Soundblaster Audigy 2 review

[dieg777]

Review here
http://www.airwarfare.com/AWX/features/ ... review.htm

Following this post

http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards ... 7;t=003831

I have installed the beta drivers from here http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp

make sure it is the SBA2_BETADRV_US_2_05_0000 and it is listed as

2. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS series Beta driver with OpenAL support (18.84 MB) 5 Apr 05

and have noticed a big improvement in the sound quality. There is definatley more depth to the sound and better spatial seperation. I would recommend anyone with this card to try these out.

[IV/JG1_Oesau]

I recently got one of these cards and was over all happy with it. I also was hoping for a jump in FPS but haven't seen any.

[motoadve]

I have an Audigy , lost of sttuters and fps loss.
I ordered a Audigy 2 ZS for $59.

At least I expect no sttuters and be able to ran higher settings on FB audio,
Right now Im using minimal settings.

Hopefully a little fps gain

[TheHawg]

I added the Audigy2 ZS and it improved my game play 300%. I was using the Audigy 2 USB External Card and that was horrible (I wasted $100). I disabled it and used my on board sound and it improved, but still not good. Now I have good sound and FPS is 200 to 300% better. I just miss the convienience of having the plugins on the desk. Oh well.
TheHawg

[MaXMhZ]

Nice review Dieg777

You say ASIO time is greater or equal 2 ms in your review.
Shouldn't that be 2 ms or less?

I sure am very pleased with this card too - bought me one earlier this year. I took a chance.
I didn't expect much of it because Creative/Soundblaster have been exaggerating their card's specifications for decades (Soundblaster 16 e.g. they called a 16 bit card lol - no way it was 2x8 combined so 8 bit resolution/channel joint stereo hahaha.Iit didn't even reach their specified frequency range either - it did reach about half of what they specified)

I had a Gravis Ultrasound card back then for years.

I do have one gripe with this card - it ALLWAYS looses the THX settings I set (I play it over my stereo here and I can hear it's incorrect then). Maybe I should re-install it.

Other than that the card reaches everything it promises (and that is unbelievable for the price). It certainly is a professional (studio) quality audio card (not counting the General Midi Synth which (still) is terrible and won't be better for years to come I bet).

You can't buy the internal bay (The drive bay connector thingy) anymore either (They do not sell them or replace them (Platinum edition) for some reason that's beyond me

I also disabled the Firewire (I don't use it and it takes resources somehow)
The Audigy 2ZS is a bargain. It's also up there with the pro's and is loaded with features. The first card I had from Creative that delivered what they promised - and that is a LOT. Way to go Creative - now KEEP doing this.

[MaXMhZ]

Forget about the ASIO thingy - I see it's corrected but can't edit my previous post somehow lol

[dieg777]

See edit in first post linking to new drivers- I would recommend trying these out.

[MaXMhZ]

See edit in first post linking to new drivers- I would recommend trying these out.

Thanks - I'll try those again once I'm not so d*d confused anymore... - I tried to install those before, it left me without any sound ... I had to re-install from the CD again a couple of times before I got it fixed again but it did fix the problem of THX settings being dropped - go figure lol

severalpeople reported on SimHQ that sound sound and 3D positioning improved a lot using the beta's but I still can't confirm or denie that lol (too scared of Creative software right now - don't get me wrong I'm not blaming Creative. They are beta drivers after all and I don't seem to know what's up or down right now lol