Originally posted by: Brian48
Originally posted by: Bad_Dude
It all depends on your system.
If you got a good motherboard and Intel P4 then Audigy 2 is the best. If you can get your hands on the hacked ZS drivers, then you are OK. Otherwise the original drivers from the A2 CD came up in the control panel as the Audigy for some reason. Or maybe just me.
If you got AMD systems then go with the Santa Cruz. It almost flawless in drivers and great on music sound.
I got a one week old Audigy retail for $75 shipped or $74 if you want to go sub $75.
Please check
here.
The card is great for me. No problem with drivers. Nothing is perfect in this world.
That's absolute nonsense. The A2 works perfectly fine with AMD based systems. The last 40 or so AMD boxes I've put together have had no major issues with any Creative product so long as the rest of the system was healthy.
hurrikaane,
Just what exactly do you intend to use this card for? Do you mostly game, listen to .mp3's, record/edit music, movies, all of the above, etc.? Speaking as someone who has owned just about EVERY consumer level sound card released in the last 5 or so years, there is no perfect, end-all solution.
For the price range you've specified (and these are cards I've actually owned or currently use),
Audigy2 = on par with Santa Cruz for music playback (better if tweaked), absolute best for gaming. Excellent driver support despite what all the anti-Creative zealots will tell you.
Audigy series = Almost as good as A2 for gaming, but driver support is no where near as good. It's here that Creative got it's bad driver rap. Music playback is average at best.
Acoustic Edge = Very good gaming card, but high CPU overhead and some of the newer titles may be a bit buggy. Excellent music/DVD playback. Drivers support has all but disappeared.
Santa Cruz = Excellent music and .mp3 playback. DVD playback is OK depending on player. Gaming is OK, but EAX support is no where near as good as the Creative line. Drivers are solid, but not completely flawless as some would have you believe (especially if you're a gamer).
Fortimisso III = Despite having a "lower-end" chip as the Santa Cruz (CS4624 vs CS4630), music playback is almost as good. DVD is about the same, but gaming is slightly better. More than likely due to better driver implementation. I would recommend the older Fortissimo II, but I hated that idiotic "spider" cable that kept working it's way loose.
Honable mention:
Revo 7.1 = (If you can find it on sale for below $75) Better than the A2 for music, but has very high CPU overhead for games. Even more so than the Acoustic Edge. This wouldn't be so bad, but unfortunately, the games don't sound any better than the Fortissomo III overall (some titles sound better/some sound worse).
Herc GTXP = (Also if you can find it on sale). Consider this setup over the Fortissimo ONLY if you want the break out box. As over a year ago, Hercules started using the same CS4624 DSP to standardize the product line and lower costs. Essentially, they're both the same card now. The older ones carry the CS4630 DSP (same as Santa Cruz).
I'm not going to bother mentioning anything in the SBLive series since that's so darn old.