Looking at Audigy 2 ZS |
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Looking at Audigy 2 ZS |
 Jan 10 2004, 03:02
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#1
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Group: Members Posts: 36 Joined: 4-June 03 Member No.: 6995  |
I need advice before I purchase. I'm not an audiophile, and I don't need the highest quality playback, though I want something thats good. If you can tell me of a soundcard that has all of the pros listed below for less than $90 (Audigy 2 ZS Price @ Newegg.com) then that will be great. Also keep in mind that the most speakers I'm going to ever be using with this are 2.1 or headphones
Pros: True 24/192 Stereo playback/True 24/96 7.1 Playback 24/96 Recording Good gaming performance (I'm not a big gamer so this isn't a huge importance) 7.1 Output (though this is totally useless to me) SPDIF In/Out IEEE 1394/FireWire (this feature is important to me because it saves me $25 on a firewire card) 108dB SNR (Most reviews put it actually at ~100dB @ 48KHz, ~90dB @ 44.1KHz) DD EX/DTS ES Decoding Cons: Resampling/Resampling Quality Not best quality ADC/DAC (but still really good/much much better than my current onboard audio) Horrible software interface (it's soooo ugly  )Lack of included DVD-Video playback software Poor quality included DVD-Audio player (not important to me as I don't have any DVD-A disks). |
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Jan 10 2004, 17:22
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#2
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Group: Members Posts: 36 Joined: 4-June 03 Member No.: 6995 |
After reading through a bunch of posts I decided to get the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 instead. Not nearly as many features as the Audigy 2 (specificly lacking hardware DTS decoding and a Firewire port) but the better quality DAC/ADC will make it worthwhile for what I do mostly (listen to music), even though it is a bit pricier.
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Jan 10 2004, 17:32
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#3
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 Group: Members Posts: 574 Joined: 15-December 02 From: Rijeka, Croatia Member No.: 4090 |
QUOTE (Mr.Radar @ Jan 10 2004, 04:02 AM) Horrible software interface (it's soooo ugly )You don't count the possiblity that you will (probably in the future, when it becomes supported) be able to use kX drivers, which, IMHO, have much better interface. |
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Jan 10 2004, 19:51
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#4
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Group: Developer Posts: 1289 Joined: 17-March 03 From: Calgary, AB Member No.: 5541 |
I just installed the base drivers, so no visible interface at all, plus uICE for using the remote control. Granted this means no control over recording options I suppose, so you might still need the control panels. No need for their media player, however!
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Jan 10 2004, 19:54
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#5
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Group: Members Posts: 134 Joined: 11-December 01 Member No.: 627 |
QUOTE (Mr.Radar @ Jan 10 2004, 03:02 AM) DD EX/DTS ES Decoding I own an Audigy 2 and I can tell from my experience that the internal DD-Decoding almost never works properly. Most of the times it works when using a recent version of WinDVD, but not with other players. It appears to to work properly when e.g. setting AC3Filter or whatever to SPDIF-out and using wave-out, but as soon as you seek, the sound stutters and becomes desync. -------------------- Always defragment your MP3s to avoid subtle lack in harmonics.
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 24th May 2013 - 07:11 |
