Creative Sound Blaster Z SE Internal PCI-e Gaming Sound Card and DAC, 24-bit / 192 kHz, 116 dB SNR, ASIO, 600Ω Headphones Amp, Mic EQ, Discrete 5.1 / Virtual 7.1, Supports Dolby Digital Live, DTS …

Creative SoundBlaster Z SE is a PCI Express soundcard, the re - lease of the legendary Z card which was really popular in gaming circles. My first experience with audio cards was with the legendary ASUS Xonar DGX card (one the best cards for headsets, as well as headphones) which bought in 2017 seeing it on sale in a local popular PC shop in my country. After some time using it and hearing the native audio on my ASUS TUF Z370 PLUS Gaming (Realtek AC887 codec with TUF Custom) I eventually sold it, one of the reason for it was that driver support has by that time ended and the card was not really supported anymore since we all know that PCI Express soundcard market has shrunken considerably as of writing in early 2023. One the first things that I noticed after was that my headset at that time (Logitech G233 Prodigy) was not considerably loud with the motherboard soundcard on front ports of my PC, so the logical conclusion was to just simply plug it in back of the motherboard, well there's one thing that most people do not own or forget is that some of us like speakers also (proud owner of Z623 2.1 THX certified) which was hooked up on my back port. So I bought a wireless headset (Xbox Wireless Headset by Microsoft) to solve that problem, both I came to the conclusion that for those of us who game on our PC and sit close to the desk, that wireless headset are not ideal since they make compromises on sound quality and are prone to interferences of other devices such as our smartphones and wireless mice (if you do not own one I recommended 100%). So I bought the legendary Drop + EPOS PC38x and I was blown away with the sound quality and microphone communication that these puppies had, and the immersion in gaming as well as movies, both the same problem appeared again, my speakers were at the back of the motherboard (since they support only a headphone jack you cannot use a microphone through them, I could have I probably wouldn't' have bought a sound card), so since I have no love for adapters of any kind the decision was made to find a solution, and that solution was Z SE which I am glad that I came up with that idea. This sound card is the perfect solution for us who use a multi audio setup, since this card has a special port for headphones, microphone, speakers and also many more. The sound quality with this sound card is at least 50 to 65% better than my on board sound. The speakers are better and the headset is now just as like the manufacture wanted it to be. Sure I could have bought a DAC (I was an owner of G3 both it's more console oriented) both that would mean an additional cable and something to be at my desk, let alone updating the software and drivers of sound cards which was a hassle. The software that comes with this card is really great and you can simulate a discrete 5.1 on two speakers If you want to, while 7.1 that is available with headset option is automatic, which recognizes when you set it up and when you have not (a nice feature). The overall look of the card is really cool with the red color being the dominant and looking nice in my PC case. If you are somebody who uses speakers and headset together and does not have a motherboard which has multiple female ports of either 3.5mm or SPDIF for hooking up your speakers (Z623 are RCA or 3.5mm only) like mine, then this is an ideal investment since you get a better sound quality and forgot to mention is that you can also use the included equalizer and SBX profiles on speakers and headset together without any hassle, since you have button that you can change which device you want to hear, so no plugging and unplugging the headset and more. Creative you sure have outdone yourself, even if this sound card is just a refresh of you original one, and I am planning on using it as long as you support this product, recommended!

This is my first add-on soundcard, and the experience has been pretty good when paired with my Audio-Technica ATH-M50x, except for a few things that I had to work out. Will be keeping the card, as it is a good upgrade, but here is some good stuff to know. First Problem: The drive power coming from the headphone port of the card is extreme, especially if you have low-ohm headphones, so much so that (Without software modifications) I had to keep the volume on windows around 10% or below (Without modification), and I did slightly worry that one day I'll forget that volume is at 100% and my headphones will explode. My Solution: Turn on the equalizer, set it to flat/whatever you like, move the overall sound volume (In the equalizer pane on the left) all the way down to -12db. I can comfortably go up to 50% volume now, I do wish that up to -24db was an option to ensure my headset and ears are safe from volatile audio. Second Problem: When I got the firmware and the Sound Blaster Command software directly from the website at creative.com/support/SBZSE, it recognized the card immediately and everything was fine, until I decided to do a driver update from 6.0.102.75. The device stopped being recognized from the SBC application, but I still was able to pick up the device firmware in device manager. My Solution: I reinstalled the SBC application from the website, and that fixed the issue. Probably a app-firmware compatibility issue, no big deal for me, but this might be quite the headache for somebody less tech-savvy who got this card to immediately try to update, and find that it doesn't get recognized by the software for some reason. Maybe it will work on somebody else's computer, but for me doing an update caused a minor fixable firmware problem. Overall I do like this, and I find the included software pretty user-friendly, but the descriptions for the SBX profiles could be more technical in what surround, crystallizer, bass, smart vol and dialog+ do. I'll quickly describe what those settings do for me here, they are all essentially post-processing audio overlays: Surround makes noise more spatially oriented, it attempts to simulate a good surround sound speaker setup/interior environment. Crystallizer kind of sharpens the audio, which can be good or bad based on preference, based on what you listen to. Bass is pretty self explanatory, the deep beats being boosted, if your audio setup can handle it. Smart volume is a audio normalizer, it adjusts the audio range of what you are listening to to be more or less extreme. This is good for preventing large audio shifts in media on night setting, which I find very useful, because many YouTube videos and some musical pieces aren't normalized properly, and it is easy to get blasted by sound randomly. Dialog+ is just a equalizer/booster for the human vocal range at 350 to 3400hz, with a heavy focus on 400hz (I'm guessing) to make speech more audio-legible. This is a pretty nice feature, especially for some movies where the actors mumble/say things quietly. Also nice is the fact that you can turn those features on/off through SBC software, highly customizable. One last good feature I like, that I didn't know about is the scout mode. I have my scout mode set to ALT+CTRL+F12 for quick activation, and just program my Keychron V6 keyboard's extra buttons with VIA to have it activate on one press. It does enhance some of the frequencies associated with footsteps, and far-thrown noises to enhance audio spatial info, but the change is subtle. Good for when you need a little extra awareness in-game.

