Suggestions for new sound card

[oddeirik]

Since my third Audigy card died on me, I am growing very tired of calling Creative Tech and ask for a replacement card all the time, so now I'm looking for a new soundcard and I've sniffed on the following:

• Hercules Digifire 7.1

• Hercules Game Theater XP 7.1

• Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1

As far as I know, this card all have the same sound chip. Also the Digifire has firewire ports, and the GTXP has that external rack. Hercules have lousy web sites when it comes to technical details. It says "extreme gaming performance" and things like that, but I need to know exactly what they support. I am mainly a gamer, and would therefore like to know which EAX versions they support, if they support A3D, and so on. In short; I want some more technical details on them.

Any of you who would recommend or not recommend one of this cards, if so; why or why not?

Thanks in advance!

 

[AnAndAustin]

I hate Creative too. They are among the worst for releasing driver updates esp for WinXP which is over a year old (up there with Epson). They keep model numbers the same even when important revisions or total internal replacements have taken place (often with their CDRW/DVD) and their aftersales is reportedly awful too.

I had a good look around for soundcard reviews and found these handy helpful links from trusted sources:

Tech Report soundcard roundup

TomsHW Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 and Digifire 7.1

TomsHW Hercules Gamesurround Muse 5.1 DVD

Xbit Aureal SQ2500

 

[pillage2001]

You have 3 audigy die on you?? WTF. :Q

 

[AnAndAustin]

Chances are Creative did what a lot of sneaky cheeky gob-shoit co's do and instead of shipping a replacement and then dealing with the fault they simply ship the orig back to you often with the fault(s) still intact. I always make a point of recording serial no's and marking the part in some way.

 

[Greenwald]

You could get a good deal on a Philips Seismic Edge S/C off Ebay. I bought a brand new one. Cost around $23 shipped. Works great. There you go.....

 

[oddeirik]

Thanks people. I'm gonna check it all out now.

I'm never getting Creative again. I called Creative Tech, and they told me that they would send me an e-mail with a few things I could try to get the card working again...
It's been over 2 days now, and no e-mail from them. Oh well, it's not like I think it would've helped anyways

 

[Funyuns101]

what exactly happened to your sound card?
i have the creative audigy gamer, it started skipping mp3's on me and i'm very annoyed
however recently it stopped, so it seems to be okay or so i hope
just making sure mine isn't dying... yet...
i'm starting to hate creative as well though the audigy2 supposedly has its upsides...

anyways, philips acoustic edge and turtle beach santa cruz are good sound card alternatives.

 

[Brian48]

Of the cards you've mention, I'd opt for the "older" Herc 6.1. Although not confirmed, I hear that the newer GTXP's are using the stepped down CS4624 instead of the higher end CS4630 sound chip (same as Santa Cruz). The Fortissimo 7.1 is nothing more than a Fortissimo II with more speaker options.

My experiences with the Audigy has also made me revert back to my older Santa Cruz and Acoustic Edge. There were some things that the Audigy did better than the other cards (gaming), but the little annoyances outweighed the benefits. Despite my feelings of apprehension, I recently gave Creative another chance and tried out the Audigy2. I'm happy to say that, regardless of how one might feel about the company itself, this is one helluva sound card. The audio quality is superb for a consumer level card and it has none of the issues that used to irk me with the original Audigy. The drivers are very solid and WHQL certified as well.

 

[oddeirik]

The problem is that both the Turtle Beach and the Acoustic Edge is very hard to get in Norway. So far I've only found one webshop that has the Acoustic Edge, and they don't have it in stock. That probably means several weeks of waiting for them to get it ordered.

As for the guy wondering how my card got wrecked, it all starts with Windows finding new hardware. Then the soundcard changes device name in Device Manager. Whenever I then try to use the soundcard, I get an error message telling me there's no Audigy card present. Reinstalling the drivers won't work either, since the install has a device check.

I am actually considering the Audigy 2, but if I'm gonna have the same problems with that as with the one I have now... Does anyone know if the new Audigy has issues with the Abit mobo I have (KR7A-RAID)? I'd hate to buy one, just to find out it'll die on me...

 

[AnAndAustin]

I'd avoid Creative as much as possible. Check those 4 links again as to what alternatives there are. Hercules Fortissimo II/III, Muse 5.1 DVD, a Philips card other than AE (if that's to hard to get) and maybe even an Aureal card should all be very good cards. If you want Creative ... Live are cheap and high quality but hungry and quirky, Audigy have come down a little and are certainly better, more reliable and less quirky and Audigy 2 should be even better ... I still have a severe dislike of Creative though esp their customer support and drivers.

 

[Brian48]

Actually, what you've described doesn't necessarily mean that the card has died on you, especially if this is your third one. It could be just an issue of how the OS is installing the device. In any case, have you tried (as an experiment) installing any other type of sound card to reproduce the problem? There's no guarantee that this might not occur with the other cards as well. The Audigy does require an additional IRQ for the Firewire port so this might also be attributing to the problem you've described. Have you tried disabling it under Device Manager and then try reinstalling the card?

Regarding the Audigy2, it seems (from my experience thus far) that Creative has learned a lot from their experience with the Audigy. I myself was very hesitant to try the Audigy2, but I'm glad I did because, despite the paper similiarities, the card appears to be and act like a different animal altogether. It is NOT just a repackaged Audigy. The components used are much superior than before and so is the compatibility.

 

[oddeirik]

Dude, I've tried everything, from changing bios settings, disabling ACPI, put it in different PCI slots, reinstalling the card and drivers, I've tried it in Windows 2000 and even Windows 98SE as well. I am not far from the truth when I say I've tried it all...

 

[RanDum72]

Yep, same old KR7A/Audigy problem. The KR7A is known to corrupt the firmware of the Audigy. This also happens with other KT266A based mobos. It has something to do with ACPI. Once the it corrupts an Audigy, it comes out as a EMU10K device under 'Sounds and Audio Devices' in control panel nstead of 'Audigy Audio Device'. How do I know? My KR7A-133 trashed two of my Audigy's. The third replacement, I wisely decided not to install in it. Check the forums on Creatives' European site.

As for replacement, Hercules/Guillemot has a bigger presence in Europe so the Fortissimo III should a good one if you are in a budget.