link to the 1st page. it look goo but not a in depth review.

 

I knew something was off with the headphone sound when gaming. I am used to virtual surround sound and since this card does not have it the sound is much worse in terms of 3d positional audio when using headphones.

A darn shame if you ask me.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exostenza

I knew something was off with the headphone sound when gaming. I am used to virtual surround sound and since this card does not have it the sound is much worse in terms of 3d positional audio when using headphones.
A darn shame if you ask me.

Huh? That is not correct. It does support EAX 5.0, ASIO, OpenAL and THX surround sound and has drivers for all of the above included.. You can go in the THX program and configure the positional sound to your liking. It even has all of the EAX 5.0 stuff which is pretty neat as well.

I've used a xonar STX soundcard and the titanium HD was definitely better in terms of positional audio hands down. Not that the xonar was bad -- let me be clear in that the xonar is an excellent card. But it is not good at positional audio even compared to the X-fi Titanium HD. The ZX/ZXR are even better than the Titanium HD in terms of 3d positional audio...

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoleras

I know people like to bash Creative Labs, but this card is seriously impressive. I didn't expect much but the ZX won me over and replaced my old titanium HD.

It's Creative's software/driver department that needs bashing, the hardware is great. You could say they are the AMD of sound cards.
Quote:

Originally Posted by xoleras

I've used a xonar STX soundcard and the titanium HD was definitely better in terms of positional audio hands down. Not that the xonar was bad -- let me be clear in that the xonar is an excellent card. But it is not good at positional audio even compared to the X-fi Titanium HD.

Are you sure you played around with the dolby virtual surround (7.1) settings?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoleras

Huh? That is not correct. It does support EAX 5.0, ASIO, OpenAL and THX surround sound and has drivers for all of the above included.. You can go in the THX program and configure the positional sound to your liking. It even has all of the EAX 5.0 stuff which is pretty neat as well.
I've used a xonar STX soundcard and the titanium HD was definitely better in terms of positional audio hands down. Not that the xonar was bad -- let me be clear in that the xonar is an excellent card. But it is not good at positional audio even compared to the X-fi Titanium HD. The ZX/ZXR are even better than the Titanium HD in terms of 3d positional audio...

Amazing to hear.

Does this card let you switch between speakers and headphones through software, or do you need to physically unplug one like the Titanium HD? I'm currently using my Xonar STX over my Titanium HD just for the convenience factor - I preferred the Titanium HD for positional audio.

 

I think i'll be picking one up with some new sennheiser's here soon. Once my rebuilt loop is done, this card will be my next priority.

 

I want one, looks good, sounds even better

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arnotts

Amazing to hear.
Does this card let you switch between speakers and headphones through software, or do you need to physically unplug one like the Titanium HD? I'm currently using my Xonar STX over my Titanium HD just for the convenience factor - I preferred the Titanium HD for positional audio.

It has a setting to detect headphones automatically, and can switch between speaker/headphones through software similar to the T-HD.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoleras

It has a setting to detect headphones automatically, and can switch between speaker/headphones through software similar to the T-HD.

I wonder if a pair of quality open headphones combined with the ZXR would have a better sound stage/imaging when gaming than a Astro A50 headset.

 

I've never liked the "fake" positional audio.

When I was using tritton ax720s (5.1) it sounded a lot different than the artificial stuff does on my AD700s (even disregarding the obvious sound quality difference between those two sets of headphones)

Maybe it's just me personally or maybe my xonar dx isn't quite up to par but it just sounds weird. I just leave it on normal settings when I game

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1337761/creative-sound-blaster-zx-zxr#post_18817956

 

Less of a review and more of a feature list. And they got some of the features wrong as pointed out already.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tippy

It's Creative's software/driver department that needs bashing, the hardware is great. You could say they are the AMD of sound cards.
Are you sure you played around with the dolby virtual surround (7.1) settings?

Love their hardware, hate their software but what made me sell mine was the static on the desktop when using headphones. ASUS Xonar ROG Phoebus doesn't have that problem and was why I bought it.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by thestache

Love their hardware, hate their software but what made me sell mine was the static on the desktop when using headphones. ASUS Xonar ROG Phoebus doesn't have that problem and was why I bought it.

Strange. Never had any such issue.

::shrug::

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by thestache

Love their hardware, hate their software but what made me sell mine was the static on the desktop when using headphones. ASUS Xonar ROG Phoebus doesn't have that problem and was why I bought it.

