[xnor]

Now you're mixing up 2 different products: Nano Patch and M-Patch (about twice as expensive).

 

[watsaname]

  I've heard very few people who have actually used this method... theory is (from the kind posters here - do a search in this thread): a very clean amp with as little gain as possible. The O2 has an internal jumper setting for 1x gain, and I'm sure you could get it ordered that way. This would work best with a low impedance/sensitive headphone because any higher and it would presumably be too quiet. Always plusses and drawbacks.
 
A guy on the Fidelio X1 thread used a Magni on of his SBZ headphone out and reported it to work perfectly. I don't think there's any jumper settings in that thing.

That would be quite unfortunate if it needed to be low sensitivity as I have switched to the AKG Q701s. My understanding is that it they are pretty insensitive.

 

[SaLX]

Oopz - my bad! 
 
Watsaname - you'd have to research what gain settings are best on any particular amp. AKG's are 62 Ohms aren't they?

 

[watsaname]

  Oopz - my bad! 
 
Watsaname - you'd have to research what gain settings are best on any particular amp. AKG's are 62 Ohms aren't they?

Yeah they are 62ohms so they don't require TOO much power, have the Z/Windows Audio Panel hovering around 40% most of the time. But a lot of people on the Q701 appreciation thread always make fun of the sensitivity of them and howthey require a power plant for them to be driven well.

 

[xnor]

[...] how they require a power plant for them to be driven well.

That's typical audiophile nonsense. For a comparison with other headphones see this table. There are a lot of other headphones, some with much higher impedance, that need more power.
If you listen to compressed music you need like 6 milliwatts max for a loud average 85 dB SPL.
 
watsaname, can you go to the Sound control panel, properties of the Sound Blaster Z, Level, right click the slider and select decibel. How many - dB are 40%?

 

[SaLX]

Excuse me xnor, but I've consistently heard that AKG's require a decent amount of juice to get them sounding their best - as opposed to what you can get away with.This thread however isn't the place for this discussion -  so let's leave it be please.

 

[xnor]

Extra power does not improve sound, but can cause the opposite, and when you have to turn the volume all the way down all the extra power is not being used at all. I always ask this: why don't you drive your headphones with two 1000 W monoblocks? I guess a $99 headphone amp with fixed 5x gain that is well-known around here with sensitive headphones is bad enough.

 
Alright, I'm leaving it be now.

 

 

[Skipshrike]

Apologies SaLX. I did try the fixit and it recommended to increase the volume.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

^LOL typical Microsoft answers.

Volume too loud? OK then increase the volume!

*claps*

 

[SaLX]

Aaargh no xnor!!! I apologise for saying that - wrong context please. Wrong end of stick and willl look into it I promise!!!
 
Shrip.. it said to recommended to increase the volume ... oh dear???? Last time I ran that program (or collection of regfixes), it truly worked for some file access error or something. I've had that same problem on and off years - I now want to solve it so the next time it happens I'd know exactly what to do.

 

[thePhysicist8]

I have a question.

The specs on Creative's site say that the SBZ only supports 5.1 surround sound. Does this mean that it can only output in 5.1 surround sound, or that it doesn't support it at all? I plan on using it for gaming with a sterio headset, so I don't mind that it only outputs 5.1. Does it accept 7.1 input?

 

[DJINFERNO806]

I have a question.

The specs on Creative's site say that the SBZ only supports 5.1 surround sound. Does this mean that it can only output in 5.1 surround sound, or that it doesn't support it at all? I plan on using it for gaming with a sterio headset, so I don't mind that it only outputs 5.1. Does it accept 7.1 input?

The z can output stereo or 5.1 via 3.5 mm connections.

The card does not accept 7.1. At least not directly. 7.1 signals are down mixed to 5.1 in the windows mixer before hitting the z.

 

[Evshrug]

Got mine in today!
Haven't plugged it in yet, but I made an unboxing video (not long) for YouTube and eventually my head-fi journal. I'm going to set it up while I wait for it to upload... Any suggestions on uninstalling the Recon3D USB drivers?
-----

DJINFERNO,
technically... the 3.5 mm jack always outputs stereo, it's just optionally that stereo has been processed to "sound" surround. If you plugged a 5.1 speaker surround setup into the 3.5mm feed, it wouldn't play through the correct speakers, BUT the optical out can send a 5.1 (or 7.1) signal in Dolby or DTS format to a home-theater receiver or something. Also, the sound card supports 5.1 (or 7.1, or OpenAL) channels of input sound from a DVD or game or web-thing, but the optical input from what I read doesn't decode DDL from external sources like a PS3.
-----

watsaname,
The Q701 is relatively low-sensitivity for it's impedance, but it is still relatively easy to get enough volume. I've found that it's better to look for low-distortion, low output impedance amps, and then implementation matters too though it's hard to know what something will sound like without hearing it.

Over-loud amps do put listening volume below the sweet spot on the potentiometer/volume control, but vice-versa something underpowered can put listening volume where the amp starts to distort. There is also lot of talk about voltage vs current, and how much a certain headphone requires what... Off and on I do research on this, but it's important to keep in mind other factors that may be affecting the final sound.

In the end, I can only say I like the different amps I've heard, and they each have affected the sound differently in minute ways.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

What? I think your confused in what he was asking and what I was saying.

The z supports full 5.1 out through its three line out 3.5mm ports. FL/FR, RL/RR, C/SUB

And like I said the card can output 5.1 only via analogue or optical with encoding.

The card only accepts 5.1 as evident from the windows mixer settings. 7.1 is down mixed.

If you are using openal, its coordinate based as opposed to discrete channels so it mixes its own hrtf anyway. At least to headphones. So 5.1/7.1 is irrelevant.

I'd you use openal with 5.1 speakers out, then it will map coordinates into discrete channels. Similar to how one of the cmss3d modes does. That's from what I remember anyway.

 

[Evshrug]

No I wasn't confused... Though I forgot that the Z uses multiple 3.5mm outputs if you want a 5.1 surround setup, I was just trying to clarify that you can't plug a home theatre into the one 3.5mm jack and expect 5.1 to work properly on six speakers.

You CAN choose the headphone jack to play stereo or virtual surround, and you CAN output DDL 5.1 from the optical out to connect to a home theater, you CAN connect multiple speakers to the multiple 3.5 jacks and get a desktop 5.1 speaker setup, but you CANNOT connect a game console to the card and get 5.1 input... with a console, you can only input stereo, for licensing reasons.