difference: SoundBlaster Live! & Audigy 2

[faye]

hi,

i am still/using old SoundBlaster Live!(oldest). and comparing today's Audigy2,
what is the really differnet btwn these 2 boards?

drivers? compatibility? perhaps software bundle..

advantages?

thanks

 

[chizow]

I just made the switch, and its like night and day. There was a pretty lengthy thread in the hot deals forum, and I also think general hardware covers it a bit too. Its vastly superior to SBLive! in each of the categories and beyond, I'm just too tired to post more about it....

Chiz

 

[faye]

chizow, how night and day different?

 

[Woodchuck2000]

I went from an original SBLive to an Audigy Platinum.

The EAX and 3D features are much better on the Audigy - games tend to sound much better.
Sound quality has improved noticeably, things seem crisper with tighter bass.

I wouldn't say the difference is night and day, but it's worth the upgrade.

 

[HappyNic]

your Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000 are pretty good speakers, but instead of using the money for a Audigy, perhaps you can use it on the Logitech z560 (hope I got the model number right the one thats's THX and has 400w) It'll sound so much better with better speakers.

I also have the FPS2000 (sblive5.1) but my friend has the Logitech z560 with a 4.1 SB live!, His' sound SOOOOOOO much better

 

[chizow]

Its like night and day because of the increased features over my Live! like 5.1 output, Firewire, digital out along with the noticeable difference in audio quality. I hooked my Audigy 2 up to my 5.1 DTS receiver. Audigy 2 really enables me to make my PC a home theater system instead of a gaming/web-surfing machine. SB Live! just didn't do well with DVD playback and my TV Tuner. Sound was always weak and muffled.

The biggest difference now is that my system is free of Live! drivers. I was always under the belief that I never had any issues with Live! or its drivers, but my system is a lot snappier now and a lot of "weird" issues don't occur anymore. I don't think its worth an upgrade to new speakers if they can't even take advantage of 5.1 sound. It'll essentially be an old version of Dolby Pro Logic, as the oldest Live! cards only have 2 channel output.

Chiz

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: chizow
Its like night and day because of the increased features over my Live! like 5.1 output, Firewire, digital out along with the noticeable difference in audio quality. I hooked my Audigy 2 up to my 5.1 DTS receiver. Audigy 2 really enables me to make my PC a home theater system instead of a gaming/web-surfing machine. SB Live! just didn't do well with DVD playback and my TV Tuner. Sound was always weak and muffled.

The biggest difference now is that my system is free of Live! drivers. I was always under the belief that I never had any issues with Live! or its drivers, but my system is a lot snappier now and a lot of "weird" issues don't occur anymore. I don't think its worth an upgrade to new speakers if they can't even take advantage of 5.1 sound. It'll essentially be an old version of Dolby Pro Logic, as the oldest Live! cards only have 2 channel output.

Chiz

You just convinced me to lose more money.

 

[faye]

i dont' have chance to hear the Audigy and now there is Audigy2... sigh ...

is Audigy2 only in Platinum version?

 

[Mem]

is Audigy2 only in Platinum version?

No,you can get it in normal PCI version,also OEM versions should be available soon.

 

[chizow]

LoL Pillage, sorry man...your bank account must hate me

faye, as Mem said, Audigy 2 comes in 2 flavors (3 soon) as the Audigy did. There's the stand-alone PCI card that comes with some nice games (SoF2 and Hitman 2) which both retail around $50 right now. The Platinum comes with a 5 1/4'' bay "Live!" drive. It has another firewire connector and a bunch of other inputs for your digicams, dv recorders, midi hardware, microphones, synthesizers etc. Platinum is around $200 msrp, but I think you can get it for ~$180 online. I didn't go for it b/c I won't be using all the extras, although an 5 1/4'' faceplate to plug everything in is kinda nice. I got the Audigy 2 for $99 with a $30 MIR from BB a couple weeks ago. I was surfing around the web and I saw another site with the MIR, I forgot which though Maybe Amazon or Buy.com.....

I didn't hear the Audigy vs. Audigy 2, but from what I'm hearing from Audigy owners that went Audigy 2 there is a difference in the quality of playback. From Live! to Audigy 2, again its like night and day.

Also, for those of you looking to plug this guy into your home theater systems for DTS 5.1 sound, here's what you need (it'll save you time, it took me a while to get the right connectors):

1) Mono mini-jack to mono phono (RCA) gold plated. Its a tiny adapter with no cords, just a metal plug with one end minijack, other side is RCA female.
2) Digital audio RCA cable (aka Coax RCA). (male to male)

Incredibly, it was a pain to find the right combo to get this to work. I tried no less than 5 different cables/adapters til I found which one would work. You'd think they'd sell a simple mini plug to RCA adapter for digital audio, but they don't Anyways, I tried everything that Monster cable puts out before I went to Radio Shack and walked out in 2 minutes with what I needed. 5.1 Sound is awesome, you just need to change your settings in the creative software to the following:

1) Surround Mixer: Digital Output only and set speakers to 5.1 channel sound.
2) Creative Audio HQ: under Sampling Rate I had to set it to 48khz for digital output and under Decoder you want to set it to SPDIF passthrough so that your receiver can decode the digital signal instead of the emulated CMSS version.

The blue light from my Sony Receiver looks great with my CC and case fan LEDs Oh yah, 5.1 DTS sound on my Dell 1900FP panel looks and sounds quite nice, a HT system based around my computer.

Once Plasma becomes affordable, I'm gonna scrap my TV and monitor and combine my HTS and my PC

Chiz

 

[faye]

and how does the Audigy2 compare with the Hercules Fortissimo III ?

let me make sure, only one version of Fortissimo III , rite? i saw it for $50???

