Santa Cruz vs. Audigy 2

[Pariah]

You are arguing against something from a sound hardware website. And i think that know more than you.

Your sources are not up to date. The most recent drivers specifically address 5.1 gaming. Regardless, there are other applications out there besides gaming, that use 5.1, and the SC has supported those. Any deficiency is not hardware based, but software.


"v4193 - New Features/Fixes
==========================
* 5.1 Gaming support! Now you can play the latest 5.1 games with the 5.1
speaker config and hear everything you are supposed to.

* Windows Media Player 9 5.1 support added under XP.
Now you can play multi-channel WMA files!

* SRS CSII 5.1 plugin for MP9 works with this driver."

Dont be one of those people who defend a piece of hardware to death. Arguing against facts, and refusing to back down. Cos ive had enough of them type of people lately.

What are you so bitter about? My main SC is an Audigy 2 and my secondary is an Audigy 1, both of which I much prefer to the Santa Cruz. So not only is your "commentary" childish, it doesn't even have any merit.

Although it works, it has a tendency to mask a lot of the 3d positioning effects and just doesn't sound as good. At least with the Creative and Philips cards, you get psuedo 5.1 support for games that don't come with it.

I never said it was any good, just that it did work. I don't like any of those artificial channel expanders regardless of the hardware doing. They all sound poor in my opinion.

 

[godspeedx]

Well in Santa Cruz control panel there's a button that says "Virtual 5.1" which you have to click to get the center speakers working. Except for DVDs, it shuts off automatically when I open up my DVD player (latest version of PowerDVD) and every speaker receives a signal. I dunno, but I ordered the Audigy2 and am not regretting it, even if the SC is in fact 5.1. No biggy.

 

[0roo0roo]

sorry, boomam, pariah knows what he's talking about. the very fact that you even claimed the sc couldn't do even 4.1 out shows a level of ignorance when it comes to soundcards. its basic common sense in terms of soundcards. when sc came out, it competed with the creative live! xgamer and mp3! which both supported 4.1 3d sound gaming. now if the sc really had such lousy features, it wouldn't have lasted this long and have such respect wthin hardware communities without an update. that or your reading comprehension is quite low. looking further into it, it seems you were wrong about most everything except that the sc can't do 5.1 gaming as well.

being that the sc costs very little, its moot point for most people.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
sorry, boomam, pariah knows what he's talking about. the very fact that you even claimed the sc couldn't do even 4.1 out shows a level of ignorance when it comes to soundcards.

I was reading off a website, this does not show my ignorance about sound cards, as i do in fact know alot about them. My experiance with the Santa Cruz, or as its called in Europe, Sonic Fury, are limited to testing on a friends pc.

its basic common sense in terms of soundcards. when sc came out, it competed with the creative live! xgamer and mp3! which both supported 4.1 3d sound gaming. now if the sc really had such lousy features, it wouldn't have lasted this long and have such respect wthin hardware communities without an update. that or your reading comprehension is quite low.

I know very well that the SC/SF was ment to compete with the Live! series, and the reason why its "lasted" so long is because, up until recently, there have been no significant number of 5.1 games, most were 4.1, thus many here did, and sometimes still do reccommmend a 4.1 card with 4.1 speakers for gaming. Also, the SC/SF at the time supported far more stuff and did far more than the Live! series.
I am not saying the Santa Cruz is rubbish in anyway. In fact i was thinking of buying one a while back for a second PC, as its stereo and headphone support is excellent, because of the virtual surround it does, and the sensura stuff. As for my comprehension of text, i hardly call a B+ low in comprehension would you?

looking further into it, it seems you were wrong about most everything except that the sc can't do 5.1 gaming as well.

As above, i was going off a well respected website, as my experiance with the SC/SF is limited.

being that the sc costs very little, its moot point for most people.

I wasnt aware that they still made it? Must be just in europe that they`ve stopped selling it.

0roo0roo, i find this a bit two faced, as only a few posts ago, you were agreeing with me on practically everything i had previously said, apart from the 4/4.1 stuff.

What are you so bitter about? My main SC is an Audigy 2 and my secondary is an Audigy 1, both of which I much prefer to the Santa Cruz. So not only is your "commentary" childish, it doesn't even have any merit.

Im bitter cos im pretty pi$$ed off with alot of people here lately. No offence was ment to you.
How can my commentary be childish? I was just stating that some people on the forums defend their hardware to the death, refusing to back down in anyway, even if they know they are wrong.

 

[0roo0roo]

i'm open minded enough to conceed something when i'm not sure even when my gut tells me something else. it then went and checked it out and found that you were more wrong.

the santa cruz is far more popular in the US.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
the santa cruz is far more popular in the US.

Well whatever. Ive had enough of arguing with people on the forums lately, and cant be arsed arguing again. Ive got better things to do.
I`ll just take your word for it, it doesnt bother me anyway, i have an Audigy1.

