- Apr 14, 2002
- 20,603
- 7
- 52,915
Normally I personally could care less regarding the various opinions of discrete sound add in card vs the on board motherboard sound, but occasionally we have something come on the scene that's worth mentioning.
I am a gamer, and I love First Person Shooters with a full enveloping gaming environment, way back in the day I first got into PC gaming was simply to be able to play the original PC release of Aliens vs Predator.
For it's day this game was extremely demanding and my desire to play it overrode the cost factor as the first major expense was an accelerated graphics card and VooDoo graphics cards was the king of the hill back then so I snagged a VooDoo 3000.
However that did not get me playing because the sound was not cooperating as the game sported Creative EAX audio, so the next purchase was a Creative Live sound card, and I was gaming to my hearts content.
Back then the environmental gaming audio of the Creative card in it's EAX infancy was good but not great, and Creative struggled for years keeping it's drivers updated and with some cards dealing with static back ground noise in your music playback, of course this problem was sound card killer territory, you do not want static in your sound card ever!
Some of us back then turned against Creative, myself included and turned to Turtle Beach it's gaming was so, so, but it's music playback was excellent, no static at all and excellent driver releases.
Then WinXP comes on the scene and things change for sound and graphics, some hardware could be kept some had to be changed, by this time VooDoo was gone and we had ATI and Nvidia, and among the sound cards Turtle Beach was still pretty good but it's driver troubles arrived.
The original FarCry was released for the PC and the recommended sound card for the game was the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy, so once again I gave Creative another shot, and was not disappointed but occasionally static did arise, but EAX had advanced and was needed for the environmental gaming arena.
Then as time went by Creative released the X-FI series, the static was gone and they finally had a really descent sound card, however the environmental audio positioning was off a little, and it just seemed they could always get one thing right and be off a little elsewhere, but at least they were trying to get it right.
So now to why I've taken the time to write all this history and that is finally Creative has gotten it 100% right as far as I am concerned with their release of the Z series of cards.
I had my eye on the Creative Sound Blaster Z for a long time after it's release, it is an EAX 5.0 HD 5.1 surround sound gaming card with Scout Mode also sporting Dolby Digital Live, which has turned out to be IMO, the absolutely best sound card from Creative ever released.
I read a review that said Creative had completely gone back to the drawing board to solve all the past problems, and I truly believe they have done just that!
The EAX audio gaming positioning or scout mode, is 100% accurate, if something is trying to sneak up on you the positioning is dead on to where the sound is coming from, and music playback is awesome as well.
Not the first time have I regretted buying this sound card and thought I take the time to share my experiences with it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102048
This is the Z 5.1 surround gaming card, and it does come in higher models for you dedicated audiophiles out there, but this card is the only one I have experience with, Thank You for your time if you read this! Ryan
I am a gamer, and I love First Person Shooters with a full enveloping gaming environment, way back in the day I first got into PC gaming was simply to be able to play the original PC release of Aliens vs Predator.
For it's day this game was extremely demanding and my desire to play it overrode the cost factor as the first major expense was an accelerated graphics card and VooDoo graphics cards was the king of the hill back then so I snagged a VooDoo 3000.
However that did not get me playing because the sound was not cooperating as the game sported Creative EAX audio, so the next purchase was a Creative Live sound card, and I was gaming to my hearts content.
Back then the environmental gaming audio of the Creative card in it's EAX infancy was good but not great, and Creative struggled for years keeping it's drivers updated and with some cards dealing with static back ground noise in your music playback, of course this problem was sound card killer territory, you do not want static in your sound card ever!
Some of us back then turned against Creative, myself included and turned to Turtle Beach it's gaming was so, so, but it's music playback was excellent, no static at all and excellent driver releases.
Then WinXP comes on the scene and things change for sound and graphics, some hardware could be kept some had to be changed, by this time VooDoo was gone and we had ATI and Nvidia, and among the sound cards Turtle Beach was still pretty good but it's driver troubles arrived.
The original FarCry was released for the PC and the recommended sound card for the game was the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy, so once again I gave Creative another shot, and was not disappointed but occasionally static did arise, but EAX had advanced and was needed for the environmental gaming arena.
Then as time went by Creative released the X-FI series, the static was gone and they finally had a really descent sound card, however the environmental audio positioning was off a little, and it just seemed they could always get one thing right and be off a little elsewhere, but at least they were trying to get it right.
So now to why I've taken the time to write all this history and that is finally Creative has gotten it 100% right as far as I am concerned with their release of the Z series of cards.
I had my eye on the Creative Sound Blaster Z for a long time after it's release, it is an EAX 5.0 HD 5.1 surround sound gaming card with Scout Mode also sporting Dolby Digital Live, which has turned out to be IMO, the absolutely best sound card from Creative ever released.
I read a review that said Creative had completely gone back to the drawing board to solve all the past problems, and I truly believe they have done just that!
The EAX audio gaming positioning or scout mode, is 100% accurate, if something is trying to sneak up on you the positioning is dead on to where the sound is coming from, and music playback is awesome as well.
Not the first time have I regretted buying this sound card and thought I take the time to share my experiences with it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102048
This is the Z 5.1 surround gaming card, and it does come in higher models for you dedicated audiophiles out there, but this card is the only one I have experience with, Thank You for your time if you read this! Ryan
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