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How's the Audigy 2 value?
- Thread starter SofaKing
- Start date
Pinipig523
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2004
- Messages
- 1,742
Never had first hand experience with the 710, how is it for games? I dont it decodes eax, though, right?
I would say the cpu hit would be equal to about 10 to 15 fps on the envy cards as opposed to creative. Whether or not that too much of a hit depends on other factors (CPU processing power, video card, etc..). With my system it doesn't bother me at all.
The only differences I can see from the specs between the Audigy 2zs and the value are a lower SNR, and no firewire support.
The only differences I can see from the specs between the Audigy 2zs and the value are a lower SNR, and no firewire support.
GodsMadClown
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2002
- Messages
- 3,112
Mister X said:Now tell them the rest of the story.
The wolfsen DAC it's only really functionally availible for 2-channel listening via a special Hi-Res bypass mode. The VIA DACs on the other 6 channels are underwhelming. Is that the "story" you were hinting at?
Ever watch DVDs? or how about playing an audio CD? hey what about running 5.1 speakers? oh and what about their problem with having to suck up about 10% of your PCI bus even when IDLE (which sound cards arent idle that much, but still) Oh and what about the screech of death? not to mention the other problems in the link I posted?Mister X said:
Creative labs stuff sucks plain and simple. I used to love them till I started having trouble, and it has been one long nightmare. (read: YEARS)
The Creative comparison says the A2 Value is the same as the A2 Zs.SofaKing said:
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2value/compare.asp
I would say the Value and ZS are the same card, minus Firewire, perhaps slightly cheaper components for the 2dB difference in SNR and lack of support for decoding DTS in the drivers.
Yes but not on my computer.LadyJaqie said:
Yes but not on my computer.LadyJaqie said:
Yea... I have some Klipsh ultras hooked up to my PCLadyJaqie said:
What is your point?
Show me, don't tell me what someone else wrote.... especially when that someone wrote that thread over two years ago.LadyJaqie said:
How many of the points brought up in the thread you linked can you confirm are real world issues with the Audigy 2 cards?
The squeal of death was fixed almost two years ago with a driver update and a BIOS update for the machines that had the problem.LadyJaqie said:
How about you spend some time reading reading a few of the threads posted in this section and see if anything listed in the link you provided is a vaild issue?LadyJaqie said:
If the Creative cards still had all of those problems this section would be nothing but page after of page of threads about them wouldn't it?
LadyJaqie said:
What would you suggest as an alternative then?
Do you feal rained on?LadyJaqie said:
Anyone that had a first Gen live card went through hell with it..... but does that mean that all Creative cards suck?
Isn't that kinda like saying all ATI cards suck cause my Mach64 was a piece of crap or saying all Abit boards suck cause I had some caps leak on a BP6?
In reply to:
Yea, that was kinda my point.SofaKing said:
As far as I have noticed just looking at the boxes the value card doesnt have the gold plated connectors on it. And the ZS can put out .2 more decibles than the sb value card.
I dont know the software specifics or the hardware specifics but the whole 24 bit conversion and 16 bit conversion I am not going to notice that difference anyway. I just want a card that doesnt run off of my motherboard as part of its own hardware, and doesnt suck cpu processes away from shit im doing.
I cant recall which feature wasn't on the value box and I dont really understand the purpose of the firewire connection... color me stupid. I think ill go to creatives site and read what the differences are.
Sounds like most of you know your stuff and dont know your stuff. As far as a car sucking up all of the pci bus on my machine... But I dont have any pci cards...I have a processor, ram, an agp graphics card and built in lan... So if it slows down my internet connection when I get my Audigy 2 zs ill let you know.
I dont know the software specifics or the hardware specifics but the whole 24 bit conversion and 16 bit conversion I am not going to notice that difference anyway. I just want a card that doesnt run off of my motherboard as part of its own hardware, and doesnt suck cpu processes away from shit im doing.
