YES! A new "which soundcard should I buy" thread

[az]

Well...

I will get a pair (for my girlfriend and myself) of the following:

Terratec DMX 6Fire LT Retail (~130,- EUR)
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Player Retail (~120,- EUR)
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 1349 Bulk (~80,- EUR)

The terratec doesn't have FireWire, which would be nice.

So the questions are: HOW bad is the audigy? I'll use it mainly for playing games and listening to music. I absolutely HATE bad drivers, but HOW bad are they?

And, is there any significant difference between the Player and the bulk? Since I'm on a tight budget, I'm really tempted to buy the latter. I don't think I'd get the retail, if I can get the Terratec for the same price.

Thank you

Oh, both PCs are using a Duron 750 on an ECS K7S5A with 256MB of PC266 RAM under Win98SE. One system has a Hauppauge WinTV PCI FM in it.

AZ

[VJ]

Just a small note: I believe the firewire on the Audigy cannot be used to connect e.g. a DV-camera. It can be used to connect drives and other computer hardware (and networking, but IIRC only with another Audigy).

Jörg

[SpiralDragon]

actualy the firewire works just fine for DV the drivers are not as bad as ppl might want you to think but there are hardly any updates ... if you are only going to use it for playing games and listening to music then go for something cheaper... what is good about the Audigy is the soundfont capabilities... otherwise it aint that good for the sound pro... it claims to be capale of 20 bit and 96khz but not across the whole board... i am personly thinking of investing in a aardvark (sp?) Q10 card..... and a Machi control surface to use with my Stienberg nuendo system

[Dogbert]

Tom's hardware had an Audigy Platinum vs 6Fire.

For music editing 'n stuff the 6fire wins hands down.
For gaming, the Audigy is the best.

Also worth mentioning is that although almost obsolete, the 6fire has no midi support.

[Dogbert]

Oh, and I'd vote - none of the above.

Better go with something different like the Philips acustic edge or Hercules Fortissimo III (less than half the proce of the options you gave).

If you need something more, you can go for the Hercules Game Theater XP

[Dr Mordrid]

I'd go "None of the above" as well since a couple of the better options are not present;

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Hercules Game Theater XP

Dr. Mordrid

[Oboy]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
I'd go "None of the above" as well since a couple of the better options are not present;

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Hercules Game Theater XP

Dr. Mordrid

Dr. Do you have the Hercules Game Theater? If so what do you think of it.

Oboy

[orangejulius]

Based on previous recs by Dr. Mordrid and others, a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000063WQ0/">Turtle Beach Santa Cruz</a> is going in my next box.

Should be about 138 DEM, or 70 of those silly EURs.

[Nuno]

Audigy all the way. Get the cheaper bulk one, there aren´t really any differences besides getting Giants-CItizen Kabuto bundled with it. Pretty good game, anyway.

I never got any trouble that could be sound related (half of the solution is NOT to use VIA chipsets ), it does sound fine on my Inspire 5300 5.1 speakers but I don´t really use the PC for hi-fi/DVD or audio I/O.

For gaming, it´s very very good because it delivers what the Live! should have done - it offloads all the 3d sound processing out of the cpu. From a Live! that I previously had (it´s now on wife´s computer) it can give you like a 30 fps boost when using 3d sound. I remember that from MDK2 that has the option of benching with 3d sound on or off.

Besides that it should give it the best compatibility on EAX and EAX2 sound effects.

[az]

Gurm will tell me both these cards won't work with any BioWare games, and if this is indeed the case, they're nothing for me

AZ

[Gurm]

Ok, here's the deal.

1. Nothing based on the Crystal chipset works with Bioware games (yes, Az!). That means:

- Santa Cruz
- Hercules (all)

2. Terratec is a GREAT card with high fidelity. But its gaming support is... umm... well... go check at the 3D Sound Surge fora for more info, but last I checked it just plain ol' didn't like games.

3. Audigy isn't as bad as everyone makes out. With a modern machine, and the latest drivers (the Compaq UDA's from April, which are scheduled for re-release in a Creative generic version this month sometime) it is a great little card.

4. Audigy's Firewire port is one of the best you can get, short of spending $500 on a digital vidcap board. It's certainly better (and MORE compatible) than the $50 cheapie 1394 solutions you get at Best Buy or your local PC shop.

- Gurm

[Dogbert]

Gurm,

Something is puzzling me here... You really have a knack for going with the big guys - Mircrosoft, Creative...

The fact you're in the murc instead of some nvidia forum could mean one of two things:

1. it's asome kind of a quirk/glitch and it's really out of the ordinary.
2. You're anticipating [M]atrox to be the next big guy.

[Gurm]

Dogbert:

No, I go with what works. I'm a pragmatist. I utterly refuse to go out of my way and waste a whole lot of effort making something half-work just because I want to shun the big guys.

Linux is way too much work. And it'll NEVER make me as productive as I am under Windows. So for me it's a non-starter. Non-creative soundcards have issues doing everything I want them to do... so I stick with Creative.

If Crystal would get off their asses and fix the bioware problem, I'd switch to a Santa Cruz in an instant. I loved my SC when I had it, but not being able to play Baldur's Gate with Julie was kind of a pain in the rear end, and as I said - turning off all sound acceleration or half-assed emulation patches are NOT worth my time or effort.

- Gurm

[Gurm]

And you know, the more I think about it, the less I like the implications of what you're saying. For example - I _DON'T_ go with nVidia, because despite the near-perfect game compatibility, their 2D sucks, their video playback sucks, and in this case it IS worth it for me to play with my Radeon 8500 (soon to be a Parhelia if and when I have the money) to get it to work.

Follow? I'm talking pragmatism and expedience, and effort when it's worth it.

- Gurm

[Dogbert]

Accepted (till next time, that is)