Anyone had experiance with an Audigy 2 and Creative Inspire 6.1 6600 speakers?

[Xernex]

Was reading Toms review of the Audigy 2 and 6600 speakers Here

I was contemplating getting the Audigy 2 for the new machine I?m going build. After reading the reviews it sounds pretty good and since I'm a pretty big gamer and enjoy watching DVD's on my comp and listening to music I thought it was worth the money. I then noticed a local store of mine is selling an Audigy 2 + Those creative inspire speakers in a bundle, buying them that way is about $40 cheaper than normal.

Now I was just wondering, has anyone got the above set up? Do these speakers sound good with an Audigy 2? I linked Tom's review of them above and although he says they are great for the money, he seems more interested in some other speakers creative are releasing early next year (at a much greater price I?m sure). Keeping in mind these are the only 6.1 PC speakers on the market, and thus the only ones that can take advantage of the Audigy 2?s new features using 6.1 and they are a reasonable price, is it worth it?

Also one other thing, Tom calls them 6700 not 6600 model speakers, I think this is some error on his part because after going to Creative?s site they have no such thing as a 6700 6.1 system, also the pictures and specs of the two are exactly the same.

Thanks.

 

[slider94]

I had the 6600's for a couple of days, but I returned them. The 6600's sounded okay paired with the Audigy 2 (I liked the 6 speaker setup), but I preferred my Klipsch 4.1's - more power and just better sounding on music. I think the 6600's are better for gaming than music. I would have definitely kept them if they sounded better with music, especially with DVD-A (not that the Klipsch 4.1's are all that great with DVD-A).

The 6700's are the European version. I remember seeing one picture where the front center channel speaker is a different design than the other speakers.

 

[Brian48]

Not to knock the 6600's, but does anyone really need six or seven speakers? I'm having a hard time as it is positioning a 5.1 setup with the limited deskspace I have. Seems to me that once you go beyond 4 or 5 speakers, it's like having having 3 separate monitors for "surround" gaming (ala Matrox). Nice, but is it really practical?

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Brian48
Not to knock the 6600's, but does anyone really need six or seven speakers? I'm having a hard time as it is positioning a 5.1 setup with the limited deskspace I have. Seems to me that once you go beyond 4 or 5 speakers, it's like having having 3 separate monitors for "surround" gaming (ala Matrox). Nice, but is it really practical?

You will eat these words when Doom3 comes out with full 5.1 sound support.

 

[Pluto]

Which 5.1 protocol will Doom3 be using, EAX, DD5.1/AC3, other?

 

[Xernex]

Thanks for the input guys. Anyone else have experience with them? Also is the Audigy 2's sound quality noticeably different at all from the Audigy 1?

 

[andrey]

Originally posted by: Xernex
Also is the Audigy 2's sound quality noticeably different at all from the Audigy 1?

Yeap, there is a pretty big difference between Audigy 1 and Audigy 2, especially if you're using more than 4 speakers.

 

[Lore]

Originally posted by: andrey

Originally posted by: Xernex
Also is the Audigy 2's sound quality noticeably different at all from the Audigy 1?

Yeap, there is a pretty big difference between Audigy 1 and Audigy 2, especially if you're using more than 4 speakers.

In what sense? Can you elaborate? I have a SB Live 5.1 right now and after reading all those reports about "Audigy 2 sounds so much better, etc etc" I'm not sure how and where are they making these judgements. Are they rating the way music sounds (my music sounds great right now) or the way games play (the games sound fine too)?

 

[ClakClak]

I am curious too, does the audigy2 have any problems with the via chipset like the audigy 1?

 

[Xernex]

Oh and one other thing, 6.1 speakers run in 5.1 mode when 6.1 isn't supported right?

 

[andrey]

Originally posted by: Lore

Originally posted by: andrey

Originally posted by: Xernex
Also is the Audigy 2's sound quality noticeably different at all from the Audigy 1?

Yeap, there is a pretty big difference between Audigy 1 and Audigy 2, especially if you're using more than 4 speakers.

In what sense? Can you elaborate? I have a SB Live 5.1 right now and after reading all those reports about "Audigy 2 sounds so much better, etc etc" I'm not sure how and where are they making these judgements. Are they rating the way music sounds (my music sounds great right now) or the way games play (the games sound fine too)?

Unfortunately there is no benchmarks I can ran to determine "sounds better" quality, but in my case before upgrading to Audigy 2 I had originaly Audigy 1 and that's what I can compare to.

By sounding better I mean more vibrant 3D sound with clean and loud base, and at the same time no other sounds being distorted while turning the volume up. Although my tunes may sound pretty loud, I get absolutely no cracking or distorted sounds from my Creative FPS2000 speakers.

As far as games, with Audigy 2 I can actually tell with my 4.1 setup where the sound comes from, even although my speakers are not arranged in the perfect square. The neat thing about Audigy 2 is that it lets you configure positions of speakers by playing different sounds and telling you where those sound should come from. You adjust sliders until you actually hear sounds where they suppose to be in the 3D enviroment. Once everythign is done and you configured sounds the way you want them, everything does sound incredible and the way it meant to sound. This certainly, as you can guess, creates implausible experience.

Different people have different preferences and that's why sometimes it is difficult for certain people why they have to upgrade from onboard sound to a better sound card. As my personal advice, try Audigy 2 for yourself and see what you think, that's probably will be the best way to determine "sounds better" aspect.

--Andrey