VOGONS


First post, by Niark42

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Hello,

Following advice from some of you, I am very interested in hearing maps for my computers.

While doing my research, I understood that the audigy2 zs was the best quality/price ratio.

But what about the Rx?

I would like to use it for my xp/7 computer and I saw that it was compatible with all eax.

Reply 2 of 14, by Niark42

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Regarding the xfi, I tried to take a look at it but there are many different models.
Some of them have to have an additional case, it seems to me, and I don’t know where to give the head with this model.

Is the xfi full eax compatible from 1 to 5?
What models would you recommend , why?
And what is xfi to and rx does not have on xp?

Reply 3 of 14, by kolderman

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Niark42 wrote on 2021-05-26, 07:31:
Regarding the xfi, I tried to take a look at it but there are many different models. Some of them have to have an additional cas […]
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Regarding the xfi, I tried to take a look at it but there are many different models.
Some of them have to have an additional case, it seems to me, and I don’t know where to give the head with this model.

Is the xfi full eax compatible from 1 to 5?
What models would you recommend , why?
And what is xfi to and rx does not have on xp?

Xfi titanium pcie is best for winxp, eax 1-5.

Reply 4 of 14, by chinny22

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X-Fi range everything is XP compatible accept the Titanium HD and supports EAX5 and below (Audigy range only supports 4 and below)

The Wikipedia page on Xfi is pretty good telling you the differences between the cards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X … Fi#X-Fi_line-up

If you want to go really fancy you can also get one of the Auzen X-Fi cards. Basically X-Fi using high end components. These are becoming good value thanks to the more recent versions of Win10 dropping support.

As far as the Audigy range goes the RX is basically a Audigy 2 ZS with slightly better snr rating when all said and done.

I've got the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (so the one with the sexy front panel and cover) in my "ultimate XP" build, a OEM Audigy 1 in my 2nd XP build and Audigy 2 ZS in a number of builds (as it supports 98 as well)
I think I can notice a slight improvement in sound with the X-Fi or that may be placebo effect, drivers feel a bit more refined/less bloaty then the Audigy ones.
But its slight and I'm perfectly happy with the Audigy range. I don't notice any real difference between the Audigy 1 and 2

I'm actually currently researching parts for a pure Win7 build, difference been unlike my XP and below rigs where I want the best or interesting hardware to mess around with Win7 holds no interest so building on pure practically and decided on something in the Audigy range I can get for a good price.

Reply 6 of 14, by darry

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mihai wrote on 2021-05-26, 09:23:

My main issue with Audigy 1 is the eeprom corruption bug, so be extra careful there, ie install it last, do not pair it with non acpi network cards.

Isn't that issue rather specific to a specific VIA based motherboards ? https://web.archive.org/web/20050207173445/ht … id=7&fcid=1#182 .

I definitely used a 3COM 3C905B in the same system (VIA KT133 based) as an Audigy 1 for a a few years back in the day and never had or heard of that issue .

To be clear, I'm not saying the issue is not real, just that information about it seems anecdotal and apparently linked to a more specific use scenario than the one you are describing .

EDIT: That said, EEPROM corruption issues on a least some earlierCreative PCI sound cards (ISA PnP EMU8000 cards have a well documented similar issue) are known to happen and, AFAIK, are not necessarily linked to a specific setup (documentation is sparse, anecdotal and passage of time has not helped). Again, AFAIK, this was never very widespread .

If you have more info/references about this, please share .

Last edited by darry on 2021-05-26, 10:13. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 7 of 14, by mihai

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It happened to me, 3com network card and intel d815eea motherboard. The subsys ids are corrupted, the card is not recognized by driver installers from creative.

Should be fixable by reprogramming the eeprom, trying to do it in-circuit, i am waiting for a soic8 clamp.

Reply 8 of 14, by darry

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mihai wrote on 2021-05-26, 10:02:

It happened to me, 3com network card and intel d815eea motherboard. The subsys ids are corrupted, the card is not recognized by driver installers from creative.

Should be fixable by reprogramming the eeprom, trying to do it in-circuit, i am waiting for a soic8 clamp.

I hope that works out for you, but unfortunately, I also read that in circuit programming of the EEPROM on Live and Audigy cards did not work (desoldering required). I have only ever tried it myself on X-FI card (for modding, not repair) and was never even able to read the EEPROM on several different cards.

I wish there was more and more reliable info on what causes the issue . 3Com 3C905 variant cards may be part of the equation or just a red herring as they were, AFAIK, well regarded, cheap and very common (and still are in retro builds).

Reply 9 of 14, by Niark42

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I have a Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 card

The integrated card is the use of Realtek ALC888 Codec.

