PC sound stuff

[John]

Someone asked a while ago here about upgrading onboard sound and I
said most boards have pretty decent onboard sound for gaming 5.1 so it
wasnt that necessary. Well I was talking about soundstorm not the AC97
realtek stuff. Some say thats adequate too but that Soundstorm used on
some nforce boards and of course Creatives Audigy are better.

You can upgrade your sound with an expensive Creative Audigy card or
some other brands - I see that after Creative was bashed relentlessly
a while back people are really praising the new Audigy 2 for games.

Also there was talk about Soundstorm 2 from nvidia which was going in
some new boards.

And of course theres the 7.1 thing - which I thought was ridiculous
the constant adding of more speakers , but in some reviews they said
it made a difference.

Ive seen the Audigy for around 80-200 sort of expensive , theres the
LZ selling for cheap now often $30 after rebate. Its missing the
newest EAX effects I think and makes your CPU do more work and someone
claimed you cant load new soundfonts with it.

Not sure if its worth it or not - some say yes and others no.

 

[Todd Brooks]

I have an Audigy 2 and it ran perfect for about a year or so. And then one
day the problems started happening. They didn't happen after trying to
update drivers or anything, I just got problems out of the blue. To spare
you the details, I still cannot get the card/drivers/software to run
properly after trying nearly everything save reformatting my hard drive. I
have been in constant contact with Creative who keep throwing me bones to
keep me busy until the next time I contact them saying that their solution
did not work.

I've pretty much given up on it now though, because I actually get sound
from it, which is more than I can say for some periods in time. I have
avoided attempting to reformat until now because of lack of backup methods,
and my knowledge is limited, but now that I have a 2nd hard drive that
option is looking more and more inviting.

 

[John]

I have an Audigy 2 and it ran perfect for about a year or so. And then one
day the problems started happening. They didn't happen after trying to
update drivers or anything, I just got problems out of the blue. To spare
you the details, I still cannot get the card/drivers/software to run
properly after trying nearly everything save reformatting my hard drive. I
have been in constant contact with Creative who keep throwing me bones to
keep me busy until the next time I contact them saying that their solution
did not work.

I've pretty much given up on it now though, because I actually get sound
from it, which is more than I can say for some periods in time. I have
avoided attempting to reformat until now because of lack of backup methods,
and my knowledge is limited, but now that I have a 2nd hard drive that
option is looking more and more inviting.

I actually bought the Audigy LZ since it was only 30 bucks and since
as far as I know the Audigy seems like the leader again in games
though posters have said Soundstorm isnt bad at all either though youd
have to wait for soundstorm 2 I guess for the newest version.

I havent tested it yet so just got it so I dont know what exactly of
the newest effects its missing , the other thing - the fact it uses
your CPU more I dont think is that big of a deal but the sound font
thing is a disappointment - only the other Audigy 2 cards supposedly
can load new fonts or something.

I feel like getting the 2 now though Ive always been grossed out by
Creative card prices. Ive already got a music recording card and if
they do come out with new nforce3 amd 64 boards with soundstorm2 939
socket at a cheap cost by Xmas and 939 chips come way down by then -
and the fact you can use software progs for soundfonts they say - then
maybe its all a moot point and I dont need the Audigy2.