Why are people buying the Live! and Audigy?

[Doomguy]

Take a look at this http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/compare/index.htm . Seems like the Live! rates very poorly in sound quality.

Creative sound cards are expensive for the features they provide, buggy, and their driver support is poor. Turtle Beach, Phillips, Hercules and others make superior products.

Many of you recommend the Audigy as the best sound card. Why do you believe it is?

 

[renorocks]

For the lower end sound cards ie. sb16 / yamaha etc. I use the creative labs because I haven't had any problems & they seem to be compatible with just about every game, o.s.
As far as high end sound for av editing, etc. I really don't know how good or bad they are. I was never really impressed with the sblive. I have a client who is ordering a very high end sound editing custom pc and he thinks that maybe the audigy is the way to go. Please, if there is a better product out there that will cause him less headaches with xp I'd love to know.

jr

 

[Brian48]

<< Why do you believe it is? >>



This is a stupid comment and you're obviously a troll looking for a cheap thrill. Why do we believe it? Well, maybe it's because we've actually heard it and base our judgement on we've experienced and not on what a machine's gauge tells us?

Look, I'm no Creative fanboy. I've literally owned almost every consumer level sound card that's been available the last 4 or so years. All of them had some issues of one type or another. None of them were perfect. I've yet to see a negative review of the Audigy. It is currently the most advance consumer level sound card out there. Aureal is dead. Get over it.

 

[Brian48]

I have to say it again. I am literally floored by the nitwit mentally some people have around here to judge any product based on preconception without honest evaluation.

 

[Doomguy]

Brian48: Who cares if the Audigy is the most advanced sound card out there? The Radeon is more advanced than the Geforce 3 but it's not better than it. Show me a negative review of the Santa Cruz.

The expert at 3dsoundsurge seem to believe the Santa Cruz has better sound quality than the Audigy. They've dealt with more speakers/sound cards than you could dream.

You're just a creative fan boy.

 

[Brian48]

Did I say there were any negative reviews of the SC? I've owned one, you idiot. In fact, I've owned a Herc GTXP as well. They've got their good points and bad. If you were paying attention, you would have got that. Yes, 3dsoundsourge has done a lot of reviews. Did they specifically say (any) Creative cards sucked?

I may not have got through as many products as they have, but I'll bet neither have you. And based on your idiotic post, it doesn't look it really matters as you seem to have some sort of magic power to evaluate anything without actually using it yourself.

Man, this is pointless. You are a moron and I'll end it at there. Based on your very intelligent assessment, I doubt this worth my time to debate.

 

[Linux23]

i've never used a non-Creative sound card in my PC's. However, considering I switched to ATI from Nvidia a while ago, i think it's time to try the competition.


Yes, Creative drivers are buggy, and bloated, but all major OS'es support their product.

 

[erikiksaz]

It's pretty funny how Brian48 is taking this, it sounds as if he's defending Creative to the death. All Doomguy wanted to know was why are Creative products so popular, and that's a good question. You figure Creative does charge a large amount of cash for it's rather buggy drivers, whereas all the aforementioned companies, Turtle Beach, Phillips, Hercules, seem to be doing fine with cheaper prices.

<And based on your idiotic post, it doesn't look it really matters as you seem to have some sort of magic power to evaluate anything without actually using it yourself.>

DID Doomguy actually try evaluating anything? The evaluation was left to Pcavtech. All he did was state that Creative sound cards were expensive for the buggy drivers and weak support. He never stated "Sound card X is better than sound card Y."

<I doubt this worth my time >

If it's not, leave. We don't care. We just wanted a little insight from all the fellow anandtechers out there, not some fool running around calling names.

 

[Doomguy]

Brian48: Actually, it seems like i've won. I never resorted to personal attacks. All you did was spout BS. I gave a link, what did you do besides attack me? Viewers of this post can decide who's more intelligent.

Why do you feel the need to defend a company? Do you work for them? Do they pay your salary? I doubt it. So why do you care?

What's sad is people like you will reproduce, rasing your kids to be just like you.:disgust:

 

[Aenygma]

B/c it has a ton of support, and it sounds very nice, very nice indeed.

 

[Brian48]

<< We just wanted a little insight from all the fellow anandtechers out there, not some fool running around calling names. >>



OK, you're right. This is really beneath me. I apologize. It's just that I didn't get that impression reading his post. It sounded like it was aimed at Creative owners vice the product itself.

Anyway, Linux. Like I mentioned earlier, I've tried several different cards before. In chronological order (roughly):

SB AWE64 (two)
SB16 Vibra
Ensoniq Audio PCI (pre-Creative)
Diamond MX300
SBLive value (original)
SBLive value (digital)
SBLive X-Gamer 4:1
SBLive X-Gamer 5:1
Philips Acoustic Edge
Herc GTXP
TB Santa Cruz
Audigy X-Gamer
Muse XL (Got it this week)

The best non-Creative card I've tried to date is the Santa Cruz. .mp3 playback is superior to Audigy, but I found that there were still some issues with some games. You might want to consider that or the Herc Fortissimo II. I don't own this card, but I have a friend who does and it's an excellent choice if you need optical out at low price.

