I used this program today with Default settings. Everything was excellent. Headphone jack stereo tested on 48khz and 192khz. Insane results for my high end pc.
Anton! Glad to hear you're recovering from That Virus. I had it too, and it was tiring. Thank goodness I had nice audio devices to keep my spirits up ... haha. Also, thanks for reviewing the Creative cards. Like you, I have a long history with them, all the way back to the SB16 ISA cards from way back when. I'll always have a soft spot for these, even though they're nowhere near as exciting as they used to be. Cheers!
Haha, I totally agree. "I'll always have a soft spot for these, even though they're nowhere near as exciting as they used to be." I too had the SB16, which was the bomb back then! I also have a soundblaster 2.0 with ISA slot, in the box! I'm wondering as to how far audio has come since then. And I want to make a video about that, but I don't have a working pc with an ISA slot. :(
Welcome back, I hope things pull up quickly enough. It certainly isn't "just a cold" Ah yeah, Creative, they mostly pull to gamers and that sadly means audio quality isn't always their mainstay. I don't want to have to fiddle too much with settings and eqalizers to make things sound good. Still happy enough with that EPOS GSX 300 for my laptop. And the Audigy RX for my pc, I know that thing is so old technically but it is pretty clean for what it is.
Thank! It's been six weeks now and just this week I said to my wife that I finally felt completly better. Felt tired for a long time! The EPOS is a very very good external sound card, certainly for that price! Good choice! The RX is ok! It is getting old though, but if you have one, use it! :D
Grazie per il tuo complimento! Sono appena tornato da 3 settimane di vacanza in Italia! Cibo delizioso e persone amichevoli! Molto bello esserci stato!
I have had this card for over a year now. I have had no trouble with it. Creative has updated the Sound Blaster Command software a number of times and it works as intended in Windows 11. Other than the way it looks there is nothing special about the card. It does have good sound and I've always known Creative to have reliable sound cards. The only problem I have with the card is that it is upside down when used in a tower so you can't see the cool shroud and chip inside. I can't believe they would not think about that when they designed the card.
The SE has 7.1 virtual surround sound for headphones while the Z only gets 5.1, They have updated the website to note this difference after I emailed them when I failed to find the virtual 7.1 setting on my Z.
i bought this card in 2017 is the revison c SB1500 and i have it conected via optical out too an set of creative specakers 5.1 digital and i do moiost gaming and listening musica specially jimy hendrix and soundgarden and alice in chains and well Primus!!hehe!and i must say im in love for it so!!FIVE stars to Creative sound blaster z!
What is a great sound card to use with a Logitech z906 5.1 surround sound system with optical? I want to have better sound quality out of my pc over the stock sound card of my motherboard.
Great to have you back again in one piece, i really missed your videos! As for the sound card, yeah i have the Z version for about two years now and i think it's great. I wanted to get the AE-5 but it was too expensive. Maybe i'll catch a good deal on a sale sometime.
You should! The Z is ok if you have one, but I won't recommend getting one new. I keep an eye on the B stock from EVGA, I heard from another viewer that you can get great deals there! Maybe that's something for you too?
One thing that this soundcard has over the Asus Xonar AE is Dolby Digital Live and DTS. I have an old soundbar SJ4R with 5.1 connected to my TV Q90T, and the TV seems to not want to pass through uncompressed 5.1 sound over HDMI to the soundbar on the old 1.x HMDI standard that the soundbar uses. But I can have an optical cable from PC to Soundbar, but windows does not offer Dolby Digital Live ( unless you go through the hazzle of obscure sites and drivers which I won't do again for Win 11 after upgrading). This leaves me with only stereo sound when playing PC games on the TV, and this soundcard the Soundblaster Z SE offers Dolby Digital Live and is cheap enough, on par with my cheap soundbar, that is becomes affordable and don't drag down the quality to much given the other equipment. I also have a pair of Edifier r980t for better stereo sound which I guess the Xonar AE might be better for. But I really want 5.1 for games to work.
I also have exactly the same speakers, when I don't use one of the headsets. Great speakers and when connected to the AE it's very good quality for a reasonable price!
@@AntonsHardware Thanks! That's reassuring to hear about the speakers! In the end I ended up ordering the BlasterX AE-5 PLUS, a little more money but atleast it's a good relatively cheap card that will last me a while and it has Dolby Digital Live as well.
Hello, I have a soundblaster xtrem audio pci-e. I mix with Traktor in extern with ASIO4ALL (4 outputs and it is difficult for stabilization when a change output parameter : Traktor close sometimes). I have remarked that Traktor freeze when i detach a stereo cable : the soundblaster may send something wrong. I'd like to know if the new pci-e SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY FX V2, with ASIO 2.3, is like an other MAO sound card (you can attach, detach stereo cable in playing) and what about of the sound quality ? I have compared x-fi xtrem audio to Presonus iTwo and seems to be good too. I think there are AKM and JRC AOP. Thanks
I am currently making a video about the FX v2. But I'm not very familiar with ASIO. I was planning on making a video about the Audio Extreme, but I haven't gotten around to making it.