 

[Nebor]

I have an Audigy 2, and because of it's sound processing power, I bet I get better FPS in ANY game that uses EAX 3.0 than those w/o a Creative card.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Nebor
I have an Audigy 2, and because of it's sound processing power, I bet I get better FPS in ANY game that uses EAX 3.0 than those w/o a Creative card.

There are some new drivers out that increases the fps more.
Plus theres only one company that makes cards that support EAX HD/3.0, and thats Creative. So part of your comment holds no importence.
And when it is enabled, most games take 15-20fps nose dive in performance.
No Offence like, i just thought i`d correct you.

 

[Nebor]

Well, even when not running EAX 3.0, I get great FPS because of my Audigy 2.

 

[Regs]

I love my Audigy 2 . The sound affects for the 5.1 channels rock. Like if a bullet whistles by on the left side of the screen, I hear the sound of the bullet on the left speakers with slight echoing noises coming from the right rear speaker. Just great sound affects.

 

[BoomAM]

The sound from my Audigy1 is just as good.
You should hear Splinter Cell, with EAX HD switched on. With 5.1 speakers. WOW......

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: BoomAM

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
the santa cruz is far more popular in the US.

Well whatever. Ive had enough of arguing with people on the forums lately, and cant be arsed arguing again. Ive got better things to do.
I`ll just take your word for it, it doesnt bother me anyway, i have an Audigy1.

A good way to avoid arguments is to not chirp about being 100% right about hardware you don't even own. That's not any better than "defending a piece of hardware to death."

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Pariah
A good way to avoid arguments is to not chirp about being 100% right about hardware you don't even own. That's not any better than "defending a piece of hardware to death."

Dont start. Im not in the mood.
Becides, i was going off a review on a website, a well respected website at that.
Becides, just because i dont own a certain piece of hardware, doesnt mean i cant be knoledgeable about it. I dont own a Audigy2, but sure as hell know alot about it. I dont own a 9800pro 256mb, but, yet again, i know a hell of alot about it.

 

[AnMig]

"v4193 - New Features/Fixes
==========================
* 5.1 Gaming support! Now you can play the latest 5.1 games with the 5.1
speaker config and hear everything you are supposed to.

* Windows Media Player 9 5.1 support added under XP.
Now you can play multi-channel WMA files!

* SRS CSII 5.1 plugin for MP9 works with this driver."

Pariah

Thanks for information, I have been ignoring the new drivers for my santa cruz since they have been working flawlessly past 2 years.
I guess being able to do actual 5.1 surround is a good reason to upgrade the drivers.

I guess I dont have a good enough reason to upgrade to an Audigy just yet (darn)

 

[Pariah]

Becides, i was going off a review on a website, a well respected website at that.

After reading the link you provided and quote you had from 3D SoundSurge. You were wrong all along.

"As with most other soundcards, selecting 4-speaker mode will give stereo x2 (that is identical sound from the front and rear speakers) on all stereo content including analog CD-audio, midi, wave (e.g. MP3) and Directsound (e.g. games and several new music players)."

Notice the part in bold. Just as I said above, the Santa Cruz only duplicates audio to the rear channels when playing a stereo source which doesn't have rear channel material. There are multple references within the review that mention its discrete 4.1 capabilities. 5.1 gaming capabilities were not added until the recent driver release.

Becides, just because i dont own a certain piece of hardware, doesnt mean i cant be knoledgeable about it.

True, but if you own the hardware you won't have to depend on reading comprehension to gain the knowledge, we can be a bonus for some people.

I guess being able to do actual 5.1 surround is a good reason to upgrade the drivers.

NP, here's the rest of the list of fixes and new features:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=1081674&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

 

[ojai00]

Thanks for information, I have been ignoring the new drivers for my santa cruz since they have been working flawlessly past 2 years.
I guess being able to do actual 5.1 surround is a good reason to upgrade the drivers.

I guess I dont have a good enough reason to upgrade to an Audigy just yet (darn)

Me too. After I got it working about a year or two ago, I never looked at a driver update. This new version does look interesting though. I might just have to download it and update it. Just waiting to see if anyone else has any good reviews about it.

After reading this thread, I just can't help but thank Pariah, BoomAM, and 0roo0roo. Although it seemed like arguing back and forth, it really shed some light on the confusion between the two cards. BoomAM, Pariah was just trying to correct where you erroneously quoted another website and I'm sure didn't mean to offend you. You don't have to get defensive. Can't we all just get along? 🙂

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: ojai00
BoomAM, Pariah was just trying to correct where you erroneously quoted another website and I'm sure didn't mean to offend you. You don't have to get defensive. Can't we all just get along? 🙂

You`d make a good diplomat.
Im happy to drop it.
What about you Pariah?

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: Nebor
All cards but Audigy hand off audio processing tasks to the main processor, resulting in and FPS hit in games.

