Creative Sound Blaster Z

Work on bugs

After the controversial X-Fi line, the Singaporean company Creative has worked on the bugs. One of the fruits of this work was the heroine of this review — the internal Sound Blaster Z sound card, which combines excellent technical performance with a fairly affordable price tag of $100.

192kHz/24bit operation and full range of outputs

Unlike its predecessors, Sound Blaster Z has a high signal-to-noise ratio of 116 dB, a wide frequency range and support for 192 kHz/24-bit operation. In terms of connection, we have a complete set of a pair of 3.5 for connecting a microphone and headphones, three more 3.5 connectors for connecting 5.1 acoustics and a pair of digital optical ports (input and output).

New Creative Sound Core 3D Processor

The brain of the card is the Creative Sound Core 3D sound processor, which is not only responsible for all calculations, but also performs the functions of ADC and DAC for all channels except the front ones. In terms of sound, it provides excellent quality, which will be enough for the vast majority of even very demanding users. Sometimes it lacks detail and clarity a little, but this only shows up in comparison with more expensive audiophile cards and when listening to complex compositions with a lot of instruments. In the heat of everyday battle in a conditional PUBG or Battlefield, only connoisseurs of “gold wires” will hear the difference.

Headphone output with separate preamp

Perhaps the main weakness of the Sound Blaster Z is the headphone output, which is inferior in terms of quality to the main output. This is not very noticeable in entry-level and mid-range headphones, but many owners of expensive high-quality headphones are probably looking at sound cards for $ 100, who will notice this difference.

Design is not the main thing, but it is also important

As a nice bonus, a potential buyer gets a nice appearance with a traditional red colour for gaming models — it would be perfect for an external sound card that does not have to be hidden inside the case. Plus a separate Creative Crystal Voice microphone and a disc with quite useful Pro Studio software, which allows you to adjust the volume of each channel, play with the equalizer, select the desired multi-channel audio format (DTS Connect and Dolby Digital Live are supported) and much more.