At first I would like to thank Creative and Royal Computers for offering their Sound Blaster ZXR Sound Card for testing and reviewing.

 

About Creative Labs:

"Creative is the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for the personal computer (PC) and the Internet. Creative was founded in Singapore in 1981 with the vision that multimedia would revolutionize the way people interact with their PCs.

Famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC platform with products like its highly acclaimed ZEN line of digital audio players. The company's innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services enable consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment-anytime, anywhere.

Since launching the phenomenally successful Sound Blaster sound cards and setting the de facto standard for PC audio in 1989, Creative has been able to leverage on its leading-edge audio technology, huge user base and strong brand name to expand into the exciting lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) market.

Today, Creative is widely recognized as a global leader for product innovation in the audio and PDE segments, offering consumers a complete, high quality digital entertainment experience through Creative's hardware, software applications and services. Finding the perfect balance between form and function, Creative strives for every product to be a sensory feast for the eyes and ears.

Creative is expanding the power of the personal computer with a wide range of interactive PDE products that comprises MP3 players, portable media centers, multimedia speakers and headphones, digital and web cameras, graphics solutions, revolutionary music keyboards and PC peripherals.

These products and solutions are marketed to consumers and system integrators through a worldwide distribution network that includes traditional marketing channels, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the Internet.

Creative's product innovations have won numerous international awards and accolades throughout the years. The more recent and notable awards include the Consumer Electronics Show "Best of CES" awards for four consecutive years for Prodikeys PC and music keyboard (2003), ZEN Portable Media Centre (2004), ZEN MicroPhoto MP3 player (2005) and ZEN Vision:M MP3 player (2006). The ZEN Micro MP3 player also won the Ziff Davis Media "Best of DigitalLife 2004" award.

Creative has also set new audio standards with the launch of its latest Xtreme Fidelity (X-Fi) audio platform. The cutting-edge technology has gained wide industry recognition and was selected by Popular Science as the "Best of What's New in Home Entertainment" in 2006 for bringing outstanding audio quality to MP3 music.

Creative has forged partnerships with some of the industry's top technology companies and developers worldwide, fortifying our strength and leadership in product innovation and research & development. Creative also made strategic investments in a number of US-based companies.

Moving forward, Creative's mission is to expand our leadership role in the lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment market, using groundbreaking technology and leading-edge designs for not just the technically savvy consumers, but for everyone who enjoys entertainment. With strong focus on our user-friendly interface, multiple features and cool industrial designs, the Creative brand is synonymous with lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment.

In June 1994, Creative gained a public listing on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

Creative's global corporate headquarters is located in Singapore, in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region. It has regional headquarters in the US (Milpitas, California), Europe (Dublin, Ireland) and Asia (Singapore)."

Product Features:

 

124dB Signal-To-Noise Ratio

A signal to noise ratio or SNR of 124dB means your audio will be > 99.99% pristine audio which is more than 89.1 times better than the average sound cards.

 

Pristine audio recordings with ultra low latency

Enjoy reduced latency as low as one millisecond with Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) support with the Sound Blaster ZxR. Hear your audio recordings come to life!

 

24-bit / 192kHz audio output

Stereo Direct lets you listen to your music pure and unprocessed at the amazing bit rate of 24-bit 192 kHz.

 

Studio-grade content creation

Add studio quality audio sound tracks or voice tracks to your video clips or home videos created with hardware that uses only audiophile-grade components such as 123dB analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with RCA Aux-in and optical inputs for outstanding recording quality. With the 600 ohm headphone ampflier, you can do studio-grade monitoring as well.

 

DBPro daughter board

The DBpro is another reason why Sound Blaster ZxR delivers only the best audio playback and creation. It offers optical output for outstanding audio playback, plus professional-grade ADCs with RCA Aux-in and optical inputs for studio-grade recording quality.

 

Accessible Audio Control Module (ACM)

Take control in style and ease with the ACM that incorporates a built-in microphone array and mic/headphone I/O connections. The knob on the ACM lets you conveniently adjust the headphone levels.

 

Crystal clear communication

In gaming, if you're not communicating, you're not winning. Experience crystal clear communication with your teammates with the CrystalVoice™ suite of technologies that removes echoes, ambient noises and picks up your voice from within a zone (Voice Focus). It also maintains your voice level even if you are near or further away from the microphone.

 

SBX Pro Studio™ technologies

SBX Pro Studio™ sound technologies create unprecedented levels of audio realism, including stunning 3D surround effects for your speakers and headsets.

