Creative Labs Announces SoundBlaster Audigy 2 **With Pics**

[BFG10K]

I just picked up an Audgy to replace my aging SB128 PCI and I absolutely love it so far.

 

[boi]

I can't tell the difference between my Audigy and some other generic card i had before w/ my z560's. Maybe I'm just deaf

 

[Aquaman]

I'd wait for Audigy 3 My Audigy is still fine for now

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Biggs]

I wonder what the creative marketing is this time.

 

[MasterHoss]

Well, I knew Creative was going to get THX "certification" on their products some how... but true DVD-A support is very impressive. I'll be picking one up as soon as it hits the shelves. After all, I can take advantage of Dolby Digital Surround EX with my 2 sets of Klipsch. It looks like I'll only be doubling up on the subwoofer and front left and front right speakers with the new sound card.

I think that making computer sound systems more like home theater sound systems is a good idea for the industry. Why not? If people are willing to pay for it, right? Same thing for people buying the newest processor, video card, etc.

 

[Jeff7]

Instead