Audigy 4 Launched

[Chris2wire]

Seems cool...

But with my $80 Audigy 2 doing just fine, and cards like the ZS platinum costing $200, I see no reason to buy something as high end as the Audigy 4.

Things can only sound realistic, once thats achieved then theres no room for progress.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: ohnoesaz1
Seems cool...

But with my $80 Audigy 2 doing just fine, and cards like the ZS platinum costing $200, I see no reason to buy something as high end as the Audigy 4.

Things can only sound realistic, once thats achieved then theres no room for progress.

So you're saying there's no room for progress in sound right now?

 

[apoppin]

i like the Inq's reasoning:
Creative quietly launches Audigy 4

Creative is selling a "limited edition" version of the Audigy 4 on its web site.

But there's not a great deal to distinguish it, as far as we can see, from Audigy 2.

However, a major distinguishing feature consists of the words "limited edition". Presumably the kit is signed personally by the engineers that put the machinery together.

:roll:

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Bamboozle
Wonder if they will be releasing a PCI-X version of this? Only shows as "Available PCI 2.1 or higher compliant slot for the audio card" for this.

pci-x? do you even have a server motherboard that supports pci-x? unless you're talking about pci-e, they'll never make one for pci-x. pci-e and pci-x are not the same thing.

 

[Linux23]

i'm fine with my original SB16.

 

[Mik3y]

i seriously wonder how much that card will go for when it hits the the shelves.

 

[Snoop]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: JeremiahTheGreat
Well there was one company by the name of aureal.. was swiftly hit by about 10,000 unsubstantiated patent claims and other court actions.. and it died. And we now have the status quo - zero innovation, zero progress (you can mod a SBlive! -> Audigy2), and one player with all the cards.
nForce was an exception.. if only motherboards didn't put such a useless DAC on it..

No, actually Aureal sued Creative, for violating their patents... and eventually won. But it cost them their last corporate dying breath in the process. So much for vindication.

Wrong, Creative brought multiple suits against Aureal, aureal countersued for malicious litegation.

Here

 

[0roo0roo]

from what i remember the aureal management was the problem. buncha bunglers sunk the ship. its a shame.. i really don't want to support the creativelabs monopoly. they just sink innovation. so i've stuck with my santa cruz since it came out, ending a spree of upgrades. still works... not much hope in the future..sigh.

 

[DTBH]

"I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed ... managed to wrangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal."

Did colin powell really say that??? If so, powell for president.

 

[konakona]

i dont care how many fancy featurures list if it sounds sh!tty like audigy. chances are it will be the case - why would they wanna go high quality when the majority of the public is using some cheap multimedia speakers like klipsch and cant tell the difference? after all they own EMU to take care of quality sound market segment. the new onkyo soundcard is much more intriguing than anything new from creative.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: Audiophile1980
http://us.creative.com/product...=311&product=10853

Is the link dead or is it my browser?

EDIT: NM site under maintenance

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: VanillaH
i dont care how many fancy featurures list if it sounds sh!tty like audigy. chances are it will be the case - why would they wanna go high quality when the majority of the public is using some cheap multimedia speakers like klipsch and cant tell the difference? after all they own EMU to take care of quality sound market segment. the new onkyo soundcard is much more intriguing than anything new from creative.

Flamebait.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: DTBH

"I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed ... managed to wrangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal."

Did colin powell really say that??? If so, powell for president.

 

[Nebor]

According to our sources, the next generation sound chip from Creative will be known as Sound Blaster Zenith. It will be a complete new architecture from the current Audigy series and it will be based on PCI Express x1. The launch of Audigy 4 Pro today which is an enhanced Audigy 2 ZS chip is the transition to the Sound Blaster Zenith series scheduled for launch in March 2005.

