[OSV]

Ive heard the HD-25's have a bad soundstage (not the SP's). Is this true?

And if so, say i wanted to get an audigy2 sound card so i can use EAX for games.

Does bad soundstage mean that you wont be able to identify locations well(or as good) as other headphones?
--Because i have a pair of HD 25s, and i wanna know whether i should get an audigy or not to use with games.. otherwise i will get a better soundcard.

Or just get the Audigy with some quality headphones with a good soundstage if its true that the HD 25s have a bad soundstage.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

I don't know about the soundstage, but they sounded great.. Unamped, even..

The left to right was very good.. The fron to back was a little muddled, I thought, but I haven't tried them amped, and with a game with lots of directional sound..

They ARE uncomfortable over long periods (45min +) though, I found..

Very good attenuation of outside noise..

 

[devwild]

My opinion, the Audigy's headphone setting is worse than even recent onboard sound (which has gotten pretty acceptible at least for music/movies). I consider it absolutely horrible to be quite frank - if I moved my headphones from my stereo to my audigy it sounded like someone wrapped socks over my headphones, even after lots of tweaking.

Oh, and let's not go into their horrible drivers, which you can't even get full versions of off their site.

Since I play a fair amount of games, instead of opting for a quality music board I got a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. The difference on music is black and white -- way better quality, and you can use the "VersaJack" as a dedicated headphone jack which is great. And the 3D is plenty adequate for me, second best I've used.

The Audigy may have the best 3D processor, but that's no excuse for the horrible overall sound quality compared to a card that cost a fair amount less ($50 oem for the santa cruz).

Edit: yes, the Santa Cruz supports all recent EAX implementations

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Might want to consider getting a reasonably priced external DAC if you don't want to fart around with 2 soundcards, one for gaming, one for music..

http://www.zzounds.com/item--ARTDIO

 

[OSV]

Alright cool,

But im still wondering, Does band soundstage mean bad 3D effects and bad for EAX?

 

[luukas]

Quote:

Originally posted by devwild Edit: yes, the Santa Cruz supports all recent EAX implementations

Erm? No other cards except Creative's Audigy lineup support EAX HD.