new sound card?

[kenshindono]

hey guys i was upgrading my computer because of some serious problems ive been trying to troubleshoot. its down to either the processor or MB being bad so im just replacing them. going from a 2.8pentium HT to an athalon 64 4000+ the only thing in my computer thats kinda old is im still using a soundblaster live! platinum 5.1 from like 4 years ago or so.

i dont know too much about soundcards, what would be a good soundcard to get these days. Id like top of the line since i got some decent speakers. klipsch pro media 5.1's

im not that big a fan of soundblaster but i think theyre the only real game in town. any sugestions? i should pick it up tomorow or so so i can put it in when my parts arive from newegg. tnx

 

[pat]

Why dont you just try the one you have and decide by yourself if it sound good enough for YOUR ears??? No one's ears are the same, so the decision is yours.

If you dont like it, then get either a soundblaster on a m-audio revolution. the revolution is better for music and the audigy is better for game. which one to get for each brand??? depend of your budget!

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Crashman]

Whatever money you give Creative will be used to supress other technologies and keep us in the soundcard dark ages.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[kenshindono]

lol ya im nto that big a fan of creative but really for gaming theyre the only game in town as far as i can tell.. i know my current soundcards ok but id rather have something better for eax 2 and other stuff like that.

would you guys just recomend creatives top end stuff?

 

[Crashman]

The best game in town was A3D 2.0, Creative killed Aureal through illegal legal tactics, the creditors closed in before Aureal could collect (Aureal won the lawsuits Creative filed against them but didn't get a chance to file for compensation).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[kenshindono]

ya ok, i know creative is a buncha douches, but seriously. what else out there comes close right now. can anyone recomend the best sound card out there for gaming?

oh but without those stupid control things that take up a cd drive port. i never ever used that on my old one its a waste of space and time

 

[cookingfrags]

if you REALLY want the best, even if it means a software package of which youu'll only use 10% or less of, the Audigy 4 Pro is probably as good as it possibly gets in the consumer sound card market. but it does have a breakout box (doesnt use a drive bay, but you still might not need it)

if you're looking for something slightly more reasonable, the Creative Audigy 2 ZS (non-Platinum/Pro) is the gaming standard, mostly because it complies with the most gaming standards and with DS3D games, it has good CPU usage (at least according to this sites' older reviews...its up to you if you choose to believe them, if you hate Creative that much).

i guess i havent been alive long enough, or at least had a computer for long enough, to complain about Creative's legal actions against Aureal. so i personally dont have anything against Creative (yet) since my Audigy 2 Value works perfectly. the only problem i have is that they havent released new drivers yet, but i dont need them yet anyways.

 

[umheint0]

"illegal legal tactics".

Haha. Gotta love oxymorons.

umheint0's phat setup --> <A HREF="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html" target="_new">http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html</A><--

 

[Crashman]

Yes, frivoulous lawsuites are meant to harrass and are subject to recovery of legal fees. Creative put Aureal out of business by filing many large lawsuits which they lost, knowing Aureal didn't have enough money to pay for both operating expenses and attourneys. And because it takes even more attourneys to prove a companies lawsuit was frivoulous, Aureal was faced with the problem that their creditors closed in before they could recover those fees.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Unolocogringo]

And to finish the story.
Creative then bought all the rights to the Aureal chipset and shelved it. Left it there for about 4 years then sold it to Nvidia.

The new Audigy still does not sound as good as the old Aureal cards in games. You would think that after all this time the could come up with something "AS"good.

I aint signing nothing!!!

 

[Crashman]

hehe, they didn't just buy it, Guillemot tried to buy it first, Creative said "Whatever they offer, we'll add $100,000". Wow, so Guillemot made some outragious offer and Creative of course beat it by $100,000. After all the suits and so forth, that's a LOT of money to spend to get a competing product off the market, and proves Creative couldn't compete based on marketability alone.

And they didn't sell it to nVidia, nVidia just hired a bunch of Aureal employees to assist them on Soundstorm, which should be a similar, but nowhere near identicle, technology. And A3D 2.0 is still missing, and still sounding more credible in games than EAX 3.

In fact Creative has done nearly 0 developement on cards in the last 5 years! They get away with this because they don't have any powerfull competition.

Now, if nVidia starts combining sound and video on their cards, Creative might as well hang their hat.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[jheine]

Wow, this brings back memories. This reminds me of how ticked-off I was when Creative bought out Ensoniq. I was using the Soundscape Elite (and still use it) because it was a step above Soundblaster (and to an extent still is), yet more affordable and flexible than a Roland or Turtle Beach card at the time. Plus, they were the first to market with a PCI card. Creative pretty much took the PCI technology and shelved the rest of the soundcard, along with the keyboard line as well in favor of their E-MU line. The only other thing they kept was the Paris audio system, which they rebranded. IMO the only edge they have is the gaming support, which isn't enough for me to support them. Now they're selling E-MU branded to gain credibility for audio use as well, which they've been letting slide for some time.

It'll definately be interesting to see how much longer they can hold on to the top spot before someone finally knocks them down. But then again, they've got the cash flow to buyout and shelve the better stuff.

Jarrett

 

[RichPLS]

I used to love my ensonic soundscape sound card back about 14 years ago. That was a good card!

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Black_Cat]

As much as the ATI/Nvidia wars has left a sour taste in my mouth towards Nvidia, I hope they crush Creative out of existence. Nvidia is probably one of only a few companies that could actually come up with a sound/video combo card. (I'm glad <i>you</i> thought of it) In the meantime, I'll keep my Hercules GTXP which has given me zero problems.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

 

[jheine]

I think it still is. I was using mine until the system crashed about 3 years ago. I just never got around to rebuilding it. I still have the system, just needed a new HDD. I just wish I had gotten the new system running before it crashed (we're talking days, had the parts in hand). I lost some good music written around that card.

Jarrett