@@AntonsHardware Hello, Thank you for all your videos. Could you adding 16-bit, 44kHz to the test of the FX v2 ? I have tested the x-fi xtreme audio with RightMark with the black output (near the optical) in the line input (blue) of the same x-fi xtreme audio. Before starting the measure, i check the level at -1 dB or so (it is preconized by Rightmark when it fails to get measure when the level is too low for exemple). The output is at the maximum (0 dB) and i play with the input level to get -1 dB or so (for both measure : x-fi and itwo). Your opinion about x-fi is welcome. In my case i get : Testing device ASIO4ALL in out x-fi xtreme audio Sampling mode 16-bit, 44 kHz Interface Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in) RMAA Version 6.4.5 Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.07, -0.05 Excellent Noise level, dB (A) -85.7 Good Dynamic range, dB (A) 85.7 Good THD, % 0.00338 Very good THD + Noise, dB (A) -78.6 Average IMD + Noise, % 0.015 Very good Stereo crosstalk, dB -86.0 Excellent IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.016 Very good General performance Very good for Presonus iTwo (his output into his input) with 2/3 of input preamp level Testing device ASIO4ALL in out itwo Sampling mode 16-bit, 44 kHz Interface Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in) RMAA Version 6.4.5 Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.02, -0.16 Very good Noise level, dB (A) -95.4 Excellent Dynamic range, dB (A) 95.4 Excellent THD, % 0.022 Good THD + Noise, dB (A) -69.7 Average IMD + Noise, % 0.024 Good Stereo crosstalk, dB -92.9 Excellent IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.019 Very good General performance Very good Thank You very much
About my Realtek mother board Testing device [MME] Haut-parleurs (Realtek(R) Audio in out Sampling mode 16-bit, 44 kHz Interface MME Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in) RMAA Version 6.4.5 20 Hz - 20 kHz filter ON Normalize amplitude ON Level change -2.1 dB / -2.1 dB Mono mode OFF Calibration singal, Hz 1000 Polarity correct/correct Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.02, -0.04 Excellent Noise level, dB (A) -85.7 Good Dynamic range, dB (A) 86.3 Good THD, % 0.00422 Very good THD + Noise, dB (A) -77.1 Average IMD + Noise, % 0.015 Very good Stereo crosstalk, dB -83.9 Very good IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.013 Very good General performance Very good
Hi Anton, I beleave the Sound Blaster Z has stereo mic/line input because of the beanforming mic included with Z, right? Does the SB Z se still has stereo mic/line input? Thank you
Like the review. My first thought was , why ? I mean you know the ae5 is great. Then again the Z was kind of different, that is true. Actually it had problems with the mic all the time, so you had to switch the mic to neutral and then it would work, although it might have been a team speak issue. I migrated on your recommendation to AE5 and I am very happy, thank you so very much, the Z is a level lower than the AE5, especially for headphones. But it is not a bad sound card.
Thank you! Very happy to read that the AE5 is to your liking! I like it too. Also yes, well. The Z SE... As I said in the video (or was thinking about when making the video) I think that Creative had a warehouse full with Z stuff and then decided to relaunch it and benefit from the corona pandemic. I mean PC components are sold out or really expensive, and Creative wants to "ride that wave" as well. But from my viewpoint, I see no use in getting the Z SE new, if you can get a good "older" Z second hand.
@@AntonsHardware Exactly, or even the ZxR used. Although there was not that much of a difference. Or is there. Would be nice to see another comparison of the Z and the ZxR. I know the two last models differ only with the gear they came with. Z was a bit different on the other hand.
Does anyone know if the current Sound Blaster Command drivers are performing better than or the same as the SBX Studio drivers? It seems like you should stick with the older drivers if they still work as they give you better audio quality.
Hey brother! Great vid! I have also seen your review on AE-5 Plus and i was wondering. Which sound card is better? SE or AE-5 Plus? *note not used for gaming, just for music and general in sound
@ Antons Hardware So i have the 1st edition of this card, and am in the process of building a new rig. My comp speakers are the logitech z906. From the sound card to sub, its connected by optical cable. Will i really hear a difference upgrading the sound card to say a AE5 and above. Or one of their dacs like the x3 or x4? I find it really hard to get a clear cut answer as there's so much variety in speakers, headphones, personal preference/standards. As well how do i get rid of those annoying red lights? If it doesn't unplug, I am thinking of just cutting it off lol
I have read that some guy also has cut them of! But I'm not too sure if that is what you should do. :D And yes, a clear cut answer is really hard to give. Yes, the AE is better than the Z, mainly because the AE has a great DAC (one from the Sabre series). But will you hear it... And if you do, will you like the difference? It took me a while to get used to the AE, because I was so used to the sound of the X-Fi! I haven't hear the X3 or X4 yet, so I can't give you an answer about that. If I were you, I'd give it a go. You can always send it back to Amazon.
Hello I have a SB Recon 3d PCIe and its amazon but I need a replacement since its short circuiting my motherboard now. Would the Z SE be the same sound quality? I want the Z but those annoying red LEDs look awful
I like that they removed the extremely bright LED's - I actually cut mine off .. PC started to randomly shut down 3 years in. Removed the sound card, now it's rock solid again. Sigh. Oh and btw this was due to the LED's having some sort of ground issue when I cut them off.
