PC Peripherals Help with budget 5.1 speakers...

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Darth_Infernus said:
I actually want to buy an Audigy 2 ZS along with the speaker set but I dunno who sells it.........If anyone knows a dealer in Lamington Road who sells any Audigy 1 or Audigy 2 card excluding the Audigy Value; then I would like to know :)
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Check out PC Guide.
He offered me the best price (better than prime) for the soundcard and speakers.
But do find out the prices at various places:)
 
sigmatel has some really good onboards. I found them better soundmax.

Btw, are you really going to set up the 5.1? too many moms/wives dont like the wires all around the room, and the majority of surround speakers lead their lives idly sitting with the front speakers instead :P
 
Darth_Infernus said:
It depends also on the implementation of the onboard sound chip on the motherboard........if the chip is not optimally placed then it will suffer from increased noise characteristics.....And of course on the audio chip model itself. For example in SoundMAX AD198x series are the best ones which are comparable with Creative cards, but the AD188x series are not so good.

But in personal experience the SoundMAX audio (AD1980) on my Asus K8V-X motherboard matches the audio produced by the SB Audigy value at least as far as music and movies are concerned.
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how does one find the name of the sound chip used in the onboard audio .

like ..which soundmax chip has been used on Intel 865 GBF ?

the intel site shows the following for onboard audio :

SoundMAX4* XL
 
sujit801 said:
Check out PC Guide.
He offered me the best price (better than prime) for the soundcard and speakers.
But do find out the prices at various places:)
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Okay........I know PC Guide; even purchased some stuff from them a while back. Will check it out! :)
 
faheem_m said:
how does one find the name of the sound chip used in the onboard audio .

like ..which soundmax chip has been used on Intel 865 GBF ?

the intel site shows the following for onboard audio :

SoundMAX4* XL
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SoundMAX 4 XL should mean the AD1985 audio chip, which is basically an AD1980 + some extra features......before HD audio came about the AD1985 was reportedly the best integrated audio solution available in terms of audio quality....:)
 
greenhorn said:
and the majority of surround speakers lead their lives idly sitting with the front speakers instead :P
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:ohyeah:
I got altec lansing 251 for 3200 rs. (pune). Good for gaming and movies not so good for music.
 
Hey guys..........Thanks for all your help, I'll go with either the Creative P5800 or T6060 or the Artis. :)

As for soundcard; I've been looking and a particular dealer claims to offer "an Audigy 2" for about 1.7K. Given that the Audigy 2 ZS is under 3K I am inclined to believe that the card is the Audigy 2 Value edition (the dealer also said it was the Audigy 2 Value).

So my question is whether the Audigy 2 Value is a decent soundcard worth spending 1.7K on or not?
 
Darth_Infernus said:
SoundMAX 4 XL should mean the AD1985 audio chip, which is basically an AD1980 + some extra features......before HD audio came about the AD1985 was reportedly the best integrated audio solution available in terms of audio quality....:)
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so i wont find much difference if i get sb live 5.1 16 bit ??..or some budget sound card ??
 
faheem_m said:
so i wont find much difference if i get sb live 5.1 16 bit ??..or some budget sound card ??
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No, you won't find any significant difference in audio quality if you buy an SB Live! 5.1 (in fact your quality may actually go down)......And in fact, most budget sound cards out there are worse than the SoundMAX and SBLive! 5.1 by a noticeable margin in terms of both sound quality and CPU usage.

However, SBLive! 5.1 does accelerate EAX in hardware so you may get an extra few 1-2 fps in games using EAX. Other than that; I cannot see any reason why you would take an SBLive! over a SoundMAX. The SBLive! 24-bit (or Audigy Value; same card) is a different thing; at least it offers 24-bit audio which the SoundMAX does not have (but even then the SoundMAX chips with the newer motherboards have added this feature as well); but overall a SoundMAX AD198x series is about as good as the best budget cards out there.....
 
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Darth_Infernus said:
Hey guys..........Thanks for all your help, I'll go with either the Creative P5800 or T6060 or the Artis. :)

As for soundcard; I've been looking and a particular dealer claims to offer "an Audigy 2" for about 1.7K. Given that the Audigy 2 ZS is under 3K I am inclined to believe that the card is the Audigy 2 Value edition (the dealer also said it was the Audigy 2 Value).

So my question is whether the Audigy 2 Value is a decent soundcard worth spending 1.7K on or not?
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i doubt if its the audigy 2 value that costs 1.7k. I was quoted 1.7k for the audigy value ( no hw acceleration ) ... i was shown the box , so m sure !
 
^^ one of a creative distributor in nehru place told me that audigy 2ZS & audigy 2 value are no more available..instead only audigy value is available for 1.4k

btw. i have both... audigy value with T6060 & audigy 2 value with MX5021.

i can say audigy value & audigy 2 value sound same for music with my MX5021..

more T6060 is a total crap for music in front of MX5021......for 5.1 DD movie tracks & gaming surround where high fidelity is not required T6060 are ok.....:hap2: :hap2:
 
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