Creative Sound Blaster Z $80.39

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LOCO LAPTOP

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This is a new model that replaces the current Sound Blasters Recon3D and so far its getting good reviews. This also has windows 8 drivers that works. :D

http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Z-PCIe-Sound/M/B009ISU33E.htm

Holiday Sale - Dec 11-15 ONLY! Save 33% when you use coupon code 30GIFT4U at checkout. Enter code 30GIFT4U at checkout.

Got one myself as well. Time to replace my good old PCI XtremeGamer Fatal1ty.

Sub Total:$119.99
Shipping:$8.64
Estimated Tax:$0.00
Promotional Discount:-$48.24
Total:$80.39
 
It's creative so I assume no dolby headphones but their cmss-3d, though I hear they have something that replaces cmss-3d and is better but how does it compare to dolby headphones?

I hear creative and asus just recently got new drivers for their respective high end cards.

I was going to get an Asus essence stx, but this sounds pretty good IF it can make my 558s max usefulness in war z/day z/bf3/chivarly etc. If it can, much better deal it's like 50% the price of the asus I'm looking at.

Either way It's a darn good deal, just wondering how their surround headphones is lately for my needs.

MEH, tbh it's so cheap I might just get it to see how it works with my collection, if my chars die I will rage in global chat, blame my sound card instead of me afking grabbign a soda from the fridge while standing up in game in the middle of a field, and buy the essence stx and put whichever is worse directional sound in backup comp until I can gift it to my brother.. jk about the rage

according to some history checks, not sure it's been below $100(at least by amazon), so $80.39 shipped (assuming no tax) is pretty awesome.
 
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Do these have auto jack sensing for the front panel headphones? Doesn't seem to be listed anywhere...
 
I paid $110 for the same card 6 days ago. It is going to back to Amazon. Thank you, OP.
 
Well I'm in for one, at this price, it's awesome. Thanks OP! The essence stx has not budged below $174.99 for a while. Been waiting and waiting... then it went up to $185.99 so screw them.
This is hot
 
Thanks a lot, i was waiting for a sale on this card. $80.39 shipped with Amazon Prime.
 
This sound card kicks a lot of ass BTW. Been rockin with mine for a week. Good clean drivers, great sound. Good upgrade from Fatality Pro...
 
As I piece together my rig (much faster than I thought I would with all the great deals lately) I was debating going with discrete or on board audio. This deal went ahead and made up my mind. Love that it's fulfilled by Amazon and I get my Prime Shipping on top of it. Thanks a ton OP.
 
I have been waiting on this card to drop in price, and I bit quick last night. I haven't actually used a sound card since the X-Fi. I've been using onboard that past 4-5 years now. I hope this is worth the upgrade from onboard.
 
So the drivers are really pretty decent on this one?

I'm getting fed up with my Titanium Fatal1ty Pros - have had the same issues, with two of them, on three different computers for a few years now.
 
quiktake said:
How does this compare to the highest end Titanium HD in terms of sound quality?
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Edit: Bah, had the Zx in mind when I wrote my post... But yeah, Zx/ZxR would be the direct equivalent to the Ti HD, tho I haven't seen in depth reviews either way. The ZxR just adds the external accessory I think.

Good deal tho.
 
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I doubt Creative will ever create a product that warrants replacing a Titanium HD. The only thing that would get me to replace it is if they released a Titanium HD quality card with a ridiculously high quality headphone amp with the ability to switch between headphones/speakers via software. We'll see what the reviews for the ZxR look like. Hopefully it's not another flop like the Recon3D.
 
