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The almighty rip off

This is where you can discuss your homework, family, just about anything, make strange sounds and otherwise discuss things which are really not related to the Lancer-series. Yes that means you can discuss other games.

Post Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:20 pm

The almighty rip off

(There is a point to this rant after I'm finished) I recently purchased the Audigy 2 ZS for my computer, having been led to believe it is a wonderful sound card that will quite literally blow you away with its sound quality and the many other features and benefits it supposedly comes with. However, having bought it and installed it with all the updated drivers and whatnot I have had nothing but problems with it. Leaving aside the fiasco I had when it couldn't calibrate my 5.1 sound properly I gave it many chances to shine. First I tried music, the difference in quality is almost nothing. It is perhaps only slightly clearer but nothing mind-blowing. I almost prefer listening to my songs the way they were before because I was used to that rather than slightly different quality. I was disappointed but I was detirmined to be "blown away" by the "great sound quality" it was going to deliver. So I tried the F.E.A.R. single player demo, and surprise, surprise, no audible difference. EAX is a joke, my crappy old soundcard did just as good a job with EAX as the audigy.

Basically my point is, could I be doing something wrong here or is the audigy as big a rip off as it seems to be? Some among you may be frustrated at me because of my slander of the Audigy 2 or perhaps my lack of l337ness but put yourself in my shoes, you've just spent $189 on a sound card that makes barely any difference to sound quality and if you take it back for a refund you'll only get half of the money back or at the most, 3/4 of it back.

Post Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:58 pm

hmm, thanks for the heads up, i was thinking of getting that...

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 3:43 am

Did your old sound card (when it was out) promise sound quality that would "blow you away" as well?

I hate to sound like a questioner, but perhaps it could simply be the quality of the music/sound in the game? Maybe your speakers or headphones cannot output the difference in sound quality? Maybe they just cannot live up to the quality of the sound it produces?

In other words, I imagine that there are at least 3 or 4 factors that will affect the sound quality:

The sound
The card
The wires
The speakers

Someone will probs know more though - after all, it isn't hard, and I am only going off a bit of deduction as to what else could affect it!

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:22 am

Well I recently bought a 5.1 surround sound system with sub and everything. So all the wires and speakers are less than a few months old. As for the game, F.E.A.R. isn't even out yet, in the options it has all the fancy EAX support and whatnot. So really, I'd imagine a game so new that it hasn't been released to have very good quality sound with "quality" hardware.

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:41 am

Okay, so what exactly are you looking for between the two cards? Sudden new sounds to appear with the better card? or is there a hiss with the old one perhaps?

I don't really know exactly what you are expecting when you plug it in, as I don't know what quality sound you got from the old one. I don't know what the actual difference between the old one and the new one is either.

With graphics cards, reading the web is identical between my old one, and my radeon pro. Is it perhaps rigged for that 7.1 surround that some seem to claim? What exactly are the difference in stats between them? Did you buy without comparing exactly what you were getting upgraded?

maybe you could claim false advertising because you weren't "blown away" - but I doubt it.

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:08 am

Well everyone seemed to be going on and on about the amazing quality, and the difference. All I had was some really crap $50 card I bought 2-3 years ago.

Look here at the features, none of which I can hear.

Or here at all the awards. Something that received so many awards should be bloody good. I certainly hope no critics or reviewers were bought out in the awarding process.

Edited by - Balthazar Furious on 8/13/2005 6:09:07 AM

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:05 am

perhaps you're deaf?

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:09 am

the soundblaster Live! series is pretty good, based on my experience with one from several years ago when it was top of the line.

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:41 am

okay anyone who says that a radeon is as good as a geforce is a nut

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:46 am

Shroud, these are sound cards. (But, you are correct in that statement, even though it was misplaced).

Anyways, I've had a Soundblaster Live! 24-bit since about this time last year, and it is much better than the onboard (both on my old mobo and the new). I've had no problems. Audigy is different, my friend Peter bought one which pretty much killed most of his hardware, he had to completely redo everything, and then went back to onboard. The Audigy is cursed.

Post Sat Aug 13, 2005 12:58 pm

is it possible that you may have gotten a defective card? a defect could be as simple as a speaker jack not working. are you overloading it? if you overload a card it's capability may diminish or even fade out completly during testing, try turning the volume down in control panel before you test/ calibrate it, put all volume sliders at half then try it, hope that helps

Edited by - arton alpha on 8/13/2005 2:08:12 PM

Post Sun Aug 14, 2005 1:49 am

Audigy 2 ZS, retail or oem? the OEMs are plagued with driver problems and quite unbelieveably not all the oems are supported by Creative drivers! you can only get *updates* - a right sob if youre installing and aint got the cd.

anyway, all Creative products are overrated including the Audigys. for a lot less money you can get M-Audio Revolution 7.1, Audiotrak Prodigy 192, the HiTeC Mystique Dolby Digital or the Turtle Beach Montego 8.1 Dolby, all of which outperform Creative except for EAX and look how flakey that is anyway. I've had many problems with EAX in a lot of games, so now I almost always turn it off right from the off. And all those other cards record and reproduce music and soundtrack much better than the Creative offerings.

Creative have their own Dobly card coming out later this year I think but you can guarantee it will be way overpriced; been trading on their name for years, that firm.

"thou hast awakan from thy slumberr, o ancient Sorrowe of yearres.."

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