Creative Sound Blaster Z Series

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  1. Creative haven't always had a reputation for quality product design, so it's been nice to see them picking up the standard on their various lines over the past couple of years. Opening up the box and configuring the Sound Blaster Z is a minimalist and functional experience, which - even in the enthusiast PC space - is a boon.
  2. The flagship of the ultra high-performance Sound Blaster Z-Series of sound cards, Sound Blaster ZxR elevates the standards of technology and performance for the future of PC gaming and entertainment. Boasting an unbeatable SNR of 124dB, it includes a DBPro daughter board and Audio Control Module for unrivalled audio playback and content creation.

Introduction

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.


We would like to thank OverClockers UK for kindly supplying the review sample!

Creative’s newest sound card is dubbed the Sound Blaster Z. The sound card is available in the PCI Express x1 format and will run off bus power, which is great for the modding crowd and those wanting to integrate this 5.1 capable sound card into a small form-factor PC. The Sound Blaster Z is feature rich and comes with a brand-new gadget that is quite interesting to anyone using a pair of proper headphones for gaming. Creative opted to include a beam-forming microphone that should have very good noise-cancellation properties and vastly superior sound quality over normal desktop and clip-on microphones.
Coming in at just under $100, the Sound Blaster Z is the smallest and cheapest of the new generation of sound cards from Creative. The card has no audiophile features, like the ability to swap op-amps. Instead, you get a smart sound card that looks flashy, comes in a convenient form factor, and includes a microphone of good quality.
Sound Blaster Z series sound cards feature the new Sound Core 3D-processor from Creative: a quad-core processor for some offloading from the primary CPU.

Specifications

Output Level:

Front Channel Out: 2Vrms
Headphone (33 ohms): 1.3Vrms

Creative Sound Blaster Z Series Driver

Headphone (600 ohms): 2Vrms

Maximum DAC Resolution:

Front Channel Out : 24-bit, 192kHz
Headphone (33 ohms): 24-bit, 96kHz
Headphone (600 ohms): 24-bit, 96kHz
SNR (20kHz Low-pass filter, A-Wgt), @ 24-bit, 96kHz
Front Channel Out : 116dB
Headphone (33 ohms): >105dB
Headphone (600 ohms): >105dB
Frequency Response @ 96kHz
Front Channel Out : 10Hz to 45kHz
Rear Channel Out : 15Hz to 45kHz
Center Out : 10Hz to 45kHz
Headphone (33 ohms): 10Hz to 45kHz
Creative Frequency Response @ 192kHz(Stereo only)
Front Channel Out : 10Hz to 88kHz

Speaker Support:

Supported Output: Stereo/2.1 Speakers/5.1 Speakers, Headphones

Connectivity:

Creative Sound Blaster Z-series Audio Cards

Headphone 1 x Amplified 1/8' mini jack
Speaker Out: 3 x 1/8' mini jacks
Optical Out: TOSLINK
Optical In: TOSLINK
Line In / Microphone In: Shared 1/8' mini jack

Overview

Creative Sound Blaster Z Series Control Panel

The flagship of the ultra high-performance Sound Blaster Z-Series of sound cards, Sound Blaster ZxR elevates the standards of technology and performance for the future of PC gaming and entertainment. Boasting an unbeatable SNR of 124dB, it includes a DBPro daughter board and Audio Control Module for unrivalled audio playback and content creation.

Creative Sound Blaster Z Series

Please note that the recent Microsoft update on 27 October 2020 (version 20H2), as well as some prior versions, removes Adobe's Flash Player. Our MediaTool Box software for Sound Blaster ZxR, Sound Blaster X-Fi HD, Sound Blaster Digital Music Premium HD, and Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1, which requires Adobe's Flash Player to work, will cease to work properly if you have updated your Windows recently. Our in-house tests also revealed that Adobe Flash Player may have been removed on earlier Windows 10 systems (prior to the Windows 10 version 20H2 update). To learn more on how to roll back your Windows system to support Adobe Flash Player content, please click here for more details.