Creative SB Z/HD558

[smaug8821]

Hello,

I've been doing some "research" on upping my sound game on my PC. I currently have a set of HD558s using onboard sound. From what I've read, something like the Creative SB Z sounds like it would be good for someone who is not an audio junkie, but still wants decent quality sound. A few questions, and some background:

- I'm a headphones only user, no speakers.
- Budget is ~$100 or so.
- Used for gaming and some music.
- The music isn't super high quality, I mostly use Spotify.
- Mostly play CS:GO, surround sound isn't important at all for me.

- Am I on the right track here? Would there be something better for around the same price for what I'm using sound for?
- Is the control module that useful that it would be worth upgrading to the Zx?
- Would I need to purchase any other cables/adapters, or is the regular 3.5mm I'm using now what I should be using with the card?

Feel free to point out anything I missed as well. Thanks for the help!

 

[spaceman]

Yup. Don't need anything extra. Just the card. You will get very good CS sound with this card. Aka wallhack level. Skip the control module and just get the cheapest Z you can find. I think you can find the oem version around $60?

 

[alienate]

It's $70 over your budget but the Zxr has a better headphone amp than the Z or Zx.
It has better caps in it and a audiophile level Burr/Brown DAC as well. Most people don't
start out as audio junkies but become them over time

 

[smaug8821]

I ended up going and grabbing one from MC last night on the way home. Really happy with it so far. Strikes me as odd that people say there isn't a difference between onboard and a dedicated card. The difference was clear to me right away, and I should probably do some more tweaking.

Coming from onboard/crappy gaming headset a few months ago, this is quite the improvement. We'll see how long it takes me to want to upgrade some more

 

[Zepher]

I have the same combo now.
I opted for the ZX as I don't have my headphones plugged in all the time, and it was $99 on Amazon.
I did read that the pod degrades the sound, but it sounds fine to me and the mic sounds good for online gaming and phone calls.

 

[smaug8821]

Yeah, I'm a 100% headphone user on my desktop and I also read that as well, although not everyone agreed on it. I'm using the mic that comes with it and it's surprisingly good, better than the Zalman clip on I think.

If you have any tips or settings you found helped the sound a lot, let me know! I just sort of set it on the "fatal1ty" profile for now and think it sounds pretty good. Definitely need to play around with it some more.

 

[spaceman]

Glad you like it. The z series has the best game sound going.

 

[Zepher]

these are the settings I have for my headphones,
SBX Pro Studio
Surround 55
Crystalizer 40
Bass is not checked

EQ
31 - 0
62 - 0
125 - 0
250 - -1
500 - 0
1k - +1
2k - +2
4k - +3
8k - +5
16k - +6
Level - +3

For my M-Audio BX5 D2 Speakers,
SBX Pro Studio
Surround 55
Crystalizer 40
Bass not check

EQ is flat

 

[smaug8821]

Sweet, I'll give those a shot. Thanks!

 

[smaug8821]

A sigh update:

I noticed what appears to be a common problem with this card, where after a bit the sound will reverse/bass will play louder in the right ear/things just sound wonky in general. Googling around a bit I haven't really found a solution, but it appears it's definitely not exclusive to me.

Anyone else experience this and have a fix?

 

[Zepher]

I haven't experienced that issue.

What are you doing when that happens, and does it come and go?

 

[smaug8821]

It's just random. Seems to mostly happen when something new loads, IE CS:GO.

I switched the PCI-E slot that I had it in and the random problems seemed to stop, but I still noticed I got the left/right switch. That's fixable by changing the config to stereo and back to headphones, but that's a little annoying in itself.

 

[smaug8821]

Update in case anyone else has this problem: I *think* I was actually able to fix it after putting it in a PCI-E x8 slot and setting it on 24 bit, 48000 Hz in the Advanced tab of the Speaker Properties. I had it higher after switching the PCI-E slot, but I still got weird popping noises and sound inversion issues. It's been almost a day at this point and I have had 0 issues.