[Ahuramaz]

I'm looking to upgrade my PC audio.
 
I was sold on the Essence until I saw the ZxR. The only thing influencing my decision is the fact that I've heard the ZxR will provide better positional audio in gaming.
 
From the research I've done, both cards seem to use the same components and boast the same tech specs.
 
My main concern is having a clean and uncolored sound tone for music listening. However, if both cards are the same in that department, then I would obviously want to go with the ZxR to have the additional gaming tweaks.
 
So my questions.
 
Are both cards the same in quality for music listening? I notice that the Xonar pulls power directly from the PSU while the ZxR is content with PCIe power. Does that ultimately affect the sound quality?
 
I know the drivers for Xonar are pretty much terrible, are the drivers for the ZxR any better? Will I experience the same DPC Latency from both cards depending on whether or not I use Dolby gaming effects?
 
I'm using a HD598 to pair with the card I choose. The OS is Windows 7 for latency reference.
 
Thank you.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I would go for ZxR, it's difficult to give any objective opinions on the matter since ZxR hasn't been out for a long time so there's not that much user feedback. But for gaming the ZxR should be better and Creative seems to have got the drivers quite good with the new Z-series (new series ought to have some bugs at first) but there's been no big reported bugs (I checked a bit around the net before putting ZxR in my purchase basket). The DPC latency shouldn't be any issues on the Creative card and with the ASUS card it should be "satisfying low" (but not ideal) with 3rd party modded drivers. Sound quality wise they should be pretty similar, the ST is still a very good card just looking at the components. Ultimately I picked Creative personally for the software side (I like the new interface of Z series and from experience I know the EQ isn't of the best quality on the ASUS cards while Creative's is probably among the best you can get with a soundcard, you can like boost the sliders to the top and it won't sound "off" or clip-distort even, just louder) + gaming positional audio advantage.

 

[soundfearuk]

This page discusses some strengths and weaknesses of this soundcard.
 
http://www.testfreaks.com/sound-cards/creative-sound-blaster-zxr/

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

This page discusses some strengths and weaknesses of this soundcard.
 
http://www.testfreaks.com/sound-cards/creative-sound-blaster-zxr/

 
I see there's some user mentioning it doesn't have ASIO support but that was added with the latest driver update.

 

[papen]

the latest driver added ASIO support