cause_of_chaos

Hi guys,

I have had an Audigy2 ZS Platinum for many years now and it's still sounding AWESOME 3 PCs later (minus some driver niggles lol..)

However, I was thinking of upgrading to a PCI-E card and was wondering the following:

1) Is an upgrade worth it? I LOVE audio (hence the Audigy2 ZS).
2) Apart from the X-Fi series, is there another card with a front i/o panel? (that fits in the 5 1/2 space on front of PC case)
3) Does DDL / DTS Connect still produce sound lag / CPU overhead? I researched this during nForce2 era and found that this was the case...

I have started to notice a SLIGHT crackle during some frequencies when playing music through my headphones and am wondering whether my card is hitting the end of it's lifespan. It's barely noticable, but it's there (the 2nd jingle in Vista 64 after starting crackles as an example).

I don't care about DDL / DTS Connect as I probably won't use it, but I really need a front i/o panel similar to my platinum.

I have the following sound solutions:
- Sennheiser HD595 Headphones
- Sony 500W Home Theatre system (supports 64 bit / 96KHz)

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

cause_of_chaos

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AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition @ 3.4Ghz
4Gb Crucial Ballistix PC2 8500 ~ 800 FSB {Timings 4-4-4-12}
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe CrossfireX Mobo ~ 2002 Bios
MSI ATI RX3870 512Mb PCI-e 2.0 Graphics card
Creative Audigy2 ZS Platinum Sound card (SB0350 10k2 [e800])