Audigy 2 a waste of money? Decide for yourself.

[Woodchuck2000]

I've used in the past couple of years:
an SB PCI128, an SBLive! original, an SBLive! Value and an Audigy Platinum.
I've built a number of systems for people using creative cards as well.

I have had no problems at all with the cards or their drivers.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: wetcat007
I've had a Sound Blaster Live Platnium for sometime and it great, and creative does a great job with driver support.

Whats a platnium? Is that the new next generation Pentium? lol

 

[HalfCrazy]

I just bought a SoundBlaster Audigy for my system. System is running just fine without problems. I been using nothing but SoundBlaster sound cards in all my systems.

 

[xylem]

The problem I have had with Creative cards is lockups (soundloop lockups) in 3d/first person games, on boards with VIA chipsets (kt133a, kt266, kt266a, and kt333). In my opinion, there is no situation in which you should have to edit anything in the registry nor have to reinstall Windows, if you have used Windows-certified drivers and uninstalled previous hardware drivers prior to installing the new hardware/drivers. The need to do so implies a shortcoming in the manufacturer and/or the Microsoft persons who certify the drivers, not the person between the chair and the keyboard.

On the other hand, perhaps you are running some component of your system out of spec. Perhaps try setting your ram timings to the slowest possible settings, and make sure the pci bus is running as close to 33mhz as possible.

 

[topaz22]

xylem: you may want to check out:
PCI Latency Patch for VIA chipsets

Check out the section "PCI Latency" patch for VIA chipsets, second bullet, and also check out the FAQ as well.

According to this, and the forums at http://forums.sudhian.com/, it is a big problem among virtually ALL VIA chipsets.

I have plenty of VIA boards, but I didn't run across this problem until I got my nforce2 and started shuffling parts around and stumbled across this page, and it does actually help!

 

[Grminalac]

Sound Blaster Live most games I've tried. Crackle pop crackle pop...
Audigy2 on Battlefield 1942. Crackle pop crackle pop....

 

[Mucker]

Audigy + Klipsch 2.1 here on Epox 8kha+....sound is EXCELLENT, no artifacts. Will get the Audigy 2 when it goes OEM....I'd cut off my hairy bag of beans with a rusty saw before giving up my Klipsch though!

 

[MrCraphead]

LOL, why do you guys even bother with arguing with him? It's obviously a complete waste of time and energy. If he wants to believe that Creative is a complete POS soundcard company, let him be. He's not worth the effort. I just find it amusing how he makes such a broad generalization yet very few people share his viewpoint.....

I've had some problems with Creative cards as well, but I eventually got my SB Live! 5.1 to work, you don't hear me complaining about it.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: MuckerWill get the Audigy 2 when it goes OEM....I'd cut off my hairy bag of beans with a rusty saw before giving up my Klipsch though!

Oh, oh, can I do the honors? Grease up the chainsaw.

 

[Morph]

People like to vent on Creative just like they do on Microsoft. I'm not sure what it is, I think it's about companies that have monopoly-like control over their particular niche just like Creative has had and still does with the sound card industry.

I'm not saying that there haven't been problems with Creative sound cards over the years, I know there have but I think they've been blown out of proportion with people just jumping on the Creative-bashing bandwagon. Notice how most of the complaints you hear about Creative (including the ones quoted in this thread) are not really specific complaints but more general bitching like "creative's drivers suck". Add to this the fact that Creative probably sells more soundcards than all their competitors combined and it's easy to see why you might see more problems reported on the net.

Anyway, that's my take on it. I've had an Audigy card for a couple weeks and it's worked flawlessly for me so far. Never had a problem with my SBLive either.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: Morph
People like to vent on Creative just like they do on Microsoft. I'm not sure what it is, I think it's about companies that have monopoly-like control over their particular niche just like Creative has had and still does with the sound card industry...

Well, now, let's not compare a company that has numerous security problems with a company whose sound cards sometimes don't work I don't like to "vent" on Microsoft, but it's doing a crappy job at following standards and guidelines they set forth in their own books and programming manuals (I read those ) Anyway, if one company deserves our respect, it's Elcomsoft!

