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Audigy 2 or Hercules Game Theater 7.1?

cmdrdredd

cmdrdredd

Lifer
I have a Game Theater XP 6.1, but am going to put it into another system that I'm building this weekend as an XMas gift to my sister. So...what should I replace it with? The Audigy 2 Platinum or the Hercules Game Theater XP 7.1?
 
7.1? What's the point of that? Unless you are in a movie theater or a really long/big room, I would think the outputs from the different speakers would start to interfere with each other.


6.1 Set-Up

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7.1 Set-Up


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Chiz


Edited to fix my woofers 🙂
 
I don't care so much for the 7.1, but that is the name of the card...Hercules Game Theater Xp 7.1

I am mostly gonna play games and do digital out from the card's rack to my HT setup. So I was wondering what one would be the best. I'm looking for low CPU utilization and good performance with good drivers which is something creative's old stuff had trouble with...drivers. Any thoughts?
 
You should just keep your 6.1 and get her some cheapo $20 sound card (OK, maybe not $20 cheapo, it is your sister). There are a few nice deals on card/speaker combos going on at CompUSA right now. If you are gonna let your HTS do all the work through the SP/DIF digital out and use passthrough, there's no point in spending all that dough on features you won't need/use. I'm using an Audigy 2 with the exact set-up you are looking to use, and I'm not even completely convinced I'm getting all the benefits of advanced EAX HD and CMSS2 and Dolby Digital EX etc. etc. I'm pretty sure the analog signals are just being pass through to my receiver, which then uses its own Algorithms for emulated 5.1 surround sound. Of course, I know when DTS/5.1 signals are being decoded, b/c the blue led on my Sony lights up, but thats only for DVDs and my XBox.

I may end up having to buy/try the analog outs (3 x mini to RCA Y adapters) and plug them into my 5.1 component inputs to see if there is a difference or not due to the Audigy2's advanced HD engine. My guess is that there will be a noticeable difference, as I think it will do emulated 5.1 better than my receiver. This sounds like a pain in the ass, but its really not. Creative's software has worked very well for me so far. You would only need to change the input on your receiver, uncheck SPDIF passthrough in CreativeAudioHQ, and uncheck digital output only in speaker settings.

Chiz
 
maybe I didn't explain myself as well as I had liked. I am going to use my HT setup for music playback only. My Logitech Z-560 will handle my gaming.

I have a set of speakers that I can use for the system I'm building.
 
Well, if you have the cash for the A2 Platinum, by all means. The Audigy2 is a superb sound card and doesn't seem to have any of the major problems that the Audigy1 had. Even some of the overzealous anti-Creative crowd over at 3dsoundsurge and Hardocp have grudgedly admitted that this card is actually "not bad"
rolleye.gif


Personally, I don't think it's far to compare the Herc GTXP to it since this system was really meant to go head to head with the original SBLive Platinum.

Anyway, are you specifically looking for Optical output? If so, I can't think of any other consumer-level sound card/system that fits the bill for what you besides the Herc GTXP, Fortissimo series, and Herc's new Digi-Fire 7.1. By the way, the Herc 7.1, Fortissimo, and Digi-Fire all use the same CS4624 chipset now. The Acoustic Edge is another great choice too for HT, but it doesn't come with optical though.
 
game theater 6.1 and game theater 7.1 is the exact same thing.
So the question is whether to get another game theater xp or audigy 2.
Unless your sister really needs to use the breakout box,
if not, you should just buy a motherboard with 5.1 onboard audio.

I never tried a audigy 2, but I assume it is like audigy 1?
If so, the game theater provides far better music play back.
I did see a bit problem with 3d positioning, it doesn't always work well.
Also not being able to use voice communication in CS with the 5.01 driver does suck....
 
Well, the GTXP 6.1 and GTXP 7.1 are not EXACTLY the same. The older 5.1/6.1 models uses the more up-scale CS4630 chipset. The newer 7.1 models uses the same, slightly "scaled back" chip as the Fortissimo (CS4624).

In regards to the Audigy1 vs Audigy2. Music playback with the A2 is much superior to the A1, with no crackling or skips. Creative is using the excellent Cirrus Logic CS4382 DACs this time around and it's well worth it. Rivaling that of even the Santa Cruz/Herc GTXP 5.1/6/1 when it comes to .mp3's/music (it's really a toss up now as far as I can tell listening to both). As far as gaming goes, the A2 owns the field over all the sound cards out there, including the original Audigy.
 
Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
actually I'm using coax out not optical because all my optical ports are being used...(PS2, XBOX)
Click to expand...

If that's the case, how about the Acoustic Edge? This is a very reasonably priced sound card. Until the A2 came along, this was my favorite sound card for gaming and music/DVD playback. The Thunderbird Avenger DSP does an excellent job of reproducing sound and QMSS is really handy for those games that don't support EAX very well. Admittedly, CPU overhead for games is a bit higher than the other brands, but it shouldn't be too noticable if you have a fairly fast system.
 
Got an original GTXP as well, one vote for that. What you get for the price can't be beat, I picked up mine for less than an Audigy OEM card at the time 🙂
 
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