I have both Audigy 2 Platinum EX and X-Fi Elite pro and I find Audigy less problematic. X-Fi is prone to interference from (I think) more energy demanding video cards. I've tried in 4 systems and only one of them (oldest i3 + HD7850) has correct audio output. Other ones (especially i5+RX570) have problem with hum in 3D games. Heroes 3 and non-gaming software is OK so I think problems are escalating when video card draws more power.

Wolfus wrote on 2020-10-17, 09:03:

X-Fi is prone to interference from (I think) more energy demanding video cards.

I never experienced any such issues with my X-Fi, but I'm using the SB0880 Titanium PCIe model from 2008.

Wolfus wrote on 2020-10-17, 09:03:

I have both Audigy 2 Platinum EX and X-Fi Elite pro and I find Audigy less problematic. X-Fi is prone to interference from (I think) more energy demanding video cards. I've tried in 4 systems and only one of them (oldest i3 + HD7850) has correct audio output. Other ones (especially i5+RX570) have problem with hum in 3D games. Heroes 3 and non-gaming software is OK so I think problems are escalating when video card draws more power.

Which xfi? I use the titanium with full shielding and don't get any hum with a HD 5850.

I am also using SB0880 X-Fi Titanium on Win 10 1903, originally I was on 1809 using Daniel_K's drivers and after the forced update it still worked, after I saw M$ reinstalling pretty much all system drivers itself.

Am using 1060 6GB and don't have hum when gaming, my psu is s12ii.

Thinking of downsizing to mITX but then won't be able to plug in the X-fi, but honestly I don't much use the extra line-in features or soundfonts, it's mostly there for ALchemy and EAX, Morrowind being the main game because I don't like the DSOAL version. Most other games can use OpenAL Soft now so unless you don't want to use that.

But back to Audigy 2 ZS, I am surprised it even received an update in 2020 by Daniel_K! I thought about getting it before but decided on the X-fi since PCI slots are going out in newer motherboards.

I think it is too early to give up on Audigy cards. They are cheap, functional and indeed supported by the widest range of OSes (Win 98 to 10 + DOS emulation) - not only the 2 ZS but the entire Audigy line. Driver and software issues in modern Windows are mostly solved in Daniel K's Support Packs.

I could even argue that Audigy might last longer than X-Fi due to a few unique features that are not available with newer cards or software. Apart from legacy OS support, notable advantages are onboard MIDI connectivity via gameport (still works great in Win 7, not sure about 10), discrete multichannel SPDIF I/O (handy if you don't want to use the card's analog converters), brighter sound with soundfonts or games that use 22-kHz samples (a benefit of poor-quality SRC), alternative ways of using the DSP with the kX drivers.

swaaye wrote on 2020-10-17, 04:21:

That's not true. You can use soundfonts and Alchemy works with it. It also has CMSS3D to downmix multichannel sound to headphones nicely. Everything is there minus gameport because that's not supported after XP. I'm pretty sure its firewire port is still functional too.

Huh, TIL! I Incorrectly assumed that you wouldn't get such extravagance on newer operating systems and it would basically act as a generic audio output. I take back everything I said 😀

kolderman wrote on 2020-10-17, 09:23:

Wolfus wrote on 2020-10-17, 09:03:

I have both Audigy 2 Platinum EX and X-Fi Elite pro and I find Audigy less problematic. X-Fi is prone to interference from (I think) more energy demanding video cards. I've tried in 4 systems and only one of them (oldest i3 + HD7850) has correct audio output. Other ones (especially i5+RX570) have problem with hum in 3D games. Heroes 3 and non-gaming software is OK so I think problems are escalating when video card draws more power.

Which xfi? I use the titanium with full shielding and don't get any hum with a HD 5850.

I am sorry if I didn't write it clearly 😀
X-Fi Elite Pro
No hum with 7850
Hum with RX570, 470 and GT960

so it's 2023 and audigy 2zs still working on my moms computer with windows 10. it's been quite a while since i originally installed it but it's worked ever since, what i had to do was:
make sure you have 7zip installed on computer
now you would need one of the previously available drivers for audigy RX like, SBA5_PCDRV_L11_3_01_0056B (2018) or older, this method is no longer working with 059E (2022) or newer
create a folder where you want to keep driver files,
move your downloaded driver file there, right click file, go to 7zip and extract here
then the file you're looking for is under "Audio\DriversWin10\wdm\"
Right-click "wdma_emu.inf" and select "install"

Restart and enjoy!

either that or you could install it through device manager once you have the original driver file extracted

i have a bunch of the old versions of the driver saved on my pc if for some reason creative stops hosting them so if you need one just hit me up, but as of right now they still have the 2018 and 2016 versions of the driver file listed
i'm d3adf1sh on steam if you can't get a hold of me here

What about the "Audigy Support Pack 8.1" from https://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/ ?
It's stated that it should work in Windows 10/11 as well:

Audigy Support Pack 8.1 - For Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11 (32 / 64-bit) - Supports the following Audigy models (R […]
Show full quote

Audigy Support Pack 8.1
- For Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11 (32 / 64-bit)
- Supports the following Audigy models (Retail/OEM):
Audigy, Audigy 2, Audigy 2 ZS, Audigy 4, Audigy 5/RX

Did anybody test that in Windows 10/11?

1541 wrote on 2023-02-23, 08:11:

What about the "Audigy Support Pack 8.1" from https://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/ ? It's stated that it should work in Windows […]
Show full quote

What about the "Audigy Support Pack 8.1" from https://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/ ?
It's stated that it should work in Windows 10/11 as well:

Audigy Support Pack 8.1 - For Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11 (32 / 64-bit) - Supports the following Audigy models (R […]
Show full quote

Audigy Support Pack 8.1
- For Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11 (32 / 64-bit)
- Supports the following Audigy models (Retail/OEM):
Audigy, Audigy 2, Audigy 2 ZS, Audigy 4, Audigy 5/RX

Did anybody test that in Windows 10/11?

It's working for me in win10 and winxp, either do kx-project in both OSes (3552 in w10 and 3536/3550 in wxp).
While xfi with latest pak runs smoothly in w10 and is crackling in winxp.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-10-16, 21:40:

This card works with Linux and Macs too.

Advice needed: where i can get a2 zs linux driver?