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[Creative] Creative Introduces the Sound Blaster Z-Series - Page 3

post #21 of 297
8/15/12 at 8:48am
Quote:
Night Modeā„¢ to reduce the impact of explosions and bursts of sound so as not to disturb others after hours

Perfect for me and the missus watching movies in bed!
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post #22 of 297
8/15/12 at 8:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by xentroxĀ View Post

The Recon3D series was pure garbage and it touted some amazing specs on paper. From the looks of these cards I doubt there will be much improvement.
I gave up on Creative and moved on to the Xonar Essence ST with the H6 daughter board. Could never be any happier.

The titanium Hd is once of the bes soundcards on the market, the recon3d was more of a mass consumer product, it was not meant to replace the titanium HD at the high end.

I look forward to these cards from creative.
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post #23 of 297
8/15/12 at 8:53am
I wonder how Z model compares to Titanium HD? cause it looks appealing at 100$.
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post #24 of 297
8/15/12 at 8:53am
I have 5.1 Sony receiver hooked to my computer by a digital optic cable. I've tried a few different sound cards but they all sound pretty much the same using the digital line. I'm just sticking to onboard.
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post #25 of 297
8/15/12 at 8:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paradigm84Ā View Post

I'm happy with my Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium HD.

I have that card and it doesn't work 90% of the time and I don't have time to keep monkeying around with it.
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post #26 of 297
8/15/12 at 8:57am
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Originally Posted by Stealth PyrosĀ View Post

Definitely. You can't expect a $20 pair of speakers from Office Depot to sound tremendously better than on-board audio just because you bought a $200 sound card. I recently bought a pair of Dayton B652 shelf speakers and a Dayton 12" sub. I compared between my on-board and X-Fi, and the on-board seriously cannot compare. All across the board, (lows, mids, highs) the X-Fi slaughters my onboard. Music is so much more vibrant and games are way more immersive. Even then, the Daytons aren't top notch speakers. They're insanely good for $30 though, so I somewhat retract my comment about the $20 speakers (not fully because I specifically referred to Office Depot-level speakers thumb.gif). I appreciate Pioneerisloud so much for recommending them to me...

This is pretty much my experience as well. I thought motherboard audio was fine, and I found the X-fi titanium HD on sale for a good price so I had a direct comparison between realtek motherboard audio and discrete audio. . The titanium HD is significantly better with my sound system, it basically blows the realtek away.

It all depends on what kind of sound system you have. If you're using crap headphones don't bother.
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post #27 of 297
8/15/12 at 9:11am
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Ive certainly heard of permormance gains when not using Onboard, expecially with games like BF3 that utilize the cores pretty well.
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post #28 of 297
8/15/12 at 9:15am
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Originally Posted by StormX2Ā View Post

Ive certainly heard of permormance gains when not using Onboard, expecially with games like BF3 that utilize the cores pretty well.

The performance difference is pretty minimal these days, if there is any at all. However the quality difference can be night and day depending on what kind of sound system you have, it all boils down to whether you use headphones or an expensive speaker setup. Realtek audio is fine for cheap headphones but terrible for true high end surround speakers.
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post #29 of 297
8/15/12 at 9:18am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xolerasĀ View Post

The performance difference is pretty minimal these days, if there is any at all. However the quality difference can be night and day depending on what kind of sound system you have, it all boils down to whether you use headphones or an expensive speaker setup. Realtek audio is fine for cheap headphones but terrible for true high end surround speakers.

honestly the only reason I wish to go back to souncard is for the Mic.

I always prefer to have the Mic Play my voice back in my headphones. With Onboard, there is a Delay involved which makes me slow my speach down, its quite annoying..

Especially since I like to Sing Battle Hymns on Vent =)

Cant do My good Voice Impressions either witht hat delay, its annoying -.-
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post #30 of 297
8/15/12 at 9:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JMCBĀ View Post

I have 5.1 Sony receiver hooked to my computer by a digital optic cable. I've tried a few different sound cards but they all sound pretty much the same using the digital line. I'm just sticking to onboard.

With Digital connections like Optical you will be using the DAC on the Receiver itself, not the onboard DAC on your motherboard. To use the DAC from something like a sound card your receiver needs to have multi channel inputs(if your going the 5.1 option). I use the multi channel inputs on my receiver to my sound card and it works great. Other wise your stuck to using optical with dolby digital Live for 5.1.
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