• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Alternatives to Creative products?

sitheris

sitheris

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2004
Messages
1,787
I'm simply fed up with Creative's technical support (or lack thereof), and their shoddy products.

Are there any good alternative brands for quality 5.1 sound cards?
 
Hercules Guillemot Digifire 7.1
Hi-Tech HDA X Mystique.
Turtle Beach Montego DDL

A lot of this depends on if you are wanting optical 5.1 or can accept "3 headphone plugs"
 
I'm not interested in digital audio/optical, etc. I'm happy with my logitech 5.1 analog speakers. So there's that.

Keep suggestions coming :)
 
sitheris said:
I'm not interested in digital audio/optical, etc. I'm happy with my logitech 5.1 analog speakers. So there's that.

Keep suggestions coming :)
Click to expand...

Then the guillemot is a great card. Very low performance impact, and quite economical.
I have one, and it's great in my HTPC (my receiver has run out of optical inputs between the DVR I have, and my Progressive scan dvd/vcr combo device)
 
sitheris said:
I'm simply fed up with Creative's technical support (or lack thereof), and their shoddy products.

Are there any good alternative brands for quality 5.1 sound cards?
Click to expand...

The M-audio Revo is a good card for a nice sounding surround setup. The Bass management in particular is excellent.
 
sitheris said:
I'm simply fed up with Creative's technical support (or lack thereof), and their shoddy products.

Are there any good alternative brands for quality 5.1 sound cards?
Click to expand...

What is the expected application? What material and speakers will be used?
 
For pure sound quality, the Revolution series from M-Audio is going to be better than those DDL soundcards popping up, like the cards from HiTeC and Turtle Beach. Another good option is the Prodigy 7.1 and 5.1 from Audiotrak, or the Aureon series from Terratec.
 
GodsMadClown said:
What is the expected application? What material and speakers will be used?
Click to expand...

I mostly play World of Warcraft and listen to music at the same time. My speakers are some analog 5.1 logitechs, though I forget the model
 
Well I just bought an Audigy 2 ZS but I'm having issues with it and thinking of returning it. Before that I was using the Realtek onboard sound from my VNF4 Ultra
 
I probably won't buy chaintech as my first choice...my original video card (6600gt) was chaintech and it crapped out on me and I had to replace it. My MB is chaintech also, I've had my fingers crossed hoping that doesn't follow suit.

I guess this is what I get for wanting to build my first computer...nothing but problems :(
 
dont worry man, first computers always have some sort of snag. my first computer that i built...i couldnt get the USB headers right because my fat fingers are retarded.
 
I'll give you a nice little history of this machine so far which I built in February:

First bad thing to happen was the Chaintech 6600GT getting fried. No problem, I replaced it (and went without my computer for 3 weeks while Newegg processed the RMA).

Next, the LED wiring in my case went. I was sitting at my computer playing WoW and all of a sudden SMOKE starts rolling out of my case. I immediately power off the computer. I open it up, and I didn't see anything unusual...until I noticed the wires leading to the front of the case had the casing melted off. I yanked off the front panel and cut out all the wires that had gone bad (they were only for cosmetic things).

Now I'm having problems with this stupid soundblaster :/

not to mention when I built the thing it took me 3 days to figure out how to get it to power up. (Realized I had some wires mixed up).
 
I know these cards sound much better than the ZS, but give you a performance hit over a ZS as well. Will this even be a hit worth meantioning... in a system like mine below (3700+ and 6800GT), or will the effect be so negligable you might as well ditch the ZS and get a cheaper sweet sounding card?
 
n64man120 said:
I know these cards sound much better than the ZS, but give you a performance hit over a ZS as well. Will this even be a hit worth meantioning... in a system like mine below (3700+ and 6800GT), or will the effect be so negligable you might as well ditch the ZS and get a cheaper sweet sounding card?
Click to expand...

I don't think the perforamnce hit is there to a very big degree. The one review I have seen on the Hi-Tech HDA X Mystique showed about 0% CPU usage.......and it has a Dolby Digital Real-Time encoder.
 
See my newly created sig for my system. I don't think it will make much of a difference.
 
I'm interested in an alternative as well, but with the caveat of good XP64.

I wish more cards supported speakers & headphones at the same time like the Santa Cruz did...

I'd need 5.1 for games...but usually I spend my time listening to music.
 
Spectre said:
I don't think the perforamnce hit is there to a very big degree. The one review I have seen on the Hi-Tech HDA X Mystique showed about 0% CPU usage.......and it has a Dolby Digital Real-Time encoder.
Click to expand...

I'm not looking to spend $100 bucks however or I'd be all over that. I'm not hardcore audio with a $500 setup, but I do have $100 headphones and $100 speakers and I like crisp clear music... however at the same time I game alot.

