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How to get decent sound out of a creative audigy 2 ZS?

post #1 of 11
6/14/09 at 10:53am
Thread Starter 
I had totally given up on using my computer as a source a few months ago after creative's drivers decided to stop working.
But while randomly browsing the web I fell on this site Official kX Project Site -- News
Their driver is quite nice, using a regular line out from the card doesn't sound bad at all.
I'd like to know if there are other tweaks that can be used to get the best sq out of this.
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post #2 of 11
6/14/09 at 11:17am
THe only thing I know if your handy with tools, you coul solder some better op-amps on the card it self. But dont do it if you never done any thing like this in your life. As I dont want you to come after me with a baseball bat.
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post #3 of 11
6/14/09 at 11:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr C View Post
I had totally given up on using my computer as a source a few months ago after creative's drivers decided to stop working.
But while randomly browsing the web I fell on this site Official kX Project Site -- News
Their driver is quite nice, using a regular line out from the card doesn't sound bad at all.
I'd like to know if there are other tweaks that can be used to get the best sq out of this.
The KX project drivers are quite good for sound quality. They have a learning curve though and do not support EAX. If they did everybody with a CL card under a X-fi would use KX!
As gen suggested perhaps swapping out your cards opamps for some higher quality units would yeild better results.
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post #4 of 11
6/14/09 at 4:15pm
Stay a little longer here on these wonderful boards and you'll use a dedicated DAC fed by your Creative sound card that will sound superior.
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post #5 of 11
6/14/09 at 7:48pm
..or just buy a better soundcard.
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post #6 of 11
6/14/09 at 10:22pm
the Chinese PAX drivers also sound really good! these are Audigy4 modded drivers, completely hacked and unlocked

ยป Install Audigy4 drivers on your SB Live!/Audigy/Audigy 2/Audigy2 ZS

when you install them choose "music mode" of course....they won't turn it into an STX, though.
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post #7 of 11
6/15/09 at 7:29am
Don't give up Music from the PC can sound great! The Audigy 2 ZS just isn't very good for music.

Replacing the op-amps is quite tricky if you haven't done this sort of thing before and won't make the Audigy 2 sound much better (mine didn't at least). There is also a high risk of destroying the card altogether if you strip one of the contacts or burn something.

Apparently the Audigy 2 ZS resamples everything to 48khz in hardware during playback and does it really badly. AFAIK it's built into the hardware and there is no way to stop it in the drivers. Even after all the hardware mods it isn't close to my stock basic X-fi and is way behind the Fubar II USB DAC. So sadly I don't think there's a whole lot you can do other than start saving
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post #8 of 11
6/15/09 at 1:56pm
Great point. The A2 was decent enough in it's days but that day was long ago.
Your mods will only yeild limited results as your bound by the DAC, filter and circuit layout. Maybe it it just time to get a modern soundcards or a external device.
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post #9 of 11
6/16/09 at 12:02pm
I dont know what the other guys are recommending, but from personal experience, changing the opamps in a x-fi soundblaster made immediately difference through some logitech 5500 speakers. The sound stopped being "metallic" and the highs were more sweet. Its very tricky though. I destroyed 2 x-fi's trying to do it.
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post #10 of 11
6/16/09 at 12:32pm
This card can only process audio in 48 or 96KHz, so no matter what you do, it'll resample like there is no tomorrow.
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post #11 of 11
6/16/09 at 10:03pm
Why not upgrade to a standard x-fi or something else around $75 and get an AudioGD dac like the 200 or a FUBAR III or anything like this. It will make an incredible jump in SQ that you most likely would be in awe of coming from pc soundcard.
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