Audigy vs Audigy 2

[McArra]

Audigy 20?

Audigy 2 100?

Which one should I buy?

I'm leaning towards the first Audigy, pricewise it seems like a great buy.

I want good sound quality (will be conected to a Sony Hi-Fi Micro CP101 system) and performance.
Is there a big difference between first and second generation?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jeff7181]

I don't know if it's enough to justify a 500% markup... but the Audigy 2 is definately better than a plain old Audigy. Not sure how prices are different where you are, but an Audigy 2 ZS can be had for $80 (USD) on newegg I believe. I got mine for $60 refurbished But it came in a retail box with all the goodies, hehe.

 

[McArra]

Audigy 2 ZS is the one I'm talking about, I may go with it (between 90-100?). Anyone else?

Thanks Jeff

 

[BD2003]

I still use the audigy 1, with hacked zs drivers. The only difference will then be a better dac, 24/96 capabilities, and 7.1 rather than 5.1. Performance will be the same.

 

[McArra]

Thanks, I think I gonna buy 2 ZS. How are drivers?

 

[Gamingphreek]

You said your connecting this to an external reciever? Well in that case what M/B are you using. The SOundstorm is worlds better tha anything if you are using an external reciever. (Also Soundstorm 2 is right around the corner). Please list system specs.

-Kevin

 

[Gamingphreek]

Damn just saw your system. Is that a Sckt 754 or 939 AMD64 processor. Well at any rate why dont you hold off and just get an Nforce 4 M/B when it comes out. That way youll have better than an Audigy 2 and more system performance for about the same cost?

-Kevin

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Damn just saw your system. Is that a Sckt 754 or 939 AMD64 processor. Well at any rate why dont you hold off and just get an Nforce 4 M/B when it comes out. That way youll have better than an Audigy 2 and more system performance for about the same cost?

-Kevin

You're telling him wait till next year and get a new motherboard for the onboard sound? Pffft.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well actually they come out in Q4 (late Q4) this year. Also Soundstorm may be on the motherboard however it has its own APU which is worlds better than the A2ZS. Also by upgrading the Motherboard not only will he get superior sound but he will get a performance and feature jump for near the smae price. IMO much better Price/Performance.

-Kevin

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Well actually they come out in Q4 (late Q4) this year. Also Soundstorm may be on the motherboard however it has its own APU which is worlds better than the A2ZS. Also by upgrading the Motherboard not only will he get superior sound but he will get a performance and feature jump for near the smae price. IMO much better Price/Performance.

-Kevin

LOL... yeah... December 31st will be a paper launch (well, we did say LATE Q4)... and you won't be able to get your hands on them for another 1-3 months. Even then, they won't be $80.

(By the way... I perfer my Audigy 2 ZS to my onboard Soundstorm on my A7N8X Deluxe)

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Well actually they come out in Q4 (late Q4) this year. Also Soundstorm may be on the motherboard however it has its own APU which is worlds better than the A2ZS. Also by upgrading the Motherboard not only will he get superior sound but he will get a performance and feature jump for near the smae price. IMO much better Price/Performance.

-Kevin

The audigy 2 has better 3d sound quality, bar none. You might lose an extra frame or two compared to the soundstorm, but it will sound a hell of a lot better.

If you are planning to use spdif out however, the only way you are getting 5.1 from it is with the soundstorm.

Your best bet is to get the audigy 2, and get 3 y-cables, and hook it up 5.1 to your receiver with the 6 RCA analog plugs.

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Well actually they come out in Q4 (late Q4) this year. Also Soundstorm may be on the motherboard however it has its own APU which is worlds better than the A2ZS. Also by upgrading the Motherboard not only will he get superior sound but he will get a performance and feature jump for near the smae price. IMO much better Price/Performance.

-Kevin

The audigy 2 has better 3d sound quality, bar none. You might lose an extra frame or two compared to the soundstorm, but it will sound a hell of a lot better.

If you are planning to use spdif out however, the only way you are getting 5.1 from it is with the soundstorm.

Your best bet is to get the audigy 2, and get 3 y-cables, and hook it up 5.1 to your receiver with the 6 RCA analog plugs.

If you got a nice receiver, with optical digital inputs aoundstorm pwnz.

 

[joecool]

from what i've read the audigy2 was a pretty big step up from the audigy, resolved some issues of the first rev and generally has much better sound quality and a lot more features/options. wait for a rebate and get the audigy2, you won't regret it.

 

[McArra]

NForce 4 is not an option for 2 reasons:

1- It's a long wait

2- I have finally found a very stable board that I don't want to change

I'll go with the Audigy 2 ZS, thanks a lot to everybody

 

[Arcanedeath]

The Audigy 2 and Audigy use the same EMU10k chip the ZS uses a newer version of the same chip, creative crippled the audigy 1 in it's drivers feature wise compared to later revisions of the Audigy (eg 2 and 2ZS) it's a pain but if you use hacked drivers for an Audigy 2 on an Audigy 1 you get more features, it sounds better and it's less buggy, creative support for the Audigy 1 sucks and it's criminal what they've done w/ it's drivers.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: wetcat007

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Well actually they come out in Q4 (late Q4) this year. Also Soundstorm may be on the motherboard however it has its own APU which is worlds better than the A2ZS. Also by upgrading the Motherboard not only will he get superior sound but he will get a performance and feature jump for near the smae price. IMO much better Price/Performance.

