[BoardC3]

Hey, i just bought an iPod 2 days ago online and i noticed that i needed a firewire connection and i didnt want to pay $40 for a firewire card at best buy so my friend offered to sell my his audigy gamer that he couldnt get to work for $20. So today i installed it and im currently using my SR-80s with it listening to a high quality rip of Dave Mathews and Tim reynolds. Now for my question how in the hell did this get a bad name? With my SR-80s it sounds really impressive for $20. sure beats the crap out of my old SB live. I would also say that this is noticably superior to my SlimX. As long as im listening to high quality rips it has good detail without being bright. The imaging is incredible for the price, The highs loose a little sparkle when compared to my Nak CD player (headphone jack), but the Mid's are so much smoother, The bass isnt as tight as it could be but is pretty isnt overshadowed. Overall i would say this tamed card tamed the phones a little bit so that it doesnt have the impact that im used to, but i dont think there could be a better way to spend $20. Now i definitely have to say this is no where close to audiophile level, but much better than i think most give it credit. Now that im reading what i wrote i think im giving it a little too much credit but it definitely IS better than the average card and has decent synergy with the SR-80s.

 

[Gojira]

Well, I have an audigy and I share some of your observations. I have never heard such a beautiful sounding card, but then my previous cards lacked even the pretense of fidelity. They were strictly gaming cards (with A3D 2.0 support).

I have not noticed the "bad name" that you refer to here after having read quite a few older posts, but it wouldn't surprise me. As much as I like my Audigy, it no doubt gets far too much credit in the mainstream press. Since it is so over-rated by mainstream folks, we aphiles probably overcompensate a bit in the other direction.

Also, there is the annoying 48khz resampling issue and just the fact that the sound surely pales in comparison to anything made by M-Audio, especially the Revolution.

 

[radrd]

Last time I checked, the Audigy 2 has been well received. It's sound quality is quite good, the features are outstanding, and the drivers are sound.

The bad name rises from history. The Audigy 1 had misrepresented features, sound quality below the TBSC, and was extremely late on getting drivers for XP IIRC. The Live series is just crap. Bad sound quality, bad drivers, bad bad bad. Also, Creative tends to send a bunch of bloated virtually useless software with all of their sound cards, which is very annoying for a lot of people.

If they keep releasing good products like the Audigy 2 and focus on providing good drivers, I don't see any reason why they can't reclaim their name.

I'd say that for $20, the Audigy 1 is a fine card. The drivers have matured and it sounds better than the Live series. However, when it had the bad name, it was selling for $100 and did not sound as good as cards that could be had for half its price.

 

[D-EJ915]

the only big problem with the creative cards is that they only output 2 channel sound from the optical, whereas the nForce outputs DD5.1

 

[BoardC3]

Ah alright so most arent saying the sound quality is crap, but more the software and price performance ratio. I have an audigy 1 gamer with the newest drivers which made it run fine and i only installed the drivers and not the tons and tons of crap that came with it. Thanks for helping me understand