which is better - sound blaster live 24bit or Audigy value card? does Audigy value come under the Audigy family or is it just SB live marketed in a different name?
i was able to spot some Audigy value cards for 1.8k in ebay… and there were some items that said SB live/AUdigy value, are they the same? will there be any diff in sound qual? wat abt CPU utilization?
is upgrading from onboard realtek ALC650 worth? i have ATP3… will there be any noticeable sound qual diff??
Both are shitty, save some money and go 2 ZS or the X-Fi, will set you back by 3,500 to 5,000 /- but it is worth it.
If you want to do a little more research go to the creative site and see the comparision and decide for yourself. The Live cards do not have Dolby decoding whereas the Audigy 2 ZS range of cards have it.
^^What you said is pure bull$hit. First of all, the Live 24bit and Audigy SE are the same card with a different badge. Secondly, they would sound exactly the same as an Audigy2 ZS in music and a little worse in games as they only have EAX3 vs EAX4 of Audigy2 ZS but both have the same DACs. Thirdly, the difference you’ll find is in CPU utilization. The Live 24bit will eat CPU if you want EAX but Audigy2 ZS does it in hardware. Fourthly an Audigy2 ZS costs around 5.5K in the market. The XFi Xtrememusic is 8.5K. IMHO, A2ZS is not worth the price and XFi is way overpriced in India. I got an XFI platinum for ~7.5K :P.
Trajan , if you are on limited budget , then go for SB live 7.1 . it sounds good with an atp3 … that was my last setup 
Chaos , Xfi extreme is more like 9.5 k … damm robbers , charging more than double compared to international prices
not exactly . . the prices for platinum is quoted near 175$ a2 newegg.com
xfi extreme is the basic model dude… http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102188 it is 117$… abt 5K.
Here, 9.5 k for that is almost double.
You got confused with the models.
X-fi platinum is with a front slot and all that .
Did some searhing in the net and found that Soundblaster live 24bit/Audigy Value/ Audigy SE all use the same CA106-DAT audio processor. While usually the Audigy series uses the EMU10K1/EMU10K2 audio processor… In the image present in creative site it is very clear that all the 3 cards have CA106-DAT audio processor.
is there a better sound card than these 3 at around 2-2.5k???
^^CA106-DAT is nothing but a PCI Interface to the P16A codec found on the Audigy2 ZS. Its not a dsp. A second option is a 2nd hand Audigy2 ZS.
^^how much will a second hand Audigy2 ZS come to? is Audigy2 value available in india??
Hahahahahahahahaha,
I posted a while back for a Audgy 2 Zs and couldn’t find any, Luckily my frd is going to US and will be coming back on 15 July so he will be getting it for me 
.
I had a previously a 3 month old Live 7.1 24 bit card which is same as the Audigy LS, which another frd got for me from US. It did not have the real features such a hardware EAX acceleration and Dolby and DTS decoding, hence sold it.
How much will be the sound qual diff between SB live/Audigy value vs Audigy2zs when listening to mp3, watching movies(not dvd, its divx movies)?
and will there be a noticeable diff in sound qual b/w SBlive and onboard (mine is Realtek ALC650).
I thought of buying 512MB ram or sound card for ~1.8k… Is it really worth going for SB live/Audigy value from onboard or shud i buy RAM?
There’ll be a big diff between onboard and sblive 24bit but hardly any between audigy2 zs and live 24bit.
I would prefer to get the RAM. And if you are not a audiophile you will not notice the difference at all, especially with a 2.1 setup. Do you game a lot? The 5~10% saving in CPU utilisation might not be worth the trouble at all. Please dont be my 6th friend to waste 1.6k on a soundcard 
especially when you have only 512MB now.
Raghu.
^^Now a days i dont game much… because of 2 reasons.. one is my gfx card is not able to handle many games at 1024*768 with medium settings… the other is my work load has increased… so mostly listening to music and watching movies n documentaries…
if the sound card’s increases the sound qual of music… i think its fine…
LOL Raghu unless you are tone deaf, you’d be able to make out the difference between a live 24bit and shitty onboard even on a 2.1 creative inspire. The difference on an ATP3 which he has would be even more. Before making that statement, have you ever tried objectively comparing the two?
Sorry for posting here:cool2: , but thanks a lot Trajan😄 !!
Was gonna start a similar thread today!!
Guys- I think i will be going for the SB live 24 bit 7.1!!
I think the Audigy value at IT depot is not the Audigy2 value u guys are discussing!!
To be purchased in Mumbai!!:no:
Since Zhop told me it will be way better than my (A8NE)onboard ALC 850 (i think), i will go for SB live 24bit 7.1 or anything in that price range!!
so any better alternative to the SB live:S , in that price range approx +/- and Mumbai availability a must!!
On Panasonic bookshelf speakers(Mom is already like Grrrr…)
- way better than the 36k Sony shit i had to return in a week:@ !!
Had to fight for a month with Sony India- got a TV in replacement!!
(they got scared of my crutches maybe:P )
Subsequently, the whole series got discontinued in 2 weeks!!
Also keep in mind, might get the logitech Z5500;) - can’t say upgrade coz don’t have dedicated PC speakers now:P !!
Requirements of the Soundcard and the Z5500- purely Trance, Techno, Rave, maybe Rock too!!
Gaming restricted to Headphones only, for now- strictly by order- mummy the great- she’s scared of scary sounds!!
^^Z5500 sucks… Now after listening to the HD580 for two days, I say all pc speakers suck :P. Get a pair of audiophile headphones instead of wasting cash on th z5500.
How True…
IMO…even my SONY Hifi 3500W STEREO beats my Z5500 in REAL (MUSIC) audio Imaging…more balanced in all equalizations
…mayb the case is different slightly on the DVD (Multichannel) & Gaming front!
Although…i feel the Z5500 is MORE of a HYPE & for that matter any “PC Speakers” wouldNOT really appeal to the Audiphiles.
Ok,these mayb MY observations only!
hey
this is for the soundcard!!
I put up another thread for the Z5500> http://www.techenclave.com/forums/audio-advice-on-z5500-72003.html
Yes i have compared. Didnt find any difference in gaming or with movies. Most of my friends couldnt make out any difference too. A couple of them had ASUS K8S-MX, K8V-MX motherboards and one had the nForce2 SoundStorm. Im no audio freak, i run mono speakers. But i dont think so many of my friends will be as deaf as me, unless its a endemic disorder
I guess since it depends a lot on user EQ (ear quality. lol), maybe Vivek can try out both the setups and then decide, say at a friends place, and then buy it.
Raghu.