Upgrading from a Creative X-FI Xtreame Gamer sound card, my main usage is gaming with headphones, i was spoilt for choice with the vast offerings out there. After hearing about the hit & miss performance of Creative's previous sound card generation with the Recon3d(i believe), i was tempted to avoid them & go with Asus. So, i was looking at anything between a budget Asus Xonar DGX to an audiophile Asus Xonar Essence STX, but didn't want anything that was more than my needs required, for the price. So, when i was recommended to this Sound Blaster Z sound card, it seemed the perfect choice for price & performance, regardless of brand. My experience thus far:
The good:
+ Easy to install & get straight into tweaking the sound.
+ Sound quality is noticeably better, with more weight to it.
+ The card is solidly built, nice fancy shroud & the audio section is separated inside to prevent outside signal interference.
+ The manual is very detailed & came in handy for knowing where to plug in what was needed (there is also an online version as well).
+ When plugged in separately you can easily switch between speakers/headphones via the Creative control panel, by a click of a button.
+ The Creative control panel interface is easy to navigate & not overly confusing with tons of options(i like the voice distorting section, to make you sound funny on microphone).
+ Well packaged.
+ Optional boom microphone to use.
+ Plenty of connectivity options for audio devices.
The meh:
- The Sound Blaster Z interface wasn't compatible with the PCI slot the X-FI Xtreame Gamer sound card came out of. Luckily i had a spare PCI-Express 1x slot available below it.
- Although the card was well packaged overall, it had some annoying wire cable ties that secured it to the box, which was the most effort i had in installation, to get them off through the cards shroud.
- I wanted to use my
2.1 speakers
pod for my
headphones
, but it didn't sound right in stereo or 5.1 setup. imo for the best audio experience, you need to plug in your headphones/mic & speakers separately into the back of the card.
In conclusion, so far iv'e been impressed with the Sound Balster Z, and i'm only knocking off half a star for value for money. Recommended.
| Brand | CREATIVE |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 27.99 x 19 x 5.99 cm; 450 Grams |
| Item model number | FBA_70SB150000001 |
| Manufacturer | Creative Labs |
| Series | Sound Blaster Z |
| Processor Count | 1 |
| Computer Memory Type | DDR3 SDRAM |
| Hard Drive Size | 600 MB |
| Hardware Platform | Headphones |
| Supported Software | Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 450 g |
| Guaranteed software updates until | unknown |
