X-Fi XtremeMusic vs Audigy 2

H

havok735

n00b
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
46
So, right now I have a Soundblaster Audigy 2 in my PC and now that you can get the Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic for less than $100 locally, is it worth the upgrade?

Is there really that much of a difference between the two?
 
Unless you're some sort of audiophile I gotta think no. From the reviews I've read the price isn't worth the "performance" increase. Maybe it's worth the sound quality increase, but again... audiophile? :p
 
i'm gonna say that i bet 99% of people that have gone from an Audigy2 to a X-Fi can tell no difference in performance or sound quality, but what they tell people to "justify" their grossly overpriced and overhyped purchase is probably that it's "totally worth it and made a huge difference"

lol
 
I actually have to agree here ( a bit ). If your main focus in upgrading is gaming, then you're likely not the type of person to hear a significant difference, unless you're a crystallizer/feature freak. Differences in audio, in general, just seem fairly subtle to me, when you compare what's good with what's better (whereas in video such as graphics cards, anyone with eyes can tell the difference between what's good and what's better unless you're comparing antialiasing levels higher than 8x.
 
Let me clear things a little bit.
The difference between Audigy 2 and X-fi is BIG. The problem is that if you have some cheap pc speakers you may not be able to experience it. Now, saying there is no difference is with all due respect, very silly and is the kind of comment that hurts forums like these as people wont know what to believe anymore.
One important thing to add. If you dont have good sound system but like to play using headphones then by all means get the X-FI as you wont believe how good the 5.1 field it creates is. You can really hear things way behind you unlike all the 5.1 headphones I bought before getting an X-FI.
Regards
 
shaolin95 said:
Let me clear things a little bit.
The difference between Audigy 2 and X-fi is BIG. The problem is that if you have some cheap pc speakers you may not be able to experience it. Now, saying there is no difference is with all due respect, very silly and is the kind of comment that hurts forums like these as people wont know what to believe anymore.
One important thing to add. If you dont have good sound system but like to play using headphones then by all means get the X-FI as you wont believe how good the 5.1 field it creates is. You can really hear things way behind you unlike all the 5.1 headphones I bought before getting an X-FI.
Regards
Click to expand...


Well, I have Logitech 5500s for my speakers and only use headphones for Ventrilo so I don't care to much about that sound. Honestly, I bet you can tell the difference, but it isn't really overwhelming in WoW or anything like that.
 
shaolin95 said:
Let me clear things a little bit.
The difference between Audigy 2 and X-fi is BIG. The problem is that if you have some cheap pc speakers you may not be able to experience it. Now, saying there is no difference is with all due respect, very silly and is the kind of comment that hurts forums like these as people wont know what to believe anymore.
One important thing to add. If you dont have good sound system but like to play using headphones then by all means get the X-FI as you wont believe how good the 5.1 field it creates is. You can really hear things way behind you unlike all the 5.1 headphones I bought before getting an X-FI.
Regards
Click to expand...

You probably just shouldn't have joined [H] forums. It's really a horrible place with bad advice so move on. I hear the Creative forums are a great place to praise the greatness of the X-Fi. It is really a bargain, after all.
 
WhyYouLoveMe said:
You probably just shouldn't have joined [H] forums. It's really a horrible place with bad advice so move on. I hear the Creative forums are a great place to praise the greatness of the X-Fi. It is really a bargain, after all.
Click to expand...

You are suggesting I go to the MOST baised forums? That makes sense...
 
i'm just being honest here, i truly don't think 99% of people would ever be able to tell the difference, good speakers or not, put the Audigy2 hooked up to the same set of speakers as an X-Fi and do a blind test in a room, and i bet you $$ nobody is going to say, "oh yeah, that's definately the X-Fi"
 
i cant really tell much difference between on board and the audigy ZS . in battle field 2 i can hear it but i guess most of the time i play with crappy head phones cuz i also use ventrilo.i got it cuz it was 30 bucks.
 
