Creative Zx Control Module ruins sound

S

samops03

Gawd
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
809
When i have my headphones hooked up to the Control Module, the sound is significantly worse then when they are plugged in directly to the sound card. Is this normal?

This is the module im talking about for anyone who doesnt know.
image.jpg
 
Yes it is normal. That control model is underpowered and bad sounding by most reports. I use a Creative Z and a receiver as my amp.

Does it sound ok straight out of the sound card?
 
spaceman said:
Yes it is normal. That control model is underpowered and bad sounding by most reports. I use a Creative Z and a receiver as my amp.

Does it sound ok straight out of the sound card?
Click to expand...

It sound good when plugged into the sound card. I don't get it tough, shouldn't the module just pass on the amplified sound from the card? The module plugs into the amplified headphone jack does it not?
 
Thats what extra connections, more soldered joints, more wire and an analogue volume control can do.
 
If you are feeding the output directly into an amp that has no volume control, it is handy.
But I prefer sound straight from the audio device to the amp and use a high res digital volume control on the PC.
 
Nenu said:
Thats what extra connections, more soldered joints, more wire and an analogue volume control can do.
Click to expand...


that is what creative attempting something like this can do...

I made my own break out box with switching for headphones or speakers wit $10 in parts from Radioshack and hooked it up with a $1 rca cable for Thriftstore...

guess what works great doesn't ruin SQ ... creative is just terrible at everything .....




OP... I think you should try to get creative to replace the breakout box (or if possible return this train wreck and get something else.)

on-board audio and a FiiO E09K would be better than that creative crap.
 
spaceman said:
Yes it is normal. That control model is underpowered and bad sounding by most reports. I use a Creative Z and a receiver as my amp.

Does it sound ok straight out of the sound card?
Click to expand...

Any reason for picking the Z over the X-Fi Titanium cards? I was in this situation 2 weeks ago.
 
Syphon Filter said:
In what way does it ruin the sound?
Click to expand...

It just sounds less clear, almost muffled. I realized it as soon as i hooked up the module. It was like i hooked up a pair of $10 headphones.

I wonder if this is a problem with all modules or just mine. I know many people have this card on the forum, so i wanted some feedback.

How do you create a card with a headphone amp and bundle it with a module that completely ruins the sound?
 
No wonder I was disappointed in my headphones. This is a shame because I specifically bought the zx so I could easily switch headphones and such without going behind my case :(
 
FRZ said:
No wonder I was disappointed in my headphones. This is a shame because I specifically bought the zx so I could easily switch headphones and such without going behind my case :(
Click to expand...

You can still switch with one button in the applet.
 
ocellaris said:
You can still switch with one button in the applet.
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Ya but I switch between different headphones at different times. I will try and plug in my headphones into the back tonight see how much of a difference there is
 
FRZ said:
Ya but I switch between different headphones at different times. I will try and plug in my headphones into the back tonight see how much of a difference there is
Click to expand...

This is exactly why i hooked up the module, so i can switch headphones easily. Plug them directly into the card dude... the difference will blow you away.

Its too bad they messed up the module since im very happy with the card itself.
 
^^ That I don't know. I ended up getting a X-Fi Titanium HD, mostly to keep for older, hardware accelerated games (it has the last and greatest X-Fi chip). Otherwise, I normally use optical/COAX from my mobo's built in audio to an external DAC/AMP (my mobo uses something from creative to emulate 3D positioning [for headsets] via software).
 
TroyX said:
even better than the Titanium HD?
Click to expand...

Good catch, I was comparing to the Titanium.
The Titanium HDs DAC (Burr Brown 1794A) is better than the Zs (Cirrus Logic CS4398), the HDs DAC is the same as used in the ZXR.

The Z is reported to be the better sounding card over the Titanium, but its very hard to find opinions on the Z vs HD
My opinion based on DAC chip performance alone is that the HD should sound better, especially as the analogue stage is designed for stereo Hifi enthusiasts and you can mod the op-amps.

Soz about that.
 
Ya, my Beyer T90's now sound like legit headphones, not muffled and cloudy. What utter BS, I sold my Asus Xonar for this because I thought "hey great a control module for easy headphone switching." Now this module is useless :(
 
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