Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2/Audigy 2 Platinum eX

Some brief history…

Creative entered the market in 1981, by the same time that the “PC” was
born in other words. By the end of 1989
Creative released their first SoundBlaster soundcard. It was a real monster
with 11 voice
FM- synthesizer and Midi/Joystick-port. Back in the good old days we didn’t
really have any standard for soundcard’s, playing games required lots of
configuration efforts and various drivers and most of the time it still
didn’t work properly. Since SoundBlaster was the best selling SoundCard
it was only natural that developers started building their games treating
SoundBlaster as the standard for audio. It didn’t take long before the
market was flooded with “SounBlaster compatible” product, thus
the standard was spawned. Most people that used computer during the early
90′ are familiar
with this story.

Fast forward to 2001 and SoundBlaster Audigy enters the market with a whole
new experience thanks to the 24 bit sound quality for the “average Joe”.
Audigy 2 was the first card to bring this standard to a consumer level
product and by the end of 2002 Audigy 2 hit us.

In their usual manner Creative hold their own when it comes to multimedia
products for the home user and Audigy 2 bring features like THX certification
and DVD-Audio.

NordicHardware has had the privilege to get some hands on experience with
Audigy 2 and perhaps most of all the Platinum Ex model.
Judging performance on a soundcard is never something that you can fully
do with just charts and numbers, one of the most important tools of measurement
in a review like this is of course the ear.
Thus we’ve both judged the actual scores we got from Right Mark Audio
Analyzer as well as the first hand listening experience.

You can find a small list of technical
terms
that we’ve used throughout the review. You’ll find similar links on each
page of the review in case you feel lost.

Creative has been one of the most popular manufacturers of soundcard’s for
home users for quite some time. You can get these puppies almost anywhere
today.
The Platinum eX should be out in stores any day now and availability is expected
to be just as good.
Audigy 2 "basic" is one of the best valued products out there. For
somewhere around 100 USD you get a fully fledged THX certified soundcard with
very high audio quality. Platinum eX however is a bit more expensive and it’s
220 USD price tag almost makes it compete with more professional solutions.

THX
Audigy 2 is the first THX certified soundcard.

Dolby Digital EX
With Audigy 2 has 6.1 channel support.

DVD-Audio
If you have a DVD-player installed Audigy 2 enables DVD-Audio playback, something
you can try out with the “DVD-Audio
sampler” bundled with the cards.

SNR
Noise-signal relations have increased from 100 dB(A)
Audigy 1 to 106 dB(A).

24/96 recording
Unlike Audigy "1", which converted 24/96 to 16/48 while recording, Audigy
2 now supports “real” 24/96.

ASIO 2.0
Only Audigy 2 Platinum eX supports full ASIO by having
24/96 recording/playback simultaneously in six analog channels.
Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 Platinum on the other hand only supports ASIO 2.0
in 16/48.

Windows Media Audio 9 (WMA)
Audigy 2 supports Microsoft Windows Media 9 series new 24/96 surround sound
in 5.1.

EAX Advanced HD
Even though HD was available in Audigy "1" it has been subject
of some improvements.
One is 6.1 channel support and also the maximum amount of voices is doubled
from 32 to 64. One of the great new features is the Game Audio
Library with improved algorithms for acoustics.

DirectSound and DirectSound3D
Voices are increased from 32 to 64..

D/A converter
One of the major concerns when striving for greater audio quality is the D/A
converter (Digital to Analog Converter). Unlike the first Audigy, where Creative
used the DAC made by them and Sigmatel,

Audigy2 uses a converter made by Crystal/Cirrus Logic namely
CS4382. Crystal solutions are present in anything from cheap AC’97 soundcard’s
to high end products.

CS4382 isn’t the cheapest option around and is certainly not usually found
is such cheap solutions as these.

The layout of the Audigy 2 is what I’d call "basic". Upgradability,
stereo input and Firewire brings it up a notch though.
Audigy 2 Platinum eX uses the new I/O "box" which visually resembles
Extigy. Placing inputs on this box if of course desirable,
but to leave the output on the soundcard seems like a somewhat strange choice.
The visual design is pleasing and the separate I/O box of the Platinum eX
is strong and sturdy.

Differences between Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 Platinum eX
In the Audigy "1" series all card were pretty much identical when
it came to the actual soundcard. This is somewhat changed with the new Audigy
2 series since
it only applies to Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 Platinum, Platinum eX however has
it’s own layout and design. That which separates the two is the external
I/O box with the included DAC this to some extents helps alleviate distortion
from the inputs on the Platinum eX.

Audigy 2 Platinum eX I/O box
The I/O box as mentioned above looks much like the external soundcard "Extigy"
that Creative released some time ago. The actual layout might be a bit confusing
since one of the the analog stereo RCA is placed on the backside of the box
while the other two stereo tele type inputs are on the front.
Input 2 is shared with the mic input which has gain control. Since the Audigy
2 Platinum eX is considered a "home user" model it’s not strange to find that
all inputs are unbalanced.
As important as the D/A converter is to playback, the A/D converter is to recording.
Here Creative chose a 24-Bit Delta-Sigma Stereo A/D converter called
PCM1804 by
Texas Instruments, one for each input. On the front cover we also find volume
control, CMSS control etc.

The remote
The remote bundled with Platinum eX, controls
volume, EAX, Creative Player and is also able to shut down the computer. It
does however not offer the possibility to power up the computer.