I have Klipsch RF-35s and the Audigy 2 and X-Fi. There are much better ways of spending your money for sound. Consumer sound cards are getting so good that you would be hard pressed to hear the difference from alot of the pro gear out there. Go out and buy some new speakers. They will make much more of a difference.
 
tvdang7 said:
i cant really tell much difference between on board and the audigy ZS . in battle field 2 i can hear it but i guess most of the time i play with crappy head phones cuz i also use ventrilo.i got it cuz it was 30 bucks.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I'm getting at. Most people set up their rigs with things like these, and so it matters very little what sound card you have.

I have a Revo 5.1 -> M^3 - > DT880s, but that's because now I can appreciate music more and I've trained my ears more than before, but back when I didn't care much for it, I can almost say that I wouldn't have heard any difference with my common setup, even if I tried.
 
I am able to tell between the 2. The XFi definitely has a lower noise flloor and sounds overall cleaner than the Audigy2zs. However, my speakers are pretty unreal.

Take it for what it's worth.... a speaker upgrade may yield better results.
 
I would say that if you are just looking for game performance, stick with the Audigy2 ZS. It can do up to EAX 4.0 and is no slouch in games. While the Audigy2 ZS is also somewhat good with music, I can’t imagine that the X-Fi isn’t better. The highest-end X-Fi even has the same DAC’s as in my EMU 0404, which is a pro recording card. In my box I have the digital output from my audigy2 going to the digital input on my 0404 in order to take advantage of those better DACs, but for a single card solution where you need good game support AND good sounding music, the X-Fi is going to be hard to beat.
 
nobody_here said:
i'm gonna say that i bet 99% of people that have gone from an Audigy2 to a X-Fi can tell no difference in performance or sound quality, but what they tell people to "justify" their grossly overpriced and overhyped purchase is probably that it's "totally worth it and made a huge difference"

lol
Click to expand...

wow! let me clear your head for a bit. by saying that you just made me realize that even if you buy a 200$ headphone your ears arent going to diffrenciate between a 200$ headphone and a 40$ headphone.

the diffrence between X-fi and audigy 2 / ZS is big. better music quality , better soundstage provided that a nice headphone is attached to the headphone port. You have to use it to see the diffrence. its hard to explain exactly how X-fi is diffrent from audigy 2.
 
swatX said:
better music quality , better soundstage provided that a nice headphone is attached to the headphone port
Click to expand...

For general consumers, that's always the kicker, isn't it?
 
OK I am purchasing an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. It should be here in less than a week. I plan to also purchase a X-Fi (eventually, I'll probably try re-selling my Audigy 2 ZS for the same price I paid for it). I have Sennheiser HD 595 headphones. Once I can hear the difference I will post a comparison thread of my own.

What I can say is that no matter what sound card you get, you won't notice a significant difference with cheap headphones. I'd think you need at least Sennheiser HD 555 quality headphones or better to hear a good difference. The better your headphones, the more of a difference in sound.

Hopefully I'll be happy with my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. I'm upgrading from on-board sound / Sound Blaster Live! 5.1. At least I can say I paid ~$55 less for my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum than I would for a X-Fi with an I/O drive.
 
I am 99% sure I wouldent notice a difference... well, since I use the optical out to an external dac with kernel streaming of course ;)

but ya in theory the X-Fi does have nicer DACs than the Audigy2... so if you have nice headphones/sound system you might notice the difference but honestly, I kinda doubt it
 
FLECOM said:
Iwell, since I use the optical out to an external dac with kernel streaming
Click to expand...

Heh. Nice one. If you could notice a difference under those circumstances, I'd call placebo.
 
Cyrilix said:
Heh. Nice one. If you could notice a difference under those circumstances, I'd call placebo.
Click to expand...

I agree, they are both bit-perfect digital out IIRC so unless there is some difference in the magical "jitter"
 
A friend of mine has the X-fi with 64mb of ram on it and he let me try it out with a HDDVD, MP3 and gaming. To be honest I tried to be nice with him and just said it sounded nice. But in fact I could not tell a single difference between it and my $30 headphones plus Audigy2.

