Which sound card is better? Please take a poll. Thanks.

[compudog]

I have had the SC and the entire SB line (SB16 up to Audigy 1) I think the SC sounds great when compared to SB Live and under. WIth the Audigy 1 they are about the same IMO. I am ordering an Audigy2 this week to replace the Sound Storm on my A7N8X. I'd have to say Audigy2 also.

 

[Pariah]

Have you noticed that people who're voting for Santa Cruz are the people who used SantaCruz ONLY, while people who used both recommend SB Audigy 2?

That's because of the large anti-Creative following here. The poll could have been between the Audigy 2 and 1997 onboard audio and the results wouldn't have been much different. There are quite a few people here who will vote for the other option regardless of what it is just because they don't like Creative.

but its FAR FAR from being FAR superior to ANY sound card

In sound quality maybe, but it is far superior to some of the other available cards in gaming. It's DVD-A playback is also far superior to any other card's currently available. With the proper audio equipment and source material you can make the Audigy 2 sound far better. When listening to MP3's on PC speakers it would be almost impossible to produce a sound card that sounds far superior to any of the current higher end sound cards.

It supports EAX2, which I use on my Philips Acoustic Edge. It sounds really nice. A3D, which is supported by both sound cards, also sounds good. However, it is still not at the level of EAX2.

EAX HD is quite a bit better than EAX 2.

 

[Megatomic]

I voted for the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It's cheap now, it sounds great musically, it games well still, and it has a Versa Jack! I love this card even after 2 years (almost).

 

[RanDum72]

I have both and although the Audigy2 has better specs in paper (and in measurements), in practice I still like the SC for sound quality in music playback (stereo, digital out). Its still a more 'musical' sounding card to the Audigy2 and that is listening through a home theater setup (denon, Yamaha, Kenwood receivers with Energy and Polk speakers). But overall, when you take overall features and all around goodness in music, games and basically everything else, the Audigy2 is hard to beat. Its analog output is also the best I've heard so far in mainstream sound cards.

 

[MasterHoss]

I've used the Santa Cruz, Live!, Live! 5.1, Audigy, GameTheater XP, and now the Audigy2. Up until the Audigy2, I would say that the best music reproduction was between the Santa Cruz (a cooler, brighter sound) and the Audigy just from the gaming standpoint (support EAX 3.0). The Audigy2 doesn't produce the same bright sounds that the Santa Cruz does during music playback but it is very good (on par with the Audigy to my ears); however, the noticable difference between the Audigy and Audigy2 durring game play is all the more reason to buy the card.

 

[JungleMan1]

Grab an Audigy and mod it to Audigy 2 with drivers. Best solution.

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: Actaeon
Not sure what to vote.

I believe the Audigy 2 is a better card. But SB's driver support is horrible. Its also quite expensive, the TBSC is alot cheaper, and in my opinion, offers a better priceerformance ratio over the Audigy2, which is why I have a TBSC myself.

How do you figure "horrible". The A2 has been out roughly 4 months. Since then, there has been TWO updated driver releases (excluding what came with the install CD) from Creative. Not just for bug fixes, but improved performance as well. I think Creative is really trying to turn things around like ATI.

Compare that to Voyetra who has not updated their drivers for the Santa Cruz since April of last year. To top it off, Voyetra has confirmed that they are no longer developing drivers for the SC at all. We are all stuck with v4161s, it's out-dated build of Sensaura, and no compatibility fixes for either WinXP sp1 or nForce2 boards.

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: JungleMan1
Grab an Audigy and mod it to Audigy 2 with drivers. Best solution.

Running an Audigy with Audgy 2 drivers doesn't turn it into an Audigy 2. You can't software mod a 6 channel 24/96 DAC into an 8 channel 24/192 one. You can run an Audigy with the convenience of the Audigy 2 software, but you can't transform the hardware.

 

[Goi]

but its FAR FAR from being FAR superior to ANY sound card

In sound quality maybe, but it is far superior to some of the other available cards in gaming. It's DVD-A playback is also far superior to any other card's currently available. With the proper audio equipment and source material you can make the Audigy 2 sound far better. When listening to MP3's on PC speakers it would be almost impossible to produce a sound card that sounds far superior to any of the current higher end sound cards.