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

Creative is very well known for their audio-related hardware and from time to time they release new cards in their Sound Blaster line, beginning with the first generation 8-bit ISA & MCA cards, and ending with the sixth generation Sound Core3D cards which incorporate the Recon3D and the Z-Series. The Sound Blaster ZxR uses the same Sound Core3D chip as the previous Sound Blaster Recon3D but the overall quality has been improved by including different Op-Amps, DACs and ADCs. The enclosure the product ships in is considerably larger compared to the one we have seen with the Titanium HD and features some small plastic windows, so we will be able to take a small peak at the internals:

 

 

 

On the lateral side of the box we will be able to see the list of inside contents:

 

 

 

Some of the technologies supported are also listed on one of the laterals; we were able to see these also with the Sound Blaster Cinema software, bundled with certain motherboards in order to enhance the sound effects:

 

 

 

On the opposite side of the packaging we will be able to see the card outputs:

 

 

 

More detailed information can be read on the back side of the box:

 

 

 

After opening the enclosure we will find two separate, smaller cardboard boxes but also one ribbon cable, one male mini jack to dual RCA cable and also one female mini jack to dual RCA cable:

 

 

 

 

Separately we will get an optical cable along with a bag with documentation and driver/applications disk:

 

 

 

The small manual will inform us in a couple of steps how to perform the installation:

 

 

 

The ZxR setup is composed not from only one, but two cards; the smaller daughter card is named DBpro:

 

 

 

The metallic shroud of the ZxR comes with quite a catchy design and through its opening we will be able to see the Sound Core3D chip:

 

 

 

 

One 19-pin connector can be found on the side, which allows pairing with the daughter board via the supplied ribbon cable:

 

 

 

Here is a view on the back side of the PCB:

 

 

 

On the I/O, the card has one ¼’’ TRS jacks for microphone, one for headphones, two RCA connectors for left and right speaker channels while the rear left/right channels and center/subwoofer are using 3.5mm jacks:

 

 

 

In order to access the main components, we will have to remove only four screws; the separate EMI shield will separate the analog from the digital:

 

 

 

The relays can be heard during system boot-up and driver initialization as we have seen with the Xonar D2 from ASUS and can be also heard clicking when switching between sources:

 

 

 

Nearby we also have four Op-Amps on sockets (removable), 2x LME 49710NA:

 

 

 

 

The last ones are 2x JRC 2114D:

 

 

 

The card only uses high-quality “gold” Nichicon capacitors; the smaller grey components are NTE polyester film capacitors:

 

 

 

In the middle we also have four JRC 2114 Op-Amps:

 

 

 

Very close to the EMI shield we have two PCM1798 DACs and a single PCM1794 for the primary stereo channels:

 

 

 

 

Near the Sound Core3D chip we also have the Creative CA0113-4AG HDA bus controller:

 

 

 

The DBPro daughter board comes with a similar design scheme, only that it does not feature any PCI-Express interface (the link will be realized via the ribbon cable):

 

 

 

 

This board holds the RCA left and right input along with an Optical In/Out interface:

 

 

 

Here is a view of the back side of the board:

 

 

 

After the removal of the top metallic cover, we will also discover a similar EMI shielding in the middle as with the main card. Here we will get to see another pair of JRC 2114 soldered Op-Amps:

 

 

 

A secondary Sound Core3D chip is also present here:

 

 

 

In the vicinity of the shield we have a PCM4220 ADC:

 

 

 

Coming back to the rest of the bundle, we will be able to find the ACM (Audio Control Module) which features a braided cable and is quite solid when judging by its construction:

 

 

 

On top we have a large volume dial and holes for the two beamforming microphones:

 

 

 

On the sides of the ACM reside microphone/headphone jacks in both 35mm and ¼’’ formats:

 

 

 

 

A more suggestive description of the large dial can be found on the top:

 

 

 

The ACM won’t slip on the table thanks to the rubber bottom:

 

 

 

The wire ends up with 35mm jacks which have pre-attached ¼’’ jack plug adapters:

 

 

 

Compared to the Titanium HD, we can see a largely simplified software GUI, no more separate modes. The menus are drawn on the left side and include SBX Pro Studio, CrystalVoice, Scout Mode and so on. SBX Pro Studio is a suite of audio playback technologies for delivering a new level of audio immersion. Here we will be able to see Surround, Crystalizer, Bass enhancements, along with Smart Volume and Dialog Plus:

 

 

 

The next menu enables us to work with CrystalVoice, which features innovative technologies that are specially designed to deliver the best vocal fidelity. In this menu we will be also able to choose the recording device and adjust the MIC volume, boost:

 

 

 

CrystalVoice can also enable FX effects which will modify our voice on-the-fly:

 

 

 

