Creative Audigy 2 ZS versus onboard Card

I use Audigy 2 ZS and my motherboard also has the very latest Realtek onboard chip on it but for me the Audigy 2 ZS sounds a lot better together with the kX Audio drivers. There's not a night and day difference if you just use stock configs but if you like me use a bit reverb, use equalizing, surround sound etc then kX Audio drivers are great because the plugins and all software is very well implemented.

I could send you some starter config if you're interested in trying those out, I recommend grabbing the latest version http://www.hardwareheaven.com/general-discussion/206609-3551-alpha-released.html if you're using Windows 7.

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Originally Posted by samicas 

Thanks for the info RPGWiZaRD!

 

I had actually already stumbled upon your thread about the foobar tweaks and had bookmarked it for future reference. I shall give it a try when I find the time to put my hands on the mentioned Desktop ;)

No problem, give me a PM if you give the kX Audio drivers a try and I could send you a good starter config as well as giving you some advice etc.

samicas, are you planning on using the card mainly for music, or are you also going to game on it?

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Originally Posted by Roller 

samicas, are you planning on using the card mainly for music, or are you also going to game on it?

I do both on mine. I've for example helped 2 different clans to the very top of the Clanbase ladder in Warfare gamemode in Unreal Tournament 3 with my Audigy 2 ZS + kX Audio drivers and love em for the accurate positional sound thanks to surrounder+ plugin. Works better than Dolby headphone. :p There are times I simply locate the enemies b4 seeing them and kill the enemies just as they show up around the corner. Been accused for wallhacking a couple of times.

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Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

I do both on mine. I've for example helped 2 different clans to the very top of the Clanbase ladder in Warfare gamemode in Unreal Tournament 3 with my Audigy 2 ZS + kX Audio drivers and love em for the accurate positional sound thanks to surrounder+ plugin. Works better than Dolby headphone. :p There are times I simply locate my enemies before they show up around the corner.

You know I'm not taking about that. I'm talking about kX being ideal for music and movies, even with that surrounder plugin. But it gives no proper EAX and OpenAL support. I know it's currently in development, but far from stable.

What I'm saying is that if gaming is at least half of what samicas does, then kX drivers aren't ideal for him. But if music is the bulk of his listening, then by all means do use kX.

EAX isn't needed for gaming anymore, barely any games are using it. What you want is accurate positional sound. Surrounder+ gives you that. OpenAL should work though, at least in UT3 it does but I usually disable it as it gives me at least as accurate positional sound with it disabled.

That kX Audio drivers aren't good for gaming is bullshit. I wouldn't be using them if I thought otherwise. In fact some games I've read have had probs with X-Fi cards but the kX drivers have worked fine for me in those games.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

EAX isn't needed for gaming anymore, barely any games are using it. What you want is accurate positional sound. Surrounder+ gives you that. OpenAL should work though, at least in UT3 it does but I usually disable it as it gives me at least as accurate positional sound with it disabled.

 

That kX Audio drivers aren't good for gaming is bullshit. I wouldn't be using them if I thought otherwise. In fact some games I've read have had probs with X-Fi cards but the kX drivers have worked fine for me in those games.

I beg to strongly disagree. Both EAX support is required for the hundred of existing games in the market. BTW, that Ulreal Tournament 3 you play has EAX, just like Mass Effect, Bioshock, Grid, Cryostatis, etc. And I was mainly out that OpenAL support is severely lacking on kX drivers, just like most gaming support, as kX drivers are geared towards music purposes, not gaming. OpenAL is an entirely different story, as it simply taps on all hardware acceleration features that are: a) only fully supported on Creative cards; b) require drivers that enable full OpenAL support.

Now, if you think they are good, that's your personal decision, but they are most certainly not.

On the other hand, both modded (not kX) and stock drivers work flawlessly on games, which kX has enough issues as it is.

Now, I know you absolutely love kX, and for good reason as it taps directly into the DSP of your Audigy 2 ZS, and that's just about perfect, for music.