EPOQ said:
The only thing that would get me to replace it is if they released a Titanium HD quality card with a ridiculously high quality headphone amp with the ability to switch between headphones/speakers via software.
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This ^. That would be great. Then I wont have to spend more $$ on headphone amplifier when trying to drive my HD650. It's coming out later this month! So we'll see how it is! :D
 
Isn't that roughly what the Zx/ZxR are tho? They have a dedicated amp, which the Ti HD lacked, and they don't auto mute the speaker output when headphones are plugged in the back (allowing you to switch in software, like the Xonar STX). The latter is one of the reasons why I got an STX instead of a Ti HD, even tho the Ti HD was on clearance for a while ($50-75).

You could always run an amp off your Ti HD's line out tho, no need to upgrade just for that... Plenty of good small desk amps out there that have multiple outputs and a hardware switch or can even pull double duty (passive speakers + headphones).

Edit: Altho I don't know about "ridiculously high quality", guess it depends on your standards... You're never gonna get something on the grade of an O2 within a sound card, but you can certainly get something comparable to the better Fiio's.
 
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Impulse said:
Isn't that roughly what the Zx/ZxR are tho? They have a dedicated amp, which the Ti HD lacked, and they don't auto mute the speaker output when headphones are plugged in the back (allowing you to switch in software, like the Xonar STX). The latter is one of the reasons why I got an STX instead of a Ti HD, even tho the Ti HD was on clearance for a while ($50-75).

You could always run an amp off your Ti HD's line out tho, no need to upgrade just for that... Plenty of good small desk amps out there that have multiple outputs and a hardware switch or can even pull double duty (passive speakers + headphones).

Edit: Altho I don't know about "ridiculously high quality", guess it depends on your standards... You're never gonna get something on the grade of an O2 within a sound card, but you can certainly get something comparable to the better Fiio's.
Click to expand...

I already have an O2 amp. I can do a comparison and if ZxR's amp is good enough, you'll see my O2 for sale on here and headfi :D I'll let you guys know.
 
Yeah I was speaking EPOQ mainly, or in general, I'd love to read that comparison tho. Post it on the audio sub forum here if you do it!
 
In for 1. I just got a recon for $69 but the Z is better for music and has a 2 year warranty.
 
mknlb50 said:
I already have an O2 amp. I can do a comparison and if ZxR's amp is good enough, you'll see my O2 for sale on here and headfi :D I'll let you guys know.
Click to expand...

Impulse said:
Yeah I was speaking EPOQ mainly, or in general, I'd love to read that comparison tho. Post it on the audio sub forum here if you do it!
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same here, would love to read your thoughts mknlb50. i don't plan on giving up my O2 but would be an interesting read nonetheless. the nice thing about the O2 is you know the rationale behind every single detail of the design, and also other rarely-published specs like output impedance etc.
 
cjhatesu said:
Have you tried the PAX 3rd party drivers?
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-drivers/
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I wouldn't touch that garbage with a 10 foot pole. Daniel K's drivers yes but that crap not a chance in hell. Just read that dude's change logs for a good laugh.

mknlb50 said:
I already have an O2 amp. I can do a comparison and if ZxR's amp is good enough, you'll see my O2 for sale on here and headfi :D I'll let you guys know.
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I've heard that the amp is supposed to be on par with whats found in the Xonar STX or the Fiio e9.
 
Maybe this is a dumb question, but with wireless headsets such as the creative labs "WoW" set, which uses a USB dongle to connect it wirelessly, do all the benefits of this card still apply to that type of headset? Or does it only apply to headsets which are directly connected to the sound card?
 
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BababooeyHTJ said:
I wouldn't touch that garbage with a 10 foot pole. Daniel K's drivers yes but that crap not a chance in hell. Just read that dude's change logs for a good laugh.
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They aren't bad, he just does some last minute fixes over the original drivers. But yeah, the guy is a joke. He doesn't know shit so neither I ever bothered to think about downloading his material.

Cali3350 said:
didnt the recon3d only launch lkike 6 months ago?
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The Recon3D launched over a year ago. And it was a POS. Very poorly built and poorly sounding. The Z is much better in the sound department but it uses the same poor and very bland design of the Recon3D. With the cheap and shitty Chinese Jamicon caps. Creative is SOB of a company that they've put those caps on $350 X-Fi Elite Pro's. Mine leaked and failed. So many Creative cards have died and keep on to die because Creative wants to save a buck or two from every sound card they sell.