But if audio is encoded to work with X-fi you can tell the difference (Quakecon2005). X-fi has some nice 3d emulation, but if the audio isn’t encoded to work with X-fi, you wont hear the difference.

I don't think that I will jump on X-fi until generation 2 or 3. Right now the amount of games that support X-fi and HOW THEY SUPPORT x-fi just doesn’t warrant the $200-400 upgrade to me.
 
If you are playing games using headphone it is realy worth to buy X-Fi , with big difference
but I'm not impressed with Crystalizer feature it doesn't make MP3 sound better than original CD,,

Infact, you can get crystalizer effect using Audigy2 zs Apps , just by Tweaking the Graphical Equilizer to boost the highs and add Bass Boost feature (available in 2.1, 4.1, headphone Config), and crank the volume That set,, :eek:
 
lets also look at the voice count that the X-Fi has compared to on-board or the ZS. The X-Fi can play 128 hardware voices compared to 64 on the ZS and 16 or 32 on your typical motherboard solution. Which means that if 128 people were standing in a circle around you while you were using an X-Fi, and they all fired their gun at the same time, you would hear every single one positioned in 3D. On a ZS? Half would drop out. And at least 3/4 wouldnt play if you were using a motherboard solution.

Now, why does this matter? If you're playing BF2, and you're on a ZS, the potential is there for you to not hear a sniper from 150 yards away. The way 3D audio engines work is they cull effects based on distance. So, the sound closer to you get priority over the ones further away. So while you're getting plucked away, I'll be running over there (points to some cover) because I can hear where the sniper is shooting me from :p
 
Oh, and btw, this is from the Prey weekly update. Interesting tidbit:

Christopher Wilson writes:

Will Prey be able to make full use of the Creative SoundBlasterX-Fi? I mean, will it be able to utilise both the on-board RAM and EAX 5?

Answer From Chris:

Hi Christopher,

Yes, definitely. We support the X-Fi through OpenAL, so we have pretty cool EAX support in the game. Interestingly enough, Liam Byrne from Creative Labs is here at Human Head today, working with us on level-specific EAX implementation issues.
Click to expand...
 
my gaming has never been more fun since i upgraded to an X-Fi music from audigy 2, and upgraded my 2.1 setup to 5.1, its truly a world of difference

BF2 ROCKS its just nuts with the surround and all the sounds i hear, that i never noticed b4

and play doom 3 or the expansion in the dark with surround on....truly scary
 
First I went from 5.1 to 7.1 on a Audigy2.
That gave me a better soundpicture.
Then I got a X-Fi...
I could hear the difference...
Games mostly...like in BF2 or Quake4...
But also in movies.
The sound picture is much more precise, and the 24Bit does really good for enchaning all the "little" sounds in movies.
Footsteps on grass, ambient sounds...stuff like that

Terra...
 
I've been out of the loop for a while in computer audio, but I used to have a ZS2. I ripped that thing out of my computer when I started playing WoW a while back. (there were known driver issues at the time, it would make a random clicking sound no matter what you did)

I had no other complaints with the card really, excluding the irony of people saying it gives you better performance in games, despite it being a resource and process hog.

Anyways, currently I'm using onboard audio, and I have no interest in getting another audigy considering my previous experiences. I do have a specific question however:

I remember a lot of audigy bashers pointing out that despite the card saying it did 24bit audio, that it was actually downsampled to 16, then upconverted to 24bit. TECHNICALLY it was 24 coming out and going in, but it wasn't being processed at 24 the whole way.

I'm wondering if the same thing is true of the X-fi? I wouldn't mind picking up a decent soundcard sometime soon, but I'm very leery of giving creative any more of my money. In my opinion they are one of the worst hardware companies out there. But there's really little choice, currently.
 
Asus,

I cant answer your downsample/upsample question, but I can tell you that Creative came up with this fantastic option in their installer....a driver only option. Click a button and all you get is the driver and a simple console that controls the card. No more bloated applications running in the background. Thank god.

Also, the drivers are now standalone. You go to the website, download the package (40mb) and install. No need to keep ahold of your driver cd any more.

i have a elite pro, and i must say, creative's work to turn things around from a user-friendly install standpoint are much appreciated. Just sucks that it took them so long to get it right when all other manufacturers have been doing it this way for years.
 
