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Audigy SE

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MJedi   03-20-2006 at 11:37:28 PM

Hello all,

I've been seeing the Audigy SE in local stores and I was wondering if it's a good upgrade from the on-board sound (Realtek ALC658) that I'm currently using. I don't play PC games often, but I now have this urge to improve the sound quality coming out of my speakers. I'm using the old Creative PlayWorks DTT2500 speakers. And from reading the posts here, the consensus is that a dedicated sound card improves framerates. So will the Audigy SE be good for my casual FPS gaming needs? Or it's not worth it, and I would better off investing more for an Audigy 4?

Thanks.

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apache_lives   03-21-2006 at 12:21:14 AM
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Quote :

Hello all,

I've been seeing the Audigy SE in local stores and I was wondering if it's a good upgrade from the on-board sound (Realtek ALC658) that I'm currently using. I don't play PC games often, but I now have this urge to improve the sound quality coming out of my speakers. I'm using the old Creative PlayWorks DTT2500 speakers. And from reading the posts here, the consensus is that a dedicated sound card improves framerates. So will the Audigy SE be good for my casual FPS gaming needs? Or it's not worth it, and I would better off investing more for an Audigy 4?

Thanks.



my god onboard sound sucks, especially the ALC65x series - performance is poor and extremely poor in some cases and driver issues and quality are another - go audigy all the way - i did the same, big diffrence and dont blame your speakers for "sounding crap" its the sound card.

Any audigy is better then onboard, and aparently there aint much diffrence between the audigy 1 and 2 and 2 and 4 and so on.

Reply to apache_lives
bobbydamm   03-21-2006 at 01:09:04 AM
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Yes...It's definitely worth the upgrade!
Good old ALC 658....home of the Realtek.
I have that on my motherboard too.
It honestly was nothing more than SoundBlaster Live 5.1,
but even that pales to Audigy.
I would seek out the Audigy 2 Value if I were you.
It is around $50 and I can say that it was an ease to install.
Comes with Splinter Cell too if that interests you.
Good Card.
(Did I mention I have that?)
I've never heard the PC sound so good.
You'll be treatin your ears,
Especially if you like DVD's on your PC or watch concert DVD's.
It can't be beat.

Reply to bobbydamm
yourbestfriend   03-21-2006 at 06:17:00 AM
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6829102002


yea i was looking at it too

I have nforce4 onboard... worth the money or should i spend more

Reply to yourbestfriend
apache_lives   03-21-2006 at 09:33:04 AM
- 0 +

Quote :

Yes...It's definitely worth the upgrade!
Good old ALC 658....home of the Realtek.
I have that on my motherboard too.
It honestly was nothing more than SoundBlaster Live 5.1,
but even that pales to Audigy.
I would seek out the Audigy 2 Value if I were you.
It is around $50 and I can say that it was an ease to install.
Comes with Splinter Cell too if that interests you.
Good Card.
(Did I mention I have that?)
I've never heard the PC sound so good.
You'll be treatin your ears,
Especially if you like DVD's on your PC or watch concert DVD's.
It can't be beat.



you kidding? my old Creative Soundblaster 128 pci 2 channel card pushes out better sound then any onboard chip by crystal, realtek, soundmax and cmedia (have them all)

its definitly worth it

Reply to apache_lives
rahituv   03-21-2006 at 12:08:54 PM
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how much of a differance is there between the SE and the audigy 2?

Reply to rahituv
apache_lives   03-21-2006 at 01:55:33 PM
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aparently nothing much, but once you with an audigy you have the quality and performance so any audigy will do, may aswell get a flashy one (i think features is the diffrence mostly, cant improve too much on sound quality when its near perfect for desktop speakers)

Reply to apache_lives
rahituv   03-21-2006 at 02:31:29 PM
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oddly there is a price differance of 50$. are u sure theres no differance? You mentioned near perfect for desktop speakers, does that include the surround sound speakers systems?

Reply to rahituv
MJedi   03-21-2006 at 03:32:01 PM
- 0 +

Thanks for the replies!

I, too, am wondering about the huge price difference between cards. Is there really a big difference in sound quality between Audigy 1, 2 and 4?

Reply to MJedi
astrallite   03-22-2006 at 02:50:43 AM
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Probably not even remotely as *huge* as improving your speakers for the same price.

Reply to astrallite
MJedi   03-22-2006 at 06:40:48 AM
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Quote :

Probably not even remotely as *huge* as improving your speakers for the same price.


So the PlayWorks DTT2500 I have is not a good set of speakers?

Reply to MJedi
astrallite   03-22-2006 at 09:42:14 AM
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Quote :

Probably not even remotely as *huge* as improving your speakers for the same price.


So the PlayWorks DTT2500 I have is not a good set of speakers?

That's a subjective opinion that I'm not going to comment on, but not exactly the point I was bringing up either way.

Putting more money into your speakers is more likely to effect sound quality than your sound card, especially when speaker drivers create hundreds of times more distortion than electronics at clipping output.

Reply to astrallite
MJedi   03-22-2006 at 03:40:52 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

Putting more money into your speakers is more likely to effect sound quality than your sound card, especially when speaker drivers create hundreds of times more distortion than electronics at clipping output.


Ah, got it. Thank you for your insight.

Reply to MJedi
sojrner   03-22-2006 at 04:42:19 PM
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well, he still needs to get some sort of off-board sound option before the speaker upgrade i think. the extra $ for the higher version of the card is prb better spent on speaker true, but first assuming that he gets the se card first... onboard sound is bad enough that even $500 speakers sprout a suck knob in place of volume when hooked to onboard sound ;)

for whoever asked above: the audigy se vs. teh vanilla audigy is that the se is a trimmed down chip. not bad per-se but lower on features. The word I have seen is that the drivers for one do not work for the other, so it is a hardware trim and not software. But if you dont want the extras like games and stuff that come w/ the higher priced one then you will be happy w/ the se.

Reply to sojrner
apache_lives   03-22-2006 at 09:37:20 PM
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i have a cheap crap set of speakers and there is a huge diffrence between my onboard chips and even an old SoundBlaster 128 pci card - more clarity and depth, no distortion - its the sound card to blame mostly not the speakers, diffrence in speekers is when they cut out (max or bellow out).

Main diffrence between audigy's is mainly features and some sound quality (hard to beat the already super clear signal).

Its worth every cent to buy an audigy.

Reply to apache_lives
bobbydamm   03-23-2006 at 02:53:19 AM
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Sound Blaster 'Live' is no longer on the shelf.
My guess is they call the 24 bit SB Live the Audigy SE now.
Wasn't much difference in the two really, as the claims Audigy first had of 24 bit were false and they got sued. It was a pumped up 'Live' card.
Audigy 2 is the REAL deal.Nothing else comes close.

Reply to bobbydamm
bobbydamm   03-23-2006 at 03:01:48 AM
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Yuk.
The Realtek sucked bad until I upgraded the drivers to A377.
It popped constantly on audio and games.
I had a SB Live once, it seemed like the whole eq system was given to RTL. Realtek had a couple o' cool programs..
I did enjoy AV Rack 2, It allowed me to record DVD audio through Stereo Mix straight to the HDD at 44.1khz, 16 bit stereo.
That was it's only strong point.
Recording The Knebworth show from How the West was won DVD and playing it in the car. Led Zep full on, wow.
(can't get that anywhere legally)
I hope to achieve even better with the Audigy 2.

Reply to bobbydamm
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