From the audible RX you will know it works in 7.1 and chose the X-Fi not fit, but I have it.
And since it has a slight improvement of the Audigy 2 zs comparator, I thought it was interesting.
In addition to the compatible eax 1-5 compatible.

The point that sets me free is that it uses software that plugs in the hardware for certain items.

Is this what you do and what you win?
The X-Fi releases me in the suite at the current market price.

Regarding win 98 which audigy can you advise me as well?

Reply 10 of 14, by chinny22

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Niark42 wrote on 2021-05-26, 11:32:
I have a Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 card […]
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I have a Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 card

The integrated card is the use of Realtek ALC888 Codec.

From the audible RX you will know it works in 7.1 and chose the X-Fi not fit, but I have it.
And since it has a slight improvement of the Audigy 2 zs comparator, I thought it was interesting.
In addition to the compatible eax 1-5 compatible.

The point that sets me free is that it uses software that plugs in the hardware for certain items.

Is this what you do and what you win?
The X-Fi releases me in the suite at the current market price.

Regarding win 98 which audigy can you advise me as well?

Think a bit has been lost in translation here (not a criticism, anyone that can speak more then 1 language is doing better then me) but I'll try to reply best as I can

All cards we are discussing support 7.1

The RX isn't EAX5 compatible but yes it's a slight improvement over the earlier Audigy cards. Only a handful of games supported EAX5 so this may not be a big deal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_EAX_support

I'm not sure what you mean with "chose the X-Fi not fit, but I have it" both PCI or PCI-E options exist or different sized cards (low height, cards without the cover)

I'm also not sure what you mean "The point that sets me free is that it uses software that plugs in the hardware for certain items." all cards come with included programs unless your talking about some specific bit of software that ships with the RX?

Ultimately I'd say unless you have EAX5 games you cant go wrong with any of these cards, just depends on your budget and availability.

Win98 is much the same story
Audigy 2 has the cleanest sound, (if you even notice) good drivers (apart from having to switch from wdm to vxd) if you want drivers from dos you'll need the modified Audigy1 drivers
Audigy 1's main benefits over SBLive! IMHO is supports 7.1, TOSlink and drivers are less bloated. Sound wise I think this is the generation with the biggest noticeable difference in quality.
SBLive is dirt cheap and sound is still pretty good not a bad card at all if money is tight

Reply 11 of 14, by Niark42

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Thank you for answering despite the bad translation, you managed to answer it despite all.

I think I was wrong with the FX which does not have an E-mu chip and emulates the eax by software up to eax5 if I understood correctly.

Indeed there are few eax5 compatible games but nothing but bioshock and mass effect makes me want.

The translation is wrong, I said that the prices of the x-fi are very high at the moment and that the RX can still be found new, which seems to me to be a good point over the long term.

Reply 12 of 14, by mihai

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It is much better to get a new RX, if the prices are reasonable. It is essentially an Audigy 4, feature wise, with driver support down to XP. EAX 5 does not appear to be relevant.

Reply 13 of 14, by mihai

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darry wrote on 2021-05-26, 10:24:

I hope that works out for you, but unfortunately, I also read that in circuit programming of the EEPROM on Live and Audigy cards did not work (desoldering required). I have only ever tried it myself on X-FI card (for modding, not repair) and was never even able to read the EEPROM on several different cards.

update: indeed, in-circuit programming of audigy eeprom did not work. Worked great for SPI flash bioses (various nvidia cards), but not for audigy.

Reply 14 of 14, by darry

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mihai wrote on 2021-06-05, 13:26:
darry wrote on 2021-05-26, 10:24:

I hope that works out for you, but unfortunately, I also read that in circuit programming of the EEPROM on Live and Audigy cards did not work (desoldering required). I have only ever tried it myself on X-FI card (for modding, not repair) and was never even able to read the EEPROM on several different cards.

update: indeed, in-circuit programming of audigy eeprom did not work. Worked great for SPI flash bioses (various nvidia cards), but not for audigy.

Thank you. Good to know, in case I ever get stuck with one of those counterfeited Nvidia based cards and need to make it actually usable .

On a side note, some motherboards, such the Asus P5K WIFI Deluxe actually allow in-circuit external BIOS flashing through a thoughtfully provided pre-populated pin header which allows convenient access to the necessary pins on the soldered flash chip . Thanks to this, I was able to recover from a bad flash by using an old Compaq Pentium 3 with a parallel port (I bought that machine specifically for that purpose for 10$ or 20$ as I had no other machine with a legacy parallel port at the time), a DOS based flashing program (whose name I forget) and a very simple circuit (wires and a few caps) to hook up the ping header to the parallel port . It worked on the first try .