I have a Soundblaster Live in my current PC that certainly wasn't the newest sound card on the block when I bought it 3 years ago.It seems to work okay, for the most part, with the exception of two issues:1) Occassional "crackly" sounds, such as with the default C172 engine on rev-up.2) a slight pause each time a new ATC voice is played. Once a particular voice is cached, the pause no longer happens (I wonder if this is a problem more with the bandwidth available to my hard drive?).Has anyone upgraded from a SBlive to an audigy? Was it worth it? It looks like I can get the base Audigy for about $70, but I really don't want to do it unless there is some measurable improvements.

I recently upgraded my few year old ESS Audiodrive ES1938 soundcard with an Audigy LS (which I mainly got for my new 5.1 speakers). Huge improvement on sound quality and I haven't heard any crackles since I installed the Audigy. There is only a slight problem with some soundsets though on my computer. A very few sounds will crash FS2004 with a bluescreen pointing at the Audigy LS's driver. I haven't had it happen at all in the last 2 weeks, perhaps it was a few times thing.

I upgraded from SBlive to Audigy2 and yes, it was well worth it. It was just so much better in every way. But, bear in mind Jimmy, what works for one, does'nt mean it works for everyone. All I can tell you is that from my experience, you won't be disappointed.Russell.

Hi Jimmy,I upgraded to an Audigy (not Audigy2) from SB Live! Value in August 2002 and have had no regrets. Great sound, solid as a rock (despite what some others may say) and has integrated seamlessly within my self built system which has given me nothing but pleasure. See no reason to change.MikeSB Audigy Player (Drivers version 5.12.01.0253 Signed)P4 2.4GHz (400FSB), 1Gig PC2100 DDR Crucial, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (Omega 2.5.04), Hyundai ImageQuest Q17 17" Monitor (1280x1024x32), Gigabyte GA-8IRXP MoBo, Ultra-Quiet PSU 400W, WinXP Home (SP1), DirectX 9.0b, AGP Aperture = 128MB

im in the same situation as you here, i have the Live 5.1 card and am looking at the 7.1 audigy 2, but as its so expensive i would like to know if there is any performance increase, i am perfectly happy with the sound quality as it is although i also sometimes get the 'crackling' you describe, so i wouldnt buy the card for an increase in sound quality...cheers,James

I am fortunate enough to have a motherboard (Asus P4P800-VM) with a very decent built-in sound section by Audio Devices. But, if I didn't, I would hesitate before buying another SB product for at least two reasons:- I feel I was hoodwinked by their clever marketing of the AWE64 way back when. They made it very difficult to find out what the card really was in terms of audio resolution. As I recall it was 8 bit in, 16 bit out or something like that.- from what I understand they install a *boatload* of software on your system, whether you want it or not. Maybe this can be controlled, but I would sure want to understand this before inserting their CD into my PC's drive.That's my .02,Dave Blevins

I highly recommend the SoundBlaster Audigy2. They have come a long way from their Soundblaster Live days. Even though the Soundblaster Live was "The Card" that was installed in practically everything, and had very little competition, there were a lot of conflicts with other hardware and software. I have not heard of the Audigy2 conflicting with anything, and I have had trouble free performance. They do not install anything on your system that you dont want. You can check the options that you want to have in addition to the basic drivers. I get crystal clear sound from mine. Listening to music on it is incredible! You can get an Audigy2 6.1 for very cheap now that they have their 7.1 line out. Creative 6.1 speakers are a steal as well, as they are also making their 7.1 line. One thing to note though, is that you dont get true stereo surround sound in FS9. I have no idea why Microsoft did it this way. You hear the same thing from the rear speakers that you do from the front. I have the creative 6.1 speakers as well, and it is sure sweet to hear the rumble of the engines coming from 6 speakers and a sub! Soldier of fortune 2 came with the card, and it is an excellent example of what the card can really do. You hear different sounds coming from all 6 speakers. The one that scared the crap out of me, and really blew me away, was when I heard gun shots coming from the centre rear speaker. I thought I was a gonner!If you buy the Audigy2, I am almost certain that you will be very pleased with it!

