Creative Sound Blaster Z review

Creative Sound Blaster Z Review

Manufacturer: Creative
UK price (as reviewed): £79.99 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $119.99 (ex tax)

Dedicated sound cards provide better audio quality, more features and more stable drivers than on-board audio, but most of us aren't prepared to pay the Earth for one, particularly if we spend more time gaming than listening to uncompressed audio through a £300 pair of studio headphones. Because of this, there's a great deal of competition among manufacturers to produce the best possible sound card for under £100.


Creative's Sound Blaster Z is the latest to throw its hat into the ring. Priced at just £80, the Z has the same SoundCore3D processor we saw on last year's Recon3D range of gaming sound cards. It's a more modest affair than its ZxR sister card, so you won't find any external control modules, daughterboards or replaceable op-amps here, but there are plenty of quality components underneath this card's snazzy red EM shield.

On the rear are five 3.5mm ports - one line/mic input, a headphone output and three further outputs (front, rear and centre/sub) to provide up to 7.1 analogue surround sound. There are also optical S/PDIF in and outputs. All the ports a uniform gold colour, with small symbols etched on the backplane next to them. While this looks stylish, colour coding would have made them easier to identify.


Since the Creative Zx sound card is effectively a Z with an external module for easy connection of mic and headphones, it'd be logical to assume that both the Z and the Zx would closely resemble Creative's premium £200 ZxR. This isn't the case - as well as the external connection module and a daughterboard packed with inputs, the ZxR card itself comes with quite different hardware, including 1/4in input and outputs and different on-board components including a variety of op-amps for various output channels that are not only higher quality than those found in the Z and Zx but also come housed in mounts that allow them to be changed if you want alter your card's audio profile.


It's worth bearing in mind then that, while the ZxR is closely comparable to cards like Asus's Xonar Essence STX, the Z is more of a jobbing gamer's sound card. That's not to do it a diservice. It sounds great, particularly if you're upgrading from on-board audio or an entry-level USB sound card. However, in an increasingly vigorous market for sound cards, the Z may struggle a little given its £80 price point. For a start, it's going up against the Asus Xonar DX , which costs around £20 less and - despite its age - is a long-stranding favourite of ours. The DX uses a rebadged C-Media CMI-8788 OxygenHD audio processor and has the same DAC for its headphone outputs, but doesn't have the same range of dedicated op-amps as the Z.

Specifications

• Processor: Creative SoundCore3D
  
• Inputs: 3.5mm mic/line in, optical S/PDIF in
  
• Outputs: 4x 3.5mm outputs, optical S/PDIF out
  
• Interface: PCI-E x1
  
• Bit-rate: 24-bit
  
• Maximum Sample Rate: 192KHz (front), 96KHz (headphone)
  
• Warranty:Two years RTB
  
• Extras: 3.5mm microphone