[Garzhad]

Also, just throwing this out there as a general question but, are there any good creative or asus external dacs that would perform similar to/better than their cards for around the same price point that also come with the surround sound software and other features(as in, SBX Pro Studio, EAX 5.0, ALchemy, SBX Surround; Dolby Headphone/Virtual Speaker/GX2.5 ect) again with exclusive focus on headphone gaming quality(i'll likely pair them with Sennheiser HD598's)

 

[Forty6]

Also, just throwing this out there as a general question but, are there any good creative or asus external dacs that would perform similar to/better than their cards for around the same price point that also come with the surround sound software and other features(as in, SBX Pro Studio, EAX 5.0, ALchemy, SBX Surround; Dolby Headphone/Virtual Speaker/GX2.5 ect) again with exclusive focus on headphone gaming quality(i'll likely pair them with Sennheiser HD598's)

Take a tour here , if you're looking something with a small footprint , the E5 or the G5 is what you might need.

http://us.creative.com/p/amplifiers

I'm using the E5 , and it drives well on my asg 2.5 .

 

[DJ XtAzY]

What's the best way to reach Burson Audio? I tried sending them an email to info@bursonaudio.com and a PM here and no replies for about a week. Just trying to see if they can include the 4 extra DIP8 sockets in one order with the head-fi special price.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Also, just throwing this out there as a general question but, are there any good creative or asus external dacs that would perform similar to/better than their cards for around the same price point that also come with the surround sound software and other features(as in, SBX Pro Studio, EAX 5.0, ALchemy, SBX Surround; Dolby Headphone/Virtual Speaker/GX2.5 ect) again with exclusive focus on headphone gaming quality(i'll likely pair them with Sennheiser HD598's)

 
Assuming you mean Creative or Asus external sound cards, not Creative or Asus external DACs.
Usually internal sound cards offer better bang for the buck, then external sound cards.
But internal sound cards may come with features you have not need for (5.1 or 7.1 speaker outputs).
I would guess Creative's newer external sound cards are around the best external sound cards available.
EAX 5.0 and Alchemy are more for older sound cards and older Windows OS (?)
So you really looking as deciding between Asus Dolby Headphone or Creative's SBX Headphone.
But in general I think Creative's newer external sound cards are what would serve you best.

 

[Garzhad]

   
Assuming you mean Creative or Asus external sound cards, not Creative or Asus external DACs.
Usually internal sound cards offer better bang for the buck, then external sound cards.
But internal sound cards may come with features you have not need for (5.1 or 7.1 speaker outputs).
I would guess Creative's newer external sound cards are around the best external sound cards available.
EAX 5.0 and Alchemy are more for older sound cards and older Windows OS (?)
So you really looking as deciding between Asus Dolby Headphone or Creative's SBX Headphone.
But in general I think Creative's newer external sound cards are what would serve you best.

Well Creative calls it a DAC, but yeah their external sound card, like the SoundBlasterX G5 and E5 that Forty6 mentioned.
 
And yeah, considering I prefer headphones speaker outputs are more or less completely useless to me.
 
The G5 and E5 seem nearly identical, both externals and the ZxR use the same audio processor, with the built-in beam-forming microphones with Crystal Voice(which the ZxR also features) being the main reason the E5 is ~$4-50 more, along with that the E5 uses SBX Pro Studio while the G5 uses the (newer?) BlasterX Acoustic Engine. Seems like both do 7.1 Virtual Surround though, whereas the ZxR can only do 5.1(is that really much of a con?)? Some reviews have complained that the ACM module included with the Zx/ZxR impacts sound quality rather negatively as well compared to connecting directly to the outs on the card(anyone else noticed this?)
 
I'm also somewhat concerned about the quality of the headphone amps in them. Some tech site reviews had reported that, despite their 600ohm ratings they had trouble driving high impedance headphones properly on the internal sound cards? Which considering I intend on getting a 150ohm set as soon as they're on a decent sale is somewhat disconcerting. Anyone else experienced this or maybe the reviewers just got a bad card? Do the external cards amps perform like they should? And has anyone compared sound quality between the external cards and the Z-series internal sound cards?
 
