Sound card recommendations
Windows 10, Sound Blaster Z. Had this card for 10 years and recently it started randomly mixing up the 5.1 channels while on desktop (usually happens when I'm pulling up the start menu). I fixed it each time by either setting the channels from 5.1 to 2.0 and back to 5.1, then realized simply selecting the playback speakers in the Sound dialog and closing the menu does the same thing. I wrote a script with a hotkey that does it for me automatically each time the channels mix up but I've had enough. Tried cleaning and reinstalling drivers but it keeps coming back, usually just once per boot.
Does Creative produce any sound cards that don't have this issue? From what I've researched, they all have either this problem or other major software issues. I prefer internals but open to external recommendations because I don't know of any internal cards better than the SBZ.
Cheers.