[NoOneLt]

 Yes it is supposed to allow playback of 24 bit 192KHz content at full resolution & bypass all windows & driver processing other than volume control.

And if i play 44.1/16 throug ASIO, it is upsampled or not?

 

[germanium]

And if i play 44.1/16 throug ASIO, it is upsampled or

ASIO also bypasses the windows audio subsystem as well but in some cases as a result you can also lose volume control so in those cases you need to have an external volume control. Some applications that use ASIO will have their own volume control though which you can select to use. It generally is not the default setting though so you have to go into the application settings for the volume control & select the applications volume control rather than windows volume control in order to control the volume from the computer.

 

[SkogKniv]

Picked up the SB Zx on sale and a second hand pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro. My untrained ears are very happy with the improvement over onboard audio.

 

[422561]

Can the SBX effects, in particular the headphone surround, be output via RCA on the ZxR to an amp? Would this be better than outputting via the line out on the Z?

 

[Fegefeuer]

  Can the SBX effects, in particular the headphone surround, be output via RCA on the ZxR to an amp? Would this be better than outputting via the line out on the Z?

 
No, that's not possible, however passing all that through optical works.
 
SBZ -> optical -> DAC/AMP like Modi 2 Uber/Vali 2

 

[422561]

I thought of that but couldn't find a cheap dac amp with optical in that also had an output impedance lower than 4 Ohm. The only one was the Fiio E17 but I don't really want one with a built in battery.

 

[obobskivich]

I thought of that but couldn't find a cheap dac amp with optical in that also had an output impedance lower than 4 Ohm. The only one was the Fiio E17 but I don't really want one with a built in battery.

Line output impedance should not be zero, and it also doesn't generally matter as long as it's not insanely high (e.g. higher than load) where you can get into slight issues. But Fegefeuer is right - you can't send SBX Headphone via the RCA output. You can send SBX for 2ch speakers via RCA out though, or use the built-in headphone amp (to get SBX Headphone), or use TOSlink output into a DAC (if you want SBX headphone into a line source).

 

[NCSUZoSo]

Just got my V5-OPA-D review samples in from Burson Audio!  The immediate difference I noticed was the clarity and I wasn't expecting much of anything since I am already running pretty nice op-amps.  I wish I had their V5-OPA-S so I could run their whole line at once.
 

 
Will be posting a formal review on Head-Fi in about a week on these dual slot op-amps!

 

[Jubijub]

Hello everyone,
 
I want to upgrade from my onboard audio to discrete card + DAC (I use win10)
 
I play games so I want good positional audio, and from tests, it seems CMMS-3D and SBX are the best (to my taste at least).
 
I was therefore thinking to take a Sound Blaster Z --> Optical SPDIF --> DAC/AMP, and use SBX for positional audio.
My understanding is that I don't care about the ZxR as the upgraded DAC would be bypassed anyway since I output the sound via SPDIF.
 
Is my logic correct ?
 
Other question : is there any benefit in taking the SB Z vs using any card + the SBX Pro software ? Is it easier to setup SBX, or does it offer extra parameters in presence of the card ?

 

[bcschmerker4]

  Just got my V5-OPA-D review samples in from Burson Audio!  The immediate difference I noticed was the clarity and I wasn't expecting much of anything since I am already running pretty nice op-amps.  I wish I had their V5-OPA-S so I could run their whole line at once.
 

 
Will be posting a formal review on Head-Fi in about a week on these dual slot op-amps!

Thanks for the installation photo; I'm curious about the fit for a full bag of Sparkos® SS3602 hybrid dual op amps (a lot more compact than these Bursons, so probably enough room for the stock RFI shield) on an SB1530 - I have four shortlisted for my own Asus® XONAR® STX' I-V's, along with two of some variation on the SE5532 for the line-level buffers.

 

[422561]

Would I be right in saying that the Z would be a bad choice with 32 Ohm and 18 Ohm IEMs?

 

[Alexandrus]

Why would it ?

 

[422561]

  Why would it ?

 
Due to the output impedance of the Z being 22 Ohm officially but measured as being even higher than that by some users. For a 32 Ohm IEM you would want a max output impedance of 4 Ohm.

 

[Alexandrus]

Well, I have the Z as my sound card and I tried some IEMs, they worked fine.
Though, to be honest, I have no idea if they sounded as good as they can, I have no idea how they SHOULD sound.

 

[NCSUZoSo]

  Thanks for the installation photo; I'm curious about the fit for a full bag of Sparkos® SS3602 hybrid dual op amps (a lot more compact than these Bursons, so probably enough room for the stock RFI shield) on an SB1530 - I have four shortlisted for my own Asus® XONAR® STX' I-V's, along with two of some variation on the SE5532 for the line-level buffers.

 
You have VERY little room to work with if you want to use the EMI shield.  Look at the link below in the next paragraph, shows a picture of my previous setup.  I tried many different types of op-amps and many would not fit under that shield.  However I finally landed on what you see in my profile which did all fit.  The issue is not only the height going up, but the room around the socket is extremely tight.  If you use anything that isn't the exact width of a DIP-8 socket it will most likely not fit unless you use an adapter to raise it above the caps (I did this for a few).
 
As impressive as these Burson V5-OPA-D's are, they have yet to blow away my 4x ADA4627-1BRZ setup (keep in mind I am only talking about the two blue/rear sockets, there is another SOIC-8 on the underside).  However as I mentioned I am still running AD8597's along with them, so I am going to see if Burson Audio will send out their V5-OPA-S to run with these to get the full picture of what they are offering here.  Don't get me wrong, the Bursons are better, but being a student I am not sure if I can justify the cost difference vs my Analog Devices op-amps that are ~$50 for four of them + a dual DIP-8 adapter and I believe Burson is going to retail these around $100-$150. 
 
I will get a clearer picture when I start doing A/B testing though.  Also I just recently bought an oscilloscope (analog/digital hybrid Hitatchi V1065), so I can actually examine the output of the L/R channel and take measurements.
 
**Edit: just got an email from Burson Audio letting me know once I review the samples I am free to keep them