Creative Labs ZxR Soundcard Inquiry - URGENT help :(

[BigBowlOfNothing]

If I could get some VERY quick responses to this thread, that would be great. 

 

The Creative Labs ZxR Is a sound card I will be implementing into my build VERY soon (in the next hour or so). I wanted to know if its included 600 ohms amp is enough to drive HD650s from Sennheiser at an impedance of around 300 ohms. I'm new to the whole amp thing, so is this included amp, FOR THIS SOUNDCARD, enough for now?

[Samfisher]

Yes it is.

[EndlessOyster]

Probably be fine.
Looking at the spec sheet for it does anyone else question how creative is a company "seen" as high end computer audio. It gives headphone amps in impedance, like what what is going on.

[sobe]

It's fine, but I don't know about properly driving them properly... Any cheap amp can make a headphone louder, that;s not all an amp can offer however.  Why not invest less into a quality amp? Schiit Magni 2 is $99

[rcole134]

2 hours ago, BigBowlOfNothing said:

If I could get some VERY quick responses to this thread, that would be great. 

 

The Creative Labs ZxR Is a sound card I will be implementing into my build VERY soon (in the next hour or so). I wanted to know if its included 600 ohms amp is enough to drive HD650s from Sennheiser at an impedance of around 300 ohms. I'm new to the whole amp thing, so is this included amp, FOR THIS SOUNDCARD, enough for now?

I have that sound card and its more than capable to run your headphones. 

[BigBowlOfNothing]

On 21 March 2016 at 7:29 PM, rcole134 said:

I have that sound card and its more than capable to run your headphones. 

On a sound note, how is the sound card and do you notice any tangible audio quality improvements compared to your onboard audio? The reason I want the sound card (apart from gaming) is to A) run my headphones (I hate external amps) and B) have somewhat better audio than my integrated motherboard audio. My motherboard is an ASUS HERO VIII.

[BigBowlOfNothing]

On 21 March 2016 at 7:08 PM, sobe said:

It's fine, but I don't know about properly driving them properly... Any cheap amp can make a headphone louder, that;s not all an amp can offer however.  Why not invest less into a quality amp? Schiit Magni 2 is $99

I, with an extreme dispassion, HATE external amps.

[rcole134]

2 minutes ago, BigBowlOfNothing said:

On a sound note, how is the sound card and do you notice any tangible audio quality improvements compared to your onboard audio? The reason I want the sound card (apart from gaming) is to A) run my headphones (I hate external amps) and B) have somewhat better audio than my integrated motherboard audio. My motherboard is an ASUS HERO VIII.

I haven't used on board sound for many years so I couldn't really comment on it. I did upgrade from a creative titanium x-fi and there is a difference. You can also change out the included amps if you don't like there sound reproduction. (I think I said that right) 

[BigBowlOfNothing]

6 minutes ago, rcole134 said:

I haven't used on board sound for many years so I couldn't really comment on it. I did upgrade from a creative titanium x-fi and there is a difference. You can also change out the included amps if you don't like there sound reproduction. (I think I said that right) 

Fair enough, thanks for your help!

 

[Dackzy]

am I the only person that knows that creative cards likes to color the sound? But yeah it should be able to power them. Fyi ohm does not say how hard headphones are to drive.

[BigBowlOfNothing]

38 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

am I the only person that knows that creative cards likes to color the sound? But yeah it should be able to power them. Fyi ohm does not say how hard headphones are to drive.

I realise what ohms are.

[rcole134]

50 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

am I the only person that knows that creative cards likes to color the sound? But yeah it should be able to power them. Fyi ohm does not say how hard headphones are to drive.

I don't know what you mean by 'color the sound'?

[Dackzy]

58 minutes ago, rcole134 said:

I don't know what you mean by 'color the sound'?

adds bass or something else, I explain it in my post about amp and dacs.

[rcole134]

 

2 hours ago, Dackzy said:

adds bass or something else, I explain it in my post about amp and dacs.

All sound cards and separate dacs etc add noise (color etc) when they decode the digital signal back to analogue. Headphones, speakers etc also add noise (color etc) when they play back the decoded sound. Its just a thing. 

