Which Sound Card to use: Sound Blaster Z vs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium

Ladic

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I am on Win10 and my speakers are Logitech Z906.
I am currently using the X-fi Titanium which I believe has served me well. But was recently gifted the Z, was wondering if it would be a good idea to change to it?
 
Use the Z, connect it to the Z906 with three 3.5 mm cables to the #1 input on the Z906.
 
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I dont know if it would sound much different with the speakers you are using. For headphones it would be more noticeable. For basic speakers. Pretty much the same.
 
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It's not given that there is any qualitative difference between these two cards. Headphones or not.

You should try them both out and keep the one you like more.
 
Agreed that trying both is your best option. But to possibly give you more help, tell us what exactly you use the card for that is related to gaming. Do you ever downmix multi-channel audio to stereo (like if you have a 7.1 source but are using headphones or stereo speakers), or upmix a stereo source to multichannel? If you do, it's worth noting that the sound cards in question use different forms of positional audio.

You have CMSS-3D, which in my opinion is Creative's best positional audio. It was included on the X-Fi series of soundcards, the last series of cards with true hardware processing (which CMSS-3D requires to function).

You also have SBX Pro Studio, which was originally introduced as THX TruStudio Pro before it changed to SBX for licensing reasons (Creative owned THX, but ended up selling it to Razer). It was offered by Creative starting with their Recon3D series of soundcards, and as part of a software suite that you can install and use on your onboard audio. It is also offered on X-Fi series cards in "Entertainment Mode" ("Game Mode" uses CMSS-3D). The main perk of this is that it doesn't require hardware processing to function, so it can be installed on basically anything that creative wants to include it with, including soundcards with absolutely no hardware processing whatsoever, which includes the Recon3D series and the Z series (Z, Zx, ZxR).

I prefer CMSS-3D but opinions vary, which again comes back to it being best if you try both. If you don't use positional audio then I don't think you will find much difference between the cards as their DACs are comparable.
 
The X-Fi Titanium is superior in gaming where hardware DirectSound3D and OpenAL are concerned, no question about that.

If you still play the classics, stuff like the first three Thief games, System Shock 2, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, up through later titles like Battlefield 1942 through 2142, F.E.A.R. and the original 2007 release of Bioshock, then a proper X-Fi with a hardware DSP running in Game Mode is the way to go. Grab the Daniel_K drivers, apply ALchemy to any game that needs it, and off you go.

On top of that, I find CMSS-3D Headphone to offer superior positioning all around, especially in DS3D/OAL titles where it can provide full 3D sound and not just virtual 7.1, but that's just my own head and set of ears.

Now, if you don't care about PC games that are over a decade old by this point, then the X-Fi lineup loses a considerable amount of its appeal over newer sound cards, particularly ones with less quirky drivers or even outright "driverless" USB audio devices like the Sennheiser GSX 1000.

Here's the good news: you have both cards at no extra charge now. If you don't mind the hassle of switching out the cards (or possibly installing both if you have another PCIe slot to spare), you can just test them both for yourself and pawn off the one you don't like.
 
There's very little reason to worry about hardware sound these days; most surround work is done by the games themselves.

So as mentioned above, unless you're worried about legacy titles, focus on connectivity.
 
if you can get the X-Fi Titanium for a good price I would get that.

been happy with mine for some time, cmss3d with bf1 is truly amazing, just make sure to set windows and bf1 to stereo and let the sound card do the work.
 
if you can get the X-Fi Titanium for a good price I would get that.

been happy with mine for some time, cmss3d with bf1 is truly amazing, just make sure to set windows and bf1 to stereo and let the sound card do the work.
That is not correct. You need to feed a surround signal to CMSS-3D for it to be effective. Games typically rely on that Windows setting to determine your speaker configuration, if you set Windows to stereo, games will see that and send only stereo audio. If you feed a stereo signal to CMSS-3D, it doesn't have anything useful to work with when trying to create a virtual surround effect.

Set Windows to 5.1 or 7.1, whatever is the greatest number of speakers you can set.
In the Creative Labs software, set the output device to headphones, then enable CMSS-3D.

Games will output a surround sound signal, the Creative software will downmix it for stereo headphones.

If BF1, like Overwatch, has its own built-in headphone setting such as Atmos for headphones, you then disable CMSS-3D and set everything for stereo or headphones to let the game do all the audio processing. Of course, it's up to the listener to determine which is better; not sure I'd bother with adjusting settings for the small number of games that have Atmos for headphones.
 
"For headphone, you have more options, but the first step is to set your sound card to headphones. Setting it to 5.1 speakers won't work with CMSS-3D (if you don't like CMSS-3D, it will work fine as long as the game is set to stereo though). You can then either a) set Windows to 5.1 and your game to whatever or b) set Windows to stereo and your game to stereo. These will give the same sound and both will work with CMSS-3D."

http://www.overclock.net/t/1184474/setting-up-your-x-fi-sound-card-for-gaming
 
For clarification on that, setting the sound card to Headphones means doing it through the X-Fi Control Panel/Console Launcher specifically.

Doing this means it won't switch down the Windows Sound control panel's speaker setting to stereo, which all the speaker options do, and it also ensures that you have the correct CMSS-3D feature presented (Headphone and Virtual are HRTF-based with Virtual being for stereo speakers, Surround is just stereo source upfill for surround speakers).

