Need a new soundcard for my desktop computer

[gmaister22]

Hey guys

i built a gaming rig the previous week without adding a nice soundcard....i was thinking getting the http://www.soundblaster.com/products...aster-zxr.aspx and hooking up my Alesis M1Active MK2 and a Subwoofer that i have...what you think?

[makar1]

Have you looked at the rest of the Sound Blaster Z range? The Zx is almost as good and is half the price.

The fact that they have ASIO drivers could come in handy.

[DJSigma]

I was considering that card when it was first released, but I emailed Creative to ask a few questions about recording and whether it offered direct monitoring and the tech guy that replied basically said that it was aimed more at playback than recording. I ended up going with an RME HDSPe AIO, which was more than twice the price, but I have no regrets.

[gmaister22]

I don't need any recording, just playback

I should get it you think?

[makar1]

If you don't need recording, there's not much benefit in getting the ZXR over the ZX.

[gmaister22]

isnt ZXR supposed to be more powerful? quality wise too

[makar1]

More powerful? In what way?

Both have very good signal-to-noise ratio (116 vs 124dB). The main difference is that the op-amps are user replaceable on the ZXR. They also use different DACs and headphone amps.

I take back the previous post about recording as both cards seem to have identical I/O.