I'm buying a new sound card and I really can't see much difference when comparing these 2 cards except that the audigy is a little cheaper. Any recommendations? All opinions and help on deciding this will be appreciated.

They're both very descent sound cards, if you need to save $$ get the Audigy 4...if you want the latest and greatest and all the toys that can be had (24bit Crystalizer, EAX 5, CMSS3D, breakout box)...get the X-Fi. If 2-channel stereo is all you're really going to use than the cards are pretty evenly matched and the X-Fi would be overkill given very similar performance can be had by a lot of less expensive audio boards, including, but not limited to, the Audigy 4. X-Fi Platinum? Why? Is that breakout box really worth $50-$80 to you? There's no other difference between the Platinum and Extreme Music versions. ...and you can get the Creative's digital I/O (Coax and Optical S/PDIF) for $15 if its digital I/O you seek.

Hi,
I found this thread quite interesting to me as well. I am thinking about buying either Audigy SE or audigy 4. Is there a noticeable differece in sound quality between these ? I will be mainly listening to stereo.

Regards,
Lukas.

Why are you even considering the two? Do you require other audio outputs that don't come with the X-FI Xtreme music? Guitar input? If not, get the X-FI Xtreme music; same audio quality as the X-FI Platinum for less.

I'd go with the Chaintech AV-710 as it cost about the same as the Audigy SE and is a far better card, in terms of capability. ...but if you must have Creative, get the SE for mainly stereo.