Price comparisons included just for the heck of it
E5: $170
G5: $129
ZxR: $210
Zx: $90
Z: $70

 

[PurpleAngel]

 
Well Creative calls it a DAC, but yeah their external sound card, like the SoundBlasterX G5 and E5 that Forty6 mentioned.
 
And yeah, considering I prefer headphones speaker outputs are more or less completely useless to me.
 
The G5 and E5 seem nearly identical, both externals and the ZxR use the same audio processor, with the built-in beam-forming microphones with Crystal Voice(which the ZxR also features) being the main reason the E5 is ~$4-50 more, along with that the E5 uses SBX Pro Studio while the G5 uses the (newer?) BlasterX Acoustic Engine. Seems like both do 7.1 Virtual Surround though, whereas the ZxR can only do 5.1(is that really much of a con?)? Some reviews have complained that the ACM module included with the Zx/ZxR impacts sound quality rather negatively as well compared to connecting directly to the outs on the card(anyone else noticed this?)
 
I'm also somewhat concerned about the quality of the headphone amps in them. Some tech site reviews had reported that, despite their 600ohm ratings they had trouble driving high impedance headphones properly on the internal sound cards? Which considering I intend on getting a 150ohm set as soon as they're on a decent sale is somewhat disconcerting. Anyone else experienced this or maybe the reviewers just got a bad card? Do the external cards amps perform like they should? And has anyone compared sound quality between the external cards and the Z-series internal sound cards?
 
Price comparisons included just for the heck of it
E5: $170
G5: $129
ZxR: $210
Zx: $90
Z: $70

DAC or external sound card, guess each company decides on how they want to discribe their product.
 
The is really no compelling reason for buying a 600-Ohm headphones, just because they are 600-Ohm.
Some of my best sounding headphones are 32-Ohm and 40-Ohm.
If your going to buy a 600-Ohm headphones, then you really should be investing in something like a nice tube headphone amplifier, to drive them.
 
My guess is the way the Creative ACM manages volume control might effect the audio quality with certion headphones but i'm not the expert on that.

 

[Garzhad]

Wasn't getting 150ohm headsets specifically because of their impedance, but rather because they(SE HD598) were very highly rated around the price point I was looking at and many others near it are of similar impedance, so making sure these cards can actually DRIVE them would be kinda nice.
 
As anyone who buys things in modern society knows companies often will fudge numbers for the sake of marketing and sales and was wondering if this was the case for the Z-series alleged 600ohm amps considering some reviews said they had trouble driving headphones that were only half that. Maybe they got a bad card. Maybe they were paid by Asus to poopoo some aspects of the card. I don't know. Which is why feedback from actual owners would be nice; at least they arn't being paid off. Hence me asking if any owners of Creatives latest sound cards, be they internal or external have had problems driving headphones around the level ill be getting.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Wasn't getting 150-Ohm headsets specifically because of their impedance, but rather because they (SE HD598) were very highly rated around the price point I was looking at and many others near it are of similar impedance, so making sure these cards can actually DRIVE them would be kinda nice.
 
As anyone who buys things in modern society knows companies often will fudge numbers for the sake of marketing and sales and was wondering if this was the case for the Z-series alleged 600-Ohm amps considering some reviews said they had trouble driving headphones that were only half that. Maybe they got a bad card. Maybe they were paid by Asus to poopoo some aspects of the card. I don't know. Which is why feedback from actual owners would be nice; at least they arn't being paid off. Hence me asking if any owners of Creatives latest sound cards, be they internal or external have had problems driving headphones around the level ill be getting.

 
The Sennheiser HD598SE (Special Edition) is only 50-Ohm (not 150-Ohm).
A $20 FiiO E6 headphone amplifier could drive the HD598SE.

 

[bcschmerker4]

 

 
Well Creative calls it a DAC, but yeah their external sound card, like the SoundBlasterX G5 and E5 that Forty6 mentioned.
 
And yeah, considering I prefer headphones speaker outputs are more or less completely useless to me.
 
The G5 and E5 seem nearly identical, both externals and the ZxR use the same audio processor, with the built-in beam-forming microphones with Crystal Voice(which the ZxR also features) being the main reason the E5 is ~$4-50 more, along with that the E5 uses SBX Pro Studio while the G5 uses the (newer?) BlasterX Acoustic Engine. Seems like both do 7.1 Virtual Surround though, whereas the ZxR can only do 5.1(is that really much of a con?)? Some reviews have complained that the ACM module included with the Zx/ZxR impacts sound quality rather negatively as well compared to connecting directly to the outs on the card(anyone else noticed this?)
 
