Soundblaster Audigy RX vs Soundblaster Z

A

Astralogic

Gawd
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
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Hi, I use stereo headphones for gaming and want a good surround sound experience. The RX is 7.1 the Z is only 5.1, what would be the best choice?
 
With headphones the 7.1 vs 5.1 shouldn't matter. People here speak highly of the Z/x/r and its audio quality.
 
Forget about 5.1 or 7.1 which doesn't mean jack shit for headphones...idk if all the Z models have headphone amps but the one I got does.....and let me tell ya its a world of difference...not to even mention its a single mouse click changing from headphones to speakers. The Z models also have a Surround setting for better positional audio while in games similar but imo a bit better than the older surround mode the xfi and audigy series used. If your using one of those gimmick usb surround headsets it won't even use the soundboard anyway..and IF your possibly in the market for headset look closely at the Audio-Technica ATH-M50 seen recently for 89 dollars in the hot deals section...I never knew a headphone could sound so good and still be very comfortable with incredible bass as well
 
Can you really tell a big difference between all these sound cards if your using headphones? Ive been using the same Audigy 2 card since 2000.
 
If you use a decent non usb headphones And play newer games like BF4 then yes, if your still playing games from 2000 then don't bother...i went from an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro to Sound Blaster Z and still feel like it was money well spent

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Which drivers are you guys using for the Sound Blaster Z under Win8.1?

According to the Creative site there are no Win8.1 drivers...:confused:
 
latest download drivers are working fine 99% of the time....i get a glitch with the mic every once in a while
 
Pivo504 said:
Can you really tell a big difference between all these sound cards if your using headphones? Ive been using the same Audigy 2 card since 2000.
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I remember going from onboard to an Audigy 2. That was with speakers and I could tell a difference but that was also back in 2006 so I'm not sure how far onboard audio has come since then.

Syphon Filter said:
Which drivers are you guys using for the Sound Blaster Z under Win8.1?

According to the Creative site there are no Win8.1 drivers...:confused:
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Use the Windows 7 drivers. They work just the same. They might act screwy sometimes but that's just normal for Creative drivers.

D1RTYD1Z619 said:
Most games aren't mixed for 7.1. Movies on the other hand are usually.
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Most modern games do support at least 7.0 output and that number will rise since Wwise now supports 7.1 output, at least on Windows PCs. As far as consoles, Wii supported Dolby ProLogic, Wii U does up to 5.1, PS3/4 can do 7.1, and the 360 was limited to 5.1, Xbox One can do 7.1.

This is a site I threw together: http://satsun.org/audio/

Just from what games I've tested personally, it looks like around 35 games are limited to 5.x and around 64 games support 7.x output. Some games were limited to 5.x because of software limitations and others were limited because of a lack of thorough implementation of the audio API by the programmer.

Pre-rendered cut scenes in games will likely continue to be limited to 5.1 unless the developers choose to encode those with DTS-MA or Dolby True-HD, which I highly doubt will happen any time soon.
 
BF3 had no problem outputting 7.1 over HDMI- which was a riot with decent floorstanders and active Klipsch sub.

As for soundcards- don't skimp. ASUS might work, but they're somehow worse than Creative when it comes to driver updates, and Creative has gotten very good as of late, be it an X-Fi or a Soundblaster Z.
 
Hmmm...

I just got a Xonar DGX to use with my Astro A40 headset the other day...tempted to return it and grab a Sound Blaster Z but not sure if it would be worth it.

I'm not overly impressed with the positional audio I'm getting from the DGX. Would the SB-Z be any better?
 
The DGX is generally considered decent enough for the low end (support issues aside, going back to what IdiotInCharge said--Asus has been very random about their driver releases for various cards, most notoriously as of late with the flagship Phoebus), and it has a headphone amp, so in theory it should be just fine for your headphones. The SBZ would probably be a sidegrade, which may go back to the issue of what's up with the positional audio as is...?
 
Bought my Z just a few hours before the christmas eve ! thoughts so far :

ALchemy works in FEAR 1 very good ! eax 2.0 + hardware mixing make the game sound almost like a binaural recording !

Killing Floor is playable again ! when i was using the x-fi i could not use hardware openAL (system driver off + H/W 3D enabled ) without getting a BSOD every 20 minutes

Doom3 sounds also pretty nice ! ( s_useopenAL 1 - EAX 4.0 enabled )

sbx surround 67% works pretty well in every software accelerated game i have tried so far, especially the rear channels in l4d2 and contagion ! much more reliable and "cleaner" than razer surround i have to say !

I have an old philips mini HIFI, connected to the front RCA jack with a RCA-to-3.5mm pair of cables, if i have someone over then i just put the plug to my the front audio panel so that he can hear what i hear, headphones and speakers play audio simultaneously this way !

headphone output is really LOUD, besides the really sensitive CALs, i think that it can also drive 250ohm headphones like the DT150 with little trouble too ! definately a better solution for pc gaming than a usb astro mixamp :p
 
Redshirt #24 said:
what's up with the positional audio as is...?
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Not sure really...maybe it's just in my head :confused:

EDIT:

Specifically in COD:Ghosts the levels don't seem right when the DGX is set to 8ch/Headphones/Dolby Headphone. Explosions seem to be crashy/clipped but everthing else is fine if a little quiet.
 
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Hmm...wild guess, but from appearances Ghosts doesn't even support 7.1 audio in the first place. (Do any PC games support native 7.1 audio, come to think of it?) You could try setting the DGX and the game itself to 5.1 channels and seeing what happens.
 
Ok, I will give that a go.

The game itself has NO audio settings that I can see...just a volume level.
 
Yup, just doubled checked. Under "Audio" there are only two options; one for the audio level and the other for subtitles!

That's it's, nothing else! Totally lame.
 
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