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Worth upgrading from a Audigy 2?

H

havok735

n00b
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
46
I have an Audigy 2 card that is basically the oldest thing in my system now and has made it through many upgrades without being touched.

Is there any reason to upgrade to a newer or better card?

Will it sound that much better or use less resources if I upgrade (currently the card is feeding a set of Z-5500s)?
 
Well, I play WoW mostly but it is my everything box. Basically I listen to music, play games , and watch movies on it.
 
Personally, I'd keep it for a while longer yet.

Audio hasn't changed much in the PC world as has the 3D market. Creative really tapped the capabilities of computer audio heavily when they designed the unique programmable controller of the Audigy series.

Other than some slightly better signal-noise ratio (which is already excellent with the Audigy 2), there isn't much more that has been done on the hardware side. The majority of changes has been in software.

X-Fi does have some very nice features, but it's not a significant step up over the Audigy 2 in my opinion. I'm waiting for PCI-E sound cards that have something truely ground breaking, but I'm not certain that the market is there yet. After all sound cards just don't tap the PCI bus enough to warrant the need for the faster bus at this time.

So save yourself some cabage (green) and keep what you've got.
 
I would also keep the Audigy 2. IMO, the only worthwhile things you're getting with the X-fi is the CMSS-3D headphone mode and EAX5 (and possibly the X-ram). Unless you think those things are worth shelling out 90+ for, I'd stick with the A2.
 
With my speakers... I found the move from the Audigy2zs to the XFi to be a worthwhile upgrade. VERY low noisefloor and everything sounds great. For your speakers, it's kind of a tossup. On the one hand, you get better noisefloor (lower) and better DACs without the resampling that Creative got sued for with the XFi.
 
strid3r said:
I would also keep the Audigy 2. IMO, the only worthwhile things you're getting with the X-fi is the CMSS-3D headphone mode and EAX5 (and possibly the X-ram). Unless you think those things are worth shelling out 90+ for, I'd stick with the A2.
Click to expand...

X-RAM is also currently only on the Fatal1ty model of the X-Fi, so that would be closer to shelling out 299, yaowich!
 
Pinipig523 said:
With my speakers... I found the move from the Audigy2zs to the XFi to be a worthwhile upgrade. VERY low noisefloor and everything sounds great. For your speakers, it's kind of a tossup. On the one hand, you get better noisefloor (lower) and better DACs without the resampling that Creative got sued for with the XFi.
Click to expand...

I'm currently in the market for a new audio board as well, and have been debating between the X-Fi and Audigy 2. From an audio standpoint, I believe the Audigy is a better card - at least on paper. I would much rather have the Audigy's 192KHz sampling rate vs. X-Fi at 96KHz. Given, the X-Fi has a higher SNR - but the difference it completely inaudible to the human ear. The X-Fi does have the latest and greatest bells and whistles comparatively, but I'm more out for the best SQ I can get. Mostly because this is my HTPC / Gaming rig, and DVD audio playback is more important to me.

Edit: For those interested, I found some hard numbers comparing the two:

Transistors:
X-FI 51,100,100
Audigy 4,600,100
Diff 11x

Logic Gates:
X-FI 1,613,658
Audigy 200,000
Difference 8X

Manufacturing Process:
X-FI 0.13-micron, 1.2V core
Audigy 0.18-micron, 1.8V core
Difference N/A

Clock Frequency:
X-FI 400MHz
Audigy 200MHz
Difference 2X

Processing:
X-FI 10,340 MIPS
Audigy 424+ MIPS
Difference 24.4X
 
DonMega2k said:
I'm currently in the market for a new audio board as well, and have been debating between the X-Fi and Audigy 2. From an audio standpoint, I believe the Audigy is a better card - at least on paper. I would much rather have the Audigy's 192KHz sampling rate vs. X-Fi at 96KHz. Given, the X-Fi has a higher SNR - but the difference it completely inaudible to the human ear. The X-Fi does have the latest and greatest bells and whistles comparatively, but I'm more out for the best SQ I can get. Mostly because this is my HTPC / Gaming rig, and DVD audio playback is more important to me.
Click to expand...
192KHz is only for stereo playback, not multichannel. The X-Fi will also playback DVD-A audio that is 192KHz stereo. Also, any DVD-A playback will only come out via analog due to copyright protection.

Besides, 96KHz is more than ample, being it can have audio info up to 48KHz freq response.

As for HTPC, dvd videos are only 48KHz samperates anyway. Plus if you want to resample up via hardware, the X-Fi is far superior. You can't resample DD/DTS encoded anyways without decoding and recoding.
 
