[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

How many of you have this  series of sound card and like (or hate) it? I have an HT Omega Claro, and it has served me well, but I am getting the itch to upgrade. Are you happy with your Z series Creative card?

 
Is it the PCI or PCI-E (pci-express) version? My motherboard has no PCI slots, could swap my ZxR card possibly for one, it's the last manufacturer I haven't tried then lol. HT Omega doesn't seem to be sold in europe either.

 

[Radical_53]

I can only tell you what I hear and yes, of course it's "loud" for gaming. A room full of sound. But it's nothing like ear-piercing loud, or painfully loud, or unbelievably loud. 
On the other hand I always found these headphones to be very "thankful" for amping. The sound got much richer and fuller with the right amp.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Quote:

How many of you have this  series of sound card and like (or hate) it? I have an HT Omega Claro, and it has served me well, but I am getting the itch to upgrade. Are you happy with your Z series Creative card?

I love my ZXR.  No flaws that I can see whattsoever, has just as much if not more power than my old STX to drive headphones.  However its the audio suite that really makes me happy.  SBX studio is a step up from STX control panel especially for gaming.  SBX surround is just better than Dolby Headphoens and CMSS3d in my opinion.   It doesnt add stupid reverb like your in a hall like DH and it doesnt destroy the eq like CMSS 3d.  And it seems to be more accurate than those 2 as well.
 
All this coupled with the fact that you can use alchemy for older Directsound games is awesome.  There are people on here belly aching about no hardware support for EAX or directsound, but let me tell you alchemy and EAX emulation through software has worked wonders for me.  I just bought a bunch of older games through the steam summer sale and most of them support EAX.  Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Doom 3 and Prince of Persia series are all working amazing with EAX and/or direct sound on.
 
So if you are a big gamer then this is really your only option at this time.  The Asus Phoebus is a joke and shouldnt even be considered by real gamers or audio enthusiasts.

 

[genclaymore]

Dolby headphone adds the echo when you are using Mode 2 and Mode 3, Mode 1 do not add any echo or reverb. I used mode 1 all the time when I had a Xonar card.  Most people that says Dolby headphone sound like reverb is usually using Mode 2 or 3. Instead of Mode 1 which is Ref.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Dolby headphone adds the echo when you are using Mode 2 and Mode 3, Mode 1 do not add any echo or reverb. I used mode 1 all the time when I had a Xonar card.  Most people that says Dolby headphone sound like reverb is usually using Mode 2 or 3. Instead of Mode 1 which is Ref.

 
Actually mode 2 "Living Room" has the least amount of echo, I use it therefore for my custom foobar2000 config. I used to use DH-1 at first but noticed DH-2 had less and provided better quality without masking fine details.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Regardless of how much echo each mode has, they all have it.  That was my first impression when using DH, is "why does it sound like im in a hallway?".  
 
But for sure Mode 2 was the better of the 3.  Mode 1 wasnt as accurate with position and mode 3 had too much reverb effect.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well in my experience you need some reverb to simulate room effects, reverb can help to bring large soundstaging, it's very hard to do so without added reverb. To my ears there's barely any added reverb with my foobar2000 config but I haven't tested the ASUS cards enough to tell what's the case using it on those.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Fair enough and if sbx has any its negligible because I can't tell. The biggest difference is it doesn't muck up the eq as bad and it seems to have better accuracy.

But hey to each their own right?

 

[genclaymore]

Quote:

 
Actually mode 2 "Living Room" has the least amount of echo, I use it therefore for my custom foobar2000 config. I used to use DH-1 at first but noticed DH-2 had less and provided better quality without masking fine details.

I tried both mode 1 and 2 and for me on the Xonar STX I found mode 1 to not have any reverb, while mode 2 to have alot of it. Maybe it was the way the Xonar STX did Dolby headphone, But I know I gotten the best results with mode 1 in games, using a pair of AKG 702 I had at the time. But like you said you did a custom config for foobar2k, maybe the foobar2k plugin has the settings different for each modes. Over what the STX had.

 

[lwhitit]

Purchased the ZXR two weeks ago and have loved it so far. Huge improvement over my previous setup and the surround sound effects work really well. I couldn't hear any difference connecting my HD650s to the ACM vs direct to the card but I am not an audiophile by any means going to try and a modi - magni stack next to see how it compares.

 

[Anarion]

I'm quite surprised that you have to keep the volume that low even with HD 650 - I assume you use the high gain option?

 

[lwhitit]

I'm quite surprised that you have to keep the volume that low even with HD 650 - I assume you use the high gain option?

 


 
Nope just using the low gain option. The warning labels on the high gain option deterred me from trying it out, should i try that out? The sound is great so i am not complaining, I just made the comment since others have mentioned it in the thread.

 

[Blid]

Hello you know where I can be downloading some profiles configured for zrx?

 

[Anarion]

Nope just using the low gain option. The warning labels on the high gain option deterred me from trying it out, should i try that out? The sound is great so i am not complaining, I just made the comment since others have mentioned it in the thread.

Well, at those volume levels I wouldn't.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Been testing the ZxR again a little, it definitely seems to ignore windows control panel speaker settings in favor for Z-Series Control Panel (Skyrim that has broken positioning unless using 5.1 speakers didn't sound right until I turned on 5.1 speakers in Creative cpanel). For me my preferred setting is RCA outputs -> 5.1 Speakers in Creative control panel and only "Full Range" speaker options ("front left and right" and "surround speakers)  both enabled and everything like SBX etc disabled. This gets me closest to onboard soundstaging. With onboard I then also used to turn "Front" volume level in "Levels" tab in windows control panel to 97-98% down from 100% (it's like an additional volume slider of some sort but doesn't work quite like it) which do affect how the soundstage is processed (less in-your-face, more widespread and deeper) and this lead to even more natural and better soundstaging when using 5.1 speakers. With the Creative card there's no such volume slider so I don't get to adjust the soundstage in a similar way. The Creative card remains therefore a bit worse soundstage wise. I hate this....

Went from ASRock Extreme6 to ASUS Z87 ROG Maximus VI Gene only because the ASRock onboard chip had very noticeable EMI noise bleed. Well the ASUS Gene motherboard then again has NO EMI noise issues whatsoever but the config doesn't sound as good as the Extreme6 sound quality wise (too bassy, lack of mids and highs, muffled sounding). The Extreme6 does sound actually suprisingly close to ZxR sound quality wise (and balance-wise, very slightly less bass but mids and highs are suprisingly great) if using the amped front panel jack output (rear panel is definitely much worse sounding) but the EMI is a bit much on that board. MAAAAAAAAAN, do I hate this stuff.... seems like it's meant to be that I won't be able to find that ideal sound of mine.
 
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