Mini-Review of the Razer Baracuda AC-1...

V

verncat05

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Messages
1,158
It stinks.

Anyway, to be more specific...

I have an X-FI Fatality and wanted to try an alternative to Creative. Not that I have any real issues with the X-FI anymore (see type of mobo using, not an nVidia-based now), but I like ot try new hardware. Well, I got the card in this morning, uninstalled the X-FI and installed the AC-1.
I did like the digital sound in windows, DTS encoding is pretty slick and sounds great. I've got the Z-5500's so I was able to use the optical out for once. It was when I gamed that I simply hated it. Sounds in BF2142 were just plain awful, compared to the X-FI that is. The voice-over sounded terrible, which was the biggest issue I had with the sound. It just didn't have the depth that the X-FI has.

Now I'm sure that I'll get all sorts of "hate flames" for this post, but I am simply posting my opinion, based on actually comparing both cards. I knew going into this little experiment that I was probably going to be seriously disappointed, but I just didn't know to what extent.

To recap, the AC-1 is terrific for navigating through windows, mp3's sound really good as well. But if anyone is considering it for any gaming, any at all, skip it and get the cheaper X-FI (not the software one, but the gamer, extreme music, etc...).

Shawn
 
verncat05 said:
It stinks.

Anyway, to be more specific...

I have an X-FI Fatality and wanted to try an alternative to Creative. Not that I have any real issues with the X-FI anymore (see type of mobo using, not an nVidia-based now), but I like ot try new hardware. Well, I got the card in this morning, uninstalled the X-FI and installed the AC-1.
I did like the digital sound in windows, DTS encoding is pretty slick and sounds great. I've got the Z-5500's so I was able to use the optical out for once. It was when I gamed that I simply hated it. Sounds in BF2142 were just plain awful, compared to the X-FI that is. The voice-over sounded terrible, which was the biggest issue I had with the sound. It just didn't have the depth that the X-FI has.

Now I'm sure that I'll get all sorts of "hate flames" for this post, but I am simply posting my opinion, based on actually comparing both cards. I knew going into this little experiment that I was probably going to be seriously disappointed, but I just didn't know to what extent.

To recap, the AC-1 is terrific for navigating through windows, mp3's sound really good as well. But if anyone is considering it for any gaming, any at all, skip it and get the cheaper X-FI (not the software one, but the gamer, extreme music, etc...).

Shawn
Click to expand...

Oh boy, you're going to get it from alg7, hehehe!;)

I posted this same thing to him and others here and at Guru3D.
 
So, you went from using EAX 5 in BF2142 to no EAX or EAX 2? There should be a significant difference when you drop EAX altogether, and it seems like both BF2 and BF2142 are really designed for EAX.

Did you play any other games, or just that particular one, with the AC-1?
 
Donnie27 said:
Oh boy, you're going to get it from alg7, hehehe!;)

I posted this same thing to him and others here and at Guru3D.
Click to expand...

I don't know what's wrong with you, did you hit your head or what? I've always said that for games X-Fi is better but you seem to forget. I've never recommended the Oxygen HD based sound cards for people with gaming as their priority. Personally I don't like the Barracuda because the card is sold as a gaming card and the price is much higher than the X-Fi as a gaming card. Btw I just want to quote this :p :
verncat05 said:
To recap, the AC-1 is terrific for navigating through windows, mp3's sound really good as well. But if anyone is considering it for any gaming, any at all, skip it and get the cheaper X-FI (not the software one, but the gamer, extreme music, etc...).

Shawn
Click to expand...
 
alg7_munif said:
I don't know what's wrong with you, did you hit your head or what? I've always said that for games X-Fi is better but you seem to forget. I've never recommended the Oxygen HD based sound cards for people with gaming as their priority. Personally I don't like the Barracuda because the card is sold as a gaming card and the price is much higher than the X-Fi as a gaming card. Btw I just want to quote this :p :
Click to expand...

Don't have a cow man, it was a joke, see the ";)"?
 
At the same price of X-Meridian, I would recommend the X-Meridian over the Barracuda because on the X-Meridian, the OPAMPs can be changed. Btw Donnie27, can you help me with this?
 
I played BF2142 for 30 minutes, messed around in Prey and Quake4. The results were similar (it sucked). For windows, though, it sounded pretty sharp. For games, eh....

Shawn
 
verncat05 said:
I played BF2142 for 30 minutes, messed around in Prey and Quake4. The results were similar (it sucked). For windows, though, it sounded pretty sharp. For games, eh....

Shawn
Click to expand...

My bud tested the XMeridian with Games and we all (4 of us) picked XMer for music and X-Fi for Games. We tested it on now 5 different systems from Cheap 530 Computer speakers to a high-end Denon. Speakers make a difference but it was easy to pick which sounded the best for Games. The Music was closer but XMer won out. We spit on which recorded the best. This really should be added to reviews. This seem strange even after Creative cut corners on their ADCs. Something else I hope they improve on with X-Fi 2.
 
MixBar said:
Analogous?

DDL and DTSi are always limited on max. 16Bit 48kHz and additional compression losses.
Click to expand...

We tested Digitally and Analog. Testing via Digital isn't important as testing in Analog mode. There, the Card plays a larger role in the final results. We tested MP3s, Wave 16/44.1-->24-92 and DVD Audio 24-192 in Analog mode.
 
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