Sound Blaster ZxR

[Skel]

Creative Labs announced a new Sound Blaster, but does anyone know if they’re worth the price? I’ve been using my onboard for the past few months, which is serviceable, just doesn’t blow any skirts up.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/16/c...-z-soundcards/

[cantholdanymore]

This product seems to be firmly aim at asus xonar phoebus card, so I think SQ should be pretty good. Actually the middle model seems the one to get unless you need/want to record.

[Puffnstuff]

I'm interested in that zxr myself. Been running mostly asus xonar d2x, brief x-fi titanium and then back to the xonar. My optical port is dead even after being repaired by asus hence the titanium but I'm weighing my options on a replacement and the zxr has my attention. Asus has terrible driver support on their soundcards but the sound is fantastic. Anyways nobody seems to have the zxr not even the creative store.

[shingletingle]

I got the Sound Blaster Z.

[lilvaratep]

I have sound blaster z. Great sound quality for my audiophile headphones (dt 770, ad 700, denon 2000, dt 880, mdr v6, and more). Surround sound also useful in bf3.

[astroidea]

Ever since onboard audio began having decent DACs and windows vista and onward shut out hardware acceleration and EAX in games, plodding down a good chunk of change for a soundcard makes little sense for just about anyone save for a small handful.

Unless you already have stupendously good sound system at $500+, you're almost guaranteed to get a superior sound experience if you spent that soundcard money on your sound system/headphones.

The only reason I could see this card being worth it is if you have really high end headphones that needs an amp, and you want to use their additional surround virtualization technology(CMSS) for games.

If you're not interested in the CMSS, you can get an external USB DAC/amp that's probably as good if not better for a fraction of the price.

I got this for $90 at head-fi.
http://www.ibasso.com/en/products/show.asp?ID=42

[weez82]

Originally Posted by astroidea

Ever since onboard audio began having decent DACs and windows vista and onward shut out hardware acceleration and EAX in games, plodding down a good chunk of change for a soundcard makes little sense for just about anyone save for a small handful.

Unless you already have stupendously good sound system at $500+, you're almost guaranteed to get a superior sound experience if you spent that soundcard money on your sound system/headphones.

The only reason I could see this card being worth it is if you have really high end headphones that needs an amp, and you want to use their additional surround virtualization technology(CMSS) for games.

If you're not interested in the CMSS, you can get an external USB DAC/amp that's probably as good if not better for a fraction of the price.

I got this for $90 at head-fi.
http://www.ibasso.com/en/products/show.asp?ID=42

I disagree. Theres more to sound cards then just dacs and you dont need a $500+ sound system to take advantage of a sound card. Analog out from motherboards can be very noisy and using a discrete sound card can improve that greatly. The biggest problem I've had with onboard sound has always been the analog output. It's hard to get a clean signal with onboard. Though it is harder to notice that noise using cheap PC speakers. But using something better then PC speakers it becomes very noticeable.

[Puffnstuff]

Newegg is showing the zxr being available for preorder with a release later this month. It's very tempting indeed to order one.