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Thread: Which Soundcard????????

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    Syd
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    Which Soundcard????????

    I am soon to take delivery of a set of Logitech Z5500

    I currentleu use a plantronics DSP500 H/set which I know I can switch between on USB, My dilemma is......................Which soundcard do I get.

    Do I buy a Audigy 2ZS Platinum with drive bay and optical output to feed the speakers or doo I buy a nice cheap audigy 2/4 with no optical and use the analog outputs or should I look at an XFI................Argghhhh

    Don't have an endless pot of money and mainly play games. 50% of time on headset.. What should I do????

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    All of them cards you mentioned would have to be connected by analog unless you only wanted stereo sound from games etc. The only soundcards that allow 5.1 all the time over optical are the HDA X-Mystique and X-plosion, which is exactly why i have one hooked upto my z5500's .

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    Syd
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    I bow to your sound advice DW

    EDIT

    What is the difference between the two, and Do they support all the EAX features???
    Last edited by Syd; 07-05-2006 at 10:44 PM.

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    The X-Mystique is cheaper and only does Dolby Digital 5.1, the X-Plosion is generally better (as it basically the X-Mystique 2) and does DTS aswell. They dont unfortunately support anything over EAX2 as creative own the rights to everything above that, however what you do get is superb sound very clear, very bright and i think well matched to the z5500's.

    The X-Fi is probably a better card though if your not worried about connecting only via analog and would prefere the extra EAX features, i say probably cause ive not heard an X-Fi and it would have to be really good to surpass the X-Mystique (particularly as i got it for £35 on an offer )

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    Are you in the US or UK? Here are two places to get both of those cards respectively (They're US etailers; dunno about UK shipping rates):

    http://www.buy.com/prod/Creative_Sou.../10354635.html

    That's the Audigy 2 ZS for $168.99 with $100 MIR (free shipping). Here's a $10 off coupon for it as well: http://www.buy.com/retail/coupon.asp...947&adid=17662

    http://www.clubit.com/product_detail...temno=A5118296

    Audigy 4 for $39.99 ($3 shipping). Here's a $5 MIR from pricegrabber, if you decide to review it: http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Creat...earch=Audigy+4

    Hope that helps !

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    I just purchased an Audigy 2 ZS and its a massive improvement over the onboard DFI...I didn't think the x-fi was worth 3x the audigys price!

    Matt

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    Syd
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    Did you go for the plain card or the platinum, and what are you outputting to ??

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    Well, digital out shouldn't make a huge difference between onboard and dedicated as much as analogue out, since the former by the DAC of whatever you plug it in. Granted cheaper digital out are not capable of bit-perfect output, but the Audigy series are capable of that anyway (Creative only fixed this issue with the X-Fi series).

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    I went from an audigy 2 ZS plat to an X-fi xtreme music....and to be honest i was really suprised how much better the x-fi sounded
    pands.goggles


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    The X-Fi xtreme music is fantastic, the quality is just great.
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    Quote Originally Posted by mfurse
    I just purchased an Audigy 2 ZS and its a massive improvement over the onboard DFI...I didn't think the x-fi was worth 3x the audigys price!

    Matt
    Unless you play a lot of music from your PC!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Syd
    Did you go for the plain card or the platinum, and what are you outputting to ??
    Its running into my Sherwood receiver with 2x£30 gold and oxygen free double shielded interconnects (2xStereo interconnects - quadrophonic sound, and my reciever runs an active sub also).

    I'm comparing a track from a CD being played from my old school but still pretty nice Technics CD Player to both an MP3 rip of the same track at 256Kbps and the CD being played in the PC.

    Obviously the CD is the best. It has a wide soundstage, better instrument seperation, tighter base, a nice warm feel and clarity beyond any MP3.

    The MP3 seemed to lose a lot of all of the above characteristics when using the onboard sound and to some extent so did playing the CD from the PC.

    With this new audigy the level of seperation is almost as good as the CD, the soundstage is still not as open sounding but I'm sure thats cus I haven't got my room set up as I would like yet...and the warmth is back. As for clarity, well I can here the strings bouncing on the "Eagles - Hotel California" like I can on the CD, something the onboard couldn't match really.

    Oh yeh, and the audigy gives a much nicer bass punch, alot tighter. Havent got an X-Fi to compare with but didnt see how spending £100 was gonna buy a huge load more than he Audigy 2 ZS that I bought for £30. Think I'll keep the change and upgrade my reciever to something with a digital input then start doing some proper room setup to optimise the sound...I do like my music, just wish I had deeper pockets!

    Matt

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    Is the Audigy 4 a good choise? I am after a good soundcard but don't want to pay a lot!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Koolpc
    Is the Audigy 4 a good choise? I am after a good soundcard but don't want to pay a lot!
    It's basically an Audigy 2, so don't pay a premium for the 4.

    For gaming, it's the best choice besides the X-Fi but the X-Fi does music quite a bit better.

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    I got a new Audigy 2 ZS about a year ago for £25 from OCUK.. was the cut down pack though, just the card and game port extension and cd. Works great though, I've had two surround sound systems with it and they both work great.

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    Well the Audigy 4 is approx £35. Is that good? What is the difference between it and the Audigy 2?

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