Which Sound Card

  • Thread starter Thread starter christos
  • Start date Start date
Well there is a review in this months sound on sound but you can only access it if you are a subscriber (which I am not). From what I have read on creative's website the new ASIO drivers only work at 24/96 or 16/48 - no other bit depths and sampling rates. It still resamples any other sampling rates to 48khz when not using ASIO or DVD-Audio, with its crappy resampling algorithmn (you can search for RMAA tests at 44.1 and see the resampling artifacts).

That makes it a pretty inflexible recording soundcard, plus I doubt the A/D convertors are very good especially given Creative doesnt publish any specs on them. You would have to read the SOS review to get more quantitative measurements of the A/D.

Finally it costs a lot (nearly A$600), making it all around a really bad deal compared to a 6fire (or any other pro audio card).
 
alfalfa said:
Well there is a review in this months sound on sound but you can only access it if you are a subscriber (which I am not). From what I have read on creative's website the new ASIO drivers only work at 24/96 or 16/48 - no other bit depths and sampling rates. It still resamples any other sampling rates to 48khz using its crappy resampling algorithmn (you can search for RMAA tests at 44.1 and see the resampling artifacts).

That makes it a pretty inflexible recording soundcard, plus I doubt the A/D convertors are very good especially given Creative doesnt publish any specs on them. You would have to read the SOS review to get more quantitative measurements of the A/D.

Finally it costs a lot (nearly A$600), making it all around a really bad deal compared to a 6fire (or any other pro audio card).
Click to expand...

I can pick the audigy 2 platinum ex for $399 the audiophile 2496 $ 470 the fire 6 (with midi) $525 the LT $340 without midi
my budget is now limited to $500 as i allready blown $5000 on other stuff.............(thank God wife will never read this) but it is allways a good idea to ask and learn
as one learns new things everyday simply by asking...
 
A$399 is a good price for an audigy2EX, where did you get that from? I havent seen it anywhere for less than A$500.

The other prices sound ok though you can get a Terratec EWX24/96 from www.turramusic.com.au for A$399 and I read someone else got an audiophile from them for the same price. Maybe you could email them to see what they can do for you. I ended up getting an Echo Mia which is a great soundcard.
 
alfalfa said:
A$399 is a good price for an audigy2EX, where did you get that from? I havent seen it anywhere for less than A$500.

The other prices sound ok though you can get a Terratec EWX24/96 from www.turramusic.com.au for A$399 and I read someone else got an audiophile from them for the same price. Maybe you could email them to see what they can do for you. I ended up getting an Echo Mia which is a great soundcard.
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My mate has the list with all the stuff we are getting and the places where he found the cheapest deal.
I will get the details in the morning from where he got quoted $399 for the audigy as he is definently getting one cause he only needs one for games etc.
We also got the Radeon 9700 pro (graphics card) for $699 that is a price no one has beaten yet.....
The only thing im still undecisive about is the sound card and the monitor........
 
Hi Christos, any update on the Audigy2? Is it definitely an Audigy 2 platinum EX for that price?
 
Christos,

As Molly Meldrum would say: Do yourself a favour, steer well clear of Creative cards.

I've got a Terratec EWX 24/96 and it's not bad at all.

ambi said:
My advice is don't buy a sound blaster.
Click to expand...

Heed those wise words, Christos.

--
BluesMeister
 
And one more thing Christos,

You should seriously consider the Echo MiaMIDI audiocard. Of the cards in this price range, it has THE best signal-to-noise ratio.

The well-respected Martin Walker of Sounds On Sounds magazine reviewed the Mia and liked it so much that he bought it.

You can read the review here at Sounds On Sound
--
BluesMeister
 
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alfalfa said:
Hi Christos, any update on the Audigy2? Is it definitely an Audigy 2 platinum EX for that price?
Click to expand...
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum Internal with Soldier of Fortune II and Hitman 2 [MOVING SALE - LIMITED TIME ONLY]

$ 399.00
ON SPECIAL

www.scorptech.com.au

it is not the external unit tho i made a mistake

there is also a place that sells cheap
universal pc warehouse
03 98732900
 
Re: correction...

James Argo said:
Sound Blaster is Rockin' evil... :p
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I have read many articles on soundblaster THE LATEST one and i have a feeling that many on this board still look at the OLDER soundblaster which in fact DID NOT have ASIO drivers.
i am starting to beleive that the latest one is a good enough card to record sound..
I am trying to decide now it is either soundblaster platinum 2 ex or terateck fire 6 or audiophile 2496
Still trying to decide
 
And the audigy 2 is INFACT a gaming card and not made for the purpose of recording music.

