[Chankama]

Ok, there's a bunch of u guys that say that the Creative cards are crap and other brands are better (m-audio, turtle beach, etc.). Not being much of an audiophile (AC97 user), I can't say anything as I haven't used this variety of cards.

So other than saying "this line of cards sound better", can you guys post "why" they sound better? Perhaps the SNR (signal to noise ratio), synthesis of the sound, problems with various frequency ranges, multi channel problems etc. etc. And other issues I am not aware of ..

Also, if Creative is so bad, why do you guys think its still very popular? Simply ignorance on the part of the consumer or are they really the "best bang for the buck" - even if lesser quality.

I am gonna presume that a $200 Creative card would beat a $50 m-audio card easily (or maybe not so easily). My query is mainly targetted at cards of the same price but of different brands.

[DoomUK]

Well as a Creative user, I can't see how people could knock their products. For gaming, listening to music, watching DVD's etc my Audigy 2 does the job nicely: for the size of the room the computer's in that is.

EDIT: My office/bedroom is around 1,000 cubed feet, btw

[horndude]

I think it would be pretty tough to have both enough experience with lots of sound cards, and a good way to objectively really get an accurate test as an end user as to their performance/quality.

Case in point, I never had a sound card issue of any kind untill I started using TV capture cards, then I ran into a couple, noise being introduced into the sound card became a problem, also started having problems with power line noise occasionally creeping into the mix.Neither of these is really sound card related, but it does show how other things can influence sound quality.I honestly cant tell the difference in sound quality between a 10 yr old soundblaster 16 and one of todays new sound cards all else being equal.Its never as good as high quality analog and never will be.Best thing I ever did was connect my systems to a good stereo amp and speakers and experiment with card placement in the PC to minimize any noise that can creep in,other than that, I really doubt a high dollar sound card will sound that much better than a decent low dollar model, im sure many will disagree with that, but go check out someone else's setup and see for yourself, too easy for the placebo effect to affect one's judgement after spending big $$ on a new card.

[EricB]

Originally posted by horndude
I think it would be pretty tough to have both enough experience with lots of sound cards, and a good way to objectively really get an accurate test as an end user as to their performance/quality.

Case in point, I never had a sound card issue of any kind untill I started using TV capture cards, then I ran into a couple, noise being introduced into the sound card became a problem, also started having problems with power line noise occasionally creeping into the mix.Neither of these is really sound card related, but it does show how other things can influence sound quality.I honestly cant tell the difference in sound quality between a 10 yr old soundblaster 16 and one of todays new sound cards all else being equal.Its never as good as high quality analog and never will be.Best thing I ever did was connect my systems to a good stereo amp and speakers and experiment with card placement in the PC to minimize any noise that can creep in,other than that, I really doubt a high dollar sound card will sound that much better than a decent low dollar model, im sure many will disagree with that, but go check out someone else's setup and see for yourself, too easy for the placebo effect to affect one's judgement after spending big $$ on a new card.

I couldn't said it better, myself

[diabloII]

well that's because you probably have never owned any expensive audio equipment

for games, creative cards might give you one or two more frames because they take the sound load off the cpu

however, m-audio's card were made for music and audiophiles

[DJ-CHRIS]

Well they have, but may not have that good of ears.

Yes M-Audio's cheaper cards will beat out top end soundblasters, but m-audio's cheap card (audiophile 2496) also lack the features of soundblasters (like surround). But for music, you dont need (or want) surround.

However alot of people cannot tell the difference between a crapblaster and anything else. Crapblaster has no large quality control issues or anything, and noone ever has any real issues.

If 2 cards sound the same and have close to the same thing's, it's the bling bling of the crapblaster as well as extra software and marketing.

[beedubaya]

I have a Creative and I love it. I also have a Logitech THX 5.1 sound system, and it works so well with my Creative Audigy 2 ZS. Even back when I just had my PC hooked into a regular Stereo system, I noticed a tremendous difference between the sound quality of my Audigy and the sound quality of my integrated sound on my old PC. I have nothing negative to say about Creative.

Chris, You are a DJ though, so you know sound better than anybody here, so you probably know best. I will keep an eye on this thread though, and if it turns into a flame war I will have to close it.

[diabloII]

Originally posted by beedubaya
I have a Creative and I love it. I also have a Logitech THX 5.1 sound system, and it works so well with my Creative Audigy 2 ZS. Even back when I just had my PC hooked into a regular Stereo system, I noticed a tremendous difference between the sound quality of my Audigy and the sound quality of my integrated sound on my old PC. I have nothing negative to say about Creative.

Chris, You are a DJ though, so you know sound better than anybody here, so you probably know best. I will keep an eye on this thread though, and if it turns into a flame war I will have to close it.

maybe you can try an maudio on your next rig

[beedubaya]

I've never used M-Audio so I can't really say Creative is better than them. All I know is I am happy with what I have now.

[idiotec]

I have actually been looking at both the audigy 2 and the m-audio revolution 5.1. Has anyone found a review of the revolution 5.1? I have looked all over and haven't found a thing, just a bunch on the 7.1...