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New sound Card
- Thread starter mkillio
- Start date
On an audigy series card you use a standard mono 3.5mm headphone/mic style cable.
Creative does not do digital out in any real sense of the word.
They only do it under 2 specific conditions
1) Spdif pass thru from DVDs and pre encoded streams
2) Their proprietary digital connection that only hooks to their speakers, and cannot be converted by any product into a regular digital audio stream.
If you want digital then you have to get the turtle beach one mentioned above the DDL version.
They only do it under 2 specific conditions
1) Spdif pass thru from DVDs and pre encoded streams
2) Their proprietary digital connection that only hooks to their speakers, and cannot be converted by any product into a regular digital audio stream.
If you want digital then you have to get the turtle beach one mentioned above the DDL version.
mkillio said:What kind of cable do you put into the digital out on Creative sound cards?
Just a normal two-wire coax for SPDIF.
mkillio,
Its not as simple as just picking up ANY card. There is no single card that does everything well. You need to tell us what you are going to do with it. For example, you said you want to hook it up to your stereo. I assume this means you won't be using regular PC speakers. Is it a multi-channel amp? Does it have multi-channel analog inputs? Do you just want this for music and/or movies? Do you play games? If so, do you want to hear the games in surround on your multi-channel amp connected speakers as well? Do you use headphones with games instead?
Its not as simple as just picking up ANY card. There is no single card that does everything well. You need to tell us what you are going to do with it. For example, you said you want to hook it up to your stereo. I assume this means you won't be using regular PC speakers. Is it a multi-channel amp? Does it have multi-channel analog inputs? Do you just want this for music and/or movies? Do you play games? If so, do you want to hear the games in surround on your multi-channel amp connected speakers as well? Do you use headphones with games instead?
Should I get the Audigy 2 ZS?
So i've been reading through this thread. I'm also thinking about getting a sound card (for Battlefield 2). What i'm pulling away (probably not understanding this correctly) is that the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS does NOT output in suround sound with games? or a certain connection with the card itself will revert to stereo when used with anything else but DVDs?
My primary reason for getting a Sound Card is (as stated) for BF2 (and general PC games). I also want to smooth out my gameplay since i'm using onboard sound at the moment (got a new Mobo). So if I did get the Audigy 2 ZS, it WILL output in full suround sound? or no? Also, is there really a noticeable difference when playing games that may be sound intensive (as BF2 seems to be).
I'm really conidering all this because I saw the Audigy2ZS on TigerDirect for around $85.00. I can get it this week, but i'm wondering if its really worth it. If I do, I'll be getting 6 speakers (that support 5.1 surround sound) with my next paycheck.
My motherboard - ASROCK 939Dual-Sata2
What is linked and shown above is my (New) motherboard. It supports 7.1ch Audio and whatnot (onboard). Would it be a waste to get a sound card (i'm not to knowledgable on sound cards). Or should I just go ahead and get the Audigy 2 ZS?
So i've been reading through this thread. I'm also thinking about getting a sound card (for Battlefield 2). What i'm pulling away (probably not understanding this correctly) is that the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS does NOT output in suround sound with games? or a certain connection with the card itself will revert to stereo when used with anything else but DVDs?
My primary reason for getting a Sound Card is (as stated) for BF2 (and general PC games). I also want to smooth out my gameplay since i'm using onboard sound at the moment (got a new Mobo). So if I did get the Audigy 2 ZS, it WILL output in full suround sound? or no? Also, is there really a noticeable difference when playing games that may be sound intensive (as BF2 seems to be).
I'm really conidering all this because I saw the Audigy2ZS on TigerDirect for around $85.00. I can get it this week, but i'm wondering if its really worth it. If I do, I'll be getting 6 speakers (that support 5.1 surround sound) with my next paycheck.
My motherboard - ASROCK 939Dual-Sata2
ASrock Webpage on 939Dual-Sata2 Audio capabilites said:Realtek 850 7.1channel AC'97 audio codec
2 x Audio ports to support 8 Ch audio ( Line In/Out, Mic In)
What is linked and shown above is my (New) motherboard. It supports 7.1ch Audio and whatnot (onboard). Would it be a waste to get a sound card (i'm not to knowledgable on sound cards). Or should I just go ahead and get the Audigy 2 ZS?
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Yes, but only WRT digital output. With analouge speakers you get however many channels the game has to offer up to and including 7.1 depending on your speakers.BlueTsunami said:What i'm pulling away (probably not understanding this correctly) is that the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS does NOT output in suround sound with games? or a certain connection with the card itself will revert to stereo when used with anything else but DVDs?
