I performed an RMAA test yesterday simply for the sake of it. I realise that RMAA is probably indicates things that are inaudible/may be inaccurate etc. however I was wondering what can be intepreted from the results I got? I had no intention to purchase a new card, nor do I now. Do the peaks in certain graphs indicate resampling? There's no clipping with all playback volume sliders maxed when playing udial.

Here's a link. Click here.

Does this indicate that Creative did at one point actually have a 'good' card, or are these reults comparable to say an Audigy 2? Any opinions appreciated.

One last thing, I have no intention to violate the TOS, but I will say that I'm happy with this card and I most likely would not hear a difference compared with another card.

Edit: spelling

"Good" doesn't cut it with me. I have seen some other cards with tests done with the RMAA that are usually Very Good in the SNR department and Excellent Total Harmonics Distortion Department. I can find the page for you after if you want a reference. If it works for you then sure why not

Reference:

http://www.amd.co.at/soundcard/ca2zs-1644.htm

I'm sure I won't be able to hear the difference. I guess that's a good thing.

This card actually sound better than the SB Live! IIRC because...it's an Ensoniq

More than likely. In fact I think an older machine of someone I know has a PCI 128. I would just stick with it, but stay away from the Audigy 2. Creative and their snake-oil nowadays.

The only reason I'd consider a new card is to resolve some problems it has with maintaining sync with video (occasional popping/pauses). I'm thinking in the unlikely event I decide to get a new card I'll run both with the PCI 128 for music and an Audigy 2 for games/videos. Then again I probably won't bother and just set up the onboard for video.

Update: Fixed this issue by lowering hardware acceleration to "Basic" in dxdiag.exe. Card works perfectly now.

Update 2: Purchased an Audigy 4 a few months ago. Also works fine.

I have an old PCI 128 SB in my second system and for straight stereo playback it's certainly better than a lot of other cards costing considerably more. It's worth absolutely nothing but it makes a fine back up card.

This is my SB PC128, different model from yours. Results are even better.

http://sjeng.org/audio/SB128.html

For comparison:

"good" Creative card (completely different from the ZS et al):

http://sjeng.org/audio/Audigy2.html

Onboard sound in my AMD64 mainboard:

http://sjeng.org/audio/NForce4.htm

Dell PocketPC:

http://sjeng.org/audio/Dell_Axim_X50v.htm

I'd be interested in seeing the graphs for your PCI 128, if thats not inconvenient.

Oh and another thing I forgot, does that external Audigy use a different sound chip/DSP/resampler?

Use Internet Explorer

It seems the PNG generator of old RMAA versions is buggy, and FireFox/Opera can't render them.



Yes. It resamples, but it resamples to the rate you can set in a utility in the control panel. The resampler is also higher quality. See:

http://sjeng.org/audio/Audigy2.html
http://sjeng.org/audio/Audigy2_44.html
http://sjeng.org/audio/Audigy2_44_16.html

Alrighty then. Cool. Happy new year btw.