audigy 2 zs

[jerome12345]

i am gonna have this motherboard and these headphones

will the addition of the sb card help w/ games, music, and dvd's?

 

[Nebor]

Probably so. I don't really know anything about those Sony Wireless headphones. Last I knew Sennheiser was still reigning king of wireless headphones, which isn't saying much.

But yeah, most motherboards aren't going to provide optimum headphone listening sound quality.

 

[lavagirl669]

I have the ZS and I must say...it will rock your onboard sound
for the price....I think it's worth it if you can afford it

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: lavagirl669
I have the ZS and I must say...it will rock your onboard sound
for the price....I think it's worth it if you can afford it

Yeah, those EMU guys don't know what they're missing w/ an Audigy 2 ZS and good headphones...

 

[lavagirl669]

I heard ya on that one.....for sure!

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: lavagirl669
I have the ZS and I must say...it will rock your onboard sound
for the price....I think it's worth it if you can afford it

Hey, I upgraded from an Audigy to an Audigy 2 ZS, and was blown away at the difference in sound quality. You won't be dissappointed, if you're a fan of high-quality audio.

 

[RussianSensation]

You'll definately notice the difference. You'll hear sounds you've never heard before, background noise that wasn't reproduced before, less interference "noise"; and at the same time enjoy the higher framerates because the cpu usage won't be as high with a dedicated sound card. Finally, onboard sound cannot produce EAX effects, which provide a totally different experience for gaming.

If you are mostly into gaming, the Audigy 2/ZS card is outstanding. If you are more into DVDs and listening to music, you could consider M-Audio Revolution 7.1. I think you would do yourself injustice by buying such expensive headphones and having onboard sound.

 

[BFG10K]

Hey, I upgraded from an Audigy to an Audigy 2 ZS, and was blown away at the difference in sound quality.

Interesting. What sort of differences did you notice?

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: lavagirl669
I have the ZS and I must say...it will rock your onboard sound
for the price....I think it's worth it if you can afford it

Hey, I upgraded from an Audigy to an Audigy 2 ZS, and was blown away at the difference in sound quality. You won't be dissappointed, if you're a fan of high-quality audio.

Yeah, those Lynx guys have no idea what they're missing!!!

 

[jerome12345]

are those sony headphones 5.1?
they have a decoder, so does that mean they take spdif?
will i still get better performance with a sb card if the sony decoder is doing the work?

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
You'll definately notice the difference. You'll hear sounds you've never heard before, background noise that wasn't reproduced before, less interference "noise"; and at the same time enjoy the higher framerates because the cpu usage won't be as high with a dedicated sound card. Finally, onboard sound cannot produce EAX effects, which provide a totally different experience for gaming.

If you are mostly into gaming, the Audigy 2/ZS card is outstanding. If you are more into DVDs and listening to music, you could consider M-Audio Revolution 7.1. I think you would do yourself injustice by buying such expensive headphones and having onboard sound.

Unless of course you have an nForce2 board with SoundStorm audio

 

[CVSiN]

anyone that had a Live 5.1 notice any differnce in these cards? Im thinking of upgrading to the ZS from my Live

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
You'll definately notice the difference. You'll hear sounds you've never heard before, background noise that wasn't reproduced before, less interference "noise"; and at the same time enjoy the higher framerates because the cpu usage won't be as high with a dedicated sound card. Finally, onboard sound cannot produce EAX effects, which provide a totally different experience for gaming.

If you are mostly into gaming, the Audigy 2/ZS card is outstanding. If you are more into DVDs and listening to music, you could consider M-Audio Revolution 7.1. I think you would do yourself injustice by buying such expensive headphones and having onboard sound.

Unless of course you have an nForce2 board with SoundStorm audio

First off, most any onboard sound can do EAX 2.0. Second of all, Soundstorm has nothing to do with EAX. Soundstorm is basically a wrapper for sound, that encodes it to be transfered via digital out. Soundstorm can do EAX 2.0 just like everything else. Only Creative cards so far can do EAX 3.0 and 4.0. Other companies are free to implement EAX 3.0 & 4.0, they just have to pay Creative royalties to use it. Of course, they could also come up with thier own technology, but I just don't see that happening. A3d was the last good contender EAX will probably ever have, until it's replaced by something new.

 

[imported_jediknight]

Originally posted by: CVSiN
anyone that had a Live 5.1 notice any differnce in these cards? Im thinking of upgrading to the ZS from my Live

I'm wondering this too..

 

[carlosd]

Audigy is excelent, you wil REALLY note the diference. I got my nforce 3 motherboard, and I felt unhappy whit the onboard sound, then i got the audigy 2 ZS ,and my computer sounds like gods. I previosly had an A7N8X deluxe, and the soundstorm is average, culdn't note difference when comparing it to the realtek onboard sound of my MSI K8N neo2, in fact i think it sounded better.
Don't you think if soundstorm were that wonderful, nvidia would have stick with it in the noforce3 chipset?

 

[Gurck]

On the headphones - I wouldn't touch any Sony product with a ten-foot pole. I learned this the hard way, as have many others. I'd advise learning from our mistakes and not your own on this. Sennheiser makes great headphones, you can't go wrong with a set of theirs.

Originally posted by: jediknight

Originally posted by: CVSiN
anyone that had a Live 5.1 notice any differnce in these cards? Im thinking of upgrading to the ZS from my Live

I'm wondering this too..

I upgraded from a Live 5.1 to an Audigy 2 ZS and it was night & day in terms of sound quality. Can't go wrong.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Unless of course you have an nForce2 board with SoundStorm audio

Good point. Thanks for point this out. But I dont think they support EAX 3.0 and above do they? (I think Nebor clarified some of this) Either way he doesnt have soundstorm on his asus board.

I can even tell the difference between realtek ac97 on both my msi KT3 Ultra 2, abit IS-7 and my now dead SB Live! All 3 sound(ed) differently. Of course even between them, the live card produced much clearer sound, less distorted base and clearer mids and highs; and that is on my el'cheapo Creative 5300 5.1 48RMS watt speakers.