The first AE7 card I purchased was installed in a Dell Optiplex7000 with Windows 11 PRO. Playback from the music collection I have in the Media Player would break up every few minutes. To reestablish playback, I had to stop the playback and toggle the AE7 output then start the music again. My music collection files are not corrupted and the same issue occurs in the headphones, speaker and optical outputs on any song or music sound file. I requested and received RMA numbers from Creative Labs and returned the card. They returned a brand new replacement card (thank you) but unfortunately this card exhibited the very same problem; random playback breakup on any of the three possible outputs. I need this card for my current sound system configuration, so I have also purchased a Z SE card. I installed the Z SE card in the same Optipex7000 card slot were the AE7 card was. I downloaded and installed the Z SE drivers and the same Creative Labs Command app recognizes this card. This card plays back just fine with no audio breakup on headphones, speakers or optical feed to my AV Receiver. So, at this point I believe there is some compatibility issue with Creative Labs AE7 card working in the Optiplex7000 with Windows 11 PRO. Overall, The Z SE card sounds good, but I need more technical help than the quick start guides included with these cards can provide. There is no help for using the optical input on the Z SE card and I wonder why that input was not available on the AE7? I had issues getting audio signal on both the speaker line out connections and the SPDIF optical connection at the same time. Some emails back and forth with their support were answered quickly (thank you). I can get signal on both outputs now but cannot balance the levels. If they could nail down that issue I could give this Z SE card 5 stars.

still working strong I like that. Great buy would buy again if needed and have gotten a few friends to buy as well awesome cards!

For years, I assumed that the built-in sound on modern motherboards was "good enough," but the difference in sound quality between this card and the typical Realtek codec is simply striking! Almost unbelievable! I assumed something was wrong with my EPOS H6 Pro headphones until I plugged them into this card. This card's increase in undistorted volume alone is worth the price. I can hear parts of music tracks that were previously inaudible on these cans (the H6 Pro's) with motherboard audio. The only problem is that because I have multiple PCs, I'll need to buy more of these Sound Blaster Z SE cards!

a very good card but cause my pc not to boot once driver is installed i had to fight to get in the issue is highly likely because of secure boot my bios dose not have the option to disable it beware not all mother board supports this card definitely the ones tailor for windows 11 you can just forget bout this card if thats the case this card will work oin ten and Linux no issues but not on a motherboard tailored for 11 as you cant disable secure boot and 11 requires it unless you hack it and use a local account you can bypass that with rufus but not the secure boot in bios if it has no options but windows or other but ae pluss or better will work thats 80 more bucks these series will work so if it causes repeatly boot ups and try to go into repair and freeze its the driver dont panic take the card out send it back to amazon get a refund on gift card and just get the ae5 pluss you need to set the interrupt on it to help with swaping issues use a freeware to do this

It works, however if you use optical sound out, expect to not be able to fine tune sound through the Creative Software, which the user must create an account with and login each time.

I can't endorse this product for the purpose for which I bought it, which was simply to have 5.1 audio transmitted via toslink/spdif to my soundbar and surround speakers while gaming and watching movies on my PC. When I get Dolby Digital 5.1 to work via Creative's software, it sounds nice, and would work well for just audio, but there is about a 200ms lag between the video and the sound I am not an audiophile. However, a few google searches have indicated that this is to be expected with a sound card like this. I really think this product should advertise this expecation. If you wish to use the card for this purpose, the lag is unacceptable. My next goal will be to use an HDMI audio extractor and try to get sound that way. I hope it works.

Onboard ist zwar gut, aber irgendwann ist die Grenze erreicht und da muss was besseres her. Also gekauft, eingebaut, ich bin sehr zufrieden, hab mein System so eingerichtet, das Stufe 8 =stufe 20 ist, noch lauter und mir zerfezt es die Lautsprecher. Die Software dazu macht dann den Rest

Qualidade de som salta para outro nível.

good sound, much better than onboard sound.

Excellent card and software. Made my Beyerdynamic's pound like a show car's trunk.

Premium Sound Quality.