Soundblaster Z or Omni

[peterpanm]

Hello, I've no experience regarding sound cards still using onboard sound and I'm going to buy one of these but confuse which one is good for headphones only. SoundBlaster Z or Omni? mostly for music (heavy metal and same genre) and movies. second, are one of these gonna make any major difference from Realtek ALC1150 (my motherboard onboard sound chip). thanks

 

[Traciatim]

I have a VIA VT2012 or something along that line (can't quite remember) which seems really similar to the ALC1150 and I switched out to a Sound Blaster Z, but I really didn't notice much of a difference at all between the actual sound quality. I'm using it with Beyerdynamic DT660's and Logitech Z-2300 speakers. So, although my gear is hardly top end equipment I wouldn't call it entry level stuff either.

The SB Z does have some neat features like being able to save profiles for each output device (though I haven't found a way to auto-switch between them) and the nice feature of being able to plug both your headphones and speakers in at the same time and swap between them via software (which is still kind of annoying because I haven't found a way to macro it or automate it), but I wouldn't really call that worth the hundred bucks you pay for it.

So, unless you have some serious problem with your on board (like static interference, unable to drive your headphones properly, or some other problem) or you need some feature that the cards have I'm not so sure a dedicated sound device is all that required if you have a fairly decent on board audio solution already available.

 

[peterpanm]

thanks for reply, actually I have Asus Maximus VI hero and Beats Studio wireless 2013 (using only wired) and I have no speakers and have no intend to have one.

 

[peterpanm]

How is Asus Xonar U7 compare to SoundBlaster Z? reading good reviews about U7, SBZ is available on Ebay for $59 (manufacturer refurbished), U7 $79 at Amazon. thanks

 

[Traciatim]

I'm not sure. Personally I've always avoided USB based sound devices because of a fear that either there will be a performance impact due to the data all being need to be sent through the USB or that there will be a latency/sync problem because of the time it needs to process the data, but I've never actually seen anything like benchmarks that test that fear to see if that's a reality.

I'm sure someone here has some experience with the Xonar U7 though, hopefully you can find someone that can compare it to on board sound.

 

[peterpanm]

thanks again for reply, lets see which one i can find cheapest. I can't seem to find any comparison between these two.