 

[chizow]

I've never used the Fortissimo, so I'm not sure what it has in the way of features and sound quality. I think most people that don't have an utter disdain for Creative products will agree the Audigy 2 is unrivaled in PC sound cards. Only question is whether you think it is worth 2x as much.

Chiz

Edit: Buy.com has it for $99 after $30 MIR with free shipping.

 

[riko]

I've noticed that z680's provide 'decoding'. Another member in this thread says why upgrade to 4.1 speakers (z560') because you'll be missing something and it may be like listening to stereo.

Shouldn't the sound source be 'decoded' correctly by the PC and sound card (5.1 compliance) then distributed to the right channels, (eg. (sb 5.1 - top jack cent/sub, 4th jack front speakers, 5th jack rear speakers)

Why would member think that 4.1 speakers would be like stereo. The only time you couldn't use your old speakers as the center channel is if you happen to be melting the walls and have to have it 5.1 Why is there decoding on z680's unless you conn directly to dvd player or something. I gotta be missing something...

I got great sound from sblive 5.1 oem with z560's and other speakers using channel splitters ($5 radioshack and duplicators (y cables).

 

[chizow]

 

[BigDaddyD]

I went from the Soundblaster Live to the Audigy 2 Platinum. The difference is so severe that I am now looking to get better speakers. With the Live I thought I had good sound, now I know that I need better speakers. The 2 sounds very good. I am also getting some good Sennheiser headphones as well.

 

[Lore]

Wow, the difference is THAT great huh? I'm using an SB Live 5.1 and it's already pretty darn clean through my Z-680s... I wonder how it'd be with an Audigy.

 

[Yoshi]

Just replaced my SB Live! with an Audigy2 yesterday and am already impressed. It truly is a big leap in sound quality over the Live, honestly I was never too impressed by the Live. To keep it short I really think it's that much better and is worth the upgrade, you will notice a big difference in sound quality listenting to music or playing games.

For those of you who are like me and demand high quality sound. You should know that the Audigy2 software does not require you to hook your CDROM to the card using an external analog or 2 pin SPDIF cable. The software will read audio disks over the IDE controller on the PCI bus buffering the data to your HDD. Doing this ensures one that timing errors can be corrected and two that the Audigy2 is in fact doing the D/A conversion allowing you to take advantage of it's ablilites.

FYI, I do all my listening through a pair of Sennheiser HD600 headphones driven by the headphone amp in my Denon UD-M30 audio system. Sound travels from my sound card to the Denon through a Monster Cable interconnect.

 

[faye]

i see the speaker u have is quite good... top of the line speaker...

i only have Creative Cambridge FPS2000(3 years old)

can this speaker do the job too?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: faye
i see the speaker u have is quite good... top of the line speaker...

i only have Creative Cambridge FPS2000(3 years old)

can this speaker do the job too?

I was using my old Creative Cambridge Four Point Surround when I first installed the card, which are a step-down from your speakers. It sounded excellent even on those speakers, but I knew I wanted better performance so I set it up to my Home Theater System. The only down-side is that you will not get 5.1 sound. You will however get all of the upmixed sound and Dolby Surround EX. I would upgrade the card first, then worry about speakers as the one's you have are still pretty decent.

Chiz

 

[faye]

I would upgrade the card first, then worry about speakers as the one's you have are still pretty decent.

 

[WHipLAsh13]

A little FYI. I just picked up the Audigy 2 Platinum yesterday and there definately is a big difference between cards. I had a SB Live Xgamer and to me there is a very noticable difference. I do most of my game playing using headphones and I was able to hear a significant difference. I cant wait to pick up a pair of good speakers to go with this card though, the results should be amazing.

 

[holdencommodore]

Originally posted by: faye
and how does the Audigy2 compare with the Hercules Fortissimo III ?

let me make sure, only one version of Fortissimo III , rite? i saw it for $50???

Fortissimo III uses the Crystal Sound Fusion DSP. It's a **similar** DSP to that used in the TBSC (part of the same family). Output of the Fortissimo III is more coloured compared to the TBSC, some people may prefer the additional colourations in the Fort III over the TBSC. The card is extremely well featured for the price, and is one of the few low cost cards with Optical SPDIF.

There will be a difference compared to a Audigy 2, and with the price difference I sure would expect one. The Sensaura 3D API is good in general for games, though the implimentaion is not perfect. Being a Sensaura card, it has one of the best Headphone algorithims around, and the MultiDrive HRTF algorithims produce excellent up/down positioning. The quality for CD's and MP3's is excellent, slightly under that of the Audigy 2's. The Drivers for the Fort III are excellent (just been updated recently).

There is also the Fortissimo II, which uses the same DSP, just with less outputs... think it's 5.1 compared to the Fort III's 7.1


Cheers

 

[KRandor]

To me, (still using a SBlive bought 3? years ago, in an AMD K6-2 350 bought at the same time), there better be a BIG difference between the two cards... The SBLive, is now so old (got one when it was pretty new - with a Voodoo 3 (still in use)), that I'd expect any new card to blow it out the water...

The differences between the SBLive and the Audigy 2 are pretty big on paper - (how they sound I don't know, 'cuz I haven't heard an Audigy 2 yet) - such as 16/44.1 vs. 24/96 etc. I'd get an Audigy 2, but for the fact that it can't record at 24/96...:-/ (Will be getting an M-audio Revolution 7.1 to go with the ST-Audio DSP24 DSP3000 I want).

The only thing that always went without saying with SB stuff was game compatability, though, which is why we got it in the first place... My new system won't really have that problem - (won't be playing many games on it) - not that it's much of a problem nowadays anyway...

 

[chizow]

The Audio 2 Platinum EX will support full 24/96 playback and recording and ASIO 2. Not necessary for my needs, but should fill the niche for the prosumers out there.

Chiz