So I've been busy on the creative forums discussing the new Soundblaster Zx, I figured I'd post here too so anyone considering can at least take into accoutn my feedback:
I've front loaded this with some useless background information, so jump to the bolded if you want a quick review
Let me start by saying I'm a long time creative supporter, from the earlier days of the Sound Blaster 16. The last card I bought prior to this new Zx was an Xfi Xtrememusic. A card that has worked wonderfully for a very long time, by far the oldest piece of hardware I currently have in my desktop. The only ONLY reason I decided to replace is was the driver support for Windows 8 has really been poor. I use Dolby Live and DTS Connect exclusively in my setup as I have a home theater down stairs and my office upstairs, both connected to the same computer (and many feet of HDMI cable). As of recently the XFI hasnt been retaining setting on reboot (a driver flaw with a weird fix of putting the computer into sleep mode first) and Dolby Live/DTS Connect sometime dont work, or worse will create a weird feedback loop sound that builds on it self and eventually crashes the computer.
Regardless the card had served me a long time and I dont feel creative owes the series any more true support, its been alive long enough.
So to the good part, the new Soundblaster Zx. My first impression..... I hate it.
Well lets start over, I didn't hate it when I removed it from the box, in fact I thought it was there best looking piece of hardware yet. It looks very well built.
Putting it in the system, starting it up, and installing the drivers all went perfectly fine (skipped the CD and just downloaded the newest strait from the site.)
Once everything was completed I noticed How I liked everything is now installed together, no need for separate installers (like the dolby live installer). Thats all great
So I was excited to fire this girl up and get a listen. I set all the settings how I figured would sound best initially, turned on DTS Connected, set the SBX pro surround setting on, turned crystallization on just a bit and the result...
Terrible.
I was shocked, I played several different music tracks I know by heart, played several movies.
All of them came off far to warm, far to "Echo-y" almost. As if the SBX was adding some sort of light reverb to every track.
I turned of SBX and bam, everything was back to sounding fine, except now I've lost all upmixing to 5.1 ability, all music/stereo will now only be played through the mains, which I dont want (If thats all I wanted, as I'm using an all digital connection, I would just switch to onboard). Now I could just use my reciever to upmix for me, but that means changing settings everytime I want to jump from music to true discreet surround sources. Not an option, as why should it be, the Xfi didnt require that, set CSMM to stereo surround and all stereo sources were upmixed, and real 5.1 sources were left alone.
So I figure, no problem, I'll just find the CSMM Stereo surround setting thats been on all Soundblasters sense the audigy.... wait where are the other options for this card????
Seriously, and this is the main problem I'm having with this card, WHY are there no other surround options then just the SBX? The SBX surround is instantly bad in terms of telling you what its actually doing. Is it strait upmixing to the rears/duplicating to the back, is it pulling a Pro Logic effect? Nothing is described or told to the user about what its doing other than a graphic at the top that shows speakers fading in it out. Along with the reverb effect its adding I find this completely useless.
But where are the other options? Why do we have no choice in how stereo sounds are upmixed? Why do we not have the simple things we had with the old xfi's? like choosing between Stereo expand or Stereo Surround? Theres a DTS Neo setting, but ticking it has resulted in no effect (another driver issue perhaps?) regardless DTS Neo upmixing has never sounded good to me.
This is a $150 card in a day in age when most users feel happy about there onboard solutions. That means its a premium piece of hardware that should be given the users premium options, stuff that makes there upgrade worth it.
Now I'm trying to decide if I want to keep this card and hope that its just early drivers that are the issue here. Perhaps in the coming months we will see improvements and some of the old options return? Maybe the reverb/overly warm sound im hearing is just a driver issue that can be corrected? I dont know, I'm hopping. I have 20 more days to keep her and test it out. Here's hopping.
But this is my summary of this card: for the price its missing key features and driver level options that should be in it. I dont feel I've "upgraded" from my xfi at all, in fact I feel I've downgraded as Stereo surround was my favorite sounding setting as My home theater uses a full array of matched speakers that sound great together.
So anyone here considering a Z, I suggest holding off until the drivers either mature, or consider something else (though your needs maybe different then mine and it might work perfectly for you)
Pros:
Dolby Live/DTS Connect work flawlessly
Headphone software switch
Great output sound (in regards to uniformity, no static, nice upper limit)
Cons:
Lack of traditional surround upmixing options
Sofware headphoen switch does NOT disable/mute the Dolby Live/DTS Connect output, making it useless if you use those.
SBX is junk but you have no other options available for upmixing.