Microsoft Sound Cards 101
Thats a pretty good link, found it off google. Its a webpage from the Microsoft site explaining what a sound card is, what it is composed of and certain features a sound card has. Basically, about the Suround Sound, its stated that games do NOT support that because its not needed. Suround Sound is for predetermined Sounds (in Movies). 3D Sound (which also operates in a Suround Sound way, depending on how many speakers you have) is specifically what games use.
So basically, for a gamer, you would look for a card that has a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and 3D Sound. Reading all that I'm thinking about going with a Turtle Beach soundcard...specifficly this one
Turtle Beach Montego 7.1 Dolby Digtial Live Surround
I'm split with what to get (Creative or Turtle Beach) but i'll be ordering one on Sunday.
Thats a pretty good link, found it off google. Its a webpage from the Microsoft site explaining what a sound card is, what it is composed of and certain features a sound card has. Basically, about the Suround Sound, its stated that games do NOT support that because its not needed. Suround Sound is for predetermined Sounds (in Movies). 3D Sound (which also operates in a Suround Sound way, depending on how many speakers you have) is specifically what games use.
So basically, for a gamer, you would look for a card that has a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and 3D Sound. Reading all that I'm thinking about going with a Turtle Beach soundcard...specifficly this one
Turtle Beach Montego 7.1 Dolby Digtial Live Surround
I'm split with what to get (Creative or Turtle Beach) but i'll be ordering one on Sunday.
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You'll see that that link is a couple of years old. After assimilating the competition Craetive went on to pushing discrete multichannel sound with EAX rather than binaural 3D sound processing. (Hey, they've got speaker systems to sell...) This field have thus been pretty much stagnant ever since Aureal went belly up. Last year Creative also bought the foremost third party provider of sound algorithms to it's competitors, Sensaura, no doubt to lock it's IP up in a basement somewhere.
The article says that 3D sound sounds better with 4 or more speakers, which simply is not true. Real 3D sound would be best experienced with headphones, and unless very meticulously set up, using 4 or more speakers tend to destroy any elevation cues in the sound. While a Creative soundcard with lots of speakers is the most immersive sound you can get in a game today, it's really more 2D than it was a couple of years ago.
The reason the article make the distinction between 3D sound and Surround, is probably that the term 'surround' have previously been associated with Dolby Surround. We're really dealing with more than one concept here. You can have both static and dynamic multichannel sound, which both may or may not have 3D audio processing done to it.
PS:
The big advantage of the Turtle beach card is that it can encode to Dolby Digital in real time (like soundstorm could), but unless you're planning on hooking the card up to a DD reciever with regular Hi-Fi speakers this isn't something you need. (I'm sorry to say) that in general, and in particular for gaming, the Creative option will be better when using analouge PC speakers.
The article says that 3D sound sounds better with 4 or more speakers, which simply is not true. Real 3D sound would be best experienced with headphones, and unless very meticulously set up, using 4 or more speakers tend to destroy any elevation cues in the sound. While a Creative soundcard with lots of speakers is the most immersive sound you can get in a game today, it's really more 2D than it was a couple of years ago.
The reason the article make the distinction between 3D sound and Surround, is probably that the term 'surround' have previously been associated with Dolby Surround. We're really dealing with more than one concept here. You can have both static and dynamic multichannel sound, which both may or may not have 3D audio processing done to it.
PS:
The big advantage of the Turtle beach card is that it can encode to Dolby Digital in real time (like soundstorm could), but unless you're planning on hooking the card up to a DD reciever with regular Hi-Fi speakers this isn't something you need. (I'm sorry to say) that in general, and in particular for gaming, the Creative option will be better when using analouge PC speakers.
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Zaphod said:You'll see that that link is a couple of years old. After assimilating the competition Craetive went on to pushing discrete multichannel sound with EAX rather than binaural 3D sound processing. (Hey, they've got speaker systems to sell...) This field have thus been pretty much stagnant ever since Aureal went belly up. Last year Creative also bought the foremost third party provider of sound algorithms to it's competitors, Sensaura, no doubt to lock it's IP up in a basement somewhere.
The article says that 3D sound sounds better with 4 or more speakers, which simply is not true. Real 3D sound would be best experienced with headphones, and unless very meticulously set up, using 4 or more speakers tend to destroy any elevation cues in the sound. While a Creative soundcard with lots of speakers is the most immersive sound you can get in a game today, it's really more 2D than it was a couple of years ago.
The reason the article make the distinction between 3D sound and Surround, is probably that the term 'surround' have previously been associated with Dolby Surround. We're really dealing with more than one concept here. You can have both static and dynamic multichannel sound, which both may or may not have 3D audio processing done to it.
Ahhh I see. I also didn't notice the date of the article :blush:. So what would you think would be a better soundcard purchase? A straight up Audigy 2 ZS or that Turtle Beach Montego?
