Are you happy with your Audigy?

[goog]

Originally posted by: vicks
Can you hook up a home theater with an Audigy? If so, which one? I have a home theater stereo system and I dont want to invest in PC speakers, so would I be able to do use them?

Yes you can. Any one that has input jacks on it will work. I have mine hooked up to my Yamaha HTR which runs my JBL sub&sat speaker package.
I have the analog audio from the Audigy to the HTR. I'm using the digital out from the AIW Radeon to a coaxial digital in on the receiver for DVD (5.1) though.

 

[Workin']

The Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 is an awesome card for listening to music, much better than the Audigy class cards, the only woe is that they comparatively suck for gaming and are really really hard to find. It is a true 24bit / 96 Khz card, unlike the Audigy.

The other woe is that it costs almost three times as much.

Can you hook up a home theater with an Audigy?

Yes.

If so, which one?

Any version of the Audigy will work exactly the same for your case.

I have a home theater stereo system and I dont want to invest in PC speakers, so would I be able to do use them?

You bet. It will work great.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I was until mine died.

nik

 

[Ronin13]

Someone mentioned the 'Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96'. This might be a great card, but as it's the same price as an 'Audigy Platinum' it's too expensive for me.

As previously stated my other options are the 'VideoLogic SonicFury' (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz in the US) and the 'Terratec SiXPack 5.1+' (or maybe the cheaper 'Terratec DMX - XFire1024' as I only need a 4 speaker output...)

It seems you all agree on the Audigy being the best for gaming and EAX.

Have any of you had problems with 'pops' and 'crackles' or experienced slowdown when enabling Full Hardware Accelaration (as described here)?

~R

 

[Mem]

Have any of you had problems with 'pops' and 'crackles' or experienced slowdown when enabling Full Hardware Accelaration

Nope not one,it`s working perfect in my Epox 8KHA+ board ,(VIA KT266a) I too am using 4:1 setup in WinXP,remember it also has EAX advanced HD as well.

 

[Boobers]

I have to speak up, because Creative Labs has been making JUNK since it released the SoundBlaster32. The AWE64 Gold was JUNK, the original LIVE! was JUNK, and so was the LIVE! 5.1. I've had them all and was never satisfied with any of them. Blue screens, lockups, auto-restarts and crashes are common. The drivers have never been right and Creative sees no need to fix anything, because everybody thinks they make the best stuff and people will buy their products anyway. They assume they are KING, so they don't have to provide support or decent drivers.

I will NEVER give Creative Labs one more cent of my hard earned money. Their products are JUNK and I wouldn't use their cards if they gave them away for free.

I now use Turtle Beach Santa Cruz cards in all my systems and they never give me the problems that the Creative cards did. The first Turtle Beach card I bought was a Daytona PCI and at $20 it blew away the $200 Creative AWE64 Gold card. So, don't believe the hype about Creative Labs. Their products are simply JUNK.

 

[bcterps]

Originally posted by: Boobers
I have to speak up, because Creative Labs has been making JUNK since it released the SoundBlaster32. The AWE64 Gold was JUNK, the original LIVE! was JUNK, and so was the LIVE! 5.1. I've had them all and was never satisfied with any of them. Blue screens, lockups, auto-restarts and crashes are common. The drivers have never been right and Creative sees no need to fix anything, because everybody thinks they make the best stuff and people will buy their products anyway. They assume they are KING, so they don't have to provide support or decent drivers.

I will NEVER give Creative Labs one more cent of my hard earned money. Their products are JUNK and I wouldn't use their cards if they gave them away for free.

I now use Turtle Beach Santa Cruz cards in all my systems and they never give me the problems that the Creative cards did. The first Turtle Beach card I bought was a Daytona PCI and at $20 it blew away the $200 Creative AWE64 Gold card. So, don't believe the hype about Creative Labs. Their products are simply JUNK.

Maybe your system building skills are JUNK? The Audigy line of sound cards are quite good, just read all the posts above you. Good for games, for music a TB Santa Cruz is better. Hardly what I would call JUNK.

--Ben

 

[bcterps]

One more thing Boobers, here are the specs of one of your rigs, Sarah.

Rig Name: Sarah - 1Ghz Duron Asus A7v
CPU: AMD Duron 750MHz @ 945MHz
Motherboard: Asus A7V
Memory: 512 MB of Generic (Memorex) PC133
Video Card: Asus v7700 Deluxe (NVidia GeForce 2)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 20.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS
Monitor: RCA 36
DVD Manufacturer & Model: LiteOn 16x DVD LTD163
Storage Interface: IDE

Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live! (Original)
Internet Provider: Time Warner
Internet Connection Type: Cable

Internet Connection Speed: Fast
Operating System: Win98SE
Other Components: Integrated into Home Theater system. GF2 connected to 36" TV w/ 15pin SVGA cable. SB Live! connected using SPDIF out -> Dolby Digital Decoder -> 100Wx6 A/V amp. Currently using Logitech Cordless Optical keyboard & mouse.



