Asus Essence STX V/S Creative Sound Blaster ZxR

[aaksheytalwar]

Hi

I want to know if the new offering by Creative is better, and if so, then by how much? And would it help with my use and setup.

Setup
Audioengine A5 with DS2 stands
connected to Swan M50W through Belkin Rockstar
So basically 4.1 and I use 2 speaker output (the splitter ensures that 4 speakers and sub play just fine) and for movies Dolby Virtual Speaker. Movies and Music have equal weightage.

Sennheiser RS 170 and again I use it to watch movies with Dolby Headphone

Current sound card Asus Essence STX

I will upgrade to Aktimate Mini+ sooner or later, so keep that in mind.

The headphone amp/dac is as important as the speakers.

Use:
Movies 40-60% with Virtual Surround
Music Rest, sometimes with Virtual, else 2ch output through all sources.

I would like to compare Creative to Asus in terms of:

Headphone amp
Virtual surround headphone
Virtual surround speakers
And overall quality/clarity/bass etc

Can you please help?

Aakshey

 

[Howard]

I'm 100% sure the only differences you'll be able to feel are in the feature sets.