Chastity said:
192KHz is only for stereo playback, not multichannel. The X-Fi will also playback DVD-A audio that is 192KHz stereo. Also, any DVD-A playback will only come out via analog due to copyright protection.

Besides, 96KHz is more than ample, being it can have audio info up to 48KHz freq response.

As for HTPC, dvd videos are only 48KHz samperates anyway. Plus if you want to resample up via hardware, the X-Fi is far superior. You can't resample DD/DTS encoded anyways without decoding and recoding.
Click to expand...

Well put, thanks for the info. I'm not privy to the actual sample rates of DVD source material, obviously ;) Ultimately what I'd like to see is -zero- resampling to get the output as close to source as possible between my PC and receiver. I wish I could send all my PC output through optical and let the big boy do the work, but I don't see that happening any time soon. To me, the X-Fi just looks like a lot of extra processing provided to give hte illusion of quality sound.
I keep hearing about the EMU1212 and am going to have to reasearch that a bit. I may be running dual-cards in the near future, X-FI for gaming and an EMU or Julia for Audio. Again, still something I really need to research more.
 
Ok, just looked up the Creative EMU-1212. I will be purchasing one. 1/4" Balanced inputs is gooood juju for me when I'm recording my DJ sets and making mix tapes. Coupled with some quality DACs as well, I'm impressed. honestly can't believe Creative makes the damn thing. I'm good to go then. X-FI for gaming and the 1212 for everything else.
 
If you are interested in getting both cards, why not get the Elite Pro then? You get the quality components as the 1212M, but you get it on 7.1 analog unbalanced outputs instead of just stereo. Plus you get all the gaming support, and the 64M XRAM, and the external breakout box with optical and coax I/O. Sounds just as good or better than using my external receiver via SPDIF, and I get the quality when doing multichannel gaming.
 
Isn't the Elite Pro going to be subject to the same post-processing as the X-Fi though? Or is there a 'Pure Direct' type mode that will bypass all that and output the raw signal? Looking at the specs on Creative's site right now. I see it has the ASIO, which is good. But are they literally the same, or better, DACs?
 
not to hijack but I have an Audigy 2 related question. I see most people mention the ZS model and when I purchaced my Audigy 2 I thought it was a ZS. However, the card only says Audigy 2 and lacks gold connections and a firewire port.

Is this still a decent sound card?
 
DonMega2k said:
Isn't the Elite Pro going to be subject to the same post-processing as the X-Fi though? Or is there a 'Pure Direct' type mode that will bypass all that and output the raw signal? Looking at the specs on Creative's site right now. I see it has the ASIO, which is good. But are they literally the same, or better, DACs?
Click to expand...
1) The X-Fi in non-bitperfect modes use resampling, but the resampling is rated at -136dB, so it's damn good. Better than software SSRC. The card in Audio Creation mode also supports bitperfect output. When playing HT audio, like DVD's, it's already 16/48, so it won't resample in any mode.

2) The DACs on the Elite Pro are the CS4398 (x4) for 8-channels. This is the same DAC as the 1212M / 1820M. It also has the same ADC as the 1212M, if you do any recording.
 
CRXican said:
not to hijack but I have an Audigy 2 related question. I see most people mention the ZS model and when I purchaced my Audigy 2 I thought it was a ZS. However, the card only says Audigy 2 and lacks gold connections and a firewire port.

Is this still a decent sound card?
Click to expand...
That would be an OEM Audigy2. I remember that there may be some component differences from the Retail A2. The A2ZS would have some better components.
 
Chastity said:
That would be an OEM Audigy2. I remember that there may be some component differences from the Retail A2. The A2ZS would have some better components.
Click to expand...
I see, good enough for gaming I guess.

I LOVE music and I'm using onboard sound :eek: I'm not really an audiophile as I listen to loud angry music or hip hop most times (not really going to hear individual instruments and such).

Would the AV-710 improve my music listening experience? I have the Altec Lansing MX5021 speakers. Also, what about headphones for the types of music I mentioned?
 
Use the rear outputs in Hi-Res mode on the AV-710 for stereo output.

The Beyer DT-770 would be for the bass lover in YUO!
 
I have an Audigy 2 ZS..I bought the X-FI....Used it for 1 day and sold it....
The difference was NOT worth the money...

Thats my.02....
 
Chastity said:
Use the rear outputs in Hi-Res mode on the AV-710 for stereo output.

The Beyer DT-770 would be for the bass lover in YUO!
Click to expand...
Wow, those headphones look sexy and that's a reasonable price. I have never experienced a decent set of headphones and wouldn't mind treating myself.

I'm not as much of a bass lover as I used to be. These won't make guitars sound muddy will they?
 
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