Scout Mode is a special audio filter implemented by Creative which will allow us to hear only important sound effects while gaming in order to have a slight advantage over the enemy. This will also disable the nice SBX effects so Creative have also enabled Hot Key functionality for this filter so it can be turned on only when needed:

 

 

 

Speakers/Headphones menu allows us to switch between the two sources; when the card is freshly installed do not be surprised if you are not hearing any sound effects through the ACM via headphones because we have “Speakers” set by default inside the interface. As soon as we select Headphones, everything will go as planned. For the Headphone setting we can also select between Normal Gain (32/300 ohm) and High Gain(600 ohm):

 

 

 

The other modes we can select are 5.1 Surround, Stereo, but also Stereo Direct. Stereo Direct is quite similar to Audio Creation mode where all enhancements are disabled and the sound is delivered without any additional filtering:

 

 

From the same menu we can access the speaker setup, which seems to be a remaining element from the previous interface version and was not re-skinned. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future driver version:

 

 

 

The Cinematic menu allows us to select the encoder type like Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect:

 

 

 

The Mixer section is in charge of volumes from each source, for both Playback and Recording:

 

 

 

Next we have the 11-band Equalizer which also has some preloaded presets:

 

 

 

 

The Advanced Features menu comes in fact with a single option, for allowing Stereo Mix playback to Digital output. Stereo Mix will enable analog speaker-out and digital optical-out to be played back at the same time. Please be aware that with this setting there can be significant latency between the analog and digital output:

 

 

 

Besides the main Control Panel, we can also use the Music Server application, which will allow us to integrate the iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries. At the same time, we can also stream the music to different devices, wired or wireless:

 

 

 

Next we have Smart Recorder which has multiple setting options like file format, filtering, recording levels and many more:

 

 

Sound editing can be performed with the WaveStudio application:

 

 

 

In order to restore the hardware-accelerated EAX effects on older games, we will have to use Alchemy:

 

 

 

Lastly we have Creative Diagnostics which will find issues present in our system:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 3570K Retail @ 4.7GHz

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 OC

RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 2x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)

Video: Gigabyte GTX 780 WF OC

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 240GB

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

In order to test the card performances, we have used RightMark Audio Analyzer at the latest 6.3.0 version and setup loopback between the RCA output of the card and the RCA input of the daughter board.

 

Remember! These results are not to be taken as reference because each computer system configuration can produce different noise levels, so you may obtain lower or higher performance results than the ones listed here.

 

16-bit, 44kHz

X-Fi Titanium HD

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR

 

16-bit, 48kHz

X-Fi Titanium

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR

 

24-bit, 48kHz

X-Fi Titanium HD

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR

 

24-bit, 96kHz

X-Fi Titanium HD

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR

 

We have tested the sound card for music listening (both FLAC and Youtube videos) and in a direct comparison with the already-great Titanium HD we have spotted that the lower frequencies were more powerful but for everyone which thinks this could be an issue, we could always work with the included EQ. Enhancements like Crystalizer do really make, in some cases the music sound clearer by converting poor quality source material.

 

For movies we can create a better atmosphere while fine-tuning with the sliders and enabling surround. When volume is not normalized we can enable Smart Volume which will smooth the sudden variations in order to create a more pleasant experience.

 

In-game we can enhance the experience and create an advance over the other players by using the Scout Mode filter. We have also tested the microphone filters by enabling and disabling Noise Reduction and Acoustic Echo Cancellation; these have performed as described while using the CM Storm Pulse-R headset but in order to eliminate the small trace of echo from the ACM beam-forming microfone, we had to work a little with the Focus setting inside the GUI.

 

Audio Creation mode is now present inside the interface with the Stereo Direct mode which can be used when we require absolutely no extra filters applied to the original signal.

 

The ACM is an interesting device which makes the headphone/microphone connectors available much closer to us in both 3.5mm and ¼’’, while having integrated microphones on the sides of the volume dial; we miss out the possibility of muting the included microphone on the fly, without the need to work with the software. If the ACM is not needed in some cases, we can connect the headphones directly to the sound card by using the ¼’’ jack plug adapters.

 

The removable Op-Amps are also a nice feature considering that we can replace them with many other different models.

 

Creative did not feel the need to include LED lights with this version which can be a good thing by keeping a professional look and in the same time it does not interfere with the current case LED color setup. The ribbon cable could have been better designed though since it does not look really great when installed (the connector from the main card and the one from the DBPro are not placed on the same vertical line).

 

Sound Blaster ZxR can be purchased online for about 230 Euros.

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR Sound Card is Recommended For:

 

We would like to thank again to Creative and Royal Computers for making this review possible!