You can record audio in a higher resolution than you can with some onboard solutions. But the sound cards needs to have a good ADC (analog to digital converter). The ADC from the Z isn't that impressive, but better than most onboard solutions.
Yes, another commenter also mentioned this. I took my info from several websites and they all stated that the Zx and the Z are identical. Then it was pointed out to me that they have Nichion capacitors. Thanks for the heads up!
Dude, that bogey, my God Please! I use 5.1 speakers, and a 5.1 surround sound headphones (3 speakers in each ear). I've had a X-Fi Extreme for so long, about 7 years. It works fine but Elite dangerous has now got buggy sound with this card. I can't update it as it's not getting no more updates. Thanks for the info.
Seems to be a lot of people complaining about the Asus Xonar AE not working in Windows 11, can anyone confirm? I checked Asus's website and the latest drivers are 2 years old now.
I was planning on making a video about which video's work in Windows 11 and which don't. But when I started I realised that this was going to be a huge undertaking. And since I also have a dayjob and a family, it was too much.
i am using creative gigaworks g500 thx 5.1 speaker. it only have 3.5mm input，which sound card is best value for money to improve movie /music quality? (os: win11) 🙏
What I mean are the jack plugs on the front of your computer case. Nearly all sound cards (and motherboards as well) have a Front Panel connector to connect the sound card (or codec) to the front of you computer. But nearly always the sound isn't that good when you use that. I recommend the rear of your computer!
C'est dommage que tu n'as pas parlé de : - mon objectif sur cette carte : l'encodage à la volée sur la sortie optique spdif, qui permet de jouer en surround dans les jeux sur un Home Cinema - des drivers jamais mis à jour, et du support peu réactif de Creative Labs - tu conseilles la Asus Xonar AE, mais cette carte date de 2017 => n'est ce pas risqué en 2023 (drivers, évolution...) 🤔 Bravo Antons pour ta vidéo
Je ne travaille jamais avec une sortie optique moi-même, donc malheureusement je ne peux pas vous aider avec ça. Je n'ai aucune expérience avec ça. Désolé! Oui, le support de Creative était très médiocre, mais je dois dire que les pilotes se sont améliorés ces derniers temps ! Surtout avec le FX v2, le pilote est très bon. La Xonar AE était la meilleure carte budgétaire pour moi à l'époque. D'après mon expérience, la Xonar AE est toujours une excellente carte, surtout si vous avez un petit budget, mais que vous voulez toujours un opamp interchangeable. De plus, la carte n'est pas de Creative, qui a également joué un rôle. Et, il n'y a plus vraiment beaucoup d'évolution au niveau des cartes son internes. Il est de plus en plus externe via USB. La dernière carte interne vraiment nouvelle était la Creative FX v2.
Can I ask are you sure you are correct with the cirrus only operating on the front speakers output? From what I have found from spec online….. Cirrus chip handles all stereo (front panel mic, headphone and front speakers) where as the sound core 3D handles the centre and sub
Good question. I am not 100% sure, but a good 90%. The Cirrus is a 2 channel DAC (www.cirrus.com/products/cs4398/), so it can only drive 2 channels. Also is a DAC and not an ADC, so the mic won't be handled by the Cirrus. The statement about the front panel was from an article I read online and something I found out during testing. (Sadly cannot find the document anymore!). The thing that convinced me is that in Righmark Audio Analyzer I could get a 24 bits 192 kHz result from the front audio output. Headphone only went as high as 24 bits and 96 kHz. Since the CS4398 is capable of 192 kHz and the Core3D isn't... I was also rather suspicious of this as well. Why use a 2 channel dac and only for the 2 front audio and not the headphone? That would be a far better solution. Also, it now has the situation where the front audio is created at a higher bitrate/samplingrate than the other speakers. Rather strange in my opinion. (I recorded a whole section about this, but got left out in the final cut of the review! It was too long, me rambling about the dac, strange combo and why use a dac anyway...)
@@AntonsHardware thanks for the response. After some testing I can see you are right the sample rate will only go to 192khz on the front speaker output…. How strange. Now upon testing this output in faced with a dilemma… what should I mark the headphones as for the speaker type? The options only include desktop, bookshelf , tower or custom. Each one changes the sound with custom requiring a crossover to be set. Interesting.
Very strange indeed. The only reasoning I can see for that, is that they thought that the Front speaker out will benefit the most from higher sampling rates. It all depends on your setup how to set it up. The crossover is the point where a frequency is changed to another speaker. Usually it's where your subwoofer takes over the bass sounds from the front speakers. Most subwoofer have this number on the back. Hope that helps!
@@AntonsHardware you see I’m using it with headphones for that better sample rate which is why I’m puzzled what to set it too. It’s noticeably more clear by the way (96 vs 192khz)
I'd set it to the lowest possible. That way all the bases will be send to the head set and diverted to the subwoofer. But still, I'm not sure. If you set it to 2.0, a crossover shouldn't do anything. :S You could fiddle around with Rightmark and see what happens.
