Sound Blaster Z mini-review

[FlyingPenguin]

I pretty much tell people nowadays that on-board audio on most mobos is good enough - even for gaming, and I haven't had any reason to buy a dedicated sound card in maybe 10 years.

However, I've been a bit disappointed with my gaming PC lately. Killing Floor 2 BOMBARDS you with A LOT of sound during fights - especially on the 12 player server I play on which spawns double the number of Zeds. It gets to the point where the sound card gets saturated and it sounds like a mess.

So after reading some reviews I took a chance on the highly rated Sound Blaster Z PCI-E card: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ISU33E

This is completely subjective, but I definitely noticed a dramatic improvement in gaming audio. KF2 no longer sounds like a muddy mess when there's 200+ Zeds charging you, and I can now clearly hear everyone on the Teamspeak server with much more clarity over the game.

There also seems to be more dynamic range. I was listening to some in-game music and it sounded much richer than before. Maybe a little heavy on the bass but I like it that way, and you can always enable the EQ and adjust to your heart's content. I play on headphones and it sounds fantastic.

Now this is with NO audio enhancements enabled. I don't like audio enhancements - especially in games. None of that spacializer crap, or noise reduction or crystalizer nonsense. I turn it all off. I just want raw sound from my games.

If you're feeling your onboard audio isn't cutting it, I can recommend this card.

Oh, and for those of you who care about that sort of thing, it's a pretty card. It also glows red inside.

Detailed review here: http://www.legitreviews.com/creative-so ... iew_155705

[Err]

How are the drivers? I've been avoiding creative because the last card I bought had the worst driver's I've ever encountered. I'm still running a Auzen Prelude 7.1 PCI. Eventually, I'm going to have to go PCI-E if I ever upgrade my Sandy Bridge. I was considering an HT-Omega or Asus. However, it sounds as if Creative got their act together.

[FlyingPenguin]

No problems so far. Win10 installed some generic drivers but I downloaded the latest ones (3/3/17) from Creative's web site and they work fine. I only installed the required driver and Pro Studio console - nothing else.

[Pugsley]

Ill wait for a balanced out version so I can hook it up to my Crown XTI 2000 and crank up the 4 15" subs that are connected to it.

[Genom]

Hmm... card is at my local shop for 90 bucks. May have to try one out. Been living off onboard for years now.

[FlyingPenguin]

One of the things that attracted me to the card is that it has a high-end headphone amplifier built in. It seems to make a difference. Most audio outputs on onboard sound are really loaded just as line outputs.

[Genom]

How is the microphone that comes with it? Or did you get the one with the volume controller?

[Err]

Which slot on you MD did you install the card. I installed the last Creative PCIe card I had in the slot directly above the top video card. I now suspect that was part of my issues. I was also running SLI at the time and bought the card to clear the PCI slot below by bottom card for better airflow.

[FlyingPenguin]

I used the only PCI-E x1 slot available which is right above my video card. However I could have used any PCI-E slot. Just didn't see any point in wasting a x16 or x8 on a x1 card.

[normalicy]

I used to use a Soundblaster Platinum when I multi-played and it made a noticeable clarity difference for me. Enough that I considered it necessary. Like my kill ratio went up just because of how much easier it is to hear people walking around. Is it because of some sort of optimization for it? I have no clue, but it was similar to your review. And as noted, I didn't have any of the special wiz-bangs enabled.

[FlyingPenguin]

Genom: I got the one with the microphone but I haven't tried it. I use a headset on my gaming rig, and I have a studio quality mic for recordings for my workstation, so I just put it aside. It looks like it's designed to clip to the bottom of your monitor.

[FlyingPenguin]

Yeah, you notice subtle things more clearly like the breathing of zombies sneaking up behind you in Killing Floor 2, amid all the noise of gunfire. It feels like it's making a difference in my gameplay.

I used to feel onboard was good enough for games, but maybe this mobo just has a crappy audio chip (although it's a Realtek like most of them use) or maybe modern games are pushing the envelope on the number of effects they're using and it's overwhelming the standard hardware?

[Genom]

So I tried the internal card, and did not really notice much. That said, I tried the USB G5 version, and that I am actually liking. Much better audio to my nice Senheiser headphones (no enhancement crap, just straight audio output). Also nice that I can take it along when I travel and such. Nice little box, decent price on a DAC (got it locally on sale for 99 bucks)

I also got some Logitech G633 headphones to try out, but those I didnt like. Very heavy, and my ears get sweaty from the foam on the ear cups. The Senheisers are so much more comfortable, just have to use my separate USB mic.

[Genom]

Welp, forget my recommendation on the G5. The first one failed after 3 days, and the replacement unit has failed after another 2. Looking online it seems this is a common problem with the unit.

Oh well.

[normalicy]

That's a shame. I wonder if amp was having trouble driving the headphones (too low of a load)?