![]() Their new range - the Sound Blaster Z series - are cards that promise “the very best listening experience for movies, games and music” according to the promotional blurb. They’re still here and they still hold value for even a modest desk-based PC setup however, and Creative are flying their pro audio flag with as much gusto as they can manage. Whilst most of us older-generation PC users used to look forward to the new bells and whistles that came along with a sound card refresh every year or so, I’d be hard pushed to identify anybody else that’s given a discreet audio card a second thought for the best part of a decade. This is definitely a benefit, as - while scout mode makes your enemies footsteps clearer - it also amplifies your own movement sounds, so you won't want to leave it on most of the time.In the world of on-board audio processing for motherboards, graphics cards and even headsets, it’s no small wonder that companies like Creative are still attempting to cater to a consumer-grade market. You can map the mode to a key combination of your choice, which makes it easy to enable and disable at will. Another gaming-oriented option is Scout Mode, which makes enemy movements more audible, allowing you to pinpoint threats easily. The CrystalVoice settings also include a number of vocal effects that can shift your gender or make you sound like a demon from the abyss, which are an entertaining extra for dedicated role-players, if nothing else. The advantage of the supplied mic - which is designed to perch neatly on top of your monitor - and the advanced ambient mic noise cancellation options is that you can use a pair of high-quality headphones for gaming without having your buying options restricted by the need for a dedicated headset. Also useful for this is the Focus setting, which suppresses sounds originating from anywhere except a specified zone directly in front of the mic - you can adjust how wide this is. These are particularly useful if you use the stand-alone mic that comes with the sound card rather than a headset mic, and effectively minimise the effect of background noise and ambient acoustics. The combinations of Crystalizer and Bass enhancement in particular made many tracks sound boomy and harsh, but they provide effective enhancement for games and movies.Ĭlick to enlarge - The re-branded Pro Studio offers plenty of adjustment options, although not all are worthwhile.ĬrystalVoice gives you a range of effects that apply to the mic input, including noise reduction and echo cancellation. ![]() However, we found that we preferred listening to music with all of these settings disabled. The SBX Pro Studio options - previously branded as THX Tru Studio - lets you control surround sound levels and apply a Crystalizer that's designed to compensate for the dynamic range compression that's applied to a lot of modern studio recordings and bass enhancement. We can take a closer look at the features it provides by going through the many options built into Creative's driver. The SoundCore3D handles almost everything internally, but most CPUs aren't exactly going to buckle under the load of a bit of audio processing so, although the audio processor's definitely a nice bit of kit, the simple fact of its existence isn't compelling reason to buy the card in and of itself. Most sound cards rely heavily on drivers to handle tasks such as audio effects processing, environmental sound within games and virtual surround sound through stereo headphones, which means that your CPU is going to be doing a great deal of the work there. The audio processor is the Z's most immediately obvious advantage over cards from other manufacturers. The sound card's front output has an SNR 116dB and 24-bit/192KHz bitrate and sample rate. The SoundCore3D combines its Quartet Digital Signal Processor (DSP) with a codec (combined DAC and ADC) on a single chip, quoting Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR) of 102dB for the DAC and 101dB for the ADC. The Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) that handles the mic/line input is integrated into the SoundCore3D itself. ![]() ![]() Click to enlarge - The quad-core SoundCore3D chip from last year's Recon3D returns ![]()
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