Just recently moved from the SB Live to the Audigy 2. I also was wondering if it was worth the cost and now I can sat, emphatically YES! Aside from the awesome music (should at least have a 5.1 speaker set up), I got a very pleasant performance surprise in FS9. While taxing about airports, I had severe stutters while making turns on the ground; after install of the Audigy 2, all is now very smooth...no changes were made to any FS9 settings. Amazing! Also, there is an EAX tool provided which will allow the similation of surround sound in games where there is no rear channel (like FS9); works great...puts wind sound and props further more into the rear speakers and, definitey improves the feeling.Larry S.

sorry dave but theres no such thing, in my experience on board sound cards are useless, seriously install a pci sound card, im willing to bet that you get a serious boost in performance as your cpu is free to do other things,James

If you want to know how much CPU is actually used for the sound, just press Q (mute sound) and see how better it is. If you don't notice a change, then it means the sound is NOT the bottleneck. If you do get a framerate increase, then assume this is the best you will ever get with a good sound card.Eric.

My on-board sound is not software-based. Turning off the sound has negligible effect on framerates. And, I think you would be surprised at the sound quality of this mobo's output.Everybody's mileage may vary of course... I did learn something from this thread though, and that is that the SB installer can be customized as to what it installs. That wasn't the case the last time I went through their installation hell. Maybe I'll consider an Audigy 2 someday.OBTW w.r.t. SB's speakers - I bought a 3-speaker, $80 setup by them a while back (two front spkrs plus a sub) and it was absolute crap - I couldn't believe how bad it sounded. I took it back after listening to it for about ten minutes and got some Harmon Kardon Champagne speakers and they sound marvelous.Dave Blevins

""sorry dave but theres no such thing, in my experience onboard sound cards are useless, seriously install a pci soundcard, im willing to bet that you get a serious boost inperformance as your cpu is free to do other things,James""Sorry James, but there is such a thing, the new Nforce sound is as good as an SB live while the audigy is better, from what I have seen on tech sites and experience. I have FS9 on 2 rigs, my design PC and my gaming rig, the design PC has an SB live 5.1 and the gaming rig an Athlon 3200 with a A7N8X DL mobo with NForce onboard sound and it is a bit better than the SBlive on my surround sound speakers and I get no hit on performance, which is why I went with this onboard sound as from what I read there issues with SB cards and XP using too many resources, don't know if this applies to the Audigy line though. As always YMMV!Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VACougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviation[link:www.cgrmthelos.com]Cougar Mountain Helicopters

When my SBlive died I got a audigy game and have been happy with up. It's 24bit sound so you can go wrong with that. The only thing I suggest is if you get one. Installer the drivers off creatives website since they are very new and do not install any of the other accessories. I have not found them that useful unless you have a surround setup then you want the creative mixer. I have not experinced any crackling sounds at all since upgrading to the audigy and that was about mid way through the release of Fs2002.Keep in mind though that if have alot of background programs running or like to run everything maxed out you will still get some cracking sounds.The other thing to do is when you get the drivers installed click START --> RUN an type CMD,type msconfig -> go to startup and uncheck CTHELPER because it really serves no purpose and takes up 5MBto 10MB just runing in the background. Also try going to www.blackviper.com and learn what services you can turn off that will help free up ram and might help with crackling sound as well. Good luck Rich

I'll second the boatload of software... How true. If you have a second or more HDs, disconnect them, as otherwise, the driver installation will take ages... When you start the driver installation, there should be a 'driver only' option. If this option isn't there, try installing by 'fooling' the FlyTendo, making it believe it's in the USA. An alternative is also updating the driver via the system management. Sidenote: On a nForce2 board, you should disable the creative gameport. The Audigy2 is definitely the best card for gaming. You'll be perfectly happy. Kind regards Jaap

Something else to think about is not only sound quality but can the card handle the various audio demands of FS2004? Some cards can handle multiple input sources at one time others fair not so well.Example I went from a ASUS motherboard with on board sound to an Audigy2 ZS thinking this will handle anything that's thrown at it. But with me running FS default sound, FSHotseat Sound, and my FlightDeck Sound effects panel, I am encountering issues. Just some food for thought.