That's good to know about the driver only option now. Creative is not the only company that has their heads up their asses when it comes to running processes, and it completely makes me shake me head every single time. The fact that even premade desktops and PRINTERS do this.......................sigh So far the only thing I allow to run that I consider bloatware would be systemworks premiere. :(

I'm still going to hesitate before picking up another creative card. It only took about 30 seconds of reading newegg reviews to see lots of people complaining about the audio pops, the same problem I had, with even the brand new cards. I'll give them a whirl sometime if a friend decides to buy one.
 
jesusfr3ak4evr said:
OK I am purchasing an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. It should be here in less than a week. I plan to also purchase a X-Fi (eventually, I'll probably try re-selling my Audigy 2 ZS for the same price I paid for it). I have Sennheiser HD 595 headphones. Once I can hear the difference I will post a comparison thread of my own.

What I can say is that no matter what sound card you get, you won't notice a significant difference with cheap headphones. I'd think you need at least Sennheiser HD 555 quality headphones or better to hear a good difference. The better your headphones, the more of a difference in sound.

Hopefully I'll be happy with my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. I'm upgrading from on-board sound / Sound Blaster Live! 5.1. At least I can say I paid ~$55 less for my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum than I would for a X-Fi with an I/O drive.
Click to expand...
Well, I'm sure you'll be happy with it for a while. Then you'll feel you're missing something because of all the guys who will tell you that the Audigy2 is a pile and try to recommend you the x-fi. I bet you'll buy that thing sooner than you think. I had that feeling for a while but I tried to not let those posters influence me because I still don't see a reason to go with the X-Fi yet if ever. EAX 5.0 is NOT a reason nor is that crystalizer.
 
AsusUser said:
I've been out of the loop for a while in computer audio, but I used to have a ZS2. I ripped that thing out of my computer when I started playing WoW a while back. (there were known driver issues at the time, it would make a random clicking sound no matter what you did)

I had no other complaints with the card really, excluding the irony of people saying it gives you better performance in games, despite it being a resource and process hog.

Anyways, currently I'm using onboard audio, and I have no interest in getting another audigy considering my previous experiences. I do have a specific question however:

I remember a lot of audigy bashers pointing out that despite the card saying it did 24bit audio, that it was actually downsampled to 16, then upconverted to 24bit. TECHNICALLY it was 24 coming out and going in, but it wasn't being processed at 24 the whole way.

I'm wondering if the same thing is true of the X-fi? I wouldn't mind picking up a decent soundcard sometime soon, but I'm very leery of giving creative any more of my money. In my opinion they are one of the worst hardware companies out there. But there's really little choice, currently.
Click to expand...
Ive heard that was true and that only Creative's professional series cards don't resample such as the EMU. Don't quote me on that, that's just from memory. I thought that was only from an analog output though. I'm hoping MisterX or someone could enlighten us all :).
 
bboynitrous said:
Ive heard that was true and that only Creative's professional series cards don't resample such as the EMU. Don't quote me on that, that's just from memory. I thought that was only from an analog output though. I'm hoping MisterX or someone could enlighten us all :).
Click to expand...

The Audigy 1 series did not have "true" 24bit output capabilities.

The Audigy 2 series had true 24bit output but it also had a SRC (sample rate converter) that takes 44.1khz audio and converts it to 48khz (basically just music) and did a rather poor job of it.

The X-Fi series, of course, has 24bit but also a SRC that is 300 times more powerful than the Audigy 2 series (better than SRC like in foobar from what many can tell). You can also totally bypass the SRC on the X-Fi with the digital out in audio creation mode.

The EMU series does not have a SRC "per say" and it also has 24bit output.
 
bboynitrous said:
EAX 5.0 is NOT a reason nor is that crystalizer.
Click to expand...

Subjetive point.

EAX 4.0 = 64 hardware vocies
EAX 5.0 = 128 hardware voices (4 effects per voice).