From VR-Zone

 

[konakona]

Flamebait.

i dont hate on creative, and i am fully aware EMU belongs to them. all i care about is the product they have to offer, brand loyalty is stupid.
correct me if i am wrong, but they made it sound like this is gonna be their answer to the audiophile needs in their promo. now, unless if they are stupid they wont do this when people in the know are already crazy about the EMU cards. why make all in one when you can sell two different cards?

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: VanillaH

Flamebait.

i dont hate on creative, and i am fully aware EMU belongs to them. all i care about is the product they have to offer, brand loyalty is stupid.
correct me if i am wrong, but they made it sound like this is gonna be their answer to the audiophile needs in their promo. now, unless if they are stupid they wont do this when people in the know are already crazy about the EMU cards. why make all in one when you can sell two different cards?

That wasn't the flamebait part of the post. And Creative has one of the most successful marketing machines in the world, you should email them with your advice. :roll:

 

[konakona]

so is it the klipsch remark you took personally? chill out dude, i know you dont even have a set of klipsch... no need to take it to ATOT

 

[Schadenfroh]

that is the great thing about the soundcard market. Everytime you have a company that offers a truly revolutionary solution (like the Aureal Vortex) they get sued to death by lawsuits that have no grounds and eventually gets bought by creative because they can not afford the legal bills, creative, who sit on the technology and provide long product cycles of mere incramental upgrades that offer no innovation, stifles competition and innovation.


but hey, it makes my audigy2 ZS last for a much longer time than my geforce 6800 GT does in a market that has competition.

 

[imported_Reck]

The card still resamples. They never learn...I guess the card is using better DACs, that's about it.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Reck
The card still resamples. They never learn...I guess the card is using better DACs, that's about it.

they own the market, no reason to learn

 

[Golgatha]

Let's see here. I have an Audigy 2, which outputs to a stereo setup via SPDIF link. $300 is a bit to swallow for theoretically improved S/N ratio. Might buy a new sound card when PCI-Express is the only interface for expansion cards and I feel the need to upgrade.

 

[Oyeve]

I was at Compusa yesterday and they have a few new "professional" Creative labs cards there. With Optical in and out, a couple of different breakouts. They call it E-MU.

 

[CptObvious]

From the specs I don't see any reason to upgrade to the Audigy 4 from the Audigy 2. It's just Creative Labs' reason to sell more product.

For consumers with the Audigy 2 it's usually their speakers and their source (16-bit audio for the most part) that's the limiting factors in their sound setup. I've still got my M-Audio Audiophile that I've owned for a few years and see no reason to upgrade.

 

[BD2003]

I blame microsoft for the current lack of competition.

DirectX is the driving force behind video card development...new features are added by MS, and the manufacturers make their cards to suit it.

But Directsound has barely ever changed since its inception. Advanced sound is left to eax "advanced hd". Completely and utterly proprietary. Even if another company had the nads to step up to creative, they still couldnt use anything past eax2, and there just plain and simple isnt room for another proprietary system.

I have a feeling creative and MS are in bed together, but once MS steps up to the plate and updates directsound with some real progress, that is fair game for any company to utilize, we will see a lot more players in the game.

 

[sharkeeper]

It's a consumer grade card so it has to resample. I have a Audigy 2ZS notebook (the newest one available) and hooked up an optical cable (I had to make the damn thing myself thanks to their proprietary worksmanship :| ) and my DAC shows 48k regardless of what is played. I expected it, however. I am still disappointed that setting Power DVD to SPDIF out results in PCM 2.1 stereo even if DD 5.1 is selected in the movie menu. Perhaps the player (software) is at fault here? Who knows.

Everything is resampled to 48kHz. It's actually good for a desktop card because your desktop pc is exposed to a plethora of sampling formats from 8KHz 8 bit audio to 192kHz 24bit audio and everything in between.

If you have an external DAC that can handle these formats then great. Otherwise if you use a production card, your audio is gone every time a format changes. It gets kind of complicated so I can see from a consumer use standpoint the resampling is a good thing. Also remember that the majority of users have pc speakers - quality that barely scrapes the bottom of midfi as it is.

Cheers!