the bass would be cut at the given crossover frequency if the setting isn't ticked for the headphones/satellite speakers (as the bass below crossover frequency limit would be redirected to the sub channel). So this option exists to determine wheter or not it should cut out that bass for the "satellite" speakers (headphones in this case) as those may not necessarily work so well with very deep bass and it would be better to exclusively let the sub handle down to 0Hz frequencies.

 

[NoOneLt]

Well that was the idea to tick Full range speakers, i wanted windows put give "pure" sound to sound card and then it decides what to do with it. (Still i don't use any bass management in ZxR, it don't sound for me). But i thought maybe there is better reason to un-tick it.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

The reason why creative's driver defaults to limited range speakers in windows was given back in this thread somewhere. Like a year ago or so I think. A creative rep had some reason for it to do with the way virtual surround needs to be processed.

No sound is getting cut as the info for the low frequencies still reside in that sub channel or the .1 channel. The z just rebuilds that all into stereo for headphones or when your using an hrtf.

@Anarion

Ya the mic on its own picks up a lot of noise seeing as its a stereo mic. But once I enabled noise cancelation, it didn't pick up anything that wasn't in the cone I set.

 

[DarkWolf]

I saw that the basic Z OEM is on sale at newegg for $60 right now. Naturally, I came straight here. My one and only interest for this card would be using SBX Surround in games, with S/PDIF out to the rig in my signature. 
 
Right now, I have an Auzentech Prelude 7.1 going completely to waste. I never use any analogue out any more and the Auzentech card does not expose any "stereo mix to digital out" option(s). That said, I find CMSS-3D unusable because it destroys the sound quality. I'm not sure I really found the positioning to be any better than using whatever the game defaults to without it. I tried the Razer Surround a while back but did not end up going with it. I can't remember for sure now, but I think I couldn't get it working right. It might have something to do with my card's limited "mix to digital" functionality. I've also tried working around by setting "what you hear" to listen via digital, but it reduces sound quality and clips sometimes. 
 
I had watched some demonstration videos people made and posted on youtube, showing basic sound, CMSS, SBX and Razer, back to back in various games. CMSS of course sounded bad to me, but SBX seemed to sound pretty good.
 
Basically, if any other gamers with higher end gear, using digital out, will tell me what they think of SBX, that's what I'm after! I will spend more time searching and seeing what audio comparisons I can find when I get home from work. Also, is it backwards compatible with most or all games, or do specific games have to recognize it? I play a lot of the Mass Effect series, for example.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

I saw that the basic Z OEM is on sale at newegg for $60 right now. Naturally, I came straight here. My one and only interest for this card would be using SBX Surround in games, with S/PDIF out to the rig in my signature. 

Right now, I have an Auzentech Prelude 7.1 going completely to waste. I never use any analogue out any more and the Auzentech card does not expose any "stereo mix to digital out" option(s). That said, I find CMSS-3D unusable because it destroys the sound quality. I'm not sure I really found the positioning to be any better than using whatever the game defaults to without it. I tried the Razer Surround a while back but did not end up going with it. I can't remember for sure now, but I think I couldn't get it working right. It might have something to do with my card's limited "mix to digital" functionality. I've also tried working around by setting "what you hear" to listen via digital, but it reduces sound quality and clips sometimes. 

I had watched some demonstration videos people made and posted on youtube, showing basic sound, CMSS, SBX and Razer, back to back in various games. CMSS of course sounded bad to me, but SBX seemed to sound pretty good.

Basically, if any other gamers with higher end gear, using digital out, will tell me what they think of SBX, that's what I'm after! I will spend more time searching and seeing what audio comparisons I can find when I get home from work. Also, is it backwards compatible with most or all games, or do specific games have to recognize it? I play a lot of the Mass Effect series, for example.

You came to the right place bud!

Currently Salx, genclaymore and I all use our z's optical out to our headphone amps/DACs.

Not sure what else I could say except it worked flawlessly when sending stereo mixed PCM with all the effects out.

Never had any issues so far.

SBX surround will work with any game, movie, music that has multichannel audio.

 

[DarkWolf]

Cool! So the question is then; How many of us audiophile gamers actually like SBX Surround? 

 

[SoFGR]

/raises hand

 

[DJINFERNO806]

I second that. I prefer it over everything else.

 

[Fegefeuer]

Though I seriously miss the flexibility of a X-Fi, SBX is so much better with high end headphones than CMSS-3D and thus worth the loss of full legacy compatibility. They are both better than Dolby Headphone already so all in all SBX is the best solution right now. 

 

[SaLX]

Yup .. me too. Not a fanboy, just want the best that's currently available. New things may well be happening this year though.

 

[DarkWolf]

Just listening to Dreyka's recordings now. The raw 5.1 audio seems both very small, but also, much more quiet a recording? That said the SBX seems quite impressive. Not at all like CMSS-3D's surround sound in a can.