Uh I thought you wouldnt use their cards if the gave them away for free? I guess this rig is a piece of JUNK.

--Ben

 

[dexvx]

Last time i checked, the terratec card with the drive bay is about $50 more than a SB Audigy Platinum. I dont know where your 3x the cost comes from.

 

[Ronin13]

I beleive the 'almost three times as much' comment was made in comparrison between the Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 and the Audigy OEM, as he nowhere in his post mentions the Platinum model.

And as such, it's pretty accurate (at least where I live...)

But, like I said, neither the Audigy Platinum nor the Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 hold any interrest for me due to their high price.

So please keep comments and recommendations to the Audigy OEM and others in that pricerange.

Thanks.

~R

 

[Workin']

Originally posted by: dexvx
Last time i checked, the terratec card with the drive bay is about $50 more than a SB Audigy Platinum. I dont know where your 3x the cost comes from.

Pay attention, McFly! We're talking OEM Audigy, which costs only a fraction of the Platinum or Terratec.

 

[Bluga]

Does Audigy have optical out??

Or Santa Cruz?

 

[Boobers]

Please, Ronin13, buy ANYTHING else, but don't buy an Audigy.

benchiu, this is supposed to be a post about sound cards, not a post to attack others because of their opinions. I was probably building systems before you were born. I don't see ANY of your rigs listed, so I suppose you have a Dell. Go ahead and waste your money on a Creative card, I don't care. And, Yes, I would call my Asus A7V OC'd Duron system junk:

Junky Asus A7V MB (sometimes won't initialize video on cold boot)
Junky Memorex Memory (pushing it at 133Mhz, slowest settings)
Junky Asus v7700 vid card (won't OC even 1Mhz)
Junky Live! sound card (constant lock-ups & crashes)
KWI KCP2021 CPU cooler (gets near 60c full load)

I built this system out of left over stuff from various upgrades. I would never recommend any of these components to anyone, and thankfully they aren't available anymore...

 

[Ronin13]

Boobers, do you in fact have experience with the Audigy? (You don't mention it in your post)

If so, what were the problems?

Or are you basing your advice against the Audigy on your bad experience with previous models?


For 3 1/2 years I've had no problems with my SB Live! Value; any reason to think the Audigy will perform different ?

~R

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Blue screens, lockups, auto-restarts and crashes are common.

Which begs the question; why has no-one else here complained about them if they're common?

And I object to you calling the A7v junk. I've been running a t-bird 750@900 on it for the past two years, and it's rock solid. Running WinXP, my A7v (with an Audigy Platinum installed to boot) has been running continually for the past two months without a reboot.

I've never had problems with video initialisation and I've never heard anyone else having similar problems.

It's all very well denouncing loads of hardware as "junk," but if all you can do to substantiate you claims is say "well it keeps on crashing" even though everyone else using similar hardware is fine, then the chances are, you're doing something wrong.

[edit]
Oh, and I'd been using an original SBLive for about five years solid before that. The same card moved through three different systems, and worked every time without a hitch. I've also successfully used a Creative Labs DXR-2 dvd decoder card and a Creative Labs VooDoo2 card and, in fact, an awe32 and before that, an original SB16. All without a hitch.

 

[Mem]

Ronin13 Don`t listen to Boobers,I can tell you the Audigy works great,I`m an hardcore gamer and play everything from Q3,CS etc to older games like Might & Magic 6 etc using 4:1 setup as previous stated,as I`ve already said in my previous post had mine since last November with my XP rig and use it everyday for gaming and general use and it`s never given me any problems.


I also have a SB Live in another board with no problems but the topic here is Audigy, if you do buy an Audigy save yourself some money and buy an OEM version.For gaming the Audigy is probably the best gaming sound card,and has the lowest CPU usage of any sound card out at the moment,sound quality is very close to the Santa Cruz,I hate it when some people flame a sound card because it`s Creative.


The only bad thing I can say is Creative take a long time to update their drivers especially when compared to other sound card companies.
Ronin13 remember it`s your money your choice so don`t let anybody here stop you from getting the sound card you want.

 

[Ronin13]

Mem, thanks for your advice.

I always thought the Audigy was the obvious choise and I will stick to it. Just wanted to hear what you guys thought about it (and I expected some Creative bashing...)

(BTW, I too played Might & Magic VI; took me about 300 hours to finish it...)


I have another question though: I Recently upgraded my Boston Acoustics MicroMedia System 2.1 speaker set to a BA 4800 4.1 set and somehow the audio doesn't seem as crisp as before. (This is on a SB Live! Value.)

This is noticeable when playing music, and can best be described as if the sound is ever so slightly distorted, even at low volume levels.