I have creative x-fi titanium (non hd) ..have creative s550 5+1 speakers . I dont use headphone..watched a lot of videos and still ı amnot sure if ı should buy a new sound card or not..
Have you try playing 7.1 audio from movie files? I found my sound card can't handle it and it brakes here and there, try different software and only happen with 7.1, 5.1 works just fine (default 2.0 headphones conversion). Wonder if this is a normal thing or just my motherboard Asus Hero VII is the one giving issues. After all this cards are build for 5.1, so I wonder.
Does anyone know why a 2.1 speaker system sounds way better connected to the headphone jack vs the L/R plug which its supposed to go in? I also have headphones so i have to always switch the plugs out.
Hi, I'm stuck between Soundblaster Z Special Edition and AE5 Plus. Which one do you think I should get? Are there any big differences between the two in terms of bass? Also, can we get 5.1 sound from the optical output from both cards? I want to make an optical connection with Logitech Z906.
Bass isn't the primairy focus on sound cards, but if you want better audio quality, I'd get the AE-5 Plus! I'm not sure about the optical connection! I haven't tested that.
This is a really good sounding sound card but the red LED's inside it are way too pimpy for me. My computer room was lit up like a hoare house on Halloween night. So I just clapped them out and lived happily ever after....
You need 3 3,5mm male jacks to whatever you want to hook it up to. Keep in mind that you need an amplifier or amplied speakers to use it. You cannot use passive speakers directly.
I bought in 2015 a gigabyte motherboard with a sound blaster the sound was incredible! I had interface in blue instead of red I just ordered this sound card for my new motherboard because I have a shitty sound card! lol. Is it possible to use the old driver?
Could be. But it could also be that you just don't like the sound the Z produces! :D They aren't bad, but not the best ever. The soundcard (or codec) on your motherboard may also be better that the Z, with better components.
Front panel is nearly always worse than the back panel, since the EMI distortion introduced by the cable running through your system is huge. The audio quality will degrade a lot.
@@AntonsHardware thanks for your reply. I'm aware that the front panel is not the best solution for the headphones, but I would have liked it to still be amplified in case I had to quickly plug headphones in front panel to play.
@@AntonsHardware Can I plug speakers into the speaker jack and headphones into the headphone Jack at the same time? do you lose power or quality in this way? my problem is that I use the speakers sometimes and the headphones sometimes and I can't unplug the jack from behind each time...
i know computer since 1990 if you love music on computer, fcuk the oboard sounds, get blaster card, it does not matter which one as long as crative you are good to go!
I used this program today with Default settings. Everything was excellent. Headphone jack stereo tested on 48khz and 192khz. Insane results for my high end pc.
Anton! Glad to hear you're recovering from That Virus. I had it too, and it was tiring. Thank goodness I had nice audio devices to keep my spirits up ... haha. Also, thanks for reviewing the Creative cards. Like you, I have a long history with them, all the way back to the SB16 ISA cards from way back when. I'll always have a soft spot for these, even though they're nowhere near as exciting as they used to be. Cheers!
Haha, I totally agree. "I'll always have a soft spot for these, even though they're nowhere near as exciting as they used to be." I too had the SB16, which was the bomb back then! I also have a soundblaster 2.0 with ISA slot, in the box! I'm wondering as to how far audio has come since then. And I want to make a video about that, but I don't have a working pc with an ISA slot. :(
Really good video! It seems Creative needs to get their act together. I wish you a speedy recovery Anton. Glad to have you!
Thank you! That really means a lot.
Just found ur channel and luv it! Glad to hear you are doing better and on the road to recovery!
Thank you Jesslyn!
I've had my Xonar Essence for years, and it still sounds great.
Which one do you own? The ST, STX or STX 2?
@@AntonsHardware The STX. Bought it in 2010.
Welcome back, I hope things pull up quickly enough. It certainly isn't "just a cold"
Ah yeah, Creative, they mostly pull to gamers and that sadly means audio quality isn't always their mainstay.
I don't want to have to fiddle too much with settings and eqalizers to make things sound good.
Still happy enough with that EPOS GSX 300 for my laptop. And the Audigy RX for my pc, I know that thing is so old technically but it is pretty clean for what it is.
Thank! It's been six weeks now and just this week I said to my wife that I finally felt completly better. Felt tired for a long time!
The EPOS is a very very good external sound card, certainly for that price! Good choice! The RX is ok! It is getting old though, but if you have one, use it! :D
Complimenti, questa è l'unica recensione seria vista su youtube relativa a questa scheda audio con rilevazioni strumentali e ascolto; grazie
Grazie per il tuo complimento! Sono appena tornato da 3 settimane di vacanza in Italia! Cibo delizioso e persone amichevoli! Molto bello esserci stato!
@@AntonsHardware Anton, I'm glad your holidays in Italy went well! I will continue to follow your great videos!
I have had this card for over a year now. I have had no trouble with it. Creative has updated the Sound Blaster Command software a number of times and it works as intended in Windows 11. Other than the way it looks there is nothing special about the card. It does have good sound and I've always known Creative to have reliable sound cards. The only problem I have with the card is that it is upside down when used in a tower so you can't see the cool shroud and chip inside. I can't believe they would not think about that when they designed the card.
