I'm using creative soundblaster products for about 17 years or so now and never ever had one single problem to complain about.
AAA sound here with an first gen X-Fi right now.
Went through DOS 5.0 to 6.1, win 95, ME, XP, Vista 32 and 64 Bit as well as Windows 7 64.
I never had a single issue with creative drivers.
Friends often had different products and I always came to the conclusion, that my soundblaster sounds better and is more accessible than any other stuff. I'm fully satisfied for ages now.
Can only recommend creative from my point of view.
Face it