[Dackzy]

13 minutes ago, rcole134 said:

 

All sound cards and separate dacs etc add noise (color etc) when they decode the digital signal back to analogue. Headphones, speakers etc also add noise (color etc) when they play back the decoded sound. Its just a thing. 

no a dac adds nothing. When we talk coloring we talk about the dac and amp adding bass or something else it can be trebble or mids not noise. Yes headphones and speakers "colors" the sound, but a dac and amp should not add anything their job is to make a digital signal to an analog one an well amp it, not to add things and if you read my post I say that a amp and dac should be transparent aka not add anything. But nice try with that argument

[Pomfinator]

8 hours ago, BigBowlOfNothing said:

I, with an extreme dispassion, HATE external amps.

And why exactly do you have this extremely unfounded opinion of external equipment?

[flowalex]

33 minutes ago, Pomfinator said:

And why exactly do you have this extremely unfounded opinion of external equipment?

My personal rig doesn't have one, but another computer that I use for live sound uses specialized software that can send signals to 4 different speakers with different volume and fade ins and outs has one it makes it easier and requires less cables space and points of failure (eg a power cable for the dac coming unplugged) which causes the software to freak out and need to be restated if an audio device goes offline, so when I do testing at home I have cables running all over and half the time I have to stop testing and restart because a usb cable came unplugged.   This is just me the OP could have an entirely different reason

[h264]

with a 33 Ohm output impedance, those are about one of the few headphones I recommend you plug into that card.

[Dackzy]

49 minutes ago, flowalex said:

My personal rig doesn't have one, but another computer that I use for live sound uses specialized software that can send signals to 4 different speakers with different volume and fade ins and outs has one it makes it easier and requires less cables space and points of failure (eg a power cable for the dac coming unplugged) which causes the software to freak out and need to be restated if an audio device goes offline, so when I do testing at home I have cables running all over and half the time I have to stop testing and restart because a usb cable came unplugged.   This is just me the OP could have an entirely different reason

a dac and amp should just be plug and play.

[flowalex]

Just now, Dackzy said:

a dac and amp should just be plug and play.

Here is the step breakdown of adding an audio device, 

1 assign speakers to device map 

2 save device map

3 choose device map

4 apply changes

5 save show

6 restart program

7 check to see if the changes worked

to change audio devices being used skip steps 1 and 2

It is not about being plug and play the software has these steps because of how it has to be used, here is the error message that occurs: WARNING Audio device disconnected restart software before continuing 

Also I was wrong about speaker assignments it can handle 512 separate audio output channels we only use 4 front of house aerial subs and control room  

 

[Dackzy]

59 minutes ago, flowalex said:

Here is the step breakdown of adding an audio device, 

1 assign speakers to device map 

2 save device map

3 choose device map

4 apply changes

5 save show

6 restart program

7 check to see if the changes worked

to change audio devices being used skip steps 1 and 2

It is not about being plug and play the software has these steps because of how it has to be used, here is the error message that occurs: WARNING Audio device disconnected restart software before continuing 

Also I was wrong about speaker assignments it can handle 512 separate audio output channels we only use 4 front of house aerial subs and control room  

 

A normal dac is just plug it in and choose it as your audio in windows and boom done readdy to go. Some you have to change bit rate on.

[flowalex]

Just now, Dackzy said:

A normal dac is just plug it in and choose it as your audio in windows and boom done readdy to go. Some you have to change bit rate on.

This is specialized software that I was talking about not normal windows it overrides windows audio settings, for example it uses ASIO with the BASS audio library for no latency playback, but I agree with normal windows it is plug and play for a dac

[Dackzy]

Just now, flowalex said:

This is specialized software that I was talking about not normal windows it overrides windows audio settings, for example it uses ASIO with the BASS audio library for no latency playback, but I agree with normal windows it is plug and play for a dac

Oh okay then I can see the problem.  

[flowalex]

Just now, Dackzy said:

Oh okay then I can see the problem.  

No worries, if you want to learn more about this software send me a private message

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, flowalex said:

No worries, if you want to learn more about this software send me a private message

I know a little about it, but it's not something that I use. But thanks