SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Gamer

[BobbyDRZA]

I currently have I SoundBlaster Audigy LS which supports 2.1, 4.1, 5.1 sound and my Logitech Z-5300e speakers and overall sound, sound the best with it's back switch switched over to 2.1 and switching my sound card over to 4.1 which creates a good combination but I want to get a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer soon and wanted to know if this card can be changed to 4.1 in it's sound options cuz when I see it advertised it says 5.1 6.1 and 7.1, is it also backwards compatible with the lower sound setups?

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

[Kage]

Yeah, that is just to say what its capable of in the higher spectrum to impress for people with massive surround speakers So you will be able to switch it down yes, though why are you switching if you only want the 4.1 setup? It wouldn't be any better quality I wouldn't think, though you might get a few more features I guess.

I hope this helps.

 

[BobbyDRZA]

I want this card becuase the Audigy LS doesn't run good in certain games, it has software EAX instead of hardware EAX and this loads extra instructions on my CPU causing bottlenecks in some games such as Half-life and Halo and the Audigy 2 cars are suppose to be much better and the only benefit of 5.1 sound is more bass but other than that 4.1 gives me alot more clarity and DVD's and everything else sounds alot better.

 

[Kage]

Yeah okay, I get you

As for the bass thing...couldn't you just turn it up using the Volume Control, and from the back of the sub?

 

[BobbyDRZA]

Yeah I got more than enough bass so I don't need 5.1

 

[Kage]

Okay, but don't you find 5.1 is better for movies with a 5.1 signal on the DVD to split the signal evenly?

If you try and split a 2.1 signal to a 5.1 signal, of course the bass would go, like if you did it with music, it would be even more noticable since its also splitting the sub against all 5 too.

If your soundcard has a Pro Logic 2 decoder though built in, the problem would avoided since this can decode sound in 5.1 from a 2.1 signal properly and keep the bass too

Power DVD for example, you can buy an audio pack that has a software Dolby Pro logic 2 decoder which works the same way, except its not hardware though can be used for music and movies, and plus, no slowdown
This would only work within Power DVD though, unless you had a hardware decoder that is