Well what if it gives me perfect positional sound for games and it works great in nearly all games I've played? It's not a good for gaming then? What else you need? Certified stickers that tells you it's great for gaming LOL.

I only go with my ears, it doesn't matter if kX Audio drivers weren't developed for gaming in mind, it works nicely when I run them, I can pinpoint the sounds nicely. Most people seem to think they aren't great for gaming cuz they weren't developed for that. I wonder if those people have actually given them a proper try with the right settings/plugins? 

In Left 4 Dead when I was playing that which really was dependant on the sound when you were playing Humans vs Zombies. I could often shoot down the Zombies hiding behind a wall or behind trees based on the direction where the noise they made come from... now isn't that accurate I don't know what is!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

Well what if it gives me perfect positional sound for games and it works great in nearly all games I've played? It's not a good for gaming then? What else you need? Certified stickers that tells you it's great for gaming LOL.

 

I only go with my ears, it doesn't matter if kX Audio drivers weren't developed for gaming in mind, it works nicely when I run them, I can pinpoint the sounds nicely. Most people seem to think they aren't great for gaming cuz they weren't developed for that. I wonder if those people have actually given them a proper try with the right settings/plugins? 

 

In Left 4 Dead when I was playing that which really was dependant on the sound when you were playing Humans vs Zombies. I could often shoot down the Zombies hiding behind a wall or behind trees based on the direction where the noise they made come from... now isn't that accurate I don't know what is!

When you play games with full hardware acceleration, come talk to me, ok? The moment you think additional effects (yes, additional, besides improved) are not important, is the moment you sound like you're using onboard audio.

kX was developed for music and music alone, but given that some people, like you, wanted some sort of 3D sound with it, they added partial Directsound3D support.

You keep your music drivers and play all you want, but that's what they are, music drivers that can be used to play games, not audio drivers with gaming capabilities and music as well.

kX Audio does support hardware accelerated DirectSound 3D just fine, only earlier in the days it didn't. I've thought about buying a proper soundcard such as Essence STX (I don't want to deal with Creative's drivers) to do a comparision against Audigy 2 ZS and see which I prefer more. Might have to do it soon, I wouldn't be totally suprised if I would actually like Audigy 2 ZS with kX Audio drivers more but I'd be happy to find something I'm more satisfied with than what I am now! 

I don't see how I'm supposed to get better working positional sound than already perfect positional sound? I come from a comp hardware enthusiast background, overclocker and gamer, just recently got interested in headphones as well and having a great soundcard is very important for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

kX Audio does support hardware accelerated DirectSound 3D just fine, only earlier in the days it didn't. I've thought about buying a proper soundcard such as Essence STX (I don't want to deal with Creative's drivers) to do a comparision against Audigy 2 ZS and see which I prefer more. Might have to do it soon, I wouldn't be totally suprised if I would actually like Audigy 2 ZS with kX Audio drivers more but I'd be happy to find something I'm more satisfied with than what I am now! 

 

I don't see how I'm supposed to get better working positional sound than perfect positional sound?

Oh, I do think that a Audigy 2 ZS with stock/Daniel K/PAX drivers will outperform something like Essence ST/STX cards in gaming, that's how powerful Creative cards are when it comes to gaming, despite suffering from a severe case of locked hardware resampler.

It's like I said before, for music, kX is just fine, and gets surprisingly amazing once you bypass the awful hardware resampler by feeding the card with content matching the native output format.

You think you have perfect positional sound, but you also use DH, so we're done arguing.

I don't use Dolby headphone outside foobar2000, where would I get support for that? Dolby headphone for gaming works a lot worse than using kX driver's own 3d implementation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

I don't use Dolby headphone outside foobar2000, where would I get support for that? Dolby headphone for gaming works a lot worse than using kX driver's own 3d implementation.

Oh, my bad. I thought you also used it for gaming. And I do agree on the usability (or lack of) with games.

BTW, did you know that the last gaming related change on kX was made in 2004, before Vista was even available? It becomes easily understandable that there are tons of issues with games that use above average audio quality, since there were quite a few changes in the way hardware accelerated audio performs in 2008.