upgrade to Audigy 2 ZS ?

[Sully]

I own the Audigy 2 now. I am planning to get the new klipsch promedia ultra 5.1 speaker system . Will an upgrade to an Audigy 2 ZS be a good move? And one moe thing is there any difference in sound from the basic Audigy 2 ZS and the Platinum series. I do not use all the inputs I simply listen to music and play games.

-Thanks

 

[Ionizer86]

In the past, with the Live, Audigy, and Audigy 2, the Platinum/eX versions didn't increase performance. They had the same card except the bundled pack contained a lot more stuff. You're set with a regular card. I don't know if the 2 ZS makes a difference or not though.

BTW, I've that the OEM Audigy cards were better since they color coded the 3.5mm input/outputs on them

 

[helloguy]

i doubt u would need2 upgrade..reasons:-
1)klipsch 5.1 ultra are not 7.1 to utilize ZS
2)audigy2-106db snr,zs - 108db snr....only 2db snr..not much??
3)dts es decoding capabilities....for 7.1 movies...again,u're gonna pair with klipsch ultra 5.1
4)eax 4? no games yet....

that's just my opinion though...anyone else?

 

[mrgoblin]

I got one for ya. Soundstorm or Zs?

 

[Sully]

Helloguy,
Great information!!! I will wait before I upgrade my sound card . You saved me 100 bucks.
Thanks

 

[mrgoblin]

So Soundstorm or Zs? Anyone

 

[boyRacer]

Originally posted by: mrgoblin
So Soundstorm or Zs? Anyone

ZS is better on paper... but whether you can hear the difference is up to you. id stick with the soundstorm just to save $.

 

[helloguy]

i think if u're a music craze or really into sound(audiophile or smth),then u should get zs instead of the onboard soundstorm,otherwise the soundstorm will serve u well..

 

[Sideswipe001]

My soundstorm had all kinds of issues so I got a ZS. I've been very happy with it too, and personally, I think it's much better in games.

 

[mrgoblin]

What kind of gaming headphones do you suggest? Those new sennheisers look really good.

 

[Erasmus-X]

dts es decoding capabilities....for 7.1 movies...

Ummm...actually, DTS-ES is a 6.1-channel technology. A film encoded for DTS-ES contains 2 front channels, 2 rear channels, and front and rear center channels (six discrete channels + 1 LFE channel total). 7.1 is a completely different concept. At its roots, it's still a 5.1-channel setup, but it utilizes two front effects channels that are positioned in between the center and front channels for extra soundstage.

Those Klipschs are NICE speakers though. They'd work out fine with your current Audigy 2. No sense in scrapping a great card for something that's only marginally better.

 

[Pariah]

It's not worth upgrading with the setup you have.

3)dts es decoding capabilities....for 7.1 movies...again,u're gonna pair with klipsch ultra 5.1

The Audigy ZS is the first soundcard to support any form of DTS decoding. The ES capability is simply a bonus. DTS-ES decoding is supported by all the major software DVD players, so it isn't a major issue either way.

7.1 is a completely different concept. At its roots, it's still a 5.1-channel setup, but it utilizes two front effects channels that are positioned in between the center and front channels for extra soundstage.

Most of the time, including all DolbyDigital EX encoded material, 7.1 means standard 5.1 with dual rear surrounds placed behind the listener. The surrounds in a standard 5.1 setup are supposed to be placed directly right and left of the listener, not behind them as most people think.

 

[helloguy]

Originally posted by: Pariah

Most of the time, including all DolbyDigital EX encoded material, 7.1 means standard 5.1 with dual rear surrounds placed behind the listener. The surrounds in a standard 5.1 setup are supposed to be placed directly right and left of the listener, not behind them as most people think.

this is interesting,as i always thought the rear surround are supposed to place behind the listener,thus "rear" means....thanks for the info pariah~

 

[eno]

Originally posted by: helloguy
i doubt u would need2 upgrade..reasons:-
1)klipsch 5.1 ultra are not 7.1 to utilize ZS

3)dts es decoding capabilities....for 7.1 movies...again,u're gonna pair with klipsch ultra 5.1

1.)Couldn't you just hook up a set of 2.1 Klipsch to the extended surround sound output as a total of 7.2?

3.)DTS ES yes is 7.1 but they would not make the card a DTS ES and not allow standard DTS(5.1) playback.

 

[OddTSi]

You guys all seem to know a great deal about sound card related questions. I currently have a SB Live! Value (original, not 5.1) with some 4.1 Cambridge SoundWorks speakers (setup sounds fine for me so far). I'll be upgrading my system soon, one of the things I'll be getting is a P4P800, is the on-board sound on that mobo better than the Live!? Also, with these speakers, you think it's worth going to an Audigy 2 ZS?

 

[loafbred]

OddTSi - Yesterday, I replaced my SB 5.1 with an Audigy2 ZS, and I think it was well worth the price. Gaming sound is noticeably better, and music is a LOT better. I have a Y-connector splitting the front channel off to an old class-A Yamaha preamp, which I use for listening to music with headphones. It's a much bigger improvement than I expected. I think it's worth it just for music alone.

While I'm on the subject, I had an odd problem after installing it. When playing Soldier of Fortune 2 online, I would get halts for several seconds at a time, and this happened about once every 30 to 60 seconds. I tried a couple of different servers, and got the same result. I checked my IRQ's, and the sound card was sharing IRQ 10 with the network card. I thought WinXP didn't really have IRQ sharing problems, but I decided to move the sound card to another slot. It changed the sound card to IRQ 12, and the problem was gone.

Edit: Teh spelling.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: mrgoblin
So Soundstorm or Zs? Anyone

The Audigy 2 and the Audigy 2 ZS are better than the Soundstorm for everything. The question is, is it worth the money? I'd say yes.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
In the past, with the Live, Audigy, and Audigy 2, the Platinum/eX versions didn't increase performance. They had the same card except the bundled pack contained a lot more stuff. You're set with a regular card. I don't know if the 2 ZS makes a difference or not though.

BTW, I've that the OEM Audigy cards were better since they color coded the 3.5mm input/outputs on them

That was true in the past with the initial Audigy and Live! series, where it was teh same card bundled with different software. However, it is a different story with the Audigy2 series. Reviewers across the board have noted that the different versions of the Audigy2's (platinum, EX, ZS, etc) have different DACs. The high end Audigy2 Platinum EX whatnot has the best DACs and scores the best on RightMark.

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: dexvx

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
In the past, with the Live, Audigy, and Audigy 2, the Platinum/eX versions didn't increase performance. They had the same card except the bundled pack contained a lot more stuff. You're set with a regular card. I don't know if the 2 ZS makes a difference or not though.

BTW, I've that the OEM Audigy cards were better since they color coded the 3.5mm input/outputs on them

That was true in the past with the initial Audigy and Live! series, where it was teh same card bundled with different software. However, it is a different story with the Audigy2 series. Reviewers across the board have noted that the different versions of the Audigy2's (platinum, EX, ZS, etc) have different DACs. The high end Audigy2 Platinum EX whatnot has the best DACs and scores the best on RightMark.

All the Audigy 2 cards use the same core components for playback. The Audigy 2 and Platinum are identical across the board, and differ from the EX in that the EX has a different ADC (Burr-Brown instead of Philips), and it is moved off the card into the external box (along with all input connectors) which will clean up the signal a bit. This accounts for the better recording abilities of the EX and measurable though inaudible cleaner playback. The EX also adds the ability to output 44.1KHz digitally so it doesn't have to resample everything to 48KHz like the other 2 models do. The EX also removes the AC'97 codec from the card.