[evillamer]

Audigy4 Pro Specs

Disappointing. I thought they would have used the EMU design to allow for true 16/44KHz ASIO which is all so important for Foobar.

 

[Wodgy]

Ha! Just as we all suspected.

It's truly sad that people are easily convinced by the marketeers to spend a lot of money on trash like this.

Any bets on when this problem will be fixed? The Audigy 6? Audigy 7? Audigy 10?

 

[lan]

It was ok when the Audigy 2 cards are cheap but this is one really expensive card for a consumer. That's what makes it really crazy.

 

[pbirkett]

Would I be correct in assuming the EMU card makes a much better gaming card if one does all of their gaming on headphones?

 

[Talonz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbirkett Would I be correct in assuming the EMU card makes a much better gaming card if one does all of their gaming on headphones?

I'm confused by your question.

What makes the Audigy line a good gaming line is the hardware accelerated sound and EAX.

 

[evillamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talonz I'm confused by your question. What makes the Audigy line a good gaming line is the hardware accelerated sound and EAX.

Well that really depends on the type of game you are talking about.

If it is a game which features EAX and Multispeakers, of course the Audigy would fair better in terms of framerate and realism. Examples would be Everquest 4 or Neverwinters Night.

But if you are a gamer like me who plays older games like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 which features CD Audio music as BGM. I think the EMU cards would fair better overall. I bet Final Fantasy 11 might sound better on the EMU overall.

Although it is true that most games compress their sounds using MP3 and other compression techniques(8bit 22KHz or 16bit 22KHz adpcm) to save space. Seldom do you see games use MPC or OGG.

 

[MikoLayer]

the only game i constnatly spend much time on these days is melty blood re.act. while i cant really notice much difference from soundstorm when hooked up to the speakers, but on headphones EMU does sound better (duh)

 

[llmobll]

Am i missing something here???

Output:
"24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources at 192 kHz to stereo output"

"24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 96 kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output"

Recording
"Low latency multitrack recording with ASIO 2.0 support at 16-bit, 48 kHz and 24-bit, 96 kHz resolution."



It only mentions ASIO in the recording section? I don't see where you are refering, looks like it has 192khz resampled playback. Please show me where you saw this information.

 

[Daroid]

Well that means that it can't do 44.1 kHz in ASIO, only 48 and 96 kHz which is a pretty good indication that it uses the same upsampling algorithm - where AC97 specs is at fault (or rather: the inexpensive way to upsample to 48 kHz from 44.1 kHz without good sound in mind) - as previous Audigies/Lives

 

[llmobll]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daroid Well that means that it can't do 44.1 kHz in ASIO, only 48 and 96 kHz which is a pretty good indication that it uses the same upsampling algorithm - where AC97 specs is at fault (or rather: the inexpensive way to upsample to 48 kHz from 44.1 kHz without good sound in mind) - as previous Audigies/Lives

Can you please explain to me how you know its the same upsampling algorithm? You're assuming it is. And how does that mean you CAN'T do 44.1khz but you CAN do 48 & 96khz. If you can do higher sample rate with no extra costs why does it matter.(queue "upsampling makes the sound very bright" responses")

Edit: I think you're refering to the RECORDING section? Yes / no? I think the thread starter needs to learn to read.

 

[roadtonowhere08]

Hey, if the sheep buy it, why should they care? The only way they will get the point is if people say "ENOUGH!". I still find it funny that many computer people regard the Audigy2ZS as the best sound card..... makes me want to puke

 

[llmobll]

I think when MOST review the A2 and say its the best soundcard, most of the time they are refering to games. They bash other cards that SOUND better, but most don't use computers as hi-fi sources because of ignorance.


If you think about it people on Head-fi do the exact same thing. They bash it and bash it, when its a decent game card. The best? well i'm not touching that with a ten foot pole.

 

[NeilPeart]

Calm down, man!

No one ever refuted the Audigy as a gaming card, but most people are here to listen to music with their sound cards and game on the side. I would still prefer an EMU to the Audigy for gaming because I prefer ultra-clean stereo to processed EAX and some FPS savings.

 

[Wodgy]

Let's be clear about this: no one is bashing the Audigy series' proficiency for gaming.

What we are bashing is how Creative keeps releasing what amounts to the same hardware, just with different, more ostentatious names like "Audigy 2 Platinum Pro EX Ultra ZS," usually at higher price points. (That particular moniker was fictional, for the humor impaired.) Every time a new card is announced, people claim at first that various problems have been fixed -- and sometimes early reviewers even suggest the same -- but it always turns out that the new cards have the same old problems.

No substantive new engineering ever seems to be done at Creative. They seem to prefer to polish the same old turd over and over, claim it's new, and then ship as many units as possible. It's just slimy.

Imagine what sorry state the graphics card market would be in if ATI and nVidia "innovated" in the same manner as Creative.

 

[roadtonowhere08]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilPeart Calm down, man! No one ever refuted the Audigy as a gaming card, but most people are here to listen to music with their sound cards and game on the side. I would still prefer an EMU to the Audigy for gaming because I prefer ultra-clean stereo to processed EAX and some FPS savings.

Right on. I play GTA with crisp stereo. I really did not care for surround gamiong, because I am not a FPS person.