The ZX and the ZXR though are build on longer, and much more advanced PCB's. They're outfitted with Nichicon Fine-Gold caps and film capacitors to back them up. They're the best cards Creative has released since the AWE64 Gold.
 
ReconSniper said:
Maybe this is a dumb question, but with wireless headsets such as the creative labs "WoW" set, which uses a USB dongle to connect it wirelessly, do all the benefits of this card still apply to that type of headset? Or does it only apply to headsets which are directly connected to the sound card?
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No, it wouldn't have any effect on a usb headset. Just an analog headphone.
 
Yeah USB headsets work off their own internal USB DAC, under audio devices you'll see that selected even with a card installed (and if you switched to it you wouldn't hear the headset).
 
How much of an improvement is this over an on board Z68MA-ED55? currently game with a sony MDR-NC6 headphones, but am planning to upgrade to a 5.1 headset soon.
 
Ticker305 said:
How much of an improvement is this over an on board Z68MA-ED55? currently game with a sony MDR-NC6 headphones, but am planning to upgrade to a 5.1 headset soon.
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Not much, it's not that good of a card and not worthwhile due to the poor capacitors it uses.

An Auzen Bravura is a much, much better card than this. It can be had for a mere $90.
 
johnnydoe said:
Not much, it's not that good of a card and not worthwhile due to the poor capacitors it uses.

An Auzen Bravura is a much, much better card than this. It can be had for a mere $90.
Click to expand...

Most people won't notice any difference in capacitor choice and the Auzentrch cards don't have Windows 8 drivers currently.
 
johnnydoe said:
Not much, it's not that good of a card and not worthwhile due to the poor capacitors it uses.

An Auzen Bravura is a much, much better card than this. It can be had for a mere $90.
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you're dismissing a soundcard based on capacitors?
 
ocellaris said:
Most people won't notice any difference in capacitor choice and the Auzentrch cards don't have Windows 8 drivers currently.
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No, actually, it's not just capacitor choice and you're quite wrong in that statement. Many audio enthuasiasts have significantly BOOSTED up their SQ by replacing those shitty Jamicon's with ELNA's or Rubycon Blackgate's. They suck up the sound quality, and the worse thing is that they make the card sound WORSE and WORSE as they age. And they age quite fast since they're shit caps. Dust and heat are two enemies of those caps. For people that sandwidch their sound cards in between their SLi/CrossFire setups, a sound card with Jamicons would be a big fat NO GO if you know that it's going to die in a few years.

The Bravura is built superior in all other areas, for VRM it uses a polymer, the filtering section to the DAC/ADC's is superior etc. If you have a slight idea then just looking at the PCB's should tell you how much better the Bravura is.

And Win 7 drivers should work for Win 8, and even if they don't, Win 8 is currently not much use anyway.

Porter_ said:
you're dismissing a soundcard based on capacitors?
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Yes, I'm because it's using SHIT Chinese/cheap capacitors that age, make the card sound worse and cause an early death. Why do you think so many Creative cards die?
 
The capacitor quality has more to do with reliability than sound quality... If anything it'd fail before you notice any degradation. There seems to be some confusion about the caps actually used too, something about OEM cards having different ones etc... The thread on the audio section had some posts about it.
 
Just curious: What do you guys run speaker/headphone wise?

I run Logitech Z5500s and MDR7506s on a Creative X-Fi Platinum. Any opinion on if it would be worth upgrading to this, or any new soundcard?

I have been out of the PC soundcard loop for years (basically after the Promedia 5.1s were EOL) but I am a big sound quality buff.
 
If you're a big SQ buff you're better off getting better speakers before upgrading from an already decent card...
 
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