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Audigy 2 ZS worth upgrading?

post #1 of 12
9/7/09 at 5:38pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys just wondering if anyone knew whether or not its worth upgrading my sound card. Currently I have an audigy 2 zs and a pair of koss sb-40's but I'm not particularly happy with the spatial positioning of the two.

I've been hearing a lot about xi-fi cmss-3d feature, do the xi-fi cards have a better implementation of this technology than my current card which supports up to cmss2? If a new card would help, which type would be best? The xi-fi have so many different types that I have no clue which is which.

I also have a pair of ATH-A900 which I use in work for listening to music. I realise the a900's are better pair of headphones but are they better than the koss for gaming? I never listen to music at home so I don't mind relatively poor audio quality if it results in better positional audio.

So basically two questions, if I want to improve my audio positioning, should I get an xi-fi (and if so which one) and should I switch to using the a900's at home and the koss at work?

Thanks for the help
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post #2 of 12
9/7/09 at 5:50pm
I thought CMSS-3D on the Audigy 2 was pretty uninspiring to be honest. I find it relatively convincing (but not amazing) on X-Fi but have never A/B'd the two - the difference could be down to different headphones or my memory.

For immersive positioning, I prefer Dolby Headphone on the Xonar (except DS) series of cards. It's a much more speaker-like experience - and I have done A/B testing of CMSS-3D on X-Fi vs Dolby Headphone on Xonar. You do lose out on some environmental and positioning effects with Xonar (EAX is emulated and sometimes it doesn't work - notably EAX 3 and 4 in older games).

I'm currently using an X-Fi prelude with an external Dolby Headphone processor to get the best of both worlds.

For the latest CMSS-3D headphone and EAX, you'll need at least an Xtreme Music, Xtreme Gamer or Titanium. Don't get the Xtreme Audio - it's software based and worse than your Audigy.
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post #3 of 12
9/7/09 at 5:53pm
CMS3D on my X-Fi is a waste of time, just a terrible DSP. Creatives are good gaming cards if you want Hi-Fi I'd look elseware (I have a X-Fi Extreme Music)
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post #4 of 12
9/8/09 at 12:59am
I play CS:S and for me I don't use the CMS3D but I like to use the X-fi Crystalizer. My old rig had an Audigy 2 zs it was great and deemed one of the best cards at the time but as soon as I built my new rig in 2007 I decided to upgrade to the X-fi Xtreme Music, I picked up a brand new boxed OEM version from ebay for about £26.50. I'm currently using a pair of ATH-A900's and previously used a pair of Sennheiser HD555's, both have been great paired with the x-fi xtreme music for positional audio.
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post #5 of 12
9/8/09 at 5:25am
Quote:
I picked up a brand new boxed OEM version from ebay for about £26.50
Those could be the beta models supplied with Dell machines.
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post #6 of 12
9/8/09 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by iriverdude View Post
Those could be the beta models supplied with Dell machines.
Well it came with official creative driver cd + x-fi stickers and all that shabang so I was impressed.

http://www.epyx-online.de/wp-content...memusic_01.jpg

mines like that without the heatsink taken off obviously

How could they be considered beta? I'm pretty sure creative like discontinued the x-fi xtrememusic, like all the online retail stores would just sell oem versions of the xtrememusic but retail xtremegamers.
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post #7 of 12
9/8/09 at 5:20pm
Yes the X-Music was discontinued in favor of the X-Gamer.
You could mod the A2 with new opamps but given the price of soundcards it may be easier and give you greated gains to just buy a new card.

You might want to try out the KX project drivers as they sound very good compared to stock driver. They do not support EAX though and have a steep learning curve.
according to some.
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post #8 of 12
9/8/09 at 5:25pm
before shelling out on a more capable card, you could try the PAX drivers(choose "music" instead of "games" during the install): » Install Audigy4 drivers on your SB Live!/Audigy/Audigy 2/Audigy2 ZS

these are Audigy 4 hacked drivers, and they sound a heck better!
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post #9 of 12
9/8/09 at 6:00pm
The X-Fi card should say SBxxxx on it somewhere.

The standard Xtreme Music was the SB0460. The Dell and HP OEM version is SB 077x and usually has optical in and out ports.

I've had both and aside from the OEM one having optical, they both worked very well. Couldn't get either to work properly with 4GB RAM in my system though. Worked great with 3GB or less.
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post #10 of 12
10/5/09 at 11:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by leeperry View Post
before shelling out on a more capable card, you could try the PAX drivers(choose "music" instead of "games" during the install): » Install Audigy4 drivers on your SB Live!/Audigy/Audigy 2/Audigy2 ZS

these are Audigy 4 hacked drivers, and they sound a heck better!
Thought I'd bump this up because I can't find a working link in that thread.

I'm trying to get my EAX and stuff working with my Audigy 2 ZS, I run Vista 64 and while the EAX is working, it sounds tinny and echos like another effect is on.

Is there any hope for getting this piece of trash working properly in Vista or should I really just buy a new one?
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post #11 of 12
10/5/09 at 11:24pm
You may wat to look at teh KX project drivers. They have much more functionality then the stock drivers. They are a bit hard to learn if your unfamialir with recording gear as they are laid out in a similar way. DSP section is very powerful allowing you to load and connect up effect using virtual cables. These drivers are just amazing but I wish they were available for newer cards with more power. All effects etc are hardware acclerated through the cards DSP chip...
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post #12 of 12
10/5/09 at 11:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfindon View Post
I can't find a working link
PAX drivers vista - Google Search ?

Audigy Drivers « No More Goat Soup
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