When it comes to peripherals we look at software as well
as hardware. Two full version games boost the value of the Audigy 2 soundcard’s.
Audigy 2 Platinum eX is bundled with a set of pretty good applications like
Cubasis VST and WaveLab Lite. Another nice feature of the eX is the remote. When
it comes to hardware features both cards offer the same support apart from
the ASIO 2.0 24/96 recording on the Platinum eX.

I’ve used two methods to test these products;first by analyzing the synthetic
performance and then by actually listening. I used a stereo setup for my
subjective tests. The equipment used consists of products from NAD and Canton
and I listen to the differences of
DVD-audio playback using Audigy 2/Audigy 2 Platinum eX and a DVD-player etc.
For more thorough evaluation I also used a pair of Sennheiser
HD600 headphones.

To begin with I used Right Mark Audio Analyzer which measures the quality
on input and output.

This
grade is entirely based around the pure sound experience we had with each card.
Both the Audigy 2 and the Audigy 2 Platinum eX has a really good sound that
the grades reflects. The Platinum eX model got a slightly higher grade because
of the headphone output. The headphone output on the Audigy 2 Platinum eX has
it’s own D/A converter and integrated amplifier witch the base version
lacks. This was something that made the Platinum eX stand out under serious
and concentrated listening with headphones. But we were expecting good sound
quality from the start as the THX certification is more than just a logo.

The big difference between the two cards depends
on the higher quality A/D converter and that all the inputs is located in an
external module. The results are very impressive to say the least and especially
when we keep in mind what market the card is produced for, the multimedia market.
The results from the Audigy 2 Platinum eX only gets beaten by sound cards in
the professional market that often cost twice as much though you have to keep
in mind that this is not the only thing that separates the Audigy 2 Platinum
eX from professional cards.

As for the results of the Audigy 2 card they aren’t bad at all even
though the card didn’t perform as we had expected. I did expect that
there would be a difference between the cards but not by such a big margin
witch came as a little surprise. The cards is still one of the best in its
class and by that I mean cards that cost around 100 bucks.

Before
I installed the Audigy
2 I listen to the original
Audigy for a while. Since the human sound memory is roughly 7 seconds long
I certainly need more to judge it completely fair. The thing I did notice
was that the sound was a bit more crisp and clear. Since
Audigy
2 is the first soundcard with the THX certification perhaps this change for
the better isn’t much of a surprise. Without a doubt this is amongst the
best sound I ever heard come from a multimedia class soundcard.

You could roughly say that the Audigy 2 enables an experience that you
earlier on had to pay at least twice as much for.

Creative’s MediaSource that follows along with the purchase of Audigy 2
replaces Creative’s PlayCenter that was bundled with the original Audigy series.
This suite enables a "new" format, namely DVD-Audio, which grants
a whole new music experience. Once you’ve heard the tones from a DVD-Audio
you don’t want to go back to CD-Audio, MP3 files is completely out of the
picture.

Audigy 2 also brings 7 channel audio (6.1) for both movies and games etc.
Audigy 2 also has support for the Dolby Digital EX standard. 7 channel audio
is one of the new features of EAX Advanced HD and paired with the new Game
Audio Library it makes games like Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix sound
more real and vibrant than ever before. It’s especially noticeable when ricochets
start bouncing around your head, with the center speaker in the back you can
now truly hear your enemies sneaking up from behind. And we’ll be delivering
a more thorough briefing of the gaming experience in a future article.

The one thing that separates the Platinum eX model from the other Audigy
2’s is the I/O-module. This is the primary reason that this more expensive
model gets s much better results in the RMAA tests.

The basic Audigy 2 is available today for roughly $100 (USD) which makes
it one of the best offers when it comes to quality soundcard’s. Combining
the Audigy 2 and for an example the Inspire 6.1 6700 speaker package gives
you a complete system with great performance and quality for quite a small
fee.

Audigy 2 targets the enthusiasts and those who simply won’t stand anything
but the best. It has quite a few competitors in the price range and these
potential users are probably looking for a complete solution. The software
suite delivered is nothing but great and Cubasis VST is one of the better
packaged applications. One of the most interesting aspects is perhaps the
full support for ASIO 2.0 in
24/96 multi chan nell. One thing I did however miss was at least one balanced
input.

On the downside we see that Audigy 2 Platinum
Ex is still only a multimedia soundcard, as in it only offers-10dB´s
signal and unbalanced in- and outputs. But on the whole it’s certainly impressive
and only professional products can beat it in RMAA.

Creative Audigy 2 Platinum eX impressed us a lot in the test lab
with quality and performance way above the average. The biggest downside
is probably the price tag, but on the other hand a massive package of software
and other peripherals makes this burden pretty easy to bear.
Creative Platinum Audigy 2 eX is rewarded with Nordichardware’s ‘Best Product’
award because it’s simply in a league of it’s own when it comes to multimedia
soundcards.

Creative Audigy 2 Platinum eX

The basic Creative Audigy 2 is more or less a cheap version of Platinum eX.
Sure you loose a few features here and there, but this is nothing that the
"average Joe" or the hardcore gamer will notice. The thing that
really impressed us with this product is the price tag, there’s simply not
product that can beat the Audigy 2 in this price range that we are aware of
right now. Even if it’s not low enough to be called low budget it’s still
very impressive. Creative Audigy 2 thus receives the ‘Editors Choice’ award.

Creative Audigy 2