[AlphaKiloCharli]

  Any comparisons of the Sound Blaster Z or ZX (not ZXR) amp to things like the e10k?  I've seen a couple people say it powers DT880 or DT990 250 fine, but I've read more people say it can't. So I'm trying to figure out how it compares to a more known amp such as an e10k or similar.  
 
I have a Xonar DG, and I think it'd be more powerful than that, but the question is how much more powerful.  

They are rated for 300 Ohms so they should. I'm only using a HD 558 though with my Zx so I can't give any anecdotal experience. 

 

[Luckbad]

  With ZXR can i drive good enought a Sennheiser HD6xx ?
Someone say me my HD600 is not good with my sound card but ... im using it with HD600 and i cant keep the High gain mode because the volume is extremelly high ( windows mixer at 10% in normal gain )

 
Yep. Listening to the HD650 on it right now. It doesn't need high gain.

 

[Luckbad]

I've had the X-Fi Titanium HD for a long time, but I've had my eye on the ZxR for a while and have been waiting to pick it up until the price dropped. It dropped, so I grabbed it.

Sounds great. All the added benefits of the X-Fi are really slick, especially the control module and daughter board.

I was hoping it would sound about the same as the X-Fi Titanium HD, and it certainly does.

In fact, I have the hardware to test these things objectively, so I tested my Sony MDR-XB90EX on both the X-Fi Titanium HD and ZxR and thought I'd share a frequency response graph with folks here.

This curve was generated using a Dayton Audio EMM-6 Electret Measurement Microphone, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface, and Room EQ Wizard. The mic calibration file was provided by Dayton Audio and I disabled the sound card calibration files since they are designed to compensate for sound card coloration, and I wanted to measure it rather than compensate for it here.


 
Anything below 20Hz is not 100% reliable for measurement, and that's pretty much the only place the frequency response differs.

The frequency response is, as near as makes no difference, identical. For me, that's a good thing.

 

[Luckbad]

Really enjoying the ZxR. Compared to Titanium HD:

ZxR is better for music to me. Its EQ implementation is better and is less likely to distort. It sounds the same. It supports 600Ohm impedance headphones. And for 5.1, it will actually sound better with discreet op-amps for surround channels.

The Titanium HD is a lot easier to set up for gaming. You can turn off elevation filter and macro fx, which you can't do on the ZxR. I'm still working on understanding how to get FPS gaming up to the level of the X-Fi on the ZxR.

If you use headphones, I highly advise against using the Bass effect on SBX. It's the worst thing ever. It actually completely destroys bass below the crossover frequency instead of boosting it. Maybe it works on a 5.1 system? With headphones it changes the skull-crushing bass on my Fostex TH-600 into the sound of a whoopie cushion with zero impact.

 

[Hornet85]

Hi everyone. I've finally gotten myself a SB ZxR card as an upgrade from my X-Fi Ti. Anyway I noticed on the main card, for the two capacitors that sit right above the sound core chip, they are green in color, as opposed to what I saw in other pictures of this card where all capacitors are gold. Is this something I should be concern about?
 
Unfortunately my account can't seem to post an image, so here's a link to a picture of those capacitors:
http://i.imgur.com/XR6Fcs7.jpg
 
Thanks

 

[NoOneLt]

Seems like Creative just revised the card. I don't think you have a lot to worry about, they seems to be using same Nichicon Muse caps, gold one is KW (or maybe FG) series and green is ES. I didn't dig deep into specs but dont' think it will make difference. And price of greens seems to be even higher, still i don't know exact specs looks like 22uF 10V (can't find exaxt match from KW or FG series)
 
You could open up the card and check what else Creative revised Would be interesting.
 
Spec's don't say anything about capacitors, they don't have to be gold or something, so if you really upset you could say to your retailer that card as not as advertised in photographic images.

 

[Hornet85]

  Seems like Creative just revised the card. I don't think you have a lot to worry about, they seems to be using same Nichicon Muse caps, gold one is KW (or maybe FG) series and green is ES. I didn't dig deep into specs but dont' think it will make difference. And price of greens seems to be even higher, still i don't know exact specs looks like 22uF 10V (can't find exaxt match from KW or FG series)
 
You could open up the card and check what else Creative revised Would be interesting.
 
Spec's don't say anything about capacitors, they don't have to be gold or something, so if you really upset you could say to your retailer that card as not as advertised in photographic images.

Thanks a lot for the explanation. I did open it up and from what I can tell, the rest looks similar to the previous version. Anyway I'm certainly not returning it as long as it works fine, I've waited long enough for this card to arrive, heh.

 

[cheeno50]

whats the best sbx surround percentage for gaming on headphones? 

 

[Luckbad]

whats the best sbx surround percentage for gaming on headphones? 

I actually like their default FPS profile for shooters after using it for a while. I just disable the EQ. I'm still getting acquainted with the card after years with the X-Fi Titanium HD. The default FPS setting sounds close to the standard 3D gaming setting on the X-Fi. Depending on the headphones, you might need to adjust the surround setting up or down.

 

[Fegefeuer]

  whats the best sbx surround percentage for gaming on headphones? 

 
I agree with Luckbad. 67% is the best place to start. I personally never go below as the harder blending of the rear cues is easy enough to notice at 67% and going down further would "enhance" it.
 
Try 67, 79, 91, 100 for a while, then decide. Why 79, 91? CUZ I'M SO RANDOM. 

 

[Riversound]

Hello! I'm using ProTools 10 with the Creative ZxR sound card.
When I run protools. I get the following error. And protools closes.

"Pro Tools hardware is not installed or in use by another program"

With my old soundcard the Creative X-FI the Protools works perfect.
The protools it´s original. I run it in windows 8.1 pro 64bits.
All my drivers are updated.
What could be happening?

 

[paulguru]

ZXR driver for Windows 10 ????

 

[NoOneLt]

8.1 driver works fine

 

[Radical_53]

My card is working fine also (did the upgrade, no fresh installation).

 

[SoFGR]

switched back  to the AKG 601s  yesterday. 
 
 
 
I use a short  RCA to minijack cable i can double-amp them with the astro thingie ( https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bC614OCMM-Y/Vb8QlmZWQzI/AAAAAAAACgI/woixqcaCZrM/w1113-h835-no/15%2B-%2B1 ) and  have not experienced any kind of problems yet.  (minus the finicky 6.35mm adapter  ) 
 
for FPSs, i just switch to the default "first person shooter" profile and then disable "smart volume",  so it's basically SBX surround 30% + that custom EQ preset, very good for Insurgency and csgo !
 
tried the same settings that i used with  CALs ( sbx surround 67% + EQ disabled  )  but it just didn't sound  right, 
 
I guess sbx surround % should be lowered when using  fully open sets with a spacious soundstage, will report back if i feel the need to tweak more