Audigy2
Oct 31, 2002 at 1:06 AM Post #16 of 44
BoyElroy:
>Now I only have to find a CDDa media player that performs >CDDA upsampling that I can play out through my Audigy2...

There is an sample rate convertor plugin for Winamp, available for both Winamp 2.81 and Winamp3.
Do a google search for SSRC winamp plugin.

>As far as I know, the cards and component DAC's and opamps, >etc. are exactly the same. The only difference seems to be the >front access attachment and some extra software.

AFAIAA from the Live! Platinum onwards, the front access attachment has it's own DA/AD convertors for line out, in and headphone out.
Confirmed by xIBT for the Audigy2 Platinum.
 
Oct 31, 2002 at 1:18 AM Post #17 of 44
No!!! Don't tell me that! Maybe I can still exchange my card...

And thanks for the tip on ssrc. I thought that it only upsampled mp3's, not cdda files. I'll try to re-tweak the thing.
 
Oct 31, 2002 at 3:02 AM Post #19 of 44
Hehe. Thats what ive been trying to find out for a week now. Can anyone here upgrading from an audigy1 test this out? The drives look the exact same.

Maybe i should just run down to Frys Electronics when i get my next paycheck, buy the card and try it myself.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Oct 31, 2002 at 3:27 PM Post #20 of 44
Audigy2 is still worse in terms of audio quality than non-expensive 24/96 cards from M-Audio, Echo or similar.

Audigy2 still resamples 44.1 KHz audio to 48 KHz, AFAIK.

I wouldn't buy anything from Creative existing several more serious soundcard makers.
 
Nov 1, 2002 at 7:13 AM Post #24 of 44
Audigy (1) has option in one of the control panel gadgets to set the output sampling rate, to 44.1, 48 and 96kHz. And from some oscilloscope watching I can see that it does work. Now, it is possible that the upsampling happens in the Audigy processor chip anyway, from 44 to 48 - the original Live! processor was hard-wired to be 48kHz - and that the gadget initiates potentially another upsampling process (i.e. 44 - > 48 -> 44 (or 48 or 96)).
 
Nov 2, 2002 at 2:10 AM Post #25 of 44
Digit-life reports that intermodulation distortion is now even higher than Audigy 1 & SB Live (all version).

At over 15% when playing back 44.1Khz audio (ie. CD, mp3 etc)
That's unforgivable!
 
Nov 2, 2002 at 3:21 AM Post #26 of 44
Quote:

Originally posted by tktran
Digit-life reports that intermodulation distortion is now even higher than Audigy 1 & SB Live (all version).

At over 15% when playing back 44.1Khz audio (ie. CD, mp3 etc)
That's unforgivable!


Bummer
frown.gif


I had high hopes for this card. The front panel connectivity is a significant bonus for me since my computer is nearly inaccessible from the back once set up.
 
Nov 2, 2002 at 1:17 PM Post #28 of 44
I've been following the Audigy / Audigy 2 development a little.

Audigy was uite bad in many respect. Bad HF roll-off, noisy amp section, too much distortion and mandatory resampling to 48kHz/16bit.

Audigy 2 improves on this by better filtering, more linear frequency response (no HF roll-off), lessened THD, improved amp (according to user comments) and somewhat alleviated resampling issues.

However, Audigy 2 still retains some problems:

- 44.1kHz/16 bit is still resampled to 48kHz with a bad algorithm
- bad intermodulation distortion (much worse than original Audigy)

You can fix at least the resampling problem by using a resampling output plugin with your Winamp 2 (or plug-in compatible player). This way you still resample, but the effect won't be as bad. Also, you can resample straight away to 96kHz and to 24 bit, which should improve things a bit.

You can find the DirectSound WinAmp resampling plugin at:

http://www.blorp.com/~peter/zips/out_ds.exe

and the WaveOut resampling Winamp 2 plugin at:

http://www.blorp.com/~peter/zips/out_wave.zip

These will not work on Winamp3.

Creative is rumoured to be coming out with a more expensive and redesigned card called Audigy 2 EX, which should have no internal resampling and hopefully better analog path implementation as well.

regards,
Halcyon

PS I personally own Terratec 96kHz/24-bit card and I like the Winamp Resample plugin quite a lot myself, although I don't play a lot of mp3s.
 
Nov 4, 2002 at 9:34 AM Post #29 of 44
Quote:

Originally posted by halcyon
- 44.1kHz/16 bit is still resampled to 48kHz with a bad algorithm
- bad intermodulation distortion (much worse than original Audigy)


That intermodulation distortion is amazingly bad, and at first attributable to the resampling algorithm, because doesn't happen at 48 KHz. However, it is so bad (16% vs <0.01% in good cards) that maybe there was some kind of error in the results? I hope they publish the full test report.
 

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