[Nix]

The Audigy had MS-DOS compatibility, emulating a SB16 AND MPU-301 MIDI emulation thru headphones, but wasnt near as robust as the Live was.  OPL3 emulation was hella slow, even on my Athlon XP machine.  the Live reproduced a SP16's abilities flawlessly.  The good part with the Audigy reproduced MPU midi spot-on with no performance hit.  

You know that whistling, or screeching noise when you do something to the desktop?  It could be hardware related, I've heard firsthand that software based cards are notorious for that.  I'm an exclusive headphone user, I've used Sony MDR-V700DJ's, currently using a pair of MDR-C780s.  I'll plug these into any software based solution and I'll hear that noise, but I've never heard it on an audigy or hardware based card.  Though, the Audigy's were notorious for causing interference amongst other devices..  I have had my Asus board for almost a year now and my Audigy gave me way more problems than I liked. No whistling or screeching when you move scrollbars or anything.  Though... the Value line is ovbiously a cheaper card than the higher cost Audigy cards.

This card though, has no legacy support.  It's made for XP IMHO, No MS-DOS utilities, but it's like having the best of the old, and the very best of the new all rolled up in one card.  Put simply, you can have things sound just like they did in the past, on your modern machine.  Also, with interchangable soundfonts, it makes the listening experience much more interesting than being stuck with MS's DLS Synth.

[CP5670]

The Audigy had MS-DOS compatibility, emulating a SB16 AND MPU-301 MIDI emulation thru headphones, but wasnt near as robust as the Live was. OPL3 emulation was hella slow, even on my Athlon XP machine. the Live reproduced a SP16's abilities flawlessly. The good part with the Audigy reproduced MPU midi spot-on with no performance hit.

Yeah, the Live emulator has worked perfectly for every game I have tried it with. If only it worked without ISA, I could have used it with a better motherboard/CPU.

You know that whistling, or screeching noise when you do something to the desktop? It could be hardware related, I've heard firsthand that software based cards are notorious for that. I'm an exclusive headphone user, I've used Sony MDR-V700DJ's, currently using a pair of MDR-C780s. I'll plug these into any software based solution and I'll hear that noise, but I've never heard it on an audigy or hardware based card. Though, the Audigy's were notorious for causing interference amongst other devices.. I have had my Asus board for almost a year now and my Audigy gave me way more problems than I liked. No whistling or screeching when you move scrollbars or anything. Though... the Value line is ovbiously a cheaper card than the higher cost Audigy cards.

I tried the onboard ALC850 audio once for a few minutes and I got the buzzing too (it was garbage at any rate - pops and crackles, no global reverb, no midi synth and considerably lower game framerates), but it wasn't really any worse than the Audigy 2. I have also used only headphones for the last several years (currently use Beyerdynamic DT250-80's; headphones are far better than speakers IMO). I can't hear the noises through speakers at all, but they are quite noticeable with the headphones, which is probably why more people don't complain about this.

What board do you have? I have noticed that buzzing issue on both  an A7N8X and my current A8V deluxe, but I can't hear anything like that on an old A7M266.

The Value is identical to the more expensive ones (apart from the extras like firewire and the breakout box), except that the rated SNR ratio is a little lower. However, I've heard complaints on this buzzing on the entire Audigy and Audigy 2 lines when used with certain motherboards.

[IceFire]

I had to take the Audigy out of my A7N8X Deluxe I was so unhappy with the poping, clicking, noise, and poor game performance (it was making IL-2 sound like I was in a fishbowl with all but the oldest drivers).

The Soundstorm onboard is a fantastic little solution.  I want to go back to having a dedicated soundboard in the next machine...but for the moment the Soundstorm does the trick.  IT makes you almost wish nVidia made soundcards...

[Nix]

It looks like all of the new X-fi cards have a small amount of X-ram.  According to Neowin.net, the basic models have 16mb of RAM onboard.  It looks like I wasnt nuts after all!  Though all I really need to do is look up the numbers on the RAM chip and find out what size it could be.    So every card DOES have X-Ram, but the basic models probably utilize all the ram at once so that the user cant really do anything with the ram, since I dont know if you can customize the functions or usage of X-ram on the top tier cards.  

As for my motherboard, i'm using an Asus K8V-SE DLX with the K8t800 chipset (non pro, the 754 pin model).  Using my Audigy, I've never got whistling or that buzz noise whenever you use a scrollbar or anything like that.  As cards go, I've had the original base model audigy MP3+ version, which was thier basic card at release. (SB part number SB0040) It operates clean under windows 98, on my old MSI with the 266 FSB chipset.  I've had issues with drivers, the squeal of death, all sorts of wierd bugginess with
the old audigy.  

I think Creative has come back on top again with a soundcard that's actually worth it's cost.  When I upgraded from a SB16 to a SB Live (skipped the AWE32)  It felt like a major upgrade.  This gives me the same exact feeling.  Much better all around (and the drivers actually detect the card properly!). For the lower two models, all you need to decide is if you want a breakout box or not.  The cards are the same.  The top tier models, I believe have additional DAC's onboard for higher audio quality in recording.  Thats why they can justify the 200+ dollar difference between basic card and pro card.  Gamers would probably never make full use of the card, if all they do is game and listen to music.  People who make music probably would want to get the top tier cards.  IMHO, the Fatality card is a waste of money and time unless you really think the X-Ram is gonna give you an extra FPS or two in games.  I find it laughable, but whatever makes you happy, I guess.