Again, once you hit the right balance with the checks and sliders, the technology suddenly makes sense. There was, however, a tendency to over-process in those modes initially, which can lead to a slightly robotic tone to your speach. For the most part audio came through as clear and crisp, with echo all-but eliminated. Crystal Voice works to filter unwanted noise and echo out of whatever microphone feed you pump through it, and worked pretty much as advertised when feeding it an input from my crappy old desk mic or the new Beamforming unit that ships with the Z (the angle adjustments were particularly useful here). The other, possibly more niche technologies are also well implemented, although your mileage may vary as to whether you'll find much use for them. It might be the audio equivalent of upscaling a DVD rather than popping in the Blu-Ray, but if you're listening through a normal pair of headphones or a less than mid-range set of speakers, it works wonders for the experience. The clarity of both music and vocals are massively improved when engaging its trickery, at the expense of virtually no discernible additional noise or artifacting. Firing up a bunch of 64 and 128kbps MP3 files from the depths of my ill-advised CD ripping session back in 2001, the effect of the Crystalizer in particular is impressive. In comparison to early generations of audio software, once you hit a sweet spot within Creative's suite of enhancements, there's a genuine improvement in audio quality.
Both Windows 7 and Windows 8 were tested during our session with the Z, and despite a re-install being necessary on Microsoft's newest OS, the Soundblaster software and drivers coped just fine in both.
The usual PCI Express format is utilised exclusively in this new range, and it'll sit happily in any PC with a 2.2GHz Core2 chip or above.
The Soundblaster Z comes boxed with a tiny, high quality "beamforming" microphone array that sits atop your monitor looking inconspicuous, and besides the manual and warranty information, that's your lot.
The Z series comes in three increasingly expensive flavours, of which the basic entry model is in our test machine today. If that means little to you (or you own a set of headphones or speakers that might not fit the bill), then it's probably also worth noting that Creative's updated studio software produces a whole load of digital magic that promises to make your audio sparkly no matter what source you throw at it (or device you connect to it). To do so they utilise high-end processing and hardware, including external DACs delivering 127dB signal-to-noise ratio, sockets for swappable Op-Amps, a high-end 80mW into 600 ohm headphone amplifier and 192kHz pass-through. 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.
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.