Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS with Sennheiser HD-650

[jbltecnicspro]

Okay,

So I've been using my HD-650s with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, and all has been well until I had to reinstall drivers after I reformatted Windows.  Creative, being the most user friendly manufacturer in the world, changed their support website so that I couldn't find the new Audigy 2/4 drivers that I used in the past.  I used the installation disk and installed the card - no problem.  Except this:  Changing the settings from 2.1 speakers to Headphones changes the sound quality in the output!  I don't have EAX or CMSS (simulated surround sound) enabled or any other post-audio effects that I'm aware of.  With the "headphone" setting, the bass is reduced slightly, and with the "2.1 channel speakers" setting - bass is a little on the heavy side.  As an "audiophile," this concerns me.  Is there no option to have a pure, flat signal output to my headphones?  Or for pure music enjoyment, is a Sound Blaster not the way to go?  By the way - I'm using the headphone setting, as I like it better, but if there's a way to have the sound card just do a pure, flat output - I'd love to find out how to do it.

EDIT:  I'm listening to Beatles "Rubber Soul" album, and it seems that image is smaller - as in hard-panned instruments aren't so far left and right as they were before the reformat.  It sounds like my headphone amp's crossfeed circuit (I'm not using the amp).  This is driving me nuts. 

[mace]

Okay,

So I've been using my HD-650s with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, and all has been well until I had to reinstall drivers after I reformatted Windows.  Creative, being the most user friendly manufacturer in the world, changed their support website so that I couldn't find the new Audigy 2/4 drivers that I used in the past.  I used the installation disk and installed the card - no problem.  Except this:  Changing the settings from 2.1 speakers to Headphones changes the sound quality in the output!  I don't have EAX or CMSS (simulated surround sound) enabled or any other post-audio effects that I'm aware of.  With the "headphone" setting, the bass is reduced slightly, and with the "2.1 channel speakers" setting - bass is a little on the heavy side.  As an "audiophile," this concerns me.  Is there no option to have a pure, flat signal output to my headphones?  Or for pure music enjoyment, is a Sound Blaster not the way to go?

Sorry. but no.

The soundblaster products up to audigy 2, although advertised as 24 bit 96 khz, are acutally always processing at 48 khz. The internal resampler is always on, meaning that whatever input you give it, it will always be resampled to 48 khz, and from there it is resampled to the output format you set. This means a audigy card is physically incapable of achieving bit-perfect playback.  Coupled with the terrible driver support of Creative, I really wonder how they have managed to stay in the market as the "premium" choice for so long.

I owned a audigy 2, and I've had excellent results with the KX drivers: http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/
Try installing those, they allow you to listen to music without all the frills and unnecessary crap creative does with the audio. It won't allow you to go around the 48khz limitation tho, because that is a harware limitation.

If you want a real soundcard, look at a m-audio or auzentech card.  If you can afford it, Onkyo makes a very very nice soundcard as well.

[jbltecnicspro]

Thanks for the information!  It really did help, but it made the sound card MUCH louder than before - I wonder why?  Oh well, it sounds better.    Thanks for the help.

[jbltecnicspro]

You know what's sad?  The headphone output of my 21-year-old CD player sounds more natural than the Sound Blaster's output. 

[Rhizome]

I owned a audigy 2, and I've had excellent results with the KX drivers: http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/

Unfortunately with those drivers, you lose a lot of EAX support.

Unless you intend to use EAX, stay clear from Creative.

[mace]

You know what's sad?  The headphone output of my 21-year-old CD player sounds more natural than the Sound Blaster's output. 

Well, the soundblaster is not really built for use with high-impedance headphones like the senn.
The senns are a 300 ohm headphones, this is not an easy load for the soundcard.
You will achieve much better results if you use a dedicated headphone amplifier with it.

If you have electronics skills, you can easily build your own, like the cmoy , which is a very nice amplifier to start with.
Alternatively, you can buy them pre-built on ebay for around 20~30 dollars. 

[jbltecnicspro]

I plan on getting a Headroom Micro Amp for them, and then I'll upgrade their cables later.  I have a Bithead amp from Headroom for my Sennheiser HD280pros (64ohms), and it's pretty good quality, but they can't drive my 650s that well. 

[Zemus]

http://creative.com/support/welcome.asp - this is Creative's driver support page. The auto update program should find the latest drivers for you unless you use some exotic setup.

Is there no option to have a pure, flat signal output to my headphones

Set to two speakers and center bass and treble in the mixer should do it. At least that's what RMAA tells me: http://audio.rightmark.org/products/rmaa.shtml

The soundblaster products up to audigy 2, although advertised as 24 bit 96 khz, are acutally always processing at 48 khz.

Well, you can run it in 96 kHz mode for recording and playback and 192 kHz for playback, but, yes, it'll resample everything else to 48 kHz.

[mace]

The soundblaster products up to audigy 2, although advertised as 24 bit 96 khz, are acutally always processing at 48 khz.

Well, you can run it in 96 kHz mode for recording and playback and 192 kHz for playback, but, yes, it'll resample everything else to 48 kHz.

Even then they resample internally to 48 KHz. 

[Zemus]

Proofs!