Hi im planning to buy this card.. can i directly connect my soundbar via optical connection? Will it work? Thanks
@@lightyagami344 Yes it does have an optical in/output.
Congratulations Anton!! What do you recomend, the Soundblaster Z Special Edition or sb1350??
The SE has 7.1 virtual surround sound for headphones while the Z only gets 5.1, They have updated the website to note this difference after I emailed them when I failed to find the virtual 7.1 setting on my Z.
I did not know that! Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the video! Very informative!
Thank you!
i bought this card in 2017 is the revison c SB1500 and i have it conected via optical out too an set of creative specakers 5.1 digital and i do moiost gaming and listening musica specially jimy hendrix and soundgarden and alice in chains and well Primus!!hehe!and i must say im in love for it so!!FIVE stars to Creative sound blaster z!
Good to hear! :D
Thank you.
Thanks for the video.
What is a great sound card to use with a Logitech z906 5.1 surround sound system with optical? I want to have better sound quality out of my pc over the stock sound card of my motherboard.
I would recommend the Soundblaster Z!
Great to have you back again in one piece, i really missed your videos! As for the sound card, yeah i have the Z version for about two years now and i think it's great. I wanted to get the AE-5 but it was too expensive. Maybe i'll catch a good deal on a sale sometime.
You should! The Z is ok if you have one, but I won't recommend getting one new. I keep an eye on the B stock from EVGA, I heard from another viewer that you can get great deals there! Maybe that's something for you too?
One thing that this soundcard has over the Asus Xonar AE is Dolby Digital Live and DTS. I have an old soundbar SJ4R with 5.1 connected to my TV Q90T, and the TV seems to not want to pass through uncompressed 5.1 sound over HDMI to the soundbar on the old 1.x HMDI standard that the soundbar uses. But I can have an optical cable from PC to Soundbar, but windows does not offer Dolby Digital Live ( unless you go through the hazzle of obscure sites and drivers which I won't do again for Win 11 after upgrading). This leaves me with only stereo sound when playing PC games on the TV, and this soundcard the Soundblaster Z SE offers Dolby Digital Live and is cheap enough, on par with my cheap soundbar, that is becomes affordable and don't drag down the quality to much given the other equipment.
I also have a pair of Edifier r980t for better stereo sound which I guess the Xonar AE might be better for. But I really want 5.1 for games to work.
I also have exactly the same speakers, when I don't use one of the headsets. Great speakers and when connected to the AE it's very good quality for a reasonable price!
@@AntonsHardware Thanks! That's reassuring to hear about the speakers!
In the end I ended up ordering the BlasterX AE-5 PLUS, a little more money but atleast it's a good relatively cheap card that will last me a while and it has Dolby Digital Live as well.
Exactly, the Plus has better Dolby support. Good choice!
Hello, I have a soundblaster xtrem audio pci-e. I mix with Traktor in extern with ASIO4ALL (4 outputs and it is difficult for stabilization when a change output parameter : Traktor close sometimes). I have remarked that Traktor freeze when i detach a stereo cable : the soundblaster may send something wrong. I'd like to know if the new pci-e SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY FX V2, with ASIO 2.3, is like an other MAO sound card (you can attach, detach stereo cable in playing) and what about of the sound quality ? I have compared x-fi xtrem audio to Presonus iTwo and seems to be good too. I think there are AKM and JRC AOP. Thanks
I am currently making a video about the FX v2. But I'm not very familiar with ASIO. I was planning on making a video about the Audio Extreme, but I haven't gotten around to making it.
@@AntonsHardware Hello,
Thank you for all your videos.
Could you adding 16-bit, 44kHz to the test of the FX v2 ?
I have tested the x-fi xtreme audio with RightMark with the black output (near the optical) in the line input (blue) of the same x-fi xtreme audio.
Before starting the measure, i check the level at -1 dB or so (it is preconized by Rightmark when it fails to get measure when the level is too low for exemple).
The output is at the maximum (0 dB) and i play with the input level to get -1 dB or so (for both measure : x-fi and itwo).
Your opinion about x-fi is welcome.
