Left channel audio failure, need a sound card, audigy2?

[Schadenfroh]

hello guys. my a7n8x deluxe's left channel audio has failed. It is not a software problem, it just stopped working one night. A fellow on anandtech said something similar happened to him, so i was thinking possibly a bad batch. my questions are

1. Has creative gotten their act together with their drivers since the POS SBlife?

2. Is there any new soundcards on the horizon that would make an audigy2 ZS obsolete within the forseeable future?

3. Are their other soundcards i should consider, but note i want full EAX support for all versions of it, is creative the only one that can provide that for me?

4. Also, doesnt creative products use less CPU cycles?

5. And finally, what is the best set of headphones i can get in the ballpark of $50 from newegg?

 

[Ty]

I recently replaced my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz with an Audigy 2 Platnium Zs (has the internal Live Drive).

I did this because my case has front audio hookups (among others) but for some reason I was also hearing some hiss that I thought shouldn't be there (since the Santa Cruz is supposed to be pretty quiet).

So I took a chance on the Audigy even though I knew there was a chance the hookup was the cause (e.g. the wiring could simply not have been shielded well enough). Well so far I'm loving the Audigy because it's much much cleaner so I'd definately have to give it a thumbs up; enough that I'm thinking of buying another one for the HTPC I plan on building.

Sorry I can't answer some of your questions directly but just to give you my opinions on my purchase so far.

 

[DeathKnight]

CompUSA has the Audigy 2 ZS on sale this week for $69.99 after a $30 mail-in rebate. I plan on buying it. I'll be upgrading from an original SBLive!.