THE SOUND BLASTER Z SE

Just like with the original Sound Blaster Z the SE model features a very nice red aluminum EMI shield over its components.

This may not be very important to some people but mATX/mITX owners will be happy to learn that the Sound Blaster Z SE is less than 2/3s in size compared to other cards like the NU Audio Pro by EVGA (or the AE-7/9 models by Creative).

Again, thanks to a clear plastic section on the EMI shield we see the Sound Core3D heatsink.

A HD audio front panel connector is located at the rear of the card as seen above.

Unfortunately, since the Sound Blaster Z SE is considered an mid-range model it doesn't feature a backplate.

At the front we find the 3.5mm microphone/line-in port, 3.5mm headphone out port, three 3.5mm 5.1 line out ports and the TOSLINK (SPDIF) optical out/in ports.

Removing the EMI shield reveals the black PCB and its components.

Here we find the CA0113-4AG HDA bus controller, nichicon fine gold (FG) capacitors, 8416CN optical receiver and CS4398-CZZ digital to analogue converter (DAC) by Cirrus Logic and the JRC 2114 and 4556A op-amps.