Do you think this is soundcard or speaker related?

~R

 

[Mem]

Do you think this is soundcard or speaker related?

Hmm I`ve no experience with those speakers so it`s really hard to say,if you had a better sound card like a SB Audigy or Santa Cruz, you could find out if the old SB Live was holding the speakers back in sound quality or if you`ve a problem with your speakers.

 

[Ronin13]

Or maybe the new speakers just have to be burned in?

I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it sounds with the Audigy in my new rig.

Only thing I'm waiting for now is the pricecut on Pentium 4 on May 26...

~R

 

[Mem]

Or maybe the new speakers just have to be burned in?

Ronin13,new speakers normally sound better after they have been run in,the midrange opens up and the bass becomes tighter.

 

[Boobers]

Pardon me for posting. I forgot you kids know everything...

BTW, why is there a whole forum for A7V Problems? Why are there "stickies" about BIOS instabilities? Read it and you'll find:

"For SBlive, best you get the most up to date drivers from creative. Some have found setting the latency to zero from 32 in the BIOS corrects the cracking sound problem, others find reserving IRQ 5 for a legacy device and reinstalling the card in either slot 3 or 4 will correct the issues."

Great product. I never had these kind of problems with my Santa Cruz. It cost me $60 over 14 months ago and still sells for the same price today. What does that mean? Quality product and high demand.

Ronin13: What do you think causes "Creative Bashing" (as you call it)? The Creative bashing is a direct result of the fact that Creative has many unhappy customers. We try to prevent you from making the same mistakes we made. When we bought our Creative products, we were just like you: "Creative must be the best, they have the most advertising and I know so-and-so has one..." only to find out they don't care about the end user. They won't respond to tech support questions and turn their backs on anyone with tech problems, usually blaming the problems on VIA or MB manufacturers. You shouldn't have to mess with "PCI Latency Patches" to get a sound card to perform properly...

 

[glenn1]

I was planning on getting an 'Audigy Player ('Gamer' in the US), but I've noticed how some users are less than satisfied with Creatives soundcards/drivers.

Well, i don't know if it's fair to say that the Audigy drivers suck, but i DO think it's fair to say that the TBSC has enjoyed unrivaled driver support. Personally, i think that the overall sound quality of the card itself, combined with the driver support and nice price, make it an incredibly attractive choice. I don't think you'll find anyone who would in all candor say "you should have bought an Audigy instead" if you bought the TBSC.

Now that doesn't mean the Audigy isn't a great choice as well. The drivers work fine, the onboard firewire port is a definite plus (as is the ability to add the Live Drive to the package if you like), and as others have said, it's more geared towards your main focus of gaming. You could just as easily reverse what i said earlier, and say that i don't think you'll find many who would say, "you should have bought a Santa Cruz instead" if you bought the Audigy.

Flip a coin, i think you'd be happy with either choice

 

[pac1085]

To be honest, I liked my SB Live better than the audigy. I never had ANY problems with the live...but when I got the audigy I ran in to a world of problems. It didnt like my overclocked bus, so I had to lower that. Then mp3s were skipping, and I got popping from it every now and then. The whole driver situation sucks, you need to install them from the cd with all of creatives bloat before you can use the update. I would have purchased the TB Santa Cruz, but the linux drivers for that card suck because cirrus logic wont release full code/information on the chip. Creative is also being lame about info on the emu10k1 but they let people sign a NDA to get info on it....so those drivers are working great for me right now.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

The whole driver situation sucks, you need to install them from the cd with all of creatives bloat before you can use the update.

Yeah, that is very annoying. I think the Audigy must be the only product I've ever encountered that I cant find drivers on the web for. I really don't want all the bloatware that I'm forced to install. (4 or 5 services, an annoying creative splash-screen etc.) I can't find any documentation telling me what they are, so I'm loathe to turn them off. Sound cards should be heard and not seen IMHO.

 

[Brian48]

Ya know, I hear this crap about "all the bloatware that you're forced to install" all the time with Creative drivers. Well, you don't have to install it if you don't want to. You're given an option to install only core drivers when you run the install .exe or check off the items you don't want. If you did happen to install the whole bundle, that's your fault. The core driver set is only about 5-6mb where as the Santa Cruz set is 19mb+ with no option to pick and choose.

Back to the original question before the boob genious chimed in. If you're looking for the best gaming sound card out there right now, it's the Audigy. There is no question about that (no matter how much the anti-Creative zealots like to distort the fact), especially since the newer games are just starting to take advantage of the new EAX 3.0 extensions (ie. Jedi Knight II via patch). Before selling off my MP3+ and OEM versions (I still have the Gamer), I had all 3 of them running in various systems with no problems at all. The only reason why I still keep my Santa Cruz in my primary box is because that PC is used more for music and .mp3 playback, which is one area the Santa Cruz is markedly superior.