what creative card is better for audio/midi creation

Question

I have a little question. A friend of mine is making music with ableton live 8.1 and reason 5. First, he had a Creative Audigy 2 (with midi gameport) internal card. I replaced he's card for a Creative Music inernal card with front bay (X-Fi) because I thought that one would be better.

Now he thinks the Audigy 2 was a better card.

can someone tell me if this is true according to the specs?

What creative card is better for audio/midi creation?

the specs for XtremeMusic

Technical Specifications 

■24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 96kHz sample rate
■24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 96kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output
■24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources at 192kHz to stereo output
■16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates: 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz
■ASIO 2.0 support with direct monitoring at 16 and 24-bit at sample rates of 44.1/48/88.22 and 96kHz
■Enhanced SoundFont support at up to 24-bit resolution
Audio Performance (Rated Output @ 2Vrms, Typical Value)

■Signal-to-Noise Ratio (20kHz Low-pass filter, A-Weighted) 
◦Stereo Output 109dB
◦Front and Rear Channels 109dB
◦Center, Subwoofer and Side Channels 109dB
■Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (20kHz Low-pass filter) = 0.004%
■Frequency Response (+/-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz input) = <10Hz to 46kHz
■Frequency Response (Stereo only) (+/-3dB, 24-bit/192kHz input) = <10Hz to 88kHz
Connectivity

■FlexiJack (Digital In / Digital Out / Line In / Microphone) via 3.50 mm minijack
■Line level out (Front / Rear / Center / Subwoofer / Rear Center) via 3.50 mm minijacks
■AUX_IN line-level analog input via 4-pin Molex connector on card
■One External AD_Link (26 pin) connector for linking to the X-Fi I/O Console (upgrade option)
■One Internal AD_Ext connector for linking to the X-Fi I/O Drive (upgrade option)

The specs for Audigy 2

Audio Performance 

Signal-to-Noise Ratio with AES17 filter (A-Weighted) 
  2V Rated Output  1V Rated Output  
Stereo Output 106dB 102dB 
Front and Rear Channels 106dB 102dB 
Center, Subwoofer and Rear Center ~90dB ~86dB 

Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (A-Weighted) = 0.004% (1V, 2V Rated Output) 
Frequency Response (+/-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz input ) = <10Hz to 46kHz (1V, 2V Rated Output) 
High Definition Audio Quality for Playback and Recording 
24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion during playback with sampling rates of 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz in 5.1 mode and up to 192kHz in stereo mode 
24-bit Analog to Digital conversion during recording in 8, 16 or 24-bit at sampling rates of 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz 
SPDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) input at up to 24-bit/ 96kHz quality 
SPDIF output up to 24-bit at 48 or 96kHz 
ASIO drivers for low latency (=2ms) multi-track playback and recording at 16-bit/48kHz) 
Wave-Table Synthesis and Midi Features 
Creative Hardware synthesizer (2x16 Channels) with 64-voice polyphony featuring E-MU®'s patented 8-point interpolation technology for accurate sample reproduction 
Creative Software synthesizer - multi timbral wave-table (16 Channels) 
SB1394™ Connectivity 
IEEE® 1394 / FireWire® / i-Link® compatible interface with up to 400Mbps transfer rate 
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 On-Board Connectors 
Line level out (Front / Rear / Center / Subwoofer /Rear Center) 
Digital Out for 5.1 support (6-channel SPDIF Output) 
Line in 
Microphone in 
SB1394™/ FireWire® port 
Telephone Answering Device in 
Analog / Digital CD Audio in 
15-pin MIDI / Joystick port extension header 
Internal SB1394 header to Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Internal Drive (Upgrade Option) 
AD_EXT extension header to th

Answer 1

In your case XFI card just have much better chip on board.

• Audigy 2 goes with: EMU10K2 (16-bit, 4 million transistors, 200 MHz, 64 DirectSound3D sound channels)

• XTremeMusic goes with: EMU20K1 (24-bit, 51 million, 400 MHz, 10,340 MIPS, 128 Direct3D sound
  channels)

But if your friend just creating MIDI - he doesn't use this power. Other components such as ADC, DAC etc - near or the same )