I'm also somewhat concerned about the quality of the headphone amps in them. Some tech site reviews had reported that, despite their 600ohm ratings they had trouble driving high impedance headphones properly on the internal sound cards? Which considering I intend on getting a 150ohm set as soon as they're on a decent sale is somewhat disconcerting. Anyone else experienced this or maybe the reviewers just got a bad card? Do the external cards amps perform like they should? And has anyone compared sound quality between the external cards and the Z-series internal sound cards?
 
Price comparisons included just for the heck of it
E5: $170
G5: $129
ZxR: $210
Zx: $90
Z: $70

DAC or external sound card, guess each company decides on how they want to discribe their product.
 
The is really no compelling reason for buying a 600-Ohm headphones, just because they are 600-Ohm.
Some of my best sounding headphones are 32-Ohm and 40-Ohm.
If your going to buy a 600-Ohm headphones, then you really should be investing in something like a nice tube headphone amplifier, to drive them.
 
My guess is the way the Creative ACM manages volume control might effect the audio quality with certion headphones but i'm not the expert on that.

From some months of running a Creative Laboratories® SB1550 in my souped-up ASUS® CM1630, I found that some of these newer Sound Blasters, e.g. the SB1500 and SB1510, are asking for headsets of at least better than 100 Ω - I had to set the Plantronics® GAMECOM® 380's on-harness Volume to minimum to keep the levels safe for my ears, as the SB1550's internal headphone amp is driven by the Front L/R signal going to the card-edge jack panel.  I'd like to read some audition results of the SB1500 through one of the 600 Ω engineering headsets previously reviewed via the Front Panel headphone jack through a 3.5mm-to-6.3mm TRS adapter (ENG 'sets use the 6.3mm plugs universally).

 

[Garzhad]

Is there no software-based control of the gain? I don't know about the sound cards but their external dac/soundcard/whatever both have a gain control switch in Lo(for 32-150Ω) and Hi(for 150-600Ω)

 

[pr0g4m1ng]

I have a question regarding the ZXR's SBX Pro Surround behavior when using a stereo source.
 
Settings:
SBX Pro Surround: ON (50% - read somewhere that 33% has the best localization and 67% has the smoothest transitions)
Creative speaker setting: Headphones
Windows speaker setting: 5.1 speakers
 
When I have a 5.1 source sbx pro will somehow calculate a 2.0 signal out of it, so that I have a HRTF/5.1 hearing sensation although my headphones are 2.0. Got that!
 
But what does sbx pro studio do when I only have a 2.0 signal? Does it have a negative effect when listening to "real" HRTF stereo material?
 
e.g. When I watch the virtual barber shop demo it will both work with SBX Pro surround enabled and disabled equally even though I certainly hear a difference.

 

[tl13m]

 
 
e.g. When I watch the virtual barber shop demo it will both work with SBX Pro surround enabled and disabled equally even though I certainly hear a difference.

 
My guess, the Virtual barber shop demo is a binaural recording

 

[pr0g4m1ng]

Yes of course. That kinda was my question: Does sbx pro studio somehow interfere with binaural effects that are already there or does it leave them (=stereo information) alone? 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Yes of course. That kinda was my question: Does sbx pro studio somehow interfere with binaural effects that are already there or does it leave them (=stereo information) alone? 

 
I would guess it depends on what you set the Creative Audio control panel to.
Dolby Pro Logic can do an Expanded Stereo (fake 7.1) with 2-channel audio, would assume(?) Creative's SBX can do the same.

 

[pr0g4m1ng]

There is no dedicated option for that sadly. After everything that I read I assume that it will upmix when I chose "5.1-Surround speakers" but won't upmix when I use "headphones". That's the only way that makes sense. But a little bit of confirmation would be nice.
 
I am asking because I use headphones and SBX Pro Studio and in most games that's the best way to get surround sound (HRTF). However, there are some games with built in HRTF engines and these games will give you a stereo signal to begin with. It would be kinda dumb if sbx pro studio messes with this already "ready" stereo signal somehow.