For listening to two channel music on headphones and sometimes hooked up to the sound system (80/20 split, the stereo is a Denon x3700h, speakers Monitor Audio Silver 6 AV12 sans Subwoofer with dual Kef Kube subs, model 10b)
Reason I'm looking at older cards is because I'm almost sure the motherboard it's going into only lets you use one of the x1 slots before the onboard USB 3.0 controllers (two x 2 port units) and eSATA get cut off. Since I broke the USB WiFi card I was going to use, I'm getting one of the new Intel WiFi 6E cards rigged up to an x1 card.
PC is a z68 with 2500K
I've read some reviews and it's said by some reviewers that the X-Fi is the "best to date" (it's newer than the Audigy 2 line). But some reviewers don't know what they're saying sometimes, especially with audio products. They both measure about the same with a THD+n of around 0.004%. Since it's not being used as a pre-amp, it's more than adequate for all but the best recorded highest quality 24 bit recordings.
So! Does anyone have experience with both cards? Have you compared them using good headphones + critical listening (you deliberately compared them)? If so, if you were choosing between the two, which would you pick and why? What does the lesser card seem to lack? Obviously neither card is perfect, but objectively, both of these cards are pretty good. If you had to criticize the better card, what would you say?
Since the X-Fi line immediately followed the Audigy 2 line, maybe not a lot of people had both. If you only had/have one, I'd still like your input on sound quality and general operation. If you're still using yours, does it work well with Windows 10? If you had one and you stopped using it because it broke, how many years had you had it?
Audigy 2 ZS is the SB0350, the X-Fi is the SB0460.
Edit: I, Mr. Impatient, ordered the X-Fi from thee biggest online bay for swapping. It's supposed to arrive around July 12. I still want answers from people though. Because if things sway the way I think they're unlikely to, I'll still want to do something about it. For example: sell it and buy an Audigy 2. Or try to trade with someone who wants an Audigy 2 because it's similar sound quality and has some features they need that their X-Fi doesn't have. Also, I value opinions from people in this group more than randoms on the internet because overclockers are intelligent and like precision operation
Reason I'm looking at older cards is because I'm almost sure the motherboard it's going into only lets you use one of the x1 slots before the onboard USB 3.0 controllers (two x 2 port units) and eSATA get cut off. Since I broke the USB WiFi card I was going to use, I'm getting one of the new Intel WiFi 6E cards rigged up to an x1 card.
PC is a z68 with 2500K
I've read some reviews and it's said by some reviewers that the X-Fi is the "best to date" (it's newer than the Audigy 2 line). But some reviewers don't know what they're saying sometimes, especially with audio products. They both measure about the same with a THD+n of around 0.004%. Since it's not being used as a pre-amp, it's more than adequate for all but the best recorded highest quality 24 bit recordings.
So! Does anyone have experience with both cards? Have you compared them using good headphones + critical listening (you deliberately compared them)? If so, if you were choosing between the two, which would you pick and why? What does the lesser card seem to lack? Obviously neither card is perfect, but objectively, both of these cards are pretty good. If you had to criticize the better card, what would you say?
Since the X-Fi line immediately followed the Audigy 2 line, maybe not a lot of people had both. If you only had/have one, I'd still like your input on sound quality and general operation. If you're still using yours, does it work well with Windows 10? If you had one and you stopped using it because it broke, how many years had you had it?
Audigy 2 ZS is the SB0350, the X-Fi is the SB0460.
Edit: I, Mr. Impatient, ordered the X-Fi from thee biggest online bay for swapping. It's supposed to arrive around July 12. I still want answers from people though. Because if things sway the way I think they're unlikely to, I'll still want to do something about it. For example: sell it and buy an Audigy 2. Or try to trade with someone who wants an Audigy 2 because it's similar sound quality and has some features they need that their X-Fi doesn't have. Also, I value opinions from people in this group more than randoms on the internet because overclockers are intelligent and like precision operation
