Why Creative chose the name Sound Blaster Z is unknown, but that is indeed the moniker attached to their new $120 PCIe sound card. As you can see from the picture it is relatively small and will fit in many HTPC cases, plus it comes bundled with a microphone. The software comes with quite a few options, from the Creative SBX "enhancements" to Scout mode which is designed to help gamers hear audio effects, you have a lot of control over playback and with Crystal Voice system you will get noise cancellation on the microphone. TechPowerUp liked the features that this card offered but noticed that it came at a price, when running the driver takes up 80MB of RAM.
"Creative's long awaited new line of sound cards is here. Today, we take a thorough look at the new entry-level model called "Sound Blaster Z". The sound card comes equipped with the new Sound Core processor and Creative even bundles it with a decent microphone."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB Gaming Headset @ Tweaktown
- Logitech Ultimate Ears 4000 On-Ear Headset @ Tweaktown
- RHA SA950i Headphones @ Kitguru
- Oblanc NC2-1 UFO Headphones @ Benchmark Reviews
- Mad Catz Tritton Pro+ 5.1 Surround Headset @ Benchmark Reviews
- SteelSeries Flux Headset Review @ XtremeComputing
- SteelSeries CS: GO Siberia V2 Headset, Kana Mouse and QcK Pad Review @ Techgage
- Antec A.M.P Mobile Audio Review Roundup – Gain, ISO and dBs @ Tweaktown
- Antec AMP "iso" Active Noise Canceling Wireless Bluetooth Headphones Review @ Madshrimps
- SteelSeries Flux Headset Review @ Hardware Secrets
Did they do a review of the
Did they do a review of the card to see how it compares to other cheaper cards from companies like Asus (creative has been going down hill at warp speed lately )
Didn’t the “New” Recon 3D
Didn’t the “New” Recon 3D card come out last year? “Creative’s long awaited new line of sound cards is here.” Long awaited by whom? I still enjoy a dedicated sound card but I know I am in the minority.
You’re not alone. I still
You’re not alone. I still prefer a dedicated sound card over onboard audio and I always will.
Hah is it just me or does it
Hah is it just me or does it kind of look like a Sony MD player lol?
I don’t understand the reason
I don’t understand the reason to use this for HTPC cause most of the time I’m just passing the stream HD-DTS and True-HD out through the video card for my PreAMP to handle the Streams…
Not to mention I find Realtek-HD audio on my motherboard just sounds great on the Desktop PC…
Creative? They’re still in
Creative? They’re still in business?!?!?! The day they go under will be a sad day for the tech support people at MS. They’ll be able to lay off half the people there because they won’t need to worry about trying to get things working when someone has a Creative card installed in their pc.;)
USB DAC/DAC-Amps
USB DAC/DAC-Amps (asynchronous) Killed the value of a card like this.
1. Either On-board is good enough (cheap headphones/speakers)
2. Your HTPC is just using a pass through anyways
or
3. You run a USB DAC for your Head-Fi rig, or other aduio setup.
The only reason to run a High-End card is for recording purposes/options, and on that note Creative isn’t really theb est way to go at any price.
Makes me kind of sad, I still remember the sheer joy of hearing the digital voice playback of my original Soundblaster. Didn’t even get stereo playback until Pro if I recall.
80mb ram is nothing these
80mb ram is nothing these days, where the norm for a machine is 8gb ram and even 16gb of ram is very cheap. Dedicated sound cards do help with a small bit of fps even though that gap is almost 0 now considering how powerful cpu’s are.