It's really confusing because of that, I admit.
 
"For headphone, you have more options, but the first step is to set your sound card to headphones. Setting it to 5.1 speakers won't work with CMSS-3D (if you don't like CMSS-3D, it will work fine as long as the game is set to stereo though). You can then either a) set Windows to 5.1 and your game to whatever or b) set Windows to stereo and your game to stereo. These will give the same sound and both will work with CMSS-3D."

http://www.overclock.net/t/1184474/setting-up-your-x-fi-sound-card-for-gaming
Some of those tests seemed unnecessary considering they amounted to sending audio into a void, but I won't knock them for being diligent.

Creative's own instructions say Windows=7.1, Creative Console Launcher=Headphones: http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=96663

It makes sense to follow Creative's document because of how games commonly output based on the Windows setting and how surround virtualization benefits from having the most speaker channels available to mix. If you can't tell the difference between a stereo source mixed with CMSS-3D and a 7.1 source mixed with CMSS-3D, that's because, in my opinion, it's really not that great compared to actual surround speakers. I primarily use speakers, I've tried using headphones with CMSS-3D and Dolby/DTS (Logitech) virtualization and, while I can hear the effect that's being applied to help position front and rear sounds, my brain doesn't seem to respond as fast to that simulated effect as it does to sounds being played from discrete surround speakers. I get the impression that headphone virtual surround is something you have to train your brain to recognize, since I love my speakers, I'm not currently willing to test that theory.

If you've been using stereo/stereo, try using Creative's settings for a week or so, then go back to using stereo/stereo and see if you can tell a difference.
 
Hey Ladic, thought I'd add my opinion as I'm in the same position. I've been using my X-Fi Titanium since 2005 and I've never had any problems with it. My wife bought me a Soundblaster Z as a present after I made a comment that it was the oldest bit of kit inside my PC. I installed it on Monday of this week and four days later I reall wish I hadn't of bothered. The sound quality on the Z is in my opinion nowhere near as good as it is on the X-Fi. For me the soundblaster Z sounds muddy and dull with absolutely no clarity in the sound whatsoever. The old Bass & Trebble options were removed and replaced with an EQ which I spent days trying to get to sound somewhere close to the sound of the X-Fi but never did. I spoke to Creative who told me that the Z card was designed for gamers and people who watch movies on their PC, rather than for audiophiles. I listen mostly to music through my Logitech Z506 5.1 speakers. When I removed the Soundblaster Z earlier today after 4 days of contiunually trying to make it sound better and reinstalled my X-Fi the difference in sound was apparent to everyone present in the room. I've finally given up with the Soundblaster Z and my wife actually agreed that it didn't sound anywhere near as good as my old card and she'll return it for a refund. I was so disappointed that it sounded like a huge step backwards from the X-Fi, you'd think newer technology would 'sound' better. Obviously these days there's a lot of people that have only ever had on-board sound from their motherboard so any dedicated soundcard for those people is probably going to sound better than that which is why I feel there are so many positive reviews of the product. Ideally you can find someone that has owned the same or similar soundcard that you currently have and then replaced it with one that they feel is better and can therefore recommend it. I'm currently busy now looking around to try to find something that has better sound quality than my trusted old X-Fi card but I think that it's going to be a really difficult process after my experience this week of the Soundblaster Z :*(
 
The X-Fi Titanium is superior in gaming where hardware DirectSound3D and OpenAL are concerned, no question about that.

If you still play the classics, stuff like the first three Thief games, System Shock 2, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, up through later titles like Battlefield 1942 through 2142, F.E.A.R. and the original 2007 release of Bioshock, then a proper X-Fi with a hardware DSP running in Game Mode is the way to go. Grab the Daniel_K drivers, apply ALchemy to any game that needs it, and off you go.

On top of that, I find CMSS-3D Headphone to offer superior positioning all around, especially in DS3D/OAL titles where it can provide full 3D sound and not just virtual 7.1, but that's just my own head and set of ears.

Now, if you don't care about PC games that are over a decade old by this point, then the X-Fi lineup loses a considerable amount of its appeal over newer sound cards, particularly ones with less quirky drivers or even outright "driverless" USB audio devices like the Sennheiser GSX 1000.

Here's the good news: you have both cards at no extra charge now. If you don't mind the hassle of switching out the cards (or possibly installing both if you have another PCIe slot to spare), you can just test them both for yourself and pawn off the one you don't like.
That's not quite accurate. If you use OpenAL it's not just "virtual 7.1" but you get height and full HRTF too. SBX doesn't have to be enabled (in fact, it should be disabled - it's not meant for games that use OpenAL or when you use Alchemy). Same applies when you use Alchemy. Witch Z/Zx/ZxR you can't disable elevation filter and macrofx which is a bit shame because that causes issues in Oblivion for example. X-Fi's hardware solution sounds a bit different but basically they do the same thing.


Some tests I made in Mirror's Edge (Headphone mode):


(Stereo speaker mode):

^^Positioning is excellent.

And X-Fi (Stereo speaker mode):

^^Headphone mode would sound noticeably worse in my opinion. It would have slightly better positioning but if I remember correctly sound stage takes pretty large hit.
 
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