Massive Issues With Sound Blaster Z

[dm5kmwf]

Hello I've been banging my head on this for a while now. Maybe you guys can help me?

I am using Windows 8.1 and my mobo is a Gigabyte GA-990FX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128886

I get no sound on my Logitech Z5500 when I try to use 6 Channel Direct or any other option on the control panel. The ONLY thing that works is Stereo, which sucks because the center speaker will not work under stereo. I have tried a SPDIF cable with no sound either.

This is probably the most frustrating part.. When I do listen to stereo the SBX Pro Studio (surround, crystalizer, bass) cannot be turned on because the sound becomes extremely muddy. And for some reason the bass is blacked out so I cannot even mess with it.

Here's what I've tried..

- Uninstalling and reinstalling the sound blaster software several times

- Turning off the on board audio in the Bios.

- Uninstalling the HD audio driver under device manager

- When testing my optical cable I turned on speakers instead of SPDIF Out under control panel - sound. I have heard that the SPDIF cable should work properly when you disable SPDIF Out and enable speakers, but not in my case unfortunately. I also have Dolby Digital selected in my Sound Blaster software.

- Trying out the on board audio. It doesn't sound as good as the Sound Blaster audio.

- Contacting Creative support but they give me generic answers or things I have already tried.

 

[bistwo]

SoundBlaster does not make it obvious anywhere in their software or manuals, but the card only supports stereo output in either Dolby Live or Dolby DTS Connect formats. Both of these formats are only 2 channel. The next card up in Creative's lineup, the Soundblaster ZxR, has two additional formats, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby DTS Surround, which are surround sound. I played around with the "3D" effect on my Logitech Z906 speakers to convert the digital stereo input to 5.1 (yours should have this too) however I ultimately found that just using the analog outputs produced a better sound.

 

[dm5kmwf]

SoundBlaster does not make it obvious anywhere in their software or manuals, but the card only supports stereo output in either Dolby Live or Dolby DTS Connect formats. Both of these formats are only 2 channel. The next card up in Creative's lineup, the Soundblaster ZxR, has two additional formats, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby DTS Surround, which are surround sound. I played around with the "3D" effect on my Logitech Z906 speakers to convert the digital stereo input to 5.1 (yours should have this too) however I ultimately found that just using the analog outputs produced a better sound.

So you're saying that the Sound Blaster Z does not support 5.1 surround sound? Are you sure? On Newegg it shows that it supports 5.1 Channels...

 

[bistwo]

SoundBlaster does not make it obvious anywhere in their software or manuals, but the card only supports stereo output in either Dolby Live or Dolby DTS Connect formats. Both of these formats are only 2 channel. The next card up in Creative's lineup, the Soundblaster ZxR, has two additional formats, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby DTS Surround, which are surround sound. I played around with the "3D" effect on my Logitech Z906 speakers to convert the digital stereo input to 5.1 (yours should have this too) however I ultimately found that just using the analog outputs produced a better sound.

So you're saying that the Sound Blaster Z does not support 5.1 surround sound? Are you sure? On Newegg it shows that it supports 5.1 Channels...

No, it does support 5.1 channel surround sound, however it can only output 5.1 channels over the analog outputs and not the Optical or SPDIF digital outputs.

 

[dm5kmwf]

SoundBlaster does not make it obvious anywhere in their software or manuals, but the card only supports stereo output in either Dolby Live or Dolby DTS Connect formats. Both of these formats are only 2 channel. The next card up in Creative's lineup, the Soundblaster ZxR, has two additional formats, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby DTS Surround, which are surround sound. I played around with the "3D" effect on my Logitech Z906 speakers to convert the digital stereo input to 5.1 (yours should have this too) however I ultimately found that just using the analog outputs produced a better sound.

So you're saying that the Sound Blaster Z does not support 5.1 surround sound? Are you sure? On Newegg it shows that it supports 5.1 Channels...

No, it does support 5.1 channel surround sound, however it can only output 5.1 channels over the analog outputs and not the Optical or SPDIF digital outputs.

That's strange i cannot do 5.1 surround sound with my analog output. I don't know where to go from here. If only creative had better software than this junk.