Emu 0404

jbloggs · 30 Apr 2006 at 03:05

I desire to upgrade my sound card.

At the moment I have an Audigy 2 ZS sound card, with a set of Logitech Z680 speakers hooked up too it. The card I am considering is the Emu 0404. I would be listening to music, CDs, MP3 etc, my musical tastes are, all kinds of "Rock", hard, progressive etc., a lot of blues/rock, Classical - All kinds, Female Vocalists: Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks etc.

It has been suggested to me that because the EMU 0404 is only 2 channel stereo, that when used with the Z680 speakers (the Logitech Z680 speakers that I have, has Dolby Pro Logic II decoding which creates a 5.1 soundfield from two-channel sound sources) in 5:1 mode, that I wouldn't get the real 5.1 sound from multichannel sources, and that upmixing music from stereo is really worthless, is this really the case or simply not true?

If it is the case, what other sound cards would give a decent increase in quality, over the Audigy 2 ZS, and also give a "real" 5:1 signal if required? I do not wish to buy anything in the X-FI range.

Many thanks for your suggestions and comments.

Vegetarian · 30 Apr 2006 at 12:36

What you have against the X-Fi - sounds like thats what you are looking for!

-Ad- · 30 Apr 2006 at 13:46

The emu is from 'creative proffesional' and walks all over the x-fi when it comes to music!

But it is only a 2-channel sound card, so you will only ever get a 2-channel signal from it. The logi speakers will be able to up-mix the signal into prologic 2 etc, but it will still be only stereo. If you are only listening to music and not watching any dvd's or needed 5.1 in games, then the emu is for you. With music you should only be listening to it it stereo, and not using any silly upmix settings.

But it would be a waste getting one with the speakers you have at the moment. I recommend the cheapest x-fi.

edit, i can't type at the moment, excuse my spelling :rolleyes:

fish99 · 30 Apr 2006 at 14:15

Jbloggs, if you're talking about music, then there's no such thing as a true 5.1 signal really, because 99% of music is recorded in stereo. If you want music to come out of all 6 speakers, does it matter whether it's the soundcard upmixing from stereo to 5.1 or the speakers, they can both do it.

Gotta agree with adfinni though, on your speakers you probably won't hear any difference with the Emu versus an X-Fi. If your only use for your PC is music and not games/films then you'd be better off with hi-fi stereo speakers and amp. Then the Emu would make sense.

jbloggs · 30 Apr 2006 at 17:52

Many thanks to all, for your very helpful comments.

-Ad- · 30 Apr 2006 at 22:55

jbloggs said:
Many thanks to all, for your very helpful comments.

No worries mate

The emu is classed as quite an edgy soundcard with a forward presentation. It doesn't sound particularly laid back, but that's the sound i like, and it works well for rock, indie, and especially DnB.

The entry level X-fi will probably make games sound better than the 2ZS, but i really doubt there will be any real difference between them in dvd's and music.
The logi z680's are made to push out a lot of volume, with insane amounts of bass and piercing treble. As i said, great for games and dvds for us young'ns, but pretty poor for music.

I have an equivalent set of the 680's, there bigger brother (replacement) z-5500's. I still have them, but sold them to the parents to use in our 'childrens' room for sky+ dolbydigital films and music recordings, and for hooking up to the ps2 for DPLII, and boy do they sound good for that

p.s. agree with fish about the hi-fi. I'm a convert, and have the setup in my sig hooked up to aa modified emu0404 with a custom cable. It sounds fantastic when playing lossless files!!!