Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card Review

The Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound card is part of the new flagship series of Sound Blaster and features the multi-core Sound Core3D audio processor and beamforming microphone. There are three models in the Sound Blaster Z range; the Z, the Zx and the ZxR. A beamforming microphone is made up of, in short, two omni directional microphones at both ends of the device. The beamforming feature then creates an area (from the projected beam of each mic) in front of the subject and captures the sound within, attenuating anything out of the area. This is great for reducing background noise and combined with Creatives' CrystalVoice should give excellent vocal pick-up. Specifications Audio Processor: Sound Core3D Audio Resolution: 24-Bit Digital Audio Convertor (DAC): Cirrus Logic Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) (20kHz Low-pass filter, A-Wgt): 116dB Maximum Playback Quality: 5.1 : Up to 96kHz Stereo Direct: Up to 192kHz Frequency Response @96kHz: 5.1 : Up to 96kHz Front Channel Out : 10Hz to 45kHz Rear Channel Out : 15Hz to 45kHz Center Out : 10Hz to 45kHz Headphone (33 ohms): 10Hz to 45kHz Frequency Response @192kHz (Stereo Direct Only): Front Channel Out : 10Hz to 88kHz 16-bit to 24-bit Recording Sample Rates: 8,11.025,16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 96 (kHz) 16-bit to 24-bit Playback Sample Rates: 8,11.025,16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 96, 192 (kHz) Maximum Recording Quality: Up to 24-bit/96kHz I/O Ports (Main Card): Headphone : 1 x Amplified 3.5mm jack Speaker Out : 3 x 3.5mm jacks(F/R/C-Sub) Line / Mic In : 1x shared 3.5mm jack Optical Out : 1x TOSLINK Optical In : 1x TOSLINK 600 Ohm Amplified Headphone Output: Maxim MAX97220A Included Acesssories: Beamforming Microphone The Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card ships in attractive packaging, making it very clear it is 'Sound' related. There is also a transparent window, so you can see some of the card inside. The back of the box lists three key features; Audio Realism, Crystal Clear Communication and Advanced Home Entertainment Audio. The soundcard is packaged carefully and is tied to a stiff cardboard tray. We do like the Red colour theme. As you might expect, Creative include a CD for all the drivers and software, although of course, they can also be downloaded from their website. We would actually recommend you get the drivers direct from the website, as they may be updated. One of the other key features of this Sound Blaster Z Sound Card is it comes with a 'beamforming microphone', as discussed earlier. Looking at the card itself, we can see it is a PCI-E card, and features the Sound Blaster Soundcore 3D. We like the transparent window and the general design of this card. The card is no thicker than the height of the PCI slot so this won't cause any problems with neighbouring graphics cards etc. The I/O panel includes 5 jacks (1 x Headphones, 1 x Line/Mic In and 3 x Speaker Out), as well as an Optical in and Optical Out. The metal cover still allows access to the front panel header and allows some air to circulate around the board. The metal cover can be removed with just four screws, giving full access to the very shiny PCB and components. The main thing to note are that the jacks are gold-plated, which means they won't corrode as quickly as the more standard silver-plated connectors. Compared to other sound cards the PCB seems to be spartan. We like the fact that the PCB is black and not green. The back of the device only features the warranty labels and all the soldering for the connections. After installing the Creative software we opened the control panel up to have a look at it. The first page is all about the Pro Studio, which includes the Crystalizer and Surround features, all which have attractive and easy to use sliders. There are also options for CrystalVoice which when coupled with the Beamforming Microphone should allow you to game safe in the knowledge that your team mates will always hear you clearly. Scout Mode is a proprietary technology which allows you to hear your enemies from further away, which could potentially give you a 'distinct tactical advantage in combat'. As you would expect there are also options to allow you to set-up your sound card to work with both your speakers and headphones. You can also alter the the encoder used and adjust the volume of the inputs and outputs on the Mixer page. There is also a more standard Equalizer option (with several presets) and the ability to play a stereo mix to digital output. It is always hard to quantify the performance of audio components as many of the characteristics will be based on individual hearing and opinions. In terms of the software though, it is clear this package works well and there are plenty of options