I wouldn't bet on that so much: Nforce2 tops the charts for lowest CPU usage in gaming and it has Dolby® Digital 5.1 sound quality. Also Terratec and M-Audio make the DMX 6 fire and other cards that perform roughly the same as the Audigy for gaming. If its gaming you want go Nforce if its sound Quality, professional cards like M-Audio and Terratec might suit your fancy. Just remember if you have Nforce built in Audio your going to have to drop a Bill or two to get to the next level of sound quality, Professional Level!

http://www6.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/sound_for_games-03.html#quake_3

proof:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/video/20020115/terratec-15.html
there are more articles out there if u want em look em up!!

 

[Trashman]

"Terratec and M-Audio make the DMX 6 fire and other cards that perform roughly the same as the Audigy for gaming."
MaximumPC did a review not too long ago, the M-audio vs the audigy....in gamin benchmarks there was a 10-25% performance hit with the M-audio....if true, thats not bad for a card not really marketed towards the hardcore gamer.

 

[wacki]

well you decide if its true or not

for games check out this
http://www6.tomshardware.com/video/20020115/terratec-15.html
Quake 3 was running at 65 fps on audigy and 64 on Terratec. Which is a difference of 1 fps or 2 % not much in my book.

However, on a completely different settup at:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/sound_for_games-03.html#quake_3
nForce2 did 202 fps and Audigy 2 did 185 no stats for M-Audio or Terratec of course.
thats a difference of 17 fps or ~ 8-9% a considerable jump in fps for nForce2, but then again at 200 fps are you going to be able to tell a difference? Movies only do 28-30 fps.

Depends what you want audiophile sound quality vs. price vs. fps bragging rights.

By the way do you have a link to that article for the M-Audio? Im guessing no, since its a magazine.

 

[Nebor]

How does SoundMax style onboard sound measure up?

 

[BFG10K]

All cards but Audigy hand off audio processing tasks to the main processor, resulting in and FPS hit in games.

Huh? Almost all cards are have dedicated sound processors; about the only ones that don't are some of the cheapo onboard sound chips. However if you're talking about the newest version of EAX which only Creative cards support then you'd be correct.

In general Creative cards come at the top of the pile because their drivers are actually quite well optimised for games.

As for the question at hand, the Audigy 2 is definitely the better card.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: wacki
Nforce2 tops the charts for lowest CPU usage in gaming and it has Dolby® Digital 5.1 sound quality.

Only though the digital out it has DD sound quality. Its analogue quality is lower than the Audigys. Most people compare the CPU usage of a nForce2/normal sound card doing normal DirectSound3D, to the Creative Cards doing EAX, which is far more complex. Hardly a fair comparison, but, the CPU usage of a Creative card doing EAX compared to a normal card doing DS3D, is only a few percent more. Which is quite impressive considering the creative cards have to do more.

Also Terratec and M-Audio make the DMX 6 fire and other cards that perform roughly the same as the Audigy for gaming.

Not by a long shot. Practically all new games use EAX3 for the fancy 3d sound effects, which no other cards apart from the Audigy Series support. So the Audigy series is better for games. The Terratec and M-Audio cards are ment for budget musicians who cant afford to dish out for the £300+ Yamahas, but want better ASIO that what creative provides with its drivers.

If its gaming you want go Nforce if its sound Quality, professional cards like M-Audio and Terratec might suit your fancy. Just remember if you have Nforce built in Audio your going to have to drop a Bill or two to get to the next level of sound quality, Professional Level!

As above, for gaming, compared to the Audigy Series, the nForce2 APU pales in comparison. The nForce2 APU, while impressive, is far from the next level down from Pro level. I can name several non-pro cards that are far more capable than the nForce2 APU.

The bottom line is, that for gaming, nothing comes close to either the Audigy 1 or the Audigy2. They both support the latest EAX standard, which is key for a good gaming card.

 

[Oalex]

/OFF

BoomAM you talk out of your a$s. If no one has told you this then I have to. Yes you ARE ignorant! If you are 16years old then you have had 5 years to get to know this personality that you posses (ie. talking out of your a$$), then stop arguing with other ppl, and stop making statments like: "Heres what i know. This is 100% true...." ..and you could not even read the outdated review right! but YOU know, you know, you know...blabla bla.
If I was u, I'd just lay low (especially after what you displayed here) and listin to other, but you still keep making arguments......shut up!.

Sorry to everybody else, I was just reading up on Audigy 2 peacefully and this guy just pissed me off, with his stupid statments. And he is complaining about other(s) forum menbers, while he is the one talking shít.

/On

I think I'll get an Audigy 2 today🙂

 

[BoomAM]

Oalex. STFU.
As well as this being a old post that`s been settled, no one gives a sh1t anymore.
For a start, im not 16.
Ive already said that i misread the review a bit, and corrected myself.
As for "stupid statements", when you know what you are on about, then comment, until that time, dont comment.
No-ones bothered anymore. Get over it. Its been settled.