Creative Sound Blaster Z Series ZXR (70SB151000000) Sound Card

General Information

The Sound Blaster ZxR is the flagship of the ultra high-performance Z-Series of Sound Blaster PCI-Express sound cards, elevating the standards of technology and performance for the future of gaming and entertainment on the PC. Designed to deliver the ultimate audio playback and creation solution for the PC, Sound Blaster ZxR personifies the ultimate gaming and entertainment performance for a sound card. Features include: TRUE Audio Expertise, Sound Core3D Audio Processor a high performance Sound and Voice processor for accelerating advanced audio and voice technologies for use with SBX Pro Studio and CrystalVoice effects from your primary CPU , improving your gaming experience with faster frame rates and drastically superior audio and voice quality, SBX Pro Studio Technologies creates unprecedented levels of audio realism including stunning 3D surround effects for your speakers and headsets, Crystal Clear Communication using the Sound Blaster beam-forming microphone array designed and tuned for hands free chats. With CrystalVoice Focus, this stereo microphone creates an acoustic zone and suppresses noise outside it, enabling you to be heard with amazing clarity. Software includes: Sound Blaster Z-Series Control Panel, SBX Pro Studio effects, CrystalVoice effects, Creative ALchemy, Creative Host OpenAL / EAX5.0 HD, Creative Diagnostics, Dolby Digital Live encoder, DTS Connect encoder, Sound Blaster Speaker Setup, Creative Software AutoUpdate, Creative Product Registration. Ships with: Sound Blaster ZxR sound card, Sound Blaster DBpro card, Sound Blaster Audio Control Module, 1x Optical Cable, 1x Stereo(3.5mm)-to-RCA cable, 1x DBpro cable, Quick Start Leaflet, Installation CD containing: Drivers for Windows 7 and Windows 8, Creative Software suite, User's Guide.

Latest reviews

Nada190

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Very fun sounding, good for gaming, beautiful
Cons: Not neutral, ACM is junk, powered by PCIe
I built my first ever PC with this sound card, I had already brought a Asus board that has SupremeFX and well the ZxR dethroned the Asus immediately. I have not heard any of the Asus Xonar PCIe cards but anything is better than integrated onboard sound. 
 
The sound cards look beautiful to me except for the cable that connects the main card to the daughter board, they could have made the cable not have to do a 180 degree bend to connect to each other which would look nicer. 
 
Sound quality is amazing, it has a lot of onboard features which I didn't use because it made the bass sound like it was all over the place and made the highs unnecessarily powerful. It's definetely not neutral sounding, it does have a slight bass emphasis since it is a gaming soundcard, but the bass is very clean and accurate, depending on the headphones it doesn't change the sound much, just adds a tiny bit more bass. The DAC is really good but it downsamples anything above 24/96 to 24/96 if headphones are directly connected to the soundcard. Using stereo direct gives you 24/192 through the RCA to an amp of your choice. The onboard amp is pretty good, it has a software based gain switch to change from low to high gain. I never used the high gain because I only have low impedance headphones and they are plenty loud at low volume. I never heard any kind of distortion ever or noise, very clean power from PCIe, although I would still prefer Asus' version of PSU molex power, instead of going through the motherboard to get power, shorter travel is always better, even though I doubt I will be able to hear a difference.
 
The SPDIF on the daughterboard is a huge disappointment, for the price it should be able to output 24/192, instead it can only do a maximum of 24/96, one plus though is that it supports 88.2 sample rates, the onboard on my motherboard doesn't. The ACM module is also completely useless, plugging headphones into this instead of directly off the card reduces volume considerably, it's basically a really bad extension cable, it looks really nice though, what a shame. 
 
Overall, great sound card, but it has been replaced by my Schiit Bifrost and Asgard 2. First reason for replacement was my PC is on the floor and a 10ft headphone cable still just barely reaches me. 
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