In my case i get :
Testing device ASIO4ALL in out x-fi xtreme audio
Sampling mode 16-bit, 44 kHz
Interface
Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in)
RMAA Version 6.4.5
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.07, -0.05 Excellent
Noise level, dB (A) -85.7 Good
Dynamic range, dB (A) 85.7 Good
THD, % 0.00338 Very good
THD + Noise, dB (A) -78.6 Average
IMD + Noise, % 0.015 Very good
Stereo crosstalk, dB -86.0 Excellent
IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.016 Very good
General performance Very good
for Presonus iTwo (his output into his input) with 2/3 of input preamp level
Testing device ASIO4ALL in out itwo
Sampling mode 16-bit, 44 kHz
Interface
Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in)
RMAA Version 6.4.5
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.02, -0.16 Very good
Noise level, dB (A) -95.4 Excellent
Dynamic range, dB (A) 95.4 Excellent
THD, % 0.022 Good
THD + Noise, dB (A) -69.7 Average
IMD + Noise, % 0.024 Good
Stereo crosstalk, dB -92.9 Excellent
IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.019 Very good
General performance Very good
Thank You very much
About my Realtek mother board
Testing device [MME] Haut-parleurs (Realtek(R) Audio in out
Sampling mode 16-bit, 44 kHz
Interface MME
Testing chain External loopback (line-out - line-in)
RMAA Version 6.4.5
20 Hz - 20 kHz filter ON
Normalize amplitude ON
Level change -2.1 dB / -2.1 dB
Mono mode OFF
Calibration singal, Hz 1000
Polarity correct/correct
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.02, -0.04 Excellent
Noise level, dB (A) -85.7 Good
Dynamic range, dB (A) 86.3 Good
THD, % 0.00422 Very good
THD + Noise, dB (A) -77.1 Average
IMD + Noise, % 0.015 Very good
Stereo crosstalk, dB -83.9 Very good
IMD at 10 kHz, % 0.013 Very good
General performance Very good
Great to see you back after beating your Corona. Do you beat your Corona often? Anyways, hope you recover fully and we get some more content!
Its more of a weekly job, to beat corono :D
Hi Anton, I beleave the Sound Blaster Z has stereo mic/line input because of the beanforming mic included with Z, right? Does the SB Z se still has stereo mic/line input? Thank you
It used to have that. The newer version dont include the beamforming mic anymore :(
Like the review. My first thought was , why ? I mean you know the ae5 is great. Then again the Z was kind of different, that is true. Actually it had problems with the mic all the time, so you had to switch the mic to neutral and then it would work, although it might have been a team speak issue. I migrated on your recommendation to AE5 and I am very happy, thank you so very much, the Z is a level lower than the AE5, especially for headphones. But it is not a bad sound card.
Thank you! Very happy to read that the AE5 is to your liking! I like it too. Also yes, well. The Z SE... As I said in the video (or was thinking about when making the video) I think that Creative had a warehouse full with Z stuff and then decided to relaunch it and benefit from the corona pandemic. I mean PC components are sold out or really expensive, and Creative wants to "ride that wave" as well.
But from my viewpoint, I see no use in getting the Z SE new, if you can get a good "older" Z second hand.
@@AntonsHardware Exactly, or even the ZxR used. Although there was not that much of a difference. Or is there. Would be nice to see another comparison of the Z and the ZxR. I know the two last models differ only with the gear they came with. Z was a bit different on the other hand.
lucked out when i bought this a decade from a pc part nice
Nice!
Does anyone know if the current Sound Blaster Command drivers are performing better than or the same as the SBX Studio drivers? It seems like you should stick with the older drivers if they still work as they give you better audio quality.
To my knowledge, the actual quality of the audio doesn't really differ from driver to driver. But it would be nice to test that!
Hey brother! Great vid!
I have also seen your review on AE-5 Plus and i was wondering.
Which sound card is better? SE or AE-5 Plus? *note not used for gaming, just for music and general in sound
The SE should be more than enough, altough the overall quality of the AE5 is better than the SE!
how does the creative compare to one of those cheap usb spidif out cards you can get on ebay for about £8?
Usually those cards are connected to the motherboard SPDIF output. Motherboards that support that are getting less and less. So the quality is ok-ish.
I buy this sound card also.haha
it is beautiful soud card~
It does look beautiful! :D
@ Antons Hardware So i have the 1st edition of this card, and am in the process of building a new rig. My comp speakers are the logitech z906. From the sound card to sub, its connected by optical cable. Will i really hear a difference upgrading the sound card to say a AE5 and above. Or one of their dacs like the x3 or x4?
I find it really hard to get a clear cut answer as there's so much variety in speakers, headphones, personal preference/standards.
As well how do i get rid of those annoying red lights? If it doesn't unplug, I am thinking of just cutting it off lol
I have read that some guy also has cut them of! But I'm not too sure if that is what you should do. :D
And yes, a clear cut answer is really hard to give. Yes, the AE is better than the Z, mainly because the AE has a great DAC (one from the Sabre series). But will you hear it... And if you do, will you like the difference? It took me a while to get used to the AE, because I was so used to the sound of the X-Fi!
I haven't hear the X3 or X4 yet, so I can't give you an answer about that.
If I were you, I'd give it a go. You can always send it back to Amazon.
Hello I have a SB Recon 3d PCIe and its amazon but I need a replacement since its short circuiting my motherboard now. Would the Z SE be the same sound quality? I want the Z but those annoying red LEDs look awful
The Z Second Edition is a great budget card and even a bit better than the Recon 3D (although the same DSP is used). The SE doesn't have those LED's!
I like that they removed the extremely bright LED's - I actually cut mine off .. PC started to randomly shut down 3 years in. Removed the sound card, now it's rock solid again. Sigh. Oh and btw this was due to the LED's having some sort of ground issue when I cut them off.
I was thinking of doing that myself! But now I definitely won't! Thanks for the tip!
Hi, Would you recommend this for a budget video editing PC, since all my research led to this for greater sound quality recording ?
