Audigy 2 value or DS3L onboard audio?

[donimo]

heeeey, time to resurrect an old post instead of making a new one

I still never tried, but my stuation changed, no more HTPC (stupid 4:3 monitor and 16:9 tv cnat have 2 resolutions WHYYYY????)

so is an audigy 2 better than onboard from a purely gaming POV?

[enaberif]

Onboard is going to be much better.

[donimo]

OK, I just bought a new headset, and I have a feeling that USB headsets dont matter for what soundcard you have as they ARE one, am I right?

So wherever THAT leaves me, it sounds good though so whatever eh?

sound cards used to be so much easier, sound blaster pro support on rex nebular used to be so cutting edge...

[sam101p5]

that's funny this thread came up again.... I just pulled out a Pioneer receiver with digital input and connected it to the PC through the onboard digital output. It didn't work for me at all. So I used my Audigy 2 value's digital out and I'm pretty happy with the result. I'm just using the 2.1 stereo format, but it does beat the analog connection. The sound seems so much cleaner. For the audigy 2 value I just got a mono mini-plug to RCA patch cable. The receiver recognized the signal right away. I'm lazy, but should see what a couple extra speakers sounds like.

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by sam101p5

that's funny this thread came up again.... I just pulled out a Pioneer receiver with digital input and connected it to the PC through the onboard digital output. It didn't work for me at all. So I used my Audigy 2 value's digital out and I'm pretty happy with the result. I'm just using the 2.1 stereo format, but it does beat the analog connection. The sound seems so much cleaner. For the audigy 2 value I just got a mono mini-plug to RCA patch cable. The receiver recognized the signal right away. I'm lazy, but should see what a couple extra speakers sounds like.

I ran audigy2 value cards for digital out until the last one died on me... what you might not be aware of is the ability to set a reference volume level with the "bit accurate playback" setting.

If you set this feature and then run your media player with the volume down to almost nothing, you will get only the media through your amp which won't be affected by the main computer volume (you also won't hear other computer audio through it) and the music will be muted through your computer speakers allowing you to hear the other computer audio through them (like games).

The only issue I had with this is that it won't stay set when you reboot... you need to reset it every time the computer boots.

[Robscix]

I would try both ans see which sound better to your ears. Your onboard will not have teh EAX/OpenL support the Audigy 2 has.

[sam101p5]

Turned on bit playback --- does it help with gaming?

[Varroa]

Originally Posted by donimo

OK, I just bought a new headset, and I have a feeling that USB headsets dont matter for what soundcard you have as they ARE one, am I right?

So wherever THAT leaves me, it sounds good though so whatever eh?

sound cards used to be so much easier, sound blaster pro support on rex nebular used to be so cutting edge...

You are correct. USB headsets rely on the cpu for processing the sound so you could have no sound card in your machine and the usb headset would still function. They are actually not as good as onboard. Dedicated soundcard > Onboard > USB