[cheeno50]

do you guys use the sbx surround for higher end headphones? Or does it ruin the sound?

 

[cdsa35000]

Yes, with SA5000 10% to 20% for movies, 20 to 60% for games is more than enough because modded SA5000 sounds spacious fx already with stereo.
Just need the 5.1/7.1 downmixing to SBX hp stereo, the more SBX intensity the more sound artifacts like heliumish-hollowish-smaller soundstage hearable with hi-fi sensitive hp.
Lesser hp needs more SBX intensity to distinguish from changes in sound as they can't reproduce the finer transient timbre/reverb sound details.

 

[Fegefeuer]

  do you guys use the sbx surround for higher end headphones? Or does it ruin the sound?

 
SBX is the only affordable solution that sounds good with High End headphones. I always use it. 

 

[cheeno50]

anyone find a good surround % for fidelio x2 or x1?

 

[tfninja]

This thread is too long to read through to find the conclusions, so can you tell me, is it worth upgrading from an xfi extreme music? 
I just bought some new headphones (lindy hf-100), and wonder if the Z would be a good upgrade to get more from them.
 
also, is the oem just as good as the retail? does the red casing of the retail have a significant effect in reducing interference or is it just for appearance-sake?
 
thanks

 

[SCHYNEYDER]

It worth change from a Xonar D2X to a Creative ZxR ?
 
I have a Sennheiser HD 598.

 

[germanium]

  It worth change from a Xonar D2X to a Creative ZxR ?
 
I have a Sennheiser HD 598.

 
Both are actually very high performing cards. The ZXR is better but only with modification. The D2X sounds as good if not better when comparing stock cards. Here though I'm talking about the line-out of the 2 cards. The D2X come D.C. coupled from the factory, The ZXR is not, it used electrolytic coupling caps between the I/V converters & the buffer amps. I have never liked the sound of these type of coupling capacitors though they don't seem really horrible in the case of the ZXR, shorting them out does improve sound slightly. The ZXR does have higher output than the D2X though as well as somewhat lower output impedance. Note that the ZXR headphone amp may bypass those electrolytic coupling caps though not sure about that. The ZXR is definitely better for driving low sensitivity headphones due to it's higher output amp.

 

[NoOneLt]

  It worth change from a Xonar D2X to a Creative ZxR ?
 
I have a Sennheiser HD 598.

Some report poor performance of ZxR with low impedance HP, it is possible related to high output impedance of it. I personally would not consider it as great upgrade over D2X.

 

[germanium]

  Some report poor performance of ZxR with low impedance HP, it is possible related to high output impedance of it. I personally would not consider it as great upgrade over D2X.

The D2X has even higher output impedance. 100 ohms as opposed to 40 ohms so the ZXR is still better in that regard. Stock driving another amp though the D2X is better but only very slightly. Modified the ZXR is better in every way.

 

[Incognito73]

Did anyone had OS detection problems with ZXR? Well, basically, completely on random basis after reboot or standby/resume card is not detected any more and just disappears from the device manager?! There is still some device named "Sound Blaster ZXR controller" or so but no trace from the main device. It's extremely irritating, so not sure if the card is faulty or it' a known problem?!
 
Have this card on trial run for particular HTPC build ...

 

[NoOneLt]

It happened to me a lot of times, i don't know true reason but sometimes my cat jumps on PC and pushes power button, after shutdown ZxR is gone, so i had to disable power button action.. Sometimes it seemed to be random.
 
Sometimes turning PC off and unplugging cord helps, sometimes i had to reinsert ZXR. So far about 3-4 weeks with no problems.
 
But if you use HTPC with some AVR wouldn't HDMI would be enough?

 

[Incognito73]

Ah ... not alone then! It looks to me as it's not initalised on-time from the BIOS itself or simply put sound card PCIe controller is playing up. So no cure for this? It's a bit baffling that production version is suffering from this. I've bought the card recently (it was Amazon offer) so it must be from the latest batch.
 
I don't use AVR, but active speakers and sub. Also, HTPC is in quite specific rack position  so can't use anything externally (DAC etc). ZXR was somewhat decent HiFi option and only single slot PCIe card with sub/rear ports (and HQ DAC chip for each).

 

[NoOneLt]

Maybe you could try to play with "Fast boot" settings in BIOS if it is on then try to turn it off? Also try to update to latest BIOS version, i have rather old mobo witch is not supported since 2013.

 

[Radical_53]

I did have that problem too. The daughterboard helped me to get rid of it though. The alternative seems to be a re-flash of the bios on some boards, it didn't help in my case.

 

[Incognito73]

Interesting. How did the daughterboard helped you out? I don't use it, so it's somewhat interesting to know. Also, any pointers about the bios re-flash are much appreciated.