available. Sadly, it takes several seconds to load each time (even from our Test solid state drive), and we feel the company really could have spent a little more time on the design. The CrystalVoice options are very useful and when it is all set up perfectly it works very well, but it did take us a while to get the settings tuned to our own taste. Firstly we will look at the Beamforming microphone, which as we eluded to in the introduction should allow you to cancel out background noise. Unfortunately, this does rely on you getting the settings spot on as the option to vary the beam 'wedge' can be altered with the software. Initially it was set to a very narrow wedge, which meant due to our set-up that it didn't pick up our voice at all - we placed the microphone on top of our monitor at a distance of around 60cm. After increasing the wedge size slightly our voice was mostly picked up, but you will need a fairly large margin - in case you twist your head and continue talking, say while altering the sound volume on your speakers (placed at the side of our monitor). If you do increase the wedge to its maximum (or too wide) you will start to pick up a lot more echo and eventually any external noises. Overall our experience with the microphone was very positive, it did work better than a standard microphone, and once you get it set-up correctly will offer great vocal pick-up with little background noise. This makes it great for gaming or for a general Skype chat. The audio performance of the Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card is very impressive. It works right out of the box, and for once, we didn't have any driver issues (something Creative Sound cards can be prone to). The quality of the sound is certainly superior to the onboard sound from our Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 motherboard, this is even noticeable with an inexpensive pair of headphones. However, for all of our tests we were using our Microlab FC360 speakers, which offer very good quality at a modest price point. Our first test is always with music, and as such we played a few standard tracks, for instance, Magnetic Man – Perfect Stranger (Ft. Katy B) and Emile Sande - Heaven. Both of which have a large range of produced sounds, and require a careful balance of the bass. We were generally happy with audio performance even when directly comparing it against one of the best X-Fi range cards, the Creative X-Fi Titanium. We were even impressed when we turned the crystalliser and surround options up, although we wouldn't want to listen to stereo sourced music with 100% surround settings. We then proceeded to test with a different range of music, including high-quality recorded classical music, featuring some live, professionally recorded orchestral works. We also connected our Playstation 3 to the digital input of the sound card, and then tested the sound output in various games, including but not limited to Gran Turismo 5 and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Throughout all of these tests the sound-quality was excellent and clearly the SoundCore3D processor works well. The signal to noise output is quite high at 116 dB but this does fall short of competing models by ASUS. Another coveted feature of the Creative Sound Blaster Z is the 600 Ohm Dedicated Headphone Amplifier, which allows it to support a wide range of headphones. With our Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones we were very impressed with the sound production. There was a solid balance of bass and treble and we thoroughly enjoyed some Call Of Duty gaming due to realistic reproduction of gunfire and ambient noises. Overall, in all the environments tested we found the sound quality of the Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card to be excellent. It is certainly an improvement on previous generation X-Fi cards and the software seemed fairly robust during testing. However, we do feel that the Asus Xonar range may have the slight advantage in a few areas, but you do have to pay for the extra quality. We found the software to be a solid partner for the sound card with many settings to improve the gaming experience, however it could be improved further. For instance; it could load quicker, it could look better and it could be more logical to use. As Creative themselves put it, the Sound Blaster Z Sound card is an ideal all-round audio and gaming solution and at a price of only £79.99 from OCUK. This is at a slightly lower price point to the ASUS Xonar D2x Sound Card and therefore will target a wider audience. It is certainly 'worth buying' however and comes highly recommended. Pros Good build quality. Value for money. Powerful headphone amplifier. Easy to use software. Cons Unattractive and slow loading software. Stiff competition. Kitguru says: Good value for money combined with excellent performance. Recommended.