What exactly does Audigy have over Santa Cruz and all those in gaming? Just takes bit of load off processor and give you a little bit more fps? Or is there more to it?
 
Marduk said:
I'm interested in an alternative as well, but with the caveat of good XP64.

I wish more cards supported speakers & headphones at the same time like the Santa Cruz did...

I'd need 5.1 for games...but usually I spend my time listening to music.
Click to expand...

You can just get a splitter and plug both of em in at the same time. I used to do this with my Audigy 2ZS and had my speakers and headphones plugged in at the same time. If I was using the headphones, I'd just turn the volume knob down on the speakers.
 
n64man120 said:
What exactly does Audigy have over Santa Cruz and all those in gaming? Just takes bit of load off processor and give you a little bit more fps? Or is there more to it?
Click to expand...

Audigy and Audigy 2 series have hardware support for EAX 1 - 4. Other cards like the Santa Cruz usually only have support for up to EAX 2 in software, and I believe that's only in software, someone correct me if I'm wrong. That's where the performance hit comes in.
 
Anyone else have input? So Audigy2ZS coudl do this EAX4... but others can only do EAX2. And others pull processing power to accomplish this... is it even noticiable on a high end system... or too negligable to matter
 
My experience with Creative has generally been good, however, they really do dick you about with drivers. They really are a pain in the arse to to get right sometimes; and it doesn't help that Creative contradict themselves on their OWN site!! Still unable to get the latest drivers installed. Tricky. Not sure what to recommend, but I'd probably be looking elsewhere if I were you.
 
n64man120 said:
Anyone else have input? So Audigy2ZS coudl do this EAX4... but others can only do EAX2. And others pull processing power to accomplish this... is it even noticiable on a high end system... or too negligable to matter
Click to expand...

The performance hit or EAX in general? :)

I doubt you will notice any slowdown with a modern processor and video card.
 
alright, if theres not a significant hit on today software (which i highly doubted)... whats difference between getting one of these "good sounding" cards for 30$ that do EAX2 i think sum1 said? Or an Audigy 2ZS that will do EAX4?

What exactly is it and why does it matter and whats difference
 
n64man120 said:
alright, if theres not a significant hit on today software (which i highly doubted)... whats difference between getting one of these "good sounding" cards for 30$ that do EAX2 i think sum1 said? Or an Audigy 2ZS that will do EAX4?

What exactly is it and why does it matter and whats difference
Click to expand...

Some people like EAX, so why not get more frames while using it? I mean, for a gamer, wouldn't that be the goal? And it's not like the Audigy 2 sounds bad, you can get the Value card for like 45 shipped, not that much more than a "good sounding" card. Personally, I thought my Audigy 2ZS sounded better than the Chaintech AV-710, but I am probably in the minority.
 
So... what's the consensus? What would you guys rather have? Eax support in games? or would it be better passing the digital signal with a hda-x or soundstorm and let it pass DD to your reciever for surround? (with games that support it of course) wouldn't you be forced to go analog if you want to use Eax? Personally.. I never heard much of a difference in all the Eax's (but I may have been on crap speakers). I only have 2 studio monitors hooked up at the moment so I can't test which surround mode is better... so does anyone have a soundstorm or hda-x connected with the digital outs "and" have all speakers connected?
 
CrimandEvil said:
Another suggestion would be an AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1.
Click to expand...


Good Morning Everyone:

First time posting here but I wanted to say that Audiotrak does not make that card anymore. They have replaced it with Prodigy 7.1 LT. It does not used Sensaura but uses Qsound driver technology and supports up to EAX 2. I am also considering using this card instead of Creative for Gaming. All the reviews I have seen in forums say this card is good for Music and DVD but for games, gamers would not like it because it does not support EAX 4 and it uses more CPU cycles than Audigy 2 ZS. I think if you have a high frequency CPU then you probably will not notice fps hits while playing games and as for EAX 4, huh, I think if Creative did not monopolize the sound card industry, you would see more options. If I was a game developer knowing that this company not only produces sound card but uses a technology, that it has created for games but doesnt share, would personally not develop games using that platform because it kills compitition and like all companies that monopolizes things (Intel CPU, OS and Software), they can sell their consumers anything because they know they have the market and there is no where for the consumers to turn except to them. I am glad soundcards from BlueGear and Audiotrak are trying to enter the soundcard industry with something other than Creative. It would be nice if a third party would produce sound card technology like chipset makers such as VIA, SIS, ALI Magic, ATI and Nvidia and sell them vendors. That way things are on a equal playing field and vendors can produces their product and we, the consumers judge which products are good and what arent.

My two cents

Kmat :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top