In regards to Creative drivers, I'd agree that they're dated, but consider the size of the driver packages for the other cards, I would say that they're all bloated. The SC driver pack is just under 20mb in size and the Herc is not far behind.

 

[jere01]

I've got an Audigy MP3+ and I love the sound quality especially for it's price.

 

[glenn1]

<< Why are people buying the Live! and Audigy? >>



Because in many typical B&M stores (Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.) the Creatives (Live or Audigy) have typically been the only "premium" sound card which they've stocked. Now, most of them carry other cards, like the TBSC and GTXP, but most of the sales clerks still recommend the Creative cards, because it's what they know.

Until recently (when the Audigy came out), for someone who knew better, choosing between the Santa Cruz for ~$75 and a SB Live for ~$99 at the average CompUSA store, was an easy decision. Nowadays, with the Live 5.1 going for $32.00, the Audigy for $62.00, and the SC for $65.00 (all OEM prices from newegg), the decision is a bit tougher.

Does the TBSC absolutely kick the bejeezus out of the Live 5.1 ? Yeah, i think so, but since the 5.1 is now half the price, it's not a completely hopeless candidate. That especially comes into play for people willing to spend a bit more, a $3 difference in price between the Audigy and TBSC makes for a reasonably tough choice (although i would lean towards the Santa Cruz, i value the fact that the drivers have been solid all along, and it always seems to be a work in progress for the Creative cards).

 

[gogeeta13]

well, in the past 2 months I have done side by side comparisons of the following cards(this was done at my LAN parties)

Sb live value
sb live 5.1(sounded same as the 4.1)
herc XP
cmedia 4 channel
ac 97
santa creuz

While I did like the sound of the SC, it did weired sound glitches in Max Payne and UT
The herc xp is featurefull, but i don't liek its sound, it isnt warm enough
the cmedia 4 channel is about as good as a sb 512 4 channel(not live!)
the ac 97, well, you dont need any info
The live!'s had no driver issues, and sounded warm and fuzzy from the get go, they had no gamign problems, and worked great.

That being said, both my main rig and my LAN box have sb live!'s. Considering you can get a live5.1 off newegg for 32$, i see no reason in spending double the price for a buggy SC..

 

[erikiksaz]

Unfortunately, it looks like we've hit that wall again; the gaming aspects of a sound card and the sheer quality of the DAC for music. I've always thought the debates over, "which soundcard is better?" has always been about sound quality (cds, not mp3s, nor 3d positional), not the gaming aspects. I guess none of us can really rely on the opinion of another, since we don't know what type of audio hardware setup and/or source we're using. I think i'm going to have to buy an Audigy one of these days, to test things out for myself, just to see what all the commotion is all about. Durn, when is Pcavtech going to review the Audigy?

 

[glenn1]

<< The live!'s had no driver issues, and sounded warm and fuzzy from the get go, they had no gamign problems, and worked great. >>



The Live series seems much more finicky about what boards and chipsets, which PCI slot it inhabits, and other issues than does the TBSC. When you find a combination that works with the Live, it works fine, it just seems to take a little bit of work to find what makes the card happy. The non-live cards i've tried (TBSC, GTXP, and many Phillips cards) seem much less picky that way, you plug 'em in and go. I've not run across the sound glitches you've talked about with the other cards... that doesn't mean they don't exist necessarily, just that different setups will act differently i suppose.

My short take on the TBSC vs. Audigy... if you want the best sound (on paper anyway), it looks like the Audigy might have a slight edge on the Santa Cruz. If you want the absolute minimum amount of fuss and bother, the Santa Cruz has been absolutely solid with no issues whatsoever on any system (or components combination) i've ever tried it on, giving it a slight edge on the Live/Audigy series (which like i said, take a bit of TLC sometimes to get them to act the way they should).

 

[dszd0g]

The pcavtech comparison is useful. However, it would be a lot more useful if it included some CPU usage comparisons.

I'm still running a Live! Platinum that I've had for years (Not 5.1). I am still debating whether to upgrade to an Audigy or a GTXP. I haven't read a good comparison yet. I am also still debating whether either is worth the money.

 

[JoshDaynard]

Just curious ... does anyone here have experience with M-Audio cards? I'm specifically wondering about the Delta 410. I'm a pretty serious audiophile and I've never really heard what I would consider to be great sound out of a computer. The Delta 410 seems to make some pretty lofty claims from a purely sound quality perspective, just wondering if anybody thinks it may be worth the price for decent HTPC sound ($209 at: http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Audio/delta410.htm).

- Josh