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Creative Labs Audigy 2 Platinum

The Audigy 2 Platinum is the latest sound card from Creative Labs. Does it make all the right noises? We find out...

At first glance, the similarities between the Audigy 2 and the original Audigy card are obvious. The cards themselves look very similar although the new card sports an Audigy 2 chip and an extra audio output socket. The Drive which fits into a spare drive bay on your PC looks identical apart from the Audigy 2 logo.

But look beneath the surface and you'll discover many enhancements and several new features. For starters, the signal-to-noise ratio is 106dB rather than the Audigy's 100dB which means even quieter audio. It has 24-bit 192kHz digital-to-audio converters (the Audigy has 96kHz DACs) and supports 24-bit DVD audio. Both cards support EAX, sophisticated effects for gaming, but the Audigy 2 features advanced music presets.

Both cards support Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound but the Audigy 2 now supports 6.1 which adds an extra rear centre speaker. This is the format used in most cinemas and by an increasing number of games and DVDs. And the card is the first to achieve THX certification which guarantees high performance and audio quality.

If you're starting to get the impression that Creative is aiming the card at people who use their PC for serious gaming, serious music listening and Home Theatre - you'd be right! But there's still more.

Getting connected

Let's take a look at the connections. Like the Audigy it has a Mic in, a Line in, a S/PDIF digital out, and a SB1394 (FireWire) port as well as three audio outs (the Audigy only having two). The card itself has a telephone answering connector, CD audio In, Aux In, a CD S/PDIF connector plus connectors to connect the card to the Audigy 2 Drive. There's also a connector for a games/MIDI adapter that fits into a spare backplane slot.

This is a good time to say that we're looking at the Audigy 2 Platinum system. There is also a standard Audigy 2 which doesn't have the Drive and has fewer software apps. An Audigy 2 Platinum eX is due in late 2002 or early 2003, more of which in a moment.

Anyway, the Platinum does not include a games port-to-MIDI adapter which you need should you want to plug MIDI cables into the card. However, if you connect the Drive, it has mini DIN sockets on the front (requiring a MIDI adapter cable, supplied) so presumably the theory is that musicians would use these rather than mess about around the back of the computer.

Music machinations

On the subject of musicians, many have made a SoundBlaster card the centre of their computer-based studio. The Audigy 2 supports SoundFonts, of course, which is a major attraction for musicians. However, virtually every "pro" sound card and many semi-serious consumers cards now support 24-bit 96kHz recording. As, indeed, does the Audigy 2. BUT, it does *not* have a 24-bit 96kHz ASIO driver.

ASIO is a standard developed by Steinberg which all major sequencers support along with all sounds card that aspire to serious music use. The Audigy 2 has ASIO drivers for 16-bit 48kHz which can get the latency (delay) down as low as 2ms although this depends on your system and more practically it may be 7ms or 10ms but that's still very good. But lack of ASIO 24/96 support can only be viewed as a greatly missed opportunity. Or is it?

The Audigy 2 Platinum eX promises full 24-bit 96kHz ASIO support so perhaps Creative expects musicians to fork out lots more dosh (anticipated price around £230) to get the specs they need.

What else do you get? There's a wireless remote control, ostensibly for playing CDs, plus lots of software. For the musician there's a special version of Steinberg's Cubasis VST and WaveLab Lite, Native Instrument's Traktor DJ, and Ulead 5.0. And for those idle moments there are a couple of games

There is also a host of software apps under the guise of MediaSource. These traditional volume mixer, WaveStudio editor, a DVD player, a MiniDisc player and organiser and a neat audio stream recorder. There's a music file player and organiser with built in CD ripping and burning facilities making it easy to create your own CD compilations. All these have a new interface and design which fits well with the look of Windows XP.

Summary

The Audigy 2 is a worthy successor to the Audigy card although musicians may feel a little cheated and, in our opinion, rightly so. However, more general users will find it a very high quality card, excellent for games, DVDs, Home Theatre and general sound card functions within their PC. In fact, it's probably the most advanced all-round music card yet to appear. Most impressive and highly recommended.

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