Audigy LS vs Audigy 2 ZS

[luketrot]

What is the diff? I had an Audigy in the past which was fine, I sold it with my old PC. Is the Audigy LS just a re-badged Audigy like the Live MP3 was?

I ended up with the Audigy 2 ZS. 30 bucks worth of Bestbuy gift cards I felt was worth knowing I had the best of the sub $100 cards. I only play games and watch movies with my Klipsch 4.1's. Will I ever notice the difference between the Audigy 2 ZS and the Audigy LS? Did I waste 30 BestBuy dollars on bragging rights and firewire?

 

[GreatDaleness]

the LS is much shorter and less complex looking than the normal Audigy 2. I doubt that is all due to firewire not being there. The ZS is THX certified, so there are changes (most would agree improvements) over the old Audigy 2. Nothing to replace your current A2 with, but since you are comparing to a LS, and it is only $30 I would stick with the THX card.

 

[Auric]

See previous thread.

Audigy LS is better than Audigy. The improved SNR of the Audigy 2 and even more so the Audigy 2 ZS should be noticeable when using the analog outputs.

AFAIK, there is no published process or specs for THX certification and Creative took a stake in the company for marketing purposes.

 

[GreatDaleness]

Originally posted by: Auric
See previous thread.

Audigy LS is better than Audigy. The improved SNR of the Audigy 2 and even more so the Audigy 2 ZS should be noticeable when using the analog outputs.

AFAIK, there is no published process or specs for THX certification and Creative took a stake in the company for marketing purposes.

THX cannot publish their processes because that would invalidate them. A company, rather than pay THX for certification will just list the specs and THX would go out of business.

 

[Auric]

I wonder though, on what basis is any applicant informed of a failure? And since the investment by Creative, can THX use the secrecy to deny certification without pointing to a specific reason?

 

[Oyeve]

The ZS rocks. Forget the LS, Audigy 2 ZS is the best consumer card out now. I just wish I could get my old live drive to work with it. No more do I have to mute all but WAV to get rid of the annoying his, 108 snr kicks, the 7.1 sounds fantastic, all the little extras make the A2 ZS worth the 90 bucks.

 

[helloguy]

yup,there's a diff btwn btwn the audigy1 and audigy2 ZS,I moved from sb16,sblive,audigy1 and now audigy2 zs,the quality output of zs is clearer and crisper(spelling correct?) than the audigy1(be it ES or LS or smth). A note though, IF you're using 20 or 30 bucks spks, then u can forget about ZS, it won't make any diff.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
The ZS rocks. Forget the LS, Audigy 2 ZS is the best consumer card out now. I just wish I could get my old live drive to work with it. No more do I have to mute all but WAV to get rid of the annoying his, 108 snr kicks, the 7.1 sounds fantastic, all the little extras make the A2 ZS worth the 90 bucks.

Whaaa? There's gobs of noise on all the ZS's analog sources besides WAV and MIDI. You may not notice if you have craptastic speakers or amp, but do yourself a favor and mute all the ones you are not using (I also turn them down for ergonomic reasons). The LS @ $40 is certainly a great card and it is difficult to justify the ZS being more than twice the price on its own. Once they are available as cheaper OEM it will be a fairer comparision though.

 

[MasterHoss]

Perhaps, this answers your question.

 

[Tab]

Whats are the differences between the Audigy 2 and the Audigy 2 ZS?

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: Auric

Originally posted by: Oyeve
The ZS rocks. Forget the LS, Audigy 2 ZS is the best consumer card out now. I just wish I could get my old live drive to work with it. No more do I have to mute all but WAV to get rid of the annoying his, 108 snr kicks, the 7.1 sounds fantastic, all the little extras make the A2 ZS worth the 90 bucks.

Whaaa? There's gobs of noise on all the ZS's analog sources besides WAV and MIDI. You may not notice if you have craptastic speakers or amp, but do yourself a favor and mute all the ones you are not using (I also turn them down for ergonomic reasons). The LS @ $40 is certainly a great card and it is difficult to justify the ZS being more than twice the price on its own. Once they are available as cheaper OEM it will be a fairer comparision though.

For headphones I use Denon AH-D750, I use a highend denon av receiver hooked up to my PC and have 3 pairs of Infinity reference 2001.1 speakers and the only thing I have muted is Auxilary as that does produce some noise. all others are unmuted and produce no extra noise like the older audigys or sb lives.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Oyeve

For headphones I use Denon AH-D750, I use a highend denon av receiver hooked up to my PC and have 3 pairs of Infinity reference 2001.1 speakers and the only thing I have muted is Auxilary as that does produce some noise. all others are unmuted and produce no extra noise like the older audigys or sb lives.