I cant recall which feature wasn't on the value box and I dont really understand the purpose of the firewire connection... color me stupid. I think ill go to creatives site and read what the differences are.
Sounds like most of you know your stuff and dont know your stuff. As far as a car sucking up all of the pci bus on my machine... But I dont have any pci cards...I have a processor, ram, an agp graphics card and built in lan... So if it slows down my internet connection when I get my Audigy 2 zs ill let you know.
LadyJaqie said:
That article old (circa 2002) and is based on old technology, both the SoundBlaster Live! and the SoundBlaster Audigy. The Live! information is now only pertinent for older VIA chipset mainboards, and its audio quality is sufficiently beneath the Audigy and Audigy 2 cards that I can't see anyone making it their purchase. As for the original Audigy, yes, the card only did 24 bits internally. This was a bit misleading on Creative's part, though reviews of their card were straight up about this to anyone who read them.
I'm not saying I like Creative; some of their tactics have been dodgy in the past. However, the Audigy 2 does do full 24-bit 96KHz sound, and the reasons listed above no longer apply if you are purchasing an Audigy 2. Unfortunately, if you want low CPU usage in games, the only current setups that provide Directsound hardware acceleration are the Creative cards, or the NForce2 Ultra chipset's onboard SoundStorm audio, found only on NForce2 Ultra mainboards. The Chaintech card is a good choice for MP3 audio and watching movies, provided you stick to using the 2-channel output with the Wolfson DAC; in this regard its sound quality is higher than the Audigy 2's. However, if you want 5.1 or higher surround sound, or gaming is your primary focus, the Audigy 2 wins, plain and simple. I ended up picking up an OEM one for $40 on Ebay including shipping, a better buy than the Value because it includes the ports the Value edition misses at a lower price.
Still pertinent today. I got the squeal of death with my card just a few weeks ago. again, with newest drivers. I got so sick of it I finally took it out. check a bit deeper on the winamp forums you will find that the problems are still pertinent for current cards...Mister X said:Show me, don't tell me what someone else wrote.... especially when that someone wrote that thread over two years ago.
all. especially for the audigy 2 NX.
Really? I'm still having it, or was, till about a week ago when I finally removed the card from my system.
how about you pull your head out your butt and read what I said? that *I* said *I* have been having these problems for years continuousoly myself?
oh, so you are telling me everyone has a system level pci bus utilization monitoring program they run all the time? I know I don't, but I do know that its eating that bandwidth, or more precisely, was. I also got the creech of death, and random crashes when running audio files. who knows how many people think this is caused by something else?
Maybe an nForce2 board w/ builtin soundstorm or some of the offbrand audio codes that are popping up? some are actually testing out to be pretty good quality. I was thinking of getting a turtle beach for my own use.
feal? huh? what does that mean? learn to spell.
No, I feel like someone that didn't even bother to read about what I posted or read deeply into what I was speaking about decided to try to make me look bad, and failed miserably. good job. not.
again you didn't even bother to read my post, or into the meaning of it.
No, it isn't.
i really don't get why a lot of people are having problems with creative cards. i've had them all. on different chipsets/mobos. sb live! platinum, audigy platinum, audigy 2 platinum & audigy 2 zs platinum. never had a problem even once. right now, i even have the audigy 2 zs and an m-audio revolution 7.1 on the same computer. not a single problem.
Maybe an nForce2 board w/ builtin soundstorm or some of the offbrand audio codes that are popping up? some are actually testing out to be pretty good quality. I was thinking of getting a turtle beach for my own use.
--> are you serious? lol! soundstorm is total crap. yes i tried it. using the optical out to my receiver. now for the turtlebeach, maybe 3 years ago it was good. but if you compare it to today's cards, it's crap.
--> are you serious? lol! soundstorm is total crap. yes i tried it. using the optical out to my receiver. now for the turtlebeach, maybe 3 years ago it was good. but if you compare it to today's cards, it's crap.