I wouldn't complain, Xonar DX softwares are outdated as well, I need to use Uni Xonar driver to keep it working and it is sometime buggy.

 

Good lord,. I have the Phoebus and I can't wait to throw that turd in the garbage. It's the worst soundcard I've ever had. Asus suppost was horrid when they first came out, they left us all in the dark for months before they fixed their crap drivers. The mic input is noisy as hell too. I'l be getting a xR of ZxR when they hit in Canada just so I can smash my phoebus with a sledge and put it on youtube lol

 

Don't see a point in buying this for $250 USD when you can have Titanium HD with actual hardware acceleration for $100 USD...
Unless you really need a built in amp... But then again, if you do need an amp, external amps are far superior.
Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGovernment

Good lord,. I have the Phoebus and I can't wait to throw that turd in the garbage. It's the worst soundcard I've ever had. Asus suppost was horrid when they first came out, they left us all in the dark for months before they fixed their crap drivers. The mic input is noisy as hell too. I'l be getting a xR of ZxR when they hit in Canada just so I can smash my phoebus with a sledge and put it on youtube lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by thestache

Love their hardware, hate their software but what made me sell mine was the static on the desktop when using headphones. ASUS Xonar ROG Phoebus doesn't have that problem and was why I bought it.

Just lol.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tippy

It's Creative's software/driver department that needs bashing, the hardware is great. You could say they are the AMD of sound cards.
Are you sure you played around with the dolby virtual surround (7.1) settings?

Then who is the Intel of sound cards?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bullly

Then who is the Intel of sound cards?

Intel is more or less "god tier" in my books, more like nVidia - they also have their own issues, just less of them.
I'm of course talking about Asus, their Xonar line is mostly great and so far the STX is still considered a must-have card for PC audiophiles, especially those using premium grade headphones.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tippy

Intel is more or less "god tier" in my books, more like nVidia - they also have their own issues, just less of them.
I'm of course talking about Asus, their Xonar line is mostly great and so far the STX is still considered a must-have card for PC audiophiles, especially those using premium grade headphones.

Audiophiles with headphones?

Speaking of software, I dunno - the essence had some major issues for me. Maybe some didn't have issues but it took asus forever to release windows 7 x64 drivers - and those caused skype crashes/popping for the longest time. Which is why I switched a long time ago.

Like you said everyone has issues. Granted, some would say the same thing about a random sound blaster card. I've never had issues ::shrug::

Both cards are substantially better than motherboard audio, though. I just had a friend who used motherboard audio for the longest time and after switching to a discrete - he couldn't believe the difference. Too bad motherboard makers always cheap out with that crap realtek audio nonsense. The difference between that and the Titanium-HD, essence STX or SB ZX is huge.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoleras

Audiophiles with headphones. Interesting

...what did you expect audiophiles to use? Headsets? Car stereos?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tippy

...what did you expect audiophiles to use? Headsets? Car stereos?

A glorious 5.1 setup of course!

I like headphones too occasionally, i'm using sennheiser 380s.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoleras

Audiophiles with headphones?

I hope you're not serious. Otherwise you'd just completely discredited everything you mentioned here about your experience with Zx.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by zalbard

I hope you're not serious. Otherwise you just completely discredited everything you've mentioned here about your experience with Zx.

Okay, If you say so buddy. I use headphones and a 5.1 setup. I switch back and forth.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoleras

Huh? That is not correct. It does support EAX 5.0, ASIO, OpenAL and THX surround sound and has drivers for all of the above included.. You can go in the THX program and configure the positional sound to your liking. It even has all of the EAX 5.0 stuff which is pretty neat as well.
I've used a xonar STX soundcard and the titanium HD was definitely better in terms of positional audio hands down. Not that the xonar was bad -- let me be clear in that the xonar is an excellent card. But it is not good at positional audio even compared to the X-fi Titanium HD. The ZX/ZXR are even better than the Titanium HD in terms of 3d positional audio...

It does have 3d positional audio for the speakers, but not for the headset jack. If you are using headphones on the headset jack there is no simulated positional audio to speak of - it is no different in terms of positional audio on the headset jack than an integrated sound solution. There is no CMSS-3D or anything like that to configure when you are in headphone mode.

Also complete LOL @ xoleras... you didn't know people who are into audio use headphones????

SUPER LOL - buddy you just made my night.

I love my Ultrasone Pro 750s and use them over speakers when ever I can.