The Creative cards are (unfortunately) almost the only option for gamers, but I have had generally good experiences, when it comes to gaming. Sure, the drivers and support could be better, but if you want 100% compatibility with all games, then Creative is the way to go. Audigy 1,2,4, X-Fi - it really doesn't matter unless you're a true audiophile with $1000 speakers attached to it.I do have high-end speakers attached to it with another professional sound card from E-mu and I don't even hear much of a difference. The only reason I use the other card for is for high-performance multi-track audio recording with ASIO.Bottom line: Creative is just fine, any version that is currently on the market. There is really no difference between a $30 and $200 card at all, except for a lot of bling-bling that the casual gamer doesn't need or even want.Pat

Thanks.

Wouldn't touch Creative soundcards with the proverbial barge-pole!If you want a reasonably priced PROFESSIONAL soundcard which doesn't hog system resources or plaster weird drivers all over your C Drive checkout the Audiophile 24/96 from http://www.m-audio.comI use mine mainly or music production but it also works very nicely in FS2004.RegardsAdam

"Wouldn't touch Creative soundcards with the proverbial barge-pole!"Amen to that, Adam. Theirs is some of the best hardware stilted by some of the worst drivers ever conceived. While I'm no audiophile by any stretch, my TB Montego works just fine for my gaming. And it's alot less costly than the mainstream Creative stuff.Greg

Hi (I have NO business relation or otherwise to M-audio, except personal use.)I am so happy, sound-wise, after I quit on that other one. I have the same card as Adam. It is really not that expensive, about $100 online. http://www.google.dk/search?hl=da&q=Audiop...=S%C3%B8g&meta=Actually, I got the break-out version, so I have it sitting next to me since I record audio all the time and sometimes need to do some cable switching. I use it for flight simming also, with all them crackels gone and a much better defined and natural sounding sound. It is firewire connected yet I achieve 1 ms of latency in my sequencing and recording program! That is just incredible for the price, seriously, and I cherish the day I bought this card instead of a comparable (in price) Creative one. There are many other manufacturers with similar products, btw, but I chose this one on price and local availability.Now, there's one hitch to this card, namely that the inputs are not balanced. This means that you will need a pre-amp (linedriver) to use non-line sources, this means all non-active microphones and guitars etc. Iow., if you fly on IVAO or VATSIM you'll probably need amplification for your microphone. A basic linedriver can be had for pro'ly 30$ at the musicstore where you'll need to go for the soundcard if you don't buy online. M-audio has balanced versions too, I just don't know off hand what the pricejump is. The card initially suffered from total dropouts and sometimes the drivers weren't loaded on boot, but the newest drivers fixed that and haven't given me any trouble for about 5 months now, - they can't can't be bad, really, with external hardware and 1 ms latency.You'll lack surround sound, so this might be a determining point if you're into that. Off course you could keep the old Soundblaster and switch around when needed, I've had no trouble with this maneuvour.I've attached a pic of the main mixer window. There are 4 available channels and setting it up could be confusing if you've never played with mixers on audio-gear. If you'd like me to mail you my mixersettings (can be saved as a file), plese write it here, I'll subscribe to the topic.

m-audio revo is though not as good for gaming and I would say not as good as the X-Fi or Audigy 4 for music either... Still a good card. I do hate to recommend Creative but they certainly do improve consistantly with every new model which is why they are always on top I guess...

HiWhat is "m-audio revo"? (EDIT): Ok, it's a card I didn't know, googled it. Do you have that card?Why is m-audio not as good for gaming?What do you mean by not as good for music either? Do you mean general sound quality, as the ear hears it?-Dasher7

the performance hit is greater and it

Hejsan again!Well, the X Fi is still only a 24 bit/96 khz card:http://www.creative.com/products/product.a...8&product=14064Yet, it does have some features that the $100 audiophile http://www.8thstreet.com/product.asp?Produ...udio_Interfacesdoesn't: 64mb ram (!) and dolby surround and a lot of "sound enhancers" which I'd rather avoid. I've never had a card with ram, but this might well be very nice. And, it features a much higher price tag, about $380. Also it has a break-out box like my more expensive firewire break out box Audiophile, which is still only about $200:http://www.8thstreet.com/product.asp?Produ...udio_InterfacesFurthermore the Creative card has a built-in preamp, thus you can forego buying a preamp or linedriver, please see two posts up. Is the built in preamp in Creative's card still as noisy as in the older cards? If so, you'd still need an external one before recording anything in good quality with a mike or a guitar. I've never heard this new card.You'll still get Creative's drivers, though I saw in another post that there are 3rd party drivers that take care of the crackles and crashes that are associated with many Creative cards? Can't remember the name now. On the first page of the Creative forum site we find a nine-page post about crackling in games with X Fi, with no happy end on page 9:http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/bo...id=soundblasterI'm thinking, uhh, did we hear that one before? I think this is really a serious, serious problem for such a card at such a price. Here's the post:http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/bo...essage.id=31426BE WARNED!If you're feeling prospective and you're on a budget, you might have a look at this cheap card: ($79.95)http://www.8thstreet.com/product.asp?Produ...udio_InterfacesBehringer is a well know low-price brand, I use one of their mixers, it works well. It looks like this is a slightly reduced copy of the Audiophile card, - it lacks an optical output and a midi input, so you can't plug in eg a midi keyboard. Still, I've just recommended it to a friend who plays folk music and couldn't care less about midi and optics :)What I'm trying too say here is, and, yes it's become a pet peeve: In the area of sound there are many options available as you'll see if you search forums on audio hardware,http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33611084http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/postlist...&Cat=&Board=MRThttp://gearslutz.com/board/search.php3?searchid=1106776,even if you're into ram and sorround etc. Firewire: (sorted by price)http://www.8thstreet.com/Catalog_type.asp?...&Sort=UnitPricePCI: (sorted by price up to $2300!)http://www.8thstreet.com/Catalog_type.asp?...&Sort=UnitPricePlease note that the 8thstreet store was found on a general search, I've never shopped music equipment there or elsewhere on the net, I have no idea if their prices are cheap or not. But do note a conspicuos lack of Creative products (none) on what looks like a rather large gear shop. But if someone else have actually tried both cards, please do speak up :) Until then, there's just a bit of guessing going on from my side at least.Cheers,Dasher7

That or a lot of research. Tours over to head-fi.com and other places.Really those extra creatives gives you does have it

Hi PerListen, it's not to irritate you or anything, but I really think you need to look at other brands and consider the points I stated in the other posts, before stating something like it has "the best DAC:s available". Trust me, that is not correct.Look at what Sound on Sound has to say about Audigy, they haven't tested X Fi:http://www.soundonsound.com/search?url=%2F...=45&Summary=YesYou really can't trust reviews from computer geek sites, it is obvious that they don't know eneough about sound to thoroughly review a soundcard, except basic gaming stuff, that's my experience, anyway.cheers,Dasher7

No worries :).I have heard the M-Audio revolution though I don

well Im a happy camper again!!downloaded the latest drivers for my audigy 4 pro card from creatives website, dated the 21st of this month. and no more static!! excellent!!great performance, toothank you creative! and I was about to go take a trip to buy a new sound card, thankfully I checked their website first for driver updates

hehe, there u go :)

Hi again!I just found a review of the very moderately priced m-audio Revolution which Per mentioned:http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/m-audio-revolution71/It's quit cheap and has surround etc. like Creative, though buying it should mainly be for economical reasons and to avoid Soundblaster crackles, (the reviewer finds Creative's EAX system to be better.) unless they've been fixed by new drivers? I'll start a new thread about that, since I think it's important to find out.-dasher7