SoundBlaster Audigy 2 (1 Viewer)

[MikeAlletto]

Announced today:
DVD-AUDIO
SOUND BLASTER 24-BIT ADVANCED HD AUDIO
THX®-CERTIFIED
6.1 SURROUND SOUND
CREATIVE MEDIASOURCE™ PLAYER
24-BIT/ 96 kHz RECORDING
EAX® ADVANCED HD™ GAMING
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2/
And here I am still using SoundBlaster Live Value...

 

[Dave E H]

I have no interest in DVD Audio on my PC, but I guess if you owned a HTPC, this might be a good deal. Just got an Audigy Plantinum EX - probably going to stick with that for a while.

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

I hope it's better than this generation's pathetic audigy. I know so many people who have upgraded their Audigy to the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. The Audigy is passable as a gaming card, but definitely not for HTPC with it converting everything to 48khz. The DVD-A looks interesting though.

 

[Joe Hsu]

Speaking of DVD-A...I've been wondering how you go about getting DVD-A from a DVD-ROM...is it possible? Cuz I'd like to get the benefits of such high quality albums, but I can't afford to buy any more equipment. My sound card's a Hercules Game Theater XP.

 

[Peter_A_M]

It's not possible yet, but it may be possible sometime in the near-future. In the meantime, you can listen to the DTS and DD tracks on the DVD-A.

 

[Joe Hsu]

huh. Well I guess I'll sit and wait.

 

[John Parris]

THX-Certified? I KNEW IT! As soon as Creative got thier hands on the majority share of the company suddenly ALL thier products are going to become "THX-certified"
Well the rest of the upgrades seem marginal at best... until the address the S/PDIF issue (as was mentioned) I will not buy another Creative card... they're simply geared toward the 100% PC solution (with multimedia speakers and all)... I'm wondering if they'll ever have a built-in DTS decoder... not bloody likely. Anywho, I have lot's of beef with creative, but suffice to say I think the Audigy 2 isnt going to be an entirely new unit... just based on the Audigy core like the Audigy was based around the Live core... they really need to engineer something NEW.

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

I have heard from friends that Creative is a weasely company that has lousy PC drivers and lousy support. Anyone else here (knowledgeable about PC sound card technology) in agreement or disagreement?

The Audigy2 sure claims to have a lot of features. DVD-Audio, 24/96 recording ability....What's the catch? There's got to be a catch.

As soon as Creative got thier hands on the majority share of the company suddenly ALL thier products are going to become "THX-certified"

Since when did that happen?? Or are you just joking?

-JNS

 

[MikeAlletto]

I don't know about that Jagan. I've used or have had friends use nothing but soundblaster based cards and have NEVER had any problems with them.

As far as the THX side, I thought I read that they were just investors, they don't actually own a share in THX, they just invested money in it. There is a difference.

 

[Dave E H]

Basically, I think the story was that THX was now a separate company, and that Creative invested in it (as opposed to THX being operated by Lucas as part of Lucasfilm, I think.) Sure, they might have influence and one has a right to be skeptical, but they don't 'own' THX.

 

[NickC]

how would you get Dolby Digital out of this card?

 

[Iain Lambert]

There is indeed a catch - Audigy 2 is the first card to support Microsoft's DRM capabilities, and turns off the optical out if the audio file requests it to. So if you're planning on building a nice sound setup around it, be prepared to fall back on those cheap minijack outputs at times.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

You can get Digital out on a lot of soundcards on the market. You just plug a digital wire into the digital out of the sound card. And then turn on "digital out" in the software/DVD player.
I'll guess the catch...
Sure you get all these features and a so called "Hiss free processing" but when you're all hooked up in analog you get hiss and distortion from a noisy power source and from the digital cable from sound card to mobo.
Sure it says THX certified but it's probably a "Multimedia" cert. Everything is on the back of the computer so you'll need miniplug adapters and room for all the wires. (My PC is crowded back there)
I guess we'll still have to see how it does though.

 

[NickC]

can you get dolby digital on games as well?

 

[TyC]

can you get dolby digital on games as well?

The game would have to support it.

About Microsoft's DRM, what does this affect? I assume Windows Media files will be flagged. Are DVD-Audio discs flagged with DRM?

 

[Sihan Goi]

Jagan, Creative cards are unfortunately plagued with a multitude of incompatibility problems, despite their market acceptance and dominance. Many people in both the hardware and software world agree on this. Suffice to say that idsoftware's DOOM 3 wasn't tested/presented on a Creative card, but rather on a Philips AcousticEdge.

Also, the Audigy's false marketing has angered quite a number of people, since it claims 24bit/96KHz sound and 100dB SNR just because it features a Philips 24bit DAC, but its input into the DAC is at most 16bit, and we all know that 16bit sound can never attain 100dB SNR since its beyond its theoretical limits.

The only way to get 24/96 sound out of the Audigy is to use its S/PDIF output, in which case the DAC is bypassed anyway. Its really very misleading to those not in the know.

NickC, as of now, no games support Dolby Digital. Most games suppose EAX, A3D or some other 3D audio API. However, the upcoming DOOM3 will feature Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, a first in the gaming industry.

 

[NickC]

So whats the best sound card out there? or one coming out within a month or so?

 

[Dave E H]

you _can_ get 5.1 sound from a regular Audigy 1 card, right? Unless it doesn't support it, I'll upgrade to play Doom 3, but otherwise, I'm going to hang tight.

 

[John Parris]

Sihan-- that's hardly a first... numerous titles for PS2 and XBox have featured dolby digital. Is Doom 3 actually going to feature IN-GAME 5.1 or just for the cinematics? If it's in-game, then by all means, this is a bold step into the frontier of gaming surround sound, since the quality/functionality of EAX 2.0 is questionable at best...

Anyway, I think that sound card technology is accelerating a little too fast for the current technology standards...as was said, most of the source media is going to be 16-bit sources, so 24/96 playback isnt really a big deal for the average consumer.... AND this isnt a step forward for Creative since it is technically offered on the Audigy. I, for one, simply don't want to use the DACs in my computer unless absolutely nessasary, so it's a moot point.

Dave-- yes, the original Audigy has Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding built-in... and almost any card with a S/PDIF output will allow you to get a multichannel signal to an outboard reciever, which is my prefered method anyway.

 

[Dave E H]

John - I've got a DD 5.1 speaker set (yamaha) w/ buitl in decoding - no room for a receiver in the office where my gaming rig is at.

I think what was being referred to is that Doom 3 is probably the first PC game w/ in-game 5.1. I don't know of another at this point.