Well, the original poster didn't qualify his claim of superiority. In sound quality, its not a maybe, but a definite no. There are tons of cards that are better than the Audigy2 sound quality wise, some of which are even cheaper than the Audigy2. Gaming wise though, the Audigy2 sits right at the top. The only reason its DVD-A playback is superior is because its the ONLY card that currently supports DVD-A via a proprietary DVD-A software player, and this may continue to be the case till someone else decides to program another DVD-A software player that works for other cards with 5.1 channel analog output.

 

[misle]

I owned a Audigy (1), and I had nothing but problems. Skips and distortion when playing MP3s and WAV files. Random crashing with games, etc. I contacted Creative many times with out any real help. I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled the lastest drivers countless time.

I finally said, "F*ck it" and bought a Santa Cruz. All the problems disappeared. It's so nice. All I have to say is, F*ck Creative and their sh*tty driver support.

YMMV

-Matt

 

[Pariah]

There are tons of cards that are better than the Audigy2 sound quality wise

Not in the same price range as the Audigy2.

some of which are even cheaper than the Audigy2.

Really? Which $80 card is better than the Audigy2?

and this may continue to be the case till someone else decides to program another DVD-A software player that works for other cards with 5.1 channel analog output.

It wouldn't make a difference if software was released or not. None of the other mainstream cards except the M-Audio Revolution are capable of 24/192 output so all you would get is silence or the downsample DD track.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Brian48

Compare that to Voyetra who has not updated their drivers for the Santa Cruz since April of last year. To top it off, Voyetra has confirmed that they are no longer developing drivers for the SC at all. We are all stuck with v4161s, it's out-dated build of Sensaura, and no compatibility fixes for either WinXP sp1 or nForce2 boards.

There is no need for a "compatibility fix" for WinXP SP1, at least not on KT266A/KT333 boards.

 

[Goi]

Originally posted by: Pariah

There are tons of cards that are better than the Audigy2 sound quality wise

Not in the same price range as the Audigy2.

some of which are even cheaper than the Audigy2.

Really? Which $80 card is better than the Audigy2?

and this may continue to be the case till someone else decides to program another DVD-A software player that works for other cards with 5.1 channel analog output.

It wouldn't make a difference if software was released or not. None of the other mainstream cards except the M-Audio Revolution are capable of 24/192 output so all you would get is silence or the downsample DD track.

Actually I was talking of semi-pro/amateur cards. I didn't think price was a factor when MrFITTy said "Audigy2 is FAR superior to the SC or ANY sound card..." My response was to his post. I wasn't considering the price at all since he mentioned "ANY sound card". The Lynx Studio Lynx2, RME Digi96, DAL CardDeluxe would outright trash the Audigy2 as far as sound quality goes. On a lower scale, the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 retails for $99, comes with 24/192 support and sounds better than the Audigy2. There are many versions of the Audigy2, not all of them cost $80 Of course, there's currently no DVD-A software player available for the Revolution 7.1.

 

[Pariah]

I didn't think price was a factor when MrFITTy said "Audigy2 is FAR superior to the SC or ANY sound card..." My response was to his post.

Don't know why you bothered. Who would believe that?

The Lynx Studio Lynx2, RME Digi96, DAL CardDeluxe would outright trash the Audigy2 as far as sound quality goes.

I see no shame in losing to a $1000 card like the Lynx Two.

the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 retails for $99, comes with 24/192 support and sounds better than the Audigy2.

According to who? From the early user comments I've seen, the card is quite a disappointment. Over on the AVS forums people seem to be have more driver issues with the card than even the dreaded Creative cards.

No, all the Audigy 2 versions don't cost $80, but spending more won't get you any better audio playback. The extra money goes to added features, and better recording for the EX model.

 

[Goi]

Just correcting him, since he sounded so sure of it

The stuff you hear about the Revolution 7.1 differs from what I hear. IIRC, according to Cliff Watson of avsforum, the digital output portion of the Revolution 7.1 is exactly the same as that of the Audiophile 24/96, but the analog output portion is actually better. I've seen some threads regarding the driver problems, but haven't really perused them.

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: SeekingTao


There is no need for a "compatibility fix" for WinXP SP1, at least not on KT266A/KT333 boards.

You mean YOU don't need a "compatibility fix" for WinXP sp1. The fix I'm referring to is software related, not hardware. Service Pack 1 introduced a very annoying bug with 5.1 presets not saving upon a reboot. To get 5.1 emulated sound, you need to manually set it each time you startup, even if you specify the control panel to load a preset as default. I've replicated this problem on 3 boxes and it's been covered over at 3dsoundsurge.com. I finally had to switch to 4.1 speaker setup just to avoid this headache.