Creative's Audigy 2 ZS Card Includes DTS-ES

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'><STRONG>Agoura Hills, CA -- October 15, 2003</STRONG> -- Setting a new benchmark in audio quality for the PC, the new Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card from Creative Technology Ltd. is the first consumer product available for the PC to incorporate DTS-ES technology. DTS' (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.) (Nasdaq: DTSI) extended surround sound technology, DTS-ES enables up to 6.1 channels of discrete surround sound, and also encompasses DTS-ES matrix and DTS Neo:6 capabilities for a variety of content choices. DTS Neo:6 injects the power of surround sound into any stereo source material such as MP3 and CDs.

[Read the Press Release]</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>I know will ruffle quite a few feathers with this, had a Creative Audigy and it was one of the harshest, shrill and hollow sounding card with massive driver problems. For MIDI work the latency issue was never solved by Creative, had to use third party drivers from Kx and there was some improvement. Hope the new Audigy2 addresses all this problem.</font>

 

[b_panther_g]

<font color='#000000'>I agree that Creative’s sound cards leave A LOT to be desired in terms of sound quality.

Creative’s sound cards remind me of a Walmart or Radio Shack HTIB. &nbsp;They're all functional products that play sounds and have many features. &nbsp;But if you want quality, you can do A LOT Better.

I listen to music on my computer a lot more than I play games. &nbsp;Since hearing sound cards from M-Audio, I think of Creative as a waste of my money. &nbsp;But like I said – I’m no gamer.</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>I've heard a lot fo good things from M-Audio... I only use creative card for digital output, so I wonder if that would be as noticeably bad... When I get to Part 2 of my HTPC article (soon) I'll address some of the audio issues by A-B'ing the card against a standalone DVD player.</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>M- Audio is a new player in this market which has some really expensive multi talented cards from Yamaha, Turtle Beach and Roland. The Yamaha SWXG-1000 is a real pro card costing $$$$ and it is an all in one studio which is also a big hit with recording studios and musicians alike, take a look at this link at http://www.xgfactory.com/ This particular card can be updated with plug in boards. I am using the older cheaper DS-XG card and it has real warm sound.</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>I'm not sure the SWXG-1000 even handles DD/DTS pass-through... I couldn't find anything on the website about that. Very important for HTPC use. Looks like a neat card for digital audio use, though.

My post was really just about the new SB card supporting DTS-ES - which my current SB Live! 5.1 does not - but it does default to DTS, thankfully.

Hopefully, more cards will come online soon with this support - competition is always good!</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>hawke,

None of the pro-cards, M-Audio included to my knowledge support any of the dolby formats or for that matter DTS. They are meant to be high quality cards for studio work. Only the mainstream Creative and the embedded Via, Realtek, C-Audio etc. support dolby and DTS.</font>