-Kevin

The audigy 2 has better 3d sound quality, bar none. You might lose an extra frame or two compared to the soundstorm, but it will sound a hell of a lot better.

If you are planning to use spdif out however, the only way you are getting 5.1 from it is with the soundstorm.

Your best bet is to get the audigy 2, and get 3 y-cables, and hook it up 5.1 to your receiver with the 6 RCA analog plugs.

If you got a nice receiver, with optical digital inputs aoundstorm pwnz.

And why exactly would the nforce sound better on a receiver, other than the fact that you only need 1 wire to connect it vs 3?

And on top of that, the DD encoding definintely degrades sound quality, to a somewhat noticible degree. If you switch between it being on an off, you will notice it for sure. If youre hooking it up to a receiver youre obviously concerned about sound quality, so there is no reason to settle for second best. Sure, hooking it up with one wire is convenient, but a receiver for computer speakers is about as inconvenient as you could get to begin with.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: BD2003
And on top of that, the DD encoding definintely degrades sound quality, to a somewhat noticible degree. If you switch between it being on an off, you will notice it for sure. If youre hooking it up to a receiver youre obviously concerned about sound quality, so there is no reason to settle for second best. Sure, hooking it up with one wire is convenient, but a receiver for computer speakers is about as inconvenient as you could get to begin with.

Wow. Where would you like me to start.

First, it's impossible for the Audigy to generate* 5.1 sound on it's digital out. Can't do it. Not DD5.1, not DTS.

Second, it is possible to connect an Audigy to a receiver for 5.1 surround, but you need one with 6 channel analog input. This is not a common feature, espeically today. If you look back 5 years, you can find a bunch, that were "Dolby Digital 5.1 ready", and needed an outboard processor, much like the "HDTV Ready" sets today.

*The Audigy can pass pre-rendered 5.1 sound data on it's SPDIF, but the only thing that takes advantage of that is DVD playback software. The Audigy has no capability to transcode EAX or DirectSound3d into DD5.1.

Furthermore, had you (or anyone here) actually Googled the audio system in question, you'd know that we're arguing about a 2 channel mini-system, so surround sound support is moot.

OP, just keep in mind the Audigy can do surround only on it's analog outputs.

 

[WeiWei]

found this thread when trying to find comparisons between audigy and audigy 2..

so, Terry Mathews, what sound card would you recommend for the PC considering you seem to know quite a bit about sound..

 

[xiaobao12]

Terry or anybody,

Can you please explain why the Audigy can't output digital 5.1??? I thought digital sound signal is just one connection? On the platinum models, there is an digital out - so please explain. Thanks.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: xiaobao12
Terry or anybody,

Can you please explain why the Audigy can't output digital 5.1??? I thought digital sound signal is just one connection? On the platinum models, there is an digital out - so please explain. Thanks.

The Audigy can output digital 5.1. It just can't create it.
Ex: Playing a DVD on your computer - audio will come out in 5.1 assuming you configure your DVD player to pass data on the SPDIF instead of decoding. Play a game though, and all you'll ever get out the digital port is 2 channel PCM audio.

Originally posted by: WeiWei
found this thread when trying to find comparisons between audigy and audigy 2..

so, Terry Mathews, what sound card would you recommend for the PC considering you seem to know quite a bit about sound..

Well, to me there's only two contenders; Audigy and SoundStorm. Since SoundStorm is only available built-in to certain AthlonXP motherboards, your choices are limited.

If you want to set up a HTPC and use a DD5.1 surround system with it, a SoundStorm-based system is your only real choice. I can personally vouch for this - BF: Vietnam on a 75" VGA projector in 5.1 surround sound is so beyond rad there aren't words to describe it.

There are ways to connect an Audigy to a surround receiver. You need one with 6 channel analog input - this used to be rare but not so now. You just need a receiver that's compatible with DVDA (DVD-Audio).

I own both an Audigy Platinum and a SoundStorm-based motherboard. Both have their strengths and uses. The Audigy is a great desktop card, especially combined with the Live!Drive or whatever they're calling it today. Auto-mute on the speakers when you connect a pair of headphones is awesome.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: joecool
from what i've read the audigy2 was a pretty big step up from the audigy, resolved some issues of the first rev and generally has much better sound quality and a lot more features/options. wait for a rebate and get the audigy2, you won't regret it.

One of the biggest things worth noting here is that among the problems fixed was the Firewire controller; the A1's isn't quite up to spec, and as a result, a couple of devices can misbehave, such as some iPods.

xiaobao12: The Audigy can output 5.1 digitial sound, but not Dolby Digital(passthrough excluded). If you want to use a 5.1 digital setup for games and whatnot, you'd have to use one of Creative's speaker sets, which use a special 4 pole plug that allows the Audigy to output all 5.1 digital channels(PCM digital mind you, not DD encoded) to the speakers. It's actually not too bad of a setup if you don't already have a speaker set, since Creative's stuff is pretty good.

 

[imported_Nacelle]

Anyone with a link to the hacked drivers. I'm still sportin' an Audigy 1.

 

[imported_goku]

Yea I would get the Audigy 2 ZS because I just bought 1 over a Creative PCI 512 and sounds worlds better plus I got 7.1 availability. Also if you use the older audigy, you wont be able to enable newer versions of EAX in games and if you use MB sound then you definately wont beable to enable hardware sound/EAX and other goodies. Some might claim that those are just marketing schemes but I do notice a difference when games actually support the hardware enhancements.