I can HEAR the difference in games like Quake4 and BF2..without a problem
the 3D postion works even with sounds ~20 cm from your POV in games...try THAT in EAX4.0 :p

Terra - EAX 5.0 HD > EAX 4.0 HD...like it or not...
 
Terra said:
Subjetive point.

EAX 4.0 = 64 hardware vocies
EAX 5.0 = 128 hardware voices (4 effects per voice).

I can HEAR the difference in games like Quake4 and BF2..without a problem
the 3D postion works even with sounds ~20 cm from your POV in games...try THAT in EAX4.0 :p

Terra - EAX 5.0 HD > EAX 4.0 HD...like it or not...
Click to expand...
Yeah you're right it's mainly subjective. I don't use EAX though, if that's his deal then go for it.
 
bboynitrous said:
Yeah you're right it's mainly subjective. I don't use EAX though, if that's his deal then go for it.
Click to expand...

Have you ever tried a game with EAX 5.0 HD?
Seriously?
Because to dimiss something you havn't tried or heard....need I say more? ;)

Terra...
 
EAX 4.0 = 64 hardware vocies
EAX 5.0 = 128 hardware voices (4 effects per voice).
Click to expand...

this is incorrect information.

EAX has absolutely NOTHING to do with voicecount.

In quake 4, for instance, you can turn eax off, but still be using 128 voices.
 
jester1176 said:
this is incorrect information.

EAX has absolutely NOTHING to do with voicecount.

In quake 4, for instance, you can turn eax off, but still be using 128 voices.
Click to expand...

I guees the part about hardware voices slipped right past you? ;)

But why don't we let creative explain what tehy mean?:
EAX® ADVANCED HD™ 5.0

128 voices support provides the most detailed and rich audio ever heard in gaming! It also allows the music in a game to change based on actions during game-play. For instance the music can become more intense as your health goes down. Combine great interactive music with extreme detail and your gaming audio will become Xtreme Fidelity audio!

The first version of EAX® supported 8 simultaneous voices (sounds). If more were required then the 'oldest' voice (the one that had been playing longest) was shut-off. Developers quickly used-up these voices (one machine-gun sound would use up more than 8!) and so EAX™ 2.0 increased the voice count to 32. Yet again developers hit the limit by adding more detail: now they could add the sound of a gun's hammer mechanism and recoil. Now every shot fired demanded three voices instead of one! And so with EAX® ADVANCED HD™ 3.0 the voice count was doubled to 64. Game developers were happy - for a while.

Continuing progress means that games are starting to hit the voice wall again. And now there's a further development that could add far more excitement to a game's audio - music!

Yes, we know: the first thing many gamers do is turn the music off - and who can blame them? Almost all games use CD-based static stereo music that just plays no matter what is going on in the game. Movies just aren't like that! When you watch a movie the music can make a scary moment terrifying! What if you could have that 'movie music' experience in your games? What if the music changed according to what you were doing in the game, your state of health, or armour? What if the music seemed to move around you instead of being stuck in the two front speakers? That would be cool! Well Creative has developed a technology that does just that! It's called ISACT® Music (Interactive Spatial Audio Composition Tool) and it allows all those things to happen. Now your game will sound just like a movie - except you decide what happens next!

To make this happen requires lots of voices, because the music has to become an integral part of a game's audio. What's more, some developers want to add even more sound detail into their games. So we doubled the voice count again - to 128 simultaneous voices.
Click to expand...

So my question to you is:
How many hardware voices does EAX 4.0 HD support? :)
Hint: EAX 4.0 HD - DirectSound 3D-acceleration engine supports 64-channels of hardware accelerated 3D voices.

Terra...
 
Terra said:
Have you ever tried a game with EAX 5.0 HD?
Seriously?
Because to dimiss something you havn't tried or heard....need I say more? ;)

Terra...
Click to expand...
Nah, but I don't think I need to. EAX 1-4 weren't really anything special. I don't imagine this would be any different especially since it's creative and it's based off the previous generations of EAX. Have you ever listened to EAX 3 or 4 for that matter? Multiple instances of reverb isn't really that cool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top