[DJINFERNO806]

Oh ok.  That makes more sense since I was sure you couldnt adjust the internal windows mixer buffer size.
 
I rather use wasapi anyways at least until a proper ASIO driver is realeased by creative which they have promised.  Fubar and XBMC seem to use it pretty well so no complaints here
 
Thanks.

 

[Anarion]

You prolly went flying out your chair when you hit play, only to be pull back down by the headphones. Yea, I did that once too when I had bit match playback enabled when I was plugged directly into a Xonar STX.

Pretty much. xD

 

[xeizo]

Still at ST, I had to back off my "Creative Z stereo direct"-emulation under Linux. Eventually there was stutter, still using upsamling though:

src-sinc-best-quality
s24le
96000

and

4 buffer fragments of 25ms each, now the last stutter seems gone. And it still sounds extremely good, but so does the ST at default 44.1kHz too. Hard to say if anything really is better or even different. Linux upsampling is very resource hungry, it's clearly more efficient in Windows. The research goes on ...

edit. changed again, have to find optimal settings when comparing with The Z:

speex-float-10
s24ne
96000
8
20

Well, well :rolleyes:

edit2. Now I'm through with the settings for the ST to start the competition with the Z, the upsampling thing WAS a bad idea even if it works. After some serious listening I can confirm that there's no doubt ST sounds best WITHOUT upsampling. As was to expected from the start, but I was woed by Creatives "Stereo Direct"-setting. It may work with the Soundblaster Z and it's own drivers, depending on how the card is made, but it is futile with the ST. SO, final settings in Linux:

speex-float-10
s24ne
44100
8
20

Oh, and of course the cpu-load from sampling now is totally gone, 0% cpu-utilization for pulseaudio

edit3. I bypassed pulseaudio completely:

In most music players in the preferences
you can change the default sink from Pulseaudio to Alsa.
and to change the output device to hw:2,0.
I use the wonderful, nostalgic, Clementine
and there the two changes are made in Tools/Preferences/Playback.

NOW the ST can take on the Z

 

[BetaWolf]

Sorry if posted already, but Newegg preorders are up for ZxR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102050

 

[turokrocks]

Quote:

Sorry if posted already, but Newegg preorders are up for ZxR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102050

Thanks, please keep us posted for any updates and availability from other sellers....

.

 

[Kel Ghu]

Newegg even released a video interview with Ryan from Creative. The guy got confused with all the technical components. It's quite funny listening to him not knowing what he was talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzrvRkjaDNM&list=PLfxaMTbBYP5nMm7L-ZVZ6n3O-Y5ZHU7pE&feature=player_detailpage#t=787s

 

[Kel Ghu]

Here in Switzerland, there's a site that says 5-10 days:
http://www.powerch.com/Others.1/Creative+Labs.727/70SB151000001/CREATIVE+Sound+Blaster+ZxR+PCI-Express+Sound+Card.844547.html
 
Hope this is true...

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Quote:

Newegg even released a video interview with Ryan from Creative. The guy got confused with all the technical components. It's quite funny listening to him not knowing what he was talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzrvRkjaDNM&list=PLfxaMTbBYP5nMm7L-ZVZ6n3O-Y5ZHU7pE&feature=player_detailpage#t=787s

That was just embarrassing.  How can creative send this guy when he doesnt even know the difference between DACs and OPAMPs.

 

[genclaymore]

Yea all that really does is make creative look even worst. They could at least sent someone that had experience to do PR work for them.
 
 
Quote:

Oh ok.  That makes more sense since I was sure you couldnt adjust the internal windows mixer buffer size.
 
I rather use wasapi anyways at least until a proper ASIO driver is realeased by creative which they have promised.  Fubar and XBMC seem to use it pretty well so no complaints here
 
Thanks.

You could use Asio4all unless that what you meant when you said you rather use wasapi, since asio4all is just wasapi with some kind of wrapper.

 

[BetaWolf]

Well, the typical Newegg shopper knows even less than that guy, so I doubt it'll matter that much.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

The ZXR is now in stock and available for sale from the creative website store.
 
http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-ZxR-PCIe-Sound/M/B00AQ5PK6I.htm

 

[Anarion]

By the way, if someone gets his hands on ZxR, could you upload the driver .iso somewhere?

 

[Evshrug]

That was just embarrassing.  How can creative send this guy when he doesnt even know the difference between DACs and OPAMPs.

Maybe I'm just sympathetic because this past Monday I was desperate for work, and during my Starbucks interview I was asked to share about myself... and I started babbling about my parents. Last time I have coffee anywhere near an interview. FYI I had an awesome interview today, if all goes well I'll know by Monday if I'll be making more money with competitive benefits than I would've at Starbucks anyway. Creative seems to be in a marketing rut right now, but I hope they get better.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Maybe I'm just sympathetic because this past Monday I was desperate for work, and during my Starbucks interview I was asked to share about myself... and I started babbling about my parents. Last time I have coffee anywhere near an interview. FYI I had an awesome interview today, if all goes well I'll know by Monday if I'll be making more money with competitive benefits than I would've at Starbucks anyway. Creative seems to be in a marketing rut right now, but I hope they get better.

Lol I know people get flustered and make mistakes but when its your job to know these tthings and do your homework . There really shouldn't be an excuse. Hopefully he learns from his mistakes and gets better. Seems creative has learned from their driver mistakes at least. The z drivers seem stable as hell and easy to use.

At the end of the day their marketing will be ignored by serious gamers and audiophiles anyways. We already know whats in it.


PS : good luck with the job.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Has anyone done a good review on the Sound Blaster Z? How does the sound quality compare to the Xonar DX?
 
Quote:

 
I'd say that has more to do with the sound samples and overall sound design used. The positioning itself, if it's anything like Bad Company 2, is total crap, and the first four Battlefield games never had issues with positional audio. Why? DS3D (1942, Vietnam) and OAL (BF2, 2142). (And positional audio is just one of many complaints with the direction the series has taken after Bad Company 2, even 2142 to an extent...)
 
Microsoft dropping DS3D definitely has a lot to do with it. I don't see any good reason for them to have done that. But even then, OpenAL remained unaffected, so why didn't game developers keep using that? It's quite baffling to me, and probably lies in all the politics surrounding PC game audio implementations that I don't particularly care for.
 
Software audio may keep getting better, but as it stands, I'm still waiting for Microsoft, Firelight, and everyone else to just catch up to OpenAL + Rapture3D level, let alone surpass it. It probably won't happen unless the most unexpected thing happens and ambisonic audio formats become mainstream.

This is why Bohemia interactive claims that they dropped Open Al for future games like Arma 3.
 
Blame Creative and their awful support.