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: thorin

Same here. Sounds like his problem is between the keyboard and the chair. Too bad some ppl slam hardware just because they're one of the 000s of people that got one and they couldn't get it to work....sad really. Did you UNinstall all the sh!t leftover from your M2 before starting? Did you reinstall DirectX? Did you grab the latest drivers from the Site (not the CD or Windows default)?

Thorin

Originally posted by: Ilmater

First off, if thousands of people are buying these cards and can't get them to work, then there obviously is a problem with this card.

It should not be this hard.

Now read what I said again "...one of the 000s..." and "...they couldn't get it to work..."

I'll admit that some of that fault lies with Windows,

Are you Bill?

but three of my friends have fairly recently (in the last 6 months) installed new sound cards - none of which were Creative Labs - and didn't have any problems with them.

It's good to know you friends didn't buy CL but what's that got to do with the fact that you don't like CL and are having problems installing their stuff?

Secondly, what's sad are fanboys that believe that because they were lucky enough to have a setup that didn't cause their systems to crash with this sound card immediately think that I'm either incompetent or just plain lying.

I don't recall anyone saying you're lying.

I know what I'm doing, I've seen these cards not work in the past, and they're not working now.

Yet you still don't have it working....strange...perhaps you missed something as ppl have suggested thus far (oh ya I forgot you think that's impossible ).

The people that I know that have had their Audigy's not work for them aren't incompetent either. They know what they're doing and worked long hours to get their cards to work (I know for a fact that two of them did a clean OS install, and I think the other did as well, but I'm not 100% positive).

It took them "long hours" to do an OS install....they must know their sh!t .

Dude relax no one has put you down (yet), a few ppl made suggestions on how to fix it or what you may have missed and you got a few comments on your gross over exageration. Get over it. If you really think the card is the problem then quietly take it back for something else and stop spewing all this CL SUX BS.

Originally posted by: endgame

Well, I probably missed it, but, I wasn't aware until I read above that you were dealing with the infamous K7S5A. You may want to visit OC Workbench or a host of other forums which literally have pages of threads concerning that mobo and sound card problems. Just did a Google search of K7S5a with sound card problems and came up with 1400 links!

I just built a K7S5A 2200+ system for my brother with a Audigy OEM and it has NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.

Thorin

 

[EndGame]

I just built a K7S5A 2200+ system for my brother with a Audigy OEM and it has NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.

Yes, and I have 3 systems I built with the K7S5A out also. Two with absolutely no problems whatsoever, all three have identical hardware, and one absolutely gave me fits for 3 months. AGP/PCI slot problems, ram problems, it was a complete mystery. What I finally did, although it checked out fine, was replace the P/S with a 430W I had here instead of the 350W I put in all three and the problems all just went away. Go figure! That same P/S I replaced is now running a P4 2.26 system with no problems whatsoever.

All I was doing is pointing out a fact, and that through a search I see was also an issue here at AnandTech, the K7S5A has quite possibly had more "issues" for people than any other motherboard recently and sound card problems were among some of the most reported.

 

[merlocka]

My rusty SB Live Value causes lockups in my equally rusty KT133 motherboard. It's getting to be time for a upgrade methinks.

 

[Smilin]

I'm not going to bash him. I've had some trouble with creative over the years and this doesn't really surprise me. Why don't all of you just for the hell of it assume that he is capable of installing a sound card and drivers and get off his ass. You've all had trouble in one form or another from various computer hardware and many times it really is bad hardware and not just something you goofed up.

 

[kgraeme]

This is a sad, sad discussion. I can personally attest that there can be certain issues with Creative sound cards that can't even be resolved by a reinstall. Much of it has to do with the combination of components involved.

I've worked with Creative cards that work just fine in several computer builds and then cause nightmares with a new build. Is it the Creative card or the mobo? I can stick a different card, say a TBSC, in to the "problem" computer and all the problems go away. And I've NEVER had a compatability problem with a TBSC in any machine. So is it the Creative card or the mobo?

With that said, I really wonder why people buy Creative cards at all when there are excellent alternatives out there. Sure the Creative cards can work brilliantly most of the time, but other cards can work brilliantly ALL of the time. And companies like M-Audio and TerraTec are now producing cards for the enthusiast market. And with their experince producing professional sound cards, and their extensive and up to date driver development, they are technologically superior to anything Creative produces.

Your Creative card is working for you? Great! But that doesn't mean it's user error for those people that it doesn't work for. And there are a lot better alternatives out there.