You can record audio in a higher resolution than you can with some onboard solutions. But the sound cards needs to have a good ADC (analog to digital converter). The ADC from the Z isn't that impressive, but better than most onboard solutions.
one big difference.. the ZE has Nichicon capacitors... Asus AE has Capxon.. good but not same league as Nichicon.
Yes, another commenter also mentioned this. I took my info from several websites and they all stated that the Zx and the Z are identical. Then it was pointed out to me that they have Nichion capacitors. Thanks for the heads up!
The first thing I did was cut the red leds off. It didn't fit my system style.
Hoi heb de ae7 nu, mooi geluid!
Ben jaloers! Ik wil er ook 1!
Dude, that bogey, my God Please!
I use 5.1 speakers, and a 5.1 surround sound headphones (3 speakers in each ear). I've had a X-Fi Extreme for so long, about 7 years. It works fine but Elite dangerous has now got buggy sound with this card. I can't update it as it's not getting no more updates.
Thanks for the info.
You're welcome! And that bogey.. yeah... I found out after recording... :)
Seems to be a lot of people complaining about the Asus Xonar AE not working in Windows 11, can anyone confirm? I checked Asus's website and the latest drivers are 2 years old now.
I was planning on making a video about which video's work in Windows 11 and which don't. But when I started I realised that this was going to be a huge undertaking. And since I also have a dayjob and a family, it was too much.
oh.the sound card is beautiful.i want buy too!
ps:i buy rme9632 pci also.cost 60.6 doll
Wow! The RME9642! I want that you too! :D
i am using creative gigaworks g500 thx 5.1 speaker. it only have 3.5mm input，which sound card is best value for money to improve movie /music quality? (os: win11) 🙏
Creative FX v2! :D
What do you mean by front audio if you aren't talking about front panel audio?
What I mean are the jack plugs on the front of your computer case. Nearly all sound cards (and motherboards as well) have a Front Panel connector to connect the sound card (or codec) to the front of you computer. But nearly always the sound isn't that good when you use that. I recommend the rear of your computer!
Are there any audio pops with this card ?
Not with the version that I have no!
C'est dommage que tu n'as pas parlé de :
- mon objectif sur cette carte : l'encodage à la volée sur la sortie optique spdif, qui permet de jouer en surround dans les jeux sur un Home Cinema
- des drivers jamais mis à jour, et du support peu réactif de Creative Labs
- tu conseilles la Asus Xonar AE, mais cette carte date de 2017 => n'est ce pas risqué en 2023 (drivers, évolution...) 🤔
Bravo Antons pour ta vidéo
Je ne travaille jamais avec une sortie optique moi-même, donc malheureusement je ne peux pas vous aider avec ça. Je n'ai aucune expérience avec ça. Désolé!
Oui, le support de Creative était très médiocre, mais je dois dire que les pilotes se sont améliorés ces derniers temps ! Surtout avec le FX v2, le pilote est très bon.
La Xonar AE était la meilleure carte budgétaire pour moi à l'époque. D'après mon expérience, la Xonar AE est toujours une excellente carte, surtout si vous avez un petit budget, mais que vous voulez toujours un opamp interchangeable. De plus, la carte n'est pas de Creative, qui a également joué un rôle. Et, il n'y a plus vraiment beaucoup d'évolution au niveau des cartes son internes. Il est de plus en plus externe via USB. La dernière carte interne vraiment nouvelle était la Creative FX v2.
Can I ask are you sure you are correct with the cirrus only operating on the front speakers output? From what I have found from spec online….. Cirrus chip handles all stereo (front panel mic, headphone and front speakers) where as the sound core 3D handles the centre and sub
Good question. I am not 100% sure, but a good 90%. The Cirrus is a 2 channel DAC (www.cirrus.com/products/cs4398/), so it can only drive 2 channels. Also is a DAC and not an ADC, so the mic won't be handled by the Cirrus.
The statement about the front panel was from an article I read online and something I found out during testing. (Sadly cannot find the document anymore!). The thing that convinced me is that in Righmark Audio Analyzer I could get a 24 bits 192 kHz result from the front audio output. Headphone only went as high as 24 bits and 96 kHz. Since the CS4398 is capable of 192 kHz and the Core3D isn't...
I was also rather suspicious of this as well. Why use a 2 channel dac and only for the 2 front audio and not the headphone? That would be a far better solution. Also, it now has the situation where the front audio is created at a higher bitrate/samplingrate than the other speakers. Rather strange in my opinion.
(I recorded a whole section about this, but got left out in the final cut of the review! It was too long, me rambling about the dac, strange combo and why use a dac anyway...)
@@AntonsHardware thanks for the response. After some testing I can see you are right the sample rate will only go to 192khz on the front speaker output…. How strange. Now upon testing this output in faced with a dilemma… what should I mark the headphones as for the speaker type? The options only include desktop, bookshelf , tower or custom. Each one changes the sound with custom requiring a crossover to be set. Interesting.
Very strange indeed. The only reasoning I can see for that, is that they thought that the Front speaker out will benefit the most from higher sampling rates.
It all depends on your setup how to set it up. The crossover is the point where a frequency is changed to another speaker. Usually it's where your subwoofer takes over the bass sounds from the front speakers. Most subwoofer have this number on the back.
