antdude The Daniel K driver (re)packs allowed for full support of the Audigy, or X-fi, series on everything from xp up to (personal experience) 10. The final pack he released in principle should work in 11, unless Microsoft changes the kernel enough to block it from functioning.
Even if i am doing well enough on Windows 10, I know that some software (namely, steam) may sooner just block access for 10 if Microsoft won't support it further.
Part of the reason for wanting these cards to work, is for stuff like ALchemy, which provides a failsafe bridge for EAX code to function in the newer environment, since Microsoft itself provided no such bridge when it switched to OpenAL for audio.
Nowadays, for all the claimed specs of onboard audio, too many flat out refuse to provide any means to handle such games. Fewer still, even support analog surround output. i also don't know of any external DAC that supports such functionality, either.
I'm asking around, because I want to be prepared. I expected a loss of audio quality to come from a hardware failure, not from software support dropping out from under me. Does that make sense?