Sound Blaster Audigy: Still Good?

[scottrick49]

I am building a new PC and trying to see if anything from my old PC is worth using in the new one. Since I have an old PC, pretty much everything is ruled out:

Athlon 2200 XP
1 GB ram (ddr)
geforce ti 4600
etc... etc...

The only thing I thought that might be worth saving was the sound blaster Audigy card I had. I have read that the built in sound on motherboards these days is a lot better than it used to be so a sound card isn't necessary anymore unless you are going to be doing a lot of stuff with audio. However, my sound card does have a game port on it which I do use (bit of a retro gamer here; love the old space sims and I need my joystick).

So here's what I'm wondering. How does the old Sound Blaster Audigy compare to current built in motherboard sound? How would it compare to a new ~$50 sound card? Suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[scottrick49]

still curious if anybody has any thoughts about this

 

[BlueAcolyte]

I would also like to know.

 

[Hop]

Me too!

I have one of the FIRST sound blaster audigy's with the break out, and I read in a lot of places where the break out will work with new versions of audigy. All that hardware, all the damn money I spent on it. Hate to mothball it. All the work gone into getting it to work on my P4 system has pushed me into the direction of M-Audio products.

EDIT: WITH CREATIVE...
But I had serious driver issues, noise issues, mixer issues when dealing with line in, and other audio sources in. I hate to not use the pretty hardware, if the break out will work with newer versions.

Hop

EDIT: Anyone know of a link or any sources as to the pinouts of the interface on the breakout, I'd really be appreciative!

 

[pturula]

Do u use a 2 speaker system ? i for one run on a 5.1 speaker system and as good as the onboard sound might be, i dont believe the motherboard comes with enough I/O ports for me to plug my speaker cables into... i might be wrong i dunno !

 

[Hop]

Originally posted by: pturula
Do u use a 2 speaker system ? i for one run on a 5.1 speaker system and as good as the onboard sound might be, i dont believe the motherboard comes with enough I/O ports for me to plug my speaker cables into... i might be wrong i dunno !

Did for me. 6 ports off the back, 1 for front, 1 for back and subwoofer (I think), or another for subwoofer. And others for line in, mic in, line out.

Hop

 

[d3lt4]

I'm not sure how it compares, but I would recommend keeping it. Then if you don't like, or get a burning desire for the latest and greatest technology, get a better card.

 

[Crizza]

If you're staying with XP, keep the Audigy. If you're going to Vista, get an X-Fi.

 

[Davegod]

still liking my audigy player/gamer. It's been a great card for... 6 years!? I just looked that up. Maybe it is time to get a new card. Or maybe not, like i said I'm still liking it and not having any problems with anything for years.

well, except two problems which I fixed ages ago and seem to have reappeared. Cant find how I sorted them originally, very likely read it from these forums so maybe someone remembers:
1. After rebooting i have to go into Mixer and toggle mute Line-In to remove static. Can leave it muted, open, whatever, so long as i hit it at least once.
2. Creative splash screen on boot. had it disabled. Worse, ffdshow holds up boot for ~5 seconds asking if CTEaxSpl.exe can use it - this I can sort but thought I'd mention ffdshow might be what's triggered the problem.

 

[Ghouler]

There is audible difference between Audigy and X-Fi and X-Fi has definitely better software then Audigy, too.

EDIT: Stereo to surround upmix options and surround over headphones are very good with X-Fi and what you have with Audigy is rather modest)

If you think about getting Vista - go for X-Fi as this gets you hardware accelerated audio, too (with ALchemy patch)

Audigy will be still better then onboard sound anyway, so if you don't get X-Fi keep that Audigy in anyway.

@Davegod: Seems like ffdshow refers to some component that was there when you installed it but is not there since you removed the splash screen. I'd try to deinstall ffdshow and Audigy driver and then install ffdshow and then Audigy driver again.