Which soundcard should i buy ?

techmaster · August 16, 2005, 6:25am

Which sound card should i buy out of the following

1.Creative Labs Sound Blaster AUDIGY2 ZS - PCI Soundcard – 85 $

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value - Sound Card Dolby Digital 7.1 - 63$

Also what is the difference between the 2 and also suggest some other soundcard within 100$ if better than this.

Rockyme2002 · August 16, 2005, 6:33am

the value card is almost the same except for a few dbs
get the value if u wanna sve 20$'s nd go creative’s way…

Chaos · August 16, 2005, 7:10am

If you have such a nice budget, get an HDA X-Mystique instead of audigy. It does DDL in hardware. Most ppl who switched to that from the audigy seemed to be hearing new things

zhopudey · August 16, 2005, 7:27am

The DDl in hardware is only useful if he has a spk system with digital in, or else an av- reciever.

techmaster · August 16, 2005, 8:10am

Whats the price and from where in US can I buy it ?

Also Chaos what is the diff between ZS and value cards?

Chaos · August 16, 2005, 8:16am

ZS has firewire, gold plated connectors and extra I/O options over the value. If you wanna get an audigy2, get the value OEM version and save some cash.

techmaster · August 16, 2005, 2:53pm

Is this worth the deal ?

hitu · August 16, 2005, 4:50pm

may be :hap5:

Chaos · August 16, 2005, 6:35pm

Good deal! 44$ is a killer price for the ZS. But then its an MIR. Will u be able to claim the MIR?

guru · August 16, 2005, 8:07pm

creative drivers suck. i’d say go for HDA X-Mystique..
btw
which speakers have it? say within Rs 10000

HDA review here:
Pros:

Great sound quality.
Very low CPU usage.
Dolby Digital Live encoder with DTS,DTS-ES,DD-EX support.
Price.
Not a Creative Labs product.

Cons:

Availability

zhopudey · August 17, 2005, 4:57am

I seriously doubt any speakers under 10k will have a DD decoder. The creative standalone DD & DTS decoder is for 9K.

Sandy · August 17, 2005, 10:52am

I went from onboard sound to audigy2zs gamer. what a big difference.

Lord_Nemesis · August 17, 2005, 7:08pm

Be very careful if you own a nForce3 Mobo and going for the Audigy 2 ZS. Seems that theres a compatibility problem with these mobos. it seems this the pc does a BSOD with a horrible screeching sound very randomly while using the card. Theres a 40 page theard in the creative forums over this. Through its working fine with my pc, people who have the same config as mine are also facing this problem.

Chaos · August 17, 2005, 7:13pm

Hm… is it limited to the ZS or also a problem with other audigy cards? I get the screeching sound issue in farcry with EAX enabled even though its not a ZS. However no BSODs.

Amol · August 18, 2005, 3:54am

Chaos, that is because Audigy LS does not have hardware EAX mixing, check again, Farcry DOes need hw mixing. I got the same problem too.

Sandy · August 18, 2005, 10:37am

no problem like this for me never got screeching sound. I also having nforce3 mobo

Anish · August 18, 2005, 11:10am

Wierd problem I must say. Would a firmware upgrade do the trick ?

techmaster · August 27, 2005, 3:41am

I have logitech x-530 5.1 speakers.So should i buy the audigy 2 value soundcard or the audigy 2 zs card finally ?

Rockyme2002 · August 27, 2005, 4:19am

If u wan2 sav 20$'s get the value…no MAJOR diff …if u can shed a few more get the Mystique

Chaos · August 27, 2005, 4:20am

Get the ZS if u are getting a really good deal, else get the value!