Do what you want but why buy a gaming card for recording when you could just as easily buy a recording card for recording?
 
The newest Audigy 2 (Platinum eX, I believe) is very closely-spec'd to the Audiophile 2496 for SNR. The drive it comes with has optical/coaxial S/PDIF and MIDI, and it has ASIO 2.0 support. Not to mention SF2 support. I think it's a viable option for recording, even though M-Audio is a bigger name in recording.

That being said, I bought an M-Audio Revolution at CompUSA last week for $65 after rebate. Can't beat that for a decent 24/96 card.
 
The audigy2 asio only supports 16/48 on the basic models and 24/96 on the latest platinum EX. No other bit depths and sample rates. This is very limiting.

Also when using the mme/directsound drivers at 44.1, the data is resampled to 48 using a pretty ordinary real time sample rate convertor that reduces sound quality (look at the huge difference in intermodulation distortion at 44.1 vs 48 in the measurements below).

The measured sound quality/performance of the audigy2 is significantly poorer than the DMX6fire (which uses AKM4524 convertors and is equivalent to an Audiophile in performance). You can see some sound quality measurement comparisons in this review.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/terratec-aureon71_10.html

With all these problems why get an audigy2 instead of a 6Fire or 6Fire LT???

The 6fire is similar in price and has full surround/gaming functionality along with its superior recording performance and features. That gives you no reason to get an Audigy2.
 
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alfalfa said:
The audigy2 asio only supports 16/48 on the basic models and 24/96 on the latest platinum EX. No other bit depths and sample rates. This is very limiting.

Also when using the mme/directsound drivers at 44.1, the data is resampled to 48 using a pretty ordinary real time sample rate convertor that reduces sound quality (look at the huge difference in intermodulation distortion at 44.1 vs 48 in the measurements below).

The measured sound quality/performance of the audigy2 is significantly poorer than the DMX6fire (which uses AKM4524 convertors and is equivalent to an Audiophile in performance). You can see some sound quality measurement comparisons in this review.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/terratec-aureon71_10.html

I do see your points and according to the research that you have made the terateck does seem the way to go.......
Creative has wrote this to me::::::

chris,
Yes, the Audigy 2 Platinum Ex is full duplex.
Be careful when you are looking for the card.
The Audigy 2 Platinum and the Audigy 2 Platinum EX are two different cards,
with different abilities. You need the Audigy 2 Platinum Ex for your 24 bit low latency recording.

They themselves AGREE that MOST Creative cards are NO GOOD for recording BUT The AUDIGY PLATINUM 2 EX is

People on this board and others i have been compare the Audigy 2 but NO ONE has compared the Audigy 2 platinum ex

Is there anyone out there who infact has used the Audigy 2 platinum ex so we can start comparing it to other cards????

No point comparing the Audigy 2 when in fact even Creative says that it is not good........
Lets compare the Audigy platinum 2 EX with other cards and then we can come to a final decision which is best in the price bracket.
Click to expand...
 
The only difference with the EX is that is supports asio2 at 24/96. There is no other difference in performance with regards to other Audigy2s. All the problems I listed above are equally valid for the Audigy2 platinum EX as there are for the other Audigy2s.
 
alfalfa said:
The only difference with the EX is that is supports asio2 at 24/96. There is no other difference in performance with regards to other Audigy2s. All the problems I listed above are equally valid for the Audigy2 platinum EX as there are for the other Audigy2s.
Click to expand...

But isnt the support of ASIO 2 that allows one to record 24/96 low latency on computer the fact that makes a card ideal for recording?

Many music stores i queeried about sound cards no one knew that soundblaster did have support for ASIO drivers this is why they all tend to not look any further.

Any how at least now i have narrowed down my search and it will be either soundblaster audigy 2 EX or the Terateck fire 6
Thanx for all your help..........
 
Read my earlier post. I have already explained to you why the Audigy2 EX has limitations for recording applications - it is not just about having 24/96 Asio drivers.

I will give you an example, I record nearly all my projects at 24bit 44.1khz. You cannot do that with Asio on an Audigy2 EX (ask creative if you can use ASIO at 24/44.1 or 16/44.1 or 24/48 on their cards).

All the other sound quality issues are valid (resampling to 48khz with mme/directsound drivers, poorer quality converters etc).

If you want to get an Audigy2 EX despite all the advice given to you, then go for it. We are only trying to help you choose the best soundcard for your buck. Just dont complain about these limitations later when you experience them when trying to record.

Best of luck in whatever you decide.
 
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