Best Sound Card At The Moment?

[Goi]

Brian, you say that the Audigy2 now uses the Cirrus Logic CS4682 DAC instead of the Philips one used in the original Audigy. However, isn't everything else before that still the same? If that's the case, then wouldn't it still not be true 24/96, since IIRC the original Audigy was unable to supply the Philips 24/96 DAC with a 24/96 signal, but rather could only provide a 16/48 signal to it, negating the benefits of the 24/96 DAC. The only way it would supply a 24/96 signal was via its S/PDIF output, and I'm not even entirely sure if it able to do that due to its AC97 compliant nature, which would mean that it must up/downsample whatever signal it has to a final 48KHz signal rather than a 96KHz one. Also, the lack of ASIO compliancy bugs me too. I know that none of its other competitors have it, but being a card also marketed at amateur/semi-pro musicians, it'd be a nice thing to have.

 

[Dug]

my vote goes to the isa sound blaster 16 with onboard panasonic ide cdrom interface! it owns you!

:Q :Q :Q :Q :Q

 

[jacob88]

I would deffinitely say the Audigy2. Great Card Very Good SOund Quality and Priceed very competively.

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: Goi
Brian, you say that the Audigy2 now uses the Cirrus Logic CS4682 DAC instead of the Philips one used in the original Audigy. However, isn't everything else before that still the same? If that's the case, then wouldn't it still not be true 24/96, since IIRC the original Audigy was unable to supply the Philips 24/96 DAC with a 24/96 signal, but rather could only provide a 16/48 signal to it, negating the benefits of the 24/96 DAC. The only way it would supply a 24/96 signal was via its S/PDIF output, and I'm not even entirely sure if it able to do that due to its AC97 compliant nature, which would mean that it must up/downsample whatever signal it has to a final 48KHz signal rather than a 96KHz one. Also, the lack of ASIO compliancy bugs me too. I know that none of its other competitors have it, but being a card also marketed at amateur/semi-pro musicians, it'd be a nice thing to have.

As I said before, I really don't care about this feature. Without having to rehash all the reviews and write-ups on this card, you can read about the level of 24/96 with the Audigy2 in one of them here. I was following the CS4682 for a little while because I was hoping to see it used on the Santa Cruz 2, but it looks like that'll never happen as I read somewhere that Voyetra might be getting out of the sound card business now.

I upgrade my sound card almost as often as I do any other component. I don't hold any loyalties to any one company, but I do give credit when credit is do (and I definitely don't pan a product until I actually try it myself). Sure the Audigy may have been a disappointment, but that doesn't mean that Audigy 2 can't be the best consumer level sound card out there. Sorry to those running a multi-processor system, but YOU ARE in the minority. The vast majority of everyone else is not limited to the benefits of this card.

 

[Goi]

The Audigy2 actually has a Crystal Semiconductors CS4382 rather than a CS4682 as you mentioned. There's no such chip as the CS4682, which is why I couldn't find it on the Cirrus Logic website...the CS4382 looks to be pretty good though.

 

[Brian48]

Whoops. You're correct - type-O on my part.

 

[SithSolo1]

For $15 you can't beat it.

I know I look stupid but for the life of me this sounds no differnet than my old SB Live! 5.1 X-gamer or my onboard sound. Am I just tone def? Would I really see $100 worth of difference if I got an Audigy 2? All I use is an old 2.1 set of Altec Lansings and a set of Plantronics .Audio 90 headphones. I'm planning on getting a set of Logitch z-560s or z-680s for Christmas, will the poor sound quility rear its ugly head then? 🙁

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: SithSolo1
For $15 you can't beat it.

🙂 See box #3......."my specs"

 

[DX2Player]

Originally posted by: SithSolo1
For $15 you can't beat it.

I know I look stupid but for the life of me this sounds no differnet than my old SB Live! 5.1 X-gamer or my onboard sound. Am I just tone def? Would I really see $100 worth of difference if I got an Audigy 2? All I use is an old 2.1 set of Altec Lansings and a set of Plantronics .Audio 90 headphones. I'm planning on getting a set of Logitch z-560s or z-680s for Christmas, will the poor sound quility rear its ugly head then? 🙁

I dont know, I used to have decent 2.0 speakers and they sounded fine using onboard C-media but i just bought Klipsch 4.1 system and my audio now crackles. I hooked them to my stereo to see if i got some bad speakers but they were fine, it seems that the Klipsch just need better quality audio out so I guess ill have to buy a new sound card too.

 

[Boobers]

LOL, thomsbrain! 😀

Most of these kids on here probably don't even know what that was! I think I might have one of those around here, somewhere...