To me... sound sounds more muffled and "compacted", for lack of a better word. This is on an Audigy 2 ZS.

sure! ...and with the last drivers the colors of the audio console where much brighter and the sliders of the volume control felt much better! did you ever hear of a blind test?

Well... there's nothing wrong with my eyesight. So that would not work. Besides, that's why I said "to me". That's how I perceive it, you might think it sounds better. I realize that it's not an exact test in any way. I did match the settings treble/bass, CMSS and all other things that modify the sound. First to the exact same settings followed by trying to just make it sound as good as it can. It does sound more muffled, less spacial and generally worse. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Perhaps you also think that different Software Players sound different?