Screech?
Continuously?
Built in?
Codecs?
LadyJaqie said:
Has anyone ever told you about throwing stones when you live in a glass house?
How about you afford me and the other members of this forum the same consideration?LadyJaqie said:
Let me demonstrate how someone having their head up their butt got us here to begin with:
The title of this thread is :
How's the Audigy 2 value?
You reply by posting a link to a outdated thread that has nothing to do with said card.
Then you took this reply ----->
(which was not even targeted at you) used the first sentance out of context, quoted it.... and then replied to it.
LadyJaqie said:I feel like someone that didn't even bother to read about what I posted or read deeply into what I was speaking about decided to try to make me look bad, and failed miserably. good job. not.
Don't feal rained on cause you are not the only one here that feels that way.
Except for one thing..... you didn't have to read deeply
into what I posted cause it was pretty obvious what I was talking about. LadyJaqie said:
Is said card an Audigy2 value or Audigy2 ZS card?
If not how does that apply here?
Now the bullshit has been dealt with...... let's get back on topic here OK?
I apologize. I should not have even posted in the situation I was in. Ive been having some rl issues and I was very emotionally charged. there was no excuse for my behaviour. my opinions / views I still stand behind but my behaviour was uncalled for. reading my own post I can't believe what I said and how I said it. I am very sorry.
LadyJaqie said:
Just curious...why are you looking at an external? And, do you have USB 2.0 on your system? I don't know your specs, but I probably wouldn't get this card if I didn't have a USB 2 port to plug it in. This isn't from experience; I just like a cushion and would rather have more than 12Mbps bandwidth for an external sound card. That, and the use of a USB port will likely cause higher CPU usage than a standard PCI card. If you have a laptop, the NX makes sense...but if you have a desktop, I'd look for an internal card.
For the record, the only Creative cards I've had issues with were my AWE32 (which was mainly a matter of getting the right drivers, and DOS recognition at the time which we no longer have to deal with) and the first-gen PnP AWE32/SoundBlaster32 cards, which weren't as much the hardware's fault as much as early quirks in the drivers an PnP of Windows 95. I did have an SB Live! with my Abit KT7-RAID, and was fortunate enough not to have issues. I've owned almost every major Creative card since the SoundBlaster 1.5 (including the Pro, 16, AWE32, Live!, Audigy, and now Audigy 2). I'd really be interested in knowing if there's another common denominator among people having "squeal" problems, such as a weak/faulty PSU or other piece of hardware with poor RF shielding, or a mainboard with some crosstalk issues on the PCI bus.
I've never had a problem with WinAmp and either the Audigy I once owned (got rid of when I went to SoundStorm) or the Audigy 2 I bought to take over from the SoundStorm and now the NForce3 onboard audio. What's your full system configuration?
I have the Audigy2 NX, and I think its pretty solid, after you get the Norton AV issues sorted out. I use it to power my Altec Lansing 5100's (5.1) I don't get any of the screeching crap, or anything out of the ordinary. I don't do any sound recording with it. So I cant comment on that.
The optical Line in and Out is a nice option (If you have a use for it).
I've never had any problems with it. And the remote is a nice feature...I don't really use it, but sometimes I use it to turn off my computer from my bed if I cant sleep with it on.
I agree that you don't really need the NX for a desktop, I might transfer it over to my HTPC when I get around to making that.
On a side note I have 3 sound cards in this thing. Onboard one is disabled, but I use a SB Live Value! for its gameport with no issues.
The optical Line in and Out is a nice option (If you have a use for it).
I've never had any problems with it. And the remote is a nice feature...I don't really use it, but sometimes I use it to turn off my computer from my bed if I cant sleep with it on.
I agree that you don't really need the NX for a desktop, I might transfer it over to my HTPC when I get around to making that.
On a side note I have 3 sound cards in this thing. Onboard one is disabled, but I use a SB Live Value! for its gameport
with no issues.