Hope that helps!
@@AntonsHardware you see I’m using it with headphones for that better sample rate which is why I’m puzzled what to set it too. It’s noticeably more clear by the way (96 vs 192khz)
I'd set it to the lowest possible. That way all the bases will be send to the head set and diverted to the subwoofer. But still, I'm not sure. If you set it to 2.0, a crossover shouldn't do anything. :S You could fiddle around with Rightmark and see what happens.
I have creative x-fi titanium (non hd) ..have creative s550 5+1 speakers . I dont use headphone..watched a lot of videos and still ı amnot sure if ı should buy a new sound card or not..
Hi Cihan Ozel, Have you selected one yet? What is your budget?
I can spend 100€ ..ı didint select still.. ı am happy with my speaker..but dont know worth to buy new sound card..
Have you try playing 7.1 audio from movie files? I found my sound card can't handle it and it brakes here and there, try different software and only happen with 7.1, 5.1 works just fine (default 2.0 headphones conversion). Wonder if this is a normal thing or just my motherboard Asus Hero VII is the one giving issues. After all this cards are build for 5.1, so I wonder.
No, I haven't tried 7.1 or 5.1 on any card. Sorry! :(
Does anyone know why a 2.1 speaker system sounds way better connected to the headphone jack vs the L/R plug which its supposed to go in? I also have headphones so i have to always switch the plugs out.
Because it has an amplifier (opamp), which gives sound a bit more "color" than a regular output.
Would you recommend this over the asus essence ii as its "newer"?
Since they are both hardware wise identical, I'd go for the older version!
Hi, I'm stuck between Soundblaster Z Special Edition and AE5 Plus. Which one do you think I should get? Are there any big differences between the two in terms of bass? Also, can we get 5.1 sound from the optical output from both cards? I want to make an optical connection with Logitech Z906.
Bass isn't the primairy focus on sound cards, but if you want better audio quality, I'd get the AE-5 Plus! I'm not sure about the optical connection! I haven't tested that.
so, how did you get it to install with unsigned drivers ?
This is a really good sounding sound card but the red LED's inside it are way too pimpy for me. My computer room was lit up like a hoare house on Halloween night. So I just clapped them out and lived happily ever after....
Haha, "too pimpy" is a pharse that I'll use in the future! And yes, it will make your PC case look it belongs in a well, brothel.
How do you hook up 5.1........?!
You need 3 3,5mm male jacks to whatever you want to hook it up to. Keep in mind that you need an amplifier or amplied speakers to use it. You cannot use passive speakers directly.
Hi , SoundBlar Z original or AE5 original ? What is the best soudn card (non gamer)
AE5 hands down!!
I bought in 2015 a gigabyte motherboard with a sound blaster the sound was incredible! I had interface in blue instead of red I just ordered this sound card for my new motherboard because I have a shitty sound card! lol. Is it possible to use the old driver?
Could be. But it could also be that you just don't like the sound the Z produces! :D They aren't bad, but not the best ever. The soundcard (or codec) on your motherboard may also be better that the Z, with better components.
how is the performance using the front panel for headphones? Is it just the headphone output amplified or the front panel as well?
Front panel is nearly always worse than the back panel, since the EMI distortion introduced by the cable running through your system is huge. The audio quality will degrade a lot.
@@AntonsHardware thanks for your reply. I'm aware that the front panel is not the best solution for the headphones, but I would have liked it to still be amplified in case I had to quickly plug headphones in front panel to play.
@@AntonsHardware Can I plug speakers into the speaker jack and headphones into the headphone Jack at the same time? do you lose power or quality in this way? my problem is that I use the speakers sometimes and the headphones sometimes and I can't unplug the jack from behind each time...
Deze of de AE5?
Hangt van je budget af! De AE5 is wel een hele goede kaart, stukken beter dan de Z.
Are you Dutch by any chance?
Dat dacht ik ook
tried one expensive asus one and asus sound seemed so ...dry and flat.
Which soundcard did you get?
xonar stx maybe, creative z had more depth.
So these drivers just works with Win10?
Yes, they did! :D Creative did something good with their drivers!
Kan ik dan die soundblaster van U overkopen? :D
Hoi DioH, Ik hou 'm liever zelf omdat ik 'm nog vaak gebruik! :D
@@AntonsHardware Understandable!
xonar AE doesnt have bass redirect so its a bad choise for htpc builds
I haven't used the AE in a very long time, so I'm quessing you're right! Thanks for the additional information!
@@AntonsHardware i saw a video of a guy with this issue he used equalizer apo to simulate audio for his sides/rears/subwoofer
i know computer since 1990 if you love music on computer, fcuk the oboard sounds, get blaster card, it does not matter which one as long as crative you are good to go!
Lol. These days Creative still makes some decent cards. But the impact from say the Soundblaster 2.0 or 16 is no more. Sadly, I must add.
@@AntonsHardware i have one this i love it
@@AntonsHardware So buying this isnt worth it? I have a very good realtec onboard soundchip
to bad it has no left right chinch
No it doesn't :(