 

[Pariah]

"Why don't all of you just for the hell of it assume that he is capable of installing a sound card and drivers and get off his ass."

I can't speak for others, but for me, the issue is not that he is or isn't incompetent, it's the route he to took to complain and the extent to which he took it while making no attempt to ask for help, and providing annecdotes from other products to back up his claim that the Audigy 2 is garbage. If he had come up with a civil arguement with factual data it back up his claims that didn't include lies, misdirections and exaggerations, I don't think this thread would have lasted this long, nor would he have taken the flak he has so far.

"And with their experince producing professional sound cards, and their extensive and up to date driver development, they are technologically superior to anything Creative produces."

Not necessarily true. Out of field experience doesn't mean jack in the gaming market. The Audigy 2 is the most capable gaming card currently available, bar none, and it isn't really even close. People claim all the time that Creative can't make a highend card and that they should stick to the mass market, same goes for M-Audio and Terratec in reverse. Sure they have experience with highend cards, but neither has yet to produce anything could be considered a gamer's card even though they seem to be trying. It's not their field and their products so far are good evidence of that. Also both companies' lowend cards are quite a bit more expensive than the $110 basic Audigy 2, which people are already bitching about being too expensive. I believe M-Audio is releasing a $100 card soon, but I couldn't find it available anywhere yet.

 

[BD231]

Creative sound cards in general have been the only cards to ever give me issues, that's not to say I've *have not* got them to work right in any computer, but Creative has been at the top of the list in compatibility issues over the years. Very poor way for the poster to approach this topic though.

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: BD231
Creative sound cards in general have been the only cards to ever give me issues, that's not to say I've got them to work right in any computer, but Creative has been at the top of the list in compatibility issues over the years. Very poor way for the poster to approach this topic though.

Yeah, I think that sums it up. The way he came off, it sounded like he was just a pissed off Aureal troll who was really looking for things to go wrong instead of actually looking for a fix to the problem (which he wasn't at all). I'd be one of the first to say that Creative has slipped quite a bit in recents years, but the Audigy2 is fine card and an excellent step in the right direction.

 

[alen1234]

I remember my old SB 32 and it was great. Then I've owned the Live, Live 5.1 and the Audigy. All game me weird lockups. This was with three different motherboards and three versions of windows and various changes of other hardware. And a multitude of complete formats and reinstalls of windows. A month ago I got me the Hercules Digifire 7.1 for $80. Sounds just like my audigy with 2 speakers and a sub. And so far no lockups.

For the last few years I couldn't figure out why computer was locking up. And now I finally figured out why.

 

[jonmullen]

I have build several systems with Audigy 2 cards and they run fine. I run a Live! on a VIA board and it works fine, I for one have no real problem with creative, all I can say is that if you hate your card so much can I have it. PM if I can

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: kgraeme
I can personally attest that there can be certain issues with Creative sound cards that can't even be resolved by a reinstall. Much of it has to do with the combination of components involved.

Yes and there can be issues with Philips, Hercules, Yamaha, etc..... what's yer piont?

Thorin

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: jonmullen
I have build several systems with Audigy 2 cards and they run fine. I run a Live! on a VIA board and it works fine, I for one have no real problem with creative, all I can say is that if you hate your card so much can I have it. PM if I can

Ya if it's that bad give it away or take it back .....

Thorin

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: kgraeme
I can personally attest that there can be certain issues with Creative sound cards that can't even be resolved by a reinstall. Much of it has to do with the combination of components involved.


Yes and there can be issues with Philips, Hercules, Yamaha, etc..... what's yer piont?

Thorin

Spare us the rebuttal act, your defending nothing and the rumors are true, creative sound cards have been known by many for their pickyness with other hardware and that has been established, get over it.

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: thorin

Originally posted by: kgraeme
I can personally attest that there can be certain issues with Creative sound cards that can't even be resolved by a reinstall. Much of it has to do with the combination of components involved.

Yes and there can be issues with Philips, Hercules, Yamaha, etc..... what's yer piont?

Thorin

My point is that people here are ragging on the poster, claiming that he's at fault when it very well may be the components in question. No amount of experience and skill is going to make certain components work together, but that is just what many people who are defending Creative here are saying. "No problems, you must suck." is the gist of the Creative fanboy defense.