Looking for opinions

gballard

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I am considering buying a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 for the new system I built. It already has a Live! 5.1 card in it but I was told the difference in the sound with the Audigy is simply amazing. I was wondering if any of you guys have any experience with this card and could offer up opinions on it. I noticed newegg.com has it on sale for $72.00 + free shipping. Any input would be appreciated...:)
 
i have 1, it's an amazing bit of hardware. my main game is battlefield 1942 and making full use of surround hardware mode is amazing. theres some games out there using the new EAX HD, very very good sounds. 1 of the biggest problems is emulating in software mode, lagging your PC in games. none of that with audigy 2 :)
 
Yeah...I am just now getting into gaming really...just bought copies of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Return to Castle Wolfenstein
 
well it's a good card for gaming, thats all i got it for. with the creative 6.1 speakers it's an awsome setup, a friend got the speakers setup in his room.
now is a good time to pick 1 up cheep, they just replaced it with the 7.1 surround output :)
 
seems to be :) you can probably save a couple a $$ if you can be botherd searching.
 
well I went ahead and got the one from newegg...I do alot of business with them...never have had a problem with them...thanks for your input...:)
 
happy gaming :) remember to set all audio options to max & EAX modes where allowed.
medal of honor sounds like the opening scene from saving private ryan with 5,1 :eek:

*tip, enable CMSS*
 
is it really that good? i have a regular SB 5.1 card and i do watch a lot of movies and do play games.

but when i play games, i usually wear headphones (Plantronics Audio 60s or 90s). would it really make a big difference when im using headphones?
 
If you don't have high-end speakers, the sound coming from your sound card won't matter. With my Klipsch speakers, the difference is obvious, but they're kinda spendy (~$320). I recommend getting new speakers and a sound card at the same time.

A word of caution: While the sound is great, Creative's drivers are simply awful. If it weren't for the superb KX Project drivers (good for Live! cards too :)), I would have sold my card and bought a Guillemot Fortissimo III a long time ago.
 
if you go with the KX Project drivers...can you still use the other software from Creative? Like Playcenter and stuff...
 
Yes, as long as you install them before the KX driver. The KX driver also has built-in apps for speaker control that you can use instead of the Creative apps like Surround Mixer.
 
I've never tried it, but I would assume it wouldn't, because CMSS is tied to the Creative driver structure.

There are a vast array of presets in the KX DSP section that will do quite a few effects, a couple of which strongly resemble, if not sound identical to, CMSS.
 
well from what i have read...CMSS is what turns on the 5.1 functionality
 
CMSS upmixes a stereo stream (like a CD) to a pseudo-5.1 sound, or so Creative says.

What it actually does is just add subtle reverb to the high end of the sound spectrum, giving you the odd sensation that the sound is all around you.

Movies and games already produce true surround sound (usually 5.1, sometimes more or less), and CMSS actually becomes detrimental to the sound, becuase it takes away the distinctness of the separate channels.
 
well...I have the Creative Inspire 5.1 speakers hangin off my Live! 5.1 and right now the center speaker doesn't put out any sound...I read that turning on the CMSS would put sound out of all 5 speakers.
 
Ahh...go into the control panel and the sound options and make sure Windows has your speaker setup as "5.1".
 
Maybe the Creative speaker test (KX has got one too ;)) will let you find out. Has it always been this way? You should have center-channel even without CMSS.
 

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