Audio Upgrade with $200

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003 said:
The creative subwoofer SUCKS. I used to have that EXACT speaker system. I found out, that nothing ever uses 7.1, 5.1 is more than enough. It will also be a bit more powerful as it won't have 2 extra speakers to power. Here would be a much nicer setup for his budget:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121121
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829118106
The Logitech THX Z-5300e 280W 5.1 speakers, and the Turtle Beach CATALINA sound card. Totals out to $190.


Hah, you dont even get real 5.1 for that matter.. At least not with a crappy audio card made by creative.. When their cards do the rear channel encoding all it does is take the front 2 channels flip flops them, and shoots the signal to the rear speaker. Go get a Y adapter and plug both front and rear speakers into the adapter that is plugged into the primary output. You will not notice a difference in the sound (other than the channels wont be flip flopped)


M-Audio revolution 7.1 (for gaming/music) is the only way to go. Higher quality components, better design, and has more experienced team of audio gurus developing the devices. Creative has been caught lying about their products to push them before.. And im sure will do so in the future. They have NO products that can do 96k, they have NO products that do surround sound properly, and they also have NO products that are truly >16bit.

Unless of course you have 400$ to spend on an m-audio firewire-410.. It's the best audio device on the market that still uses wdm drivers.
 
I've seen a quite a few reviews on the inspire 7800s and almost all of them have been very positive. You might have problems only because you are turning it up to max, but that is because this isn't a "blow down your neighbors house" kind of system, I mean it's only $80. It should still get plenty loud and it's probably the best you can get for that price range.

And I don't think the emulation factor really matters. The CMSS system works really well and you will be able to hear enemies on the side of you just fine. I think 7.1 is better than 5.1 and more and more things will start using 7.1 in the future.

Also I think the sound card you chose is crap. The audigy 2 zs is much better especially for games. The audigy 2 zs is THX certified and the turtle beach is not, which tells you something right there. Also the turtle doesn't have gold connectors like the audigy 2 zs. Furthermore the turtle beach only supports EAX 2.0, while the audigy 2 zs has EAX 4.0. EAX 4.0 gives you the best quality and is the future of audio in pc games.
 
turtle beach isnt an option for audio cards.. they all suck and shouldnt be compared to anything but some horse poo.

The only real comparison you can make in the audio world for gaming is m-audio vs creative.. In which maudio blows creative out of the water.
 
senseless said:
Hah, you dont even get real 5.1 for that matter.. At least not with a crappy audio card made by creative.. When their cards do the rear channel encoding all it does is take the front 2 channels flip flops them, and shoots the signal to the rear speaker. Go get a Y adapter and plug both front and rear speakers into the adapter that is plugged into the primary output. You will not notice a difference in the sound (other than the channels wont be flip flopped)


M-Audio revolution 7.1 (for gaming/music) is the only way to go. Higher quality components, better design, and has more experienced team of audio gurus developing the devices. Creative has been caught lying about their products to push them before.. And im sure will do so in the future. They have NO products that can do 96k, they have NO products that do surround sound properly, and they also have NO products that are truly >16bit.

Unless of course you have 400$ to spend on an m-audio firewire-410.. It's the best audio device on the market that still uses wdm drivers.
Your title basically says it all. This is a completely biased opinion. And you are wrong about many of these things and I bet money you can't back them up with any proof. The audigy 2 zs does 7.1 at a 96khz sampling rate and it is true 24 bit and supports 32 bit audio as well. I bet the m-audio can't even handle eax 4.0. Clearly the Audigy 2 zs is the best sound card choice especially for it's much better support of gaming.
 
you truly dont have a clue.. go read some reviews that arent on tom's hardware. They may have fixed the 16bit thing, but im sure they didnt fix the 96k thing.

creative was SUED for saying they could do 96k when it wasnt real 96k. Their version of 96k is all software based.

and doesnt work right...

.........


its not a biased opinion if its based on fact. The fact is i've used everything from onboard ac97s to 1500-3000$ audio cards. The fact is creative has been sued for false advertisement. The fact is their cards are buggy, have known issues with some programs, and use low quality components to increase profit margin.

If a customer calls up and wants one, i'll try to talk him into the revolution. If i cant do that, i will sell an audigy 2zs. I built 2 machines within the past 3 weeks that call for one. I've built 1 machine that called for a revolution 7.1 (in the past 3 weeks).

Heh, i've built maybe 15 machines in 3 weeks that call for 2x rme madis, 2x adi648s, and a madi-to-madi bridge. 5000$ in audio gear per system .
 
Well it's probably not as good as some $5000 audio set up but we are talking about a $200 budget here, and the audigy 2 zs is only $71. And I believe that the audigy 2 zs is true 96khz unless you can actually give PROOF otherwise, not just you talking some more about it. And I don't think they use very cheap components either, otherwise they wouldn't have gold connectors on the audigy 2 zs which isn't offered by either turtle beach or m-audio.

And I've never had any issues with any "programs" either.
 
Turtle beach makes audio cards? I thought that was a toilet paper manufacturer

I dont have time to do google searches for you.. I'm on my lunch break. If you're uncapable of using google then maybe you shouldnt own a computer.

The revolution 7.1 is 90$ and is far superior to the audigy 2 zs.

edit:

maudio's connectors are all gold too.. big deal. any good audio hardware will have gold connectors.. But we dont want good, we want the best. Thats what the revolution 7.1 is.
 
Ok, I went to circuit city and bought the Audigy 2 ZS and Logitech X-530. These are good enough for me, though they could be a little more louder. The people down the street can't hear it.

When listening to music, are the rear and center speakers suppose to work?

Thanks for all your help.

[edit] Nevermind. Installed the included software. Now they're working fine.
 
senseless said:
creative was SUED for saying they could do 96k when it wasnt real 96k. Their version of 96k is all software based.

Wow you guys get so personal when discussing about audio cards. M-Audio or Creative or whatever.. In anycase, which aspect of sampling are u talking about?.. Playback, recording, what?..

Are you accusing creative of using a 48 kHz h/w sampler or whatever, and artificially up-sampling it to 96 kHz using software?..

In anycase, I don't really see why anyone would need more 96 kHz.. We can only hear upto like 20 KHz.. And taking the deficiencies of filters in the card into account, and the nyquist rate, I would imagine anything around 60 kHz would be more than sufficient.. 96 kHz should be more than sufficient for those of us who can hear very high frequency ranges.. and dogs ;).
 
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