Turtle Beach Mentego
or
Audigy 2 ZS
I hate being ignorant (completley) to a certain hardware. Sound cards being where my weakest spot is.
EDIT: Noticed your EDIT, I guess that would be logical. I guess i'll get an Audigy 2 ZS, now its time to look at speakers. Thats going to be a trip, lol.
So what would anyone recommend for Speakers? I'm currently trying to stay below the $100 threshold
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Wait a minute. Having a reciever connected to your Sound Card? So I could get any good old Home Entertainment Reciever for that Turtle beach card? and be able to use Digital Audio? Does that work for games to? So I would get the Turtle Beach card, hook up a reciever I have lying around and be able to have say Battlefield 2 output to that reciever and go through regular speakers that are connected to the reciever?
I think I would actually like that, and my father has some speakers around that I can use for the setup.
I think I would actually like that, and my father has some speakers around that I can use for the setup.
Yes, as long as it can decode Dolby Digital. That was the main selling point of nVidia Soundstorm that set it apart from all others until this C-Media chip came along. It takes the multichannel output generated by, say, Direct Sound 3D and encodes it into a Dolby Digital bitstream in real time bypassing all the noisy and often low quality analogue steps associated with PC sound. It would work for everything, dynamic and static multichannel alike. (As opposed to SoundBlaster that can only pass-through *digital* multichannel sound that's pre-encoded (i.e. static) most often from a DVD).
This is brilliant for a HTPC setup and for (audiophile) people that already have good surround equipment since you pass much of the sound quality burden to your receiver whose DAC and amp will very likely be of better quality than the soundcard DAC and PC speaker amp. For gaming you'll loose the advanced EAX features, though, so it's a tradeoff. (Again, I don't expect Creative to support DD Live as it'd undercut their speaker business just as 3D sound algorithms do.)
For general use you could look up reviews of its non DD Live smaller brother that is featured on a lot of lower end sound cards.
This is brilliant for a HTPC setup and for (audiophile) people that already have good surround equipment since you pass much of the sound quality burden to your receiver whose DAC and amp will very likely be of better quality than the soundcard DAC and PC speaker amp. For gaming you'll loose the advanced EAX features, though, so it's a tradeoff. (Again, I don't expect Creative to support DD Live as it'd undercut their speaker business just as 3D sound algorithms do.)
For general use you could look up reviews of its non DD Live smaller brother that is featured on a lot of lower end sound cards.
Nice!..I'm going to be getting the Turtle Beach card then. I didn't like the fact, that with the Audigy card I had to buy PC Speakers. Now with the Turtle Beach card, since i'm able to use a reciever, I should be able to buy a competent reciever with good speakers that I can use not only with my PC but with any consoles I get and my DVD player.
Nice! So my purchase will be the card, a good audio reciever (that decodes Dolby Digital) and some good speakers. Be able to kill two birds with one stone to because i've been wanting to by a good home audio setup for the 360.
Thats the purpose for the SPDIF? so you have one wire that comes out of the Sound Card into the Reciever? then the Reciever takes that signal and splits it up into however many channels you want. Sounds cool. I'm going to also try and find out how good Turtle Beach is for gaming also.
Nice! So my purchase will be the card, a good audio reciever (that decodes Dolby Digital) and some good speakers. Be able to kill two birds with one stone to because i've been wanting to by a good home audio setup for the 360.
Thats the purpose for the SPDIF? so you have one wire that comes out of the Sound Card into the Reciever? then the Reciever takes that signal and splits it up into however many channels you want. Sounds cool. I'm going to also try and find out how good Turtle Beach is for gaming also.
You got it. Take Doom 3, for example, which uses a custom multi channel sound system without 3D sound. With the TB (or Soundstorm) you can set up the speaker settings to 5.1 and Doom 3 will output six discrete channels. These are 'intercepted' and encoded into a Dolby Digital stream and sent to the receiver over a single digital connection where it is decoded to yield true 5.1 sound.
With a non-DD Live soundcard the six audio channels from Doom would be downmixed to two channels, if output digitally, which would sound worse than if the game (windows) had been set up for two speakers to begin with.
To quote Iron Tiger from the previous page for truth:
With a non-DD Live soundcard the six audio channels from Doom would be downmixed to two channels, if output digitally, which would sound worse than if the game (windows) had been set up for two speakers to begin with.
To quote Iron Tiger from the previous page for truth:
[this] is the feature that has kept a lot of us Athlon XP owners clutching our ancient systems tightly, because it has (until recently) only been available in nForce and nForce2 motherboards with SoundStorm. If you want a 1-cable multichannel solution that works with ALL types of media, you need Dolby Digital Live in your sound card.
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