I did not mean to imply that WAV and MIDI are analog but that all the analog sources are noisy and as I am only using the SPDIF out for now all the digital signals are converted at the receiver.

Anyhoo, my ZS is hooked up to a bargain-bin Onkyo TX-SR500. Usual Pioneer SE-Monitor 10R headphone listening volume is 40/100 and generally higher for speakers. Testing with headphones, it is clear up to 70 with either no signal from the ZS (master mute) or a digital signal with all analog sources muted and nothing playing. When those are individually unmuted and at max volume, their noise is noticeable lower but really begins to be detrimental at 50 with the Line-In being worst followed closely by the Mic while the same noise for CD Audio, Aux and TAD is introduced starting at 60. At these levels the noise could probably be masked by source material but I am just saying it does exist and is evident so it is best to mute those analog sources that are not used. Maybe you are not noticing additional noise from the analog sources if noise is being introduced by the analog output? But I wouldn't think that with the high 108dB SNR it would be producing enough noise to mask it. I have yet to try the analog out myself as it is only beneficial for gaming and I prefer the isolation of headphones for that and am loathe to mess with all the extra wires just for the novelty.

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: Auric

Originally posted by: Oyeve
The ZS rocks. Forget the LS, Audigy 2 ZS is the best consumer card out now. I just wish I could get my old live drive to work with it. No more do I have to mute all but WAV to get rid of the annoying his, 108 snr kicks, the 7.1 sounds fantastic, all the little extras make the A2 ZS worth the 90 bucks.

Whaaa? There's gobs of noise on all the ZS's analog sources besides WAV and MIDI. You may not notice if you have craptastic speakers or amp, but do yourself a favor and mute all the ones you are not using (I also turn them down for ergonomic reasons). The LS @ $40 is certainly a great card and it is difficult to justify the ZS being more than twice the price on its own. Once they are available as cheaper OEM it will be a fairer comparision though.

It's a bit of an exagerration to say there is gobs of noise on all of them. If I connect headphones to the Audigy Drive on my Audigy 2, and turn all the volumes all the way up, the only source that produces gobs of noise is the microphone. The Line2/Mic2 produces a bit of noise and the auxiliary 2 produces a very soft hiss. And again, those are with the volumes all the way up which would likely make my ears bleed. If I connect my headphones to my receiver I can hear noise with 6.1 analog in at volumes at the limit I would ever use, and well, well beyond my limits when using digital, with even better results for both using speakers. If you are getting that much noise, it's the receiver and your speakers, not the sound card.

 

[Alptraum]

Originally posted by: Pariah

Originally posted by: Auric

Originally posted by: Oyeve
The ZS rocks. Forget the LS, Audigy 2 ZS is the best consumer card out now. I just wish I could get my old live drive to work with it. No more do I have to mute all but WAV to get rid of the annoying his, 108 snr kicks, the 7.1 sounds fantastic, all the little extras make the A2 ZS worth the 90 bucks.

Whaaa? There's gobs of noise on all the ZS's analog sources besides WAV and MIDI. You may not notice if you have craptastic speakers or amp, but do yourself a favor and mute all the ones you are not using (I also turn them down for ergonomic reasons). The LS @ $40 is certainly a great card and it is difficult to justify the ZS being more than twice the price on its own. Once they are available as cheaper OEM it will be a fairer comparision though.

It's a bit of an exagerration to say there is gobs of noise on all of them. If I connect headphones to the Audigy Drive on my Audigy 2, and turn all the volumes all the way up, the only source that produces gobs of noise is the microphone. The Line2/Mic2 produces a bit of noise and the auxiliary 2 produces a very soft hiss. And again, those are with the volumes all the way up which would likely make my ears bleed. If I connect my headphones to my receiver I can hear noise with 6.1 analog in at volumes at the limit I would ever use, and well, well beyond my limits when using digital, with even better results for both using speakers. If you are getting that much noise, it's the receiver and your speakers, not the sound card.

I pretty much agree. With my ZS I have to turn the volume up to at least %60 to hear any hiss and for that I have to put my ear right next to the speaker (Klipsch Promedia 2.1). To hear any hiss without leaning forward like that I need to turn the volume up to around %85 or so. Which is WAY louder then I would ever listen to it.

 

[Auric]

Don't make me invoke the reading comprehension retort.

I took the time to test and explain as clearly as possible yet you seemingly ignore it and suggest a hardware problem beyond the ZS? May I suggest your ears are defective?

In any case, to not mute sources that are never used knowing that they introduce any noise at all would seem to be evidence of an obsessive compulsive disorder as opposed to simple logic. 😛 😉 <-look, winkies!