Should I get a new sound card?

[JediJorgie]

Within a few weeks, I plan on upgrading to an Athlon 64 and new motherboard. My current sound card is a SoundBlaster 5.1 Live Value card. It has served me well the past couple years, but I would like to know if it would be worth upgrading to something like an Audigy, maybe like this one. My current speakers are these Boston Acoustics. But if everything goes well this summer and I win the lottery or I find some hidden Nazi gold or something, I would like to upgrade to these Logitech Z-680's. What do you think?

 

[Brian48]

From an SBLive to an Audigy2 ZS? Hell yes! You won't be disappointed.

 

[JediJorgie]

Even with my old speakers?

 

[Vernor]

I think there is a high chance you won't be able to hear the difference, just by swapping the cards.


Audio is too subjective.

 

[Anubis]

do you want to spend the money? i have a Audigy 1 and my Klipsch Promedia 4.1s sound fine, i dont see any advantages to upgradeing to a audigy 2, my stuff sounds fine

 

[Gurck]

Live! 5.1 to Audigy 2 ZS was a very noticeable difference for me. I use my pc for tons of music and movies though, if you just play some games now & then it might be a bit costly for that.

 

[So]

I considered switching and ultimately I went with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz....because sound quality is still quite good and the versajack is awesome (plus i still have a gameport joystick that I use regularly for battlefield).

 

[JediJorgie]

I do play a fair amount of games and will be playing more now that the semesterl is done and I'm upgrading soon. I also listen to a lot of music, and watch movies every once in awhile. I don't mind spending the money for a new card, I just don't want to do it if I won't see a difference. Maybe I'll just wait until I really do buy new speakers.

 

[JediJorgie]

My second question is if the Audigy I linked to in my original post would be the right card to get if I want to get digital out to the Logitech Z-680's. I really don't know that much about sound cards and speakers, and I just picked that Audigy because it said it had digital out. So, will that card do it or do I need something else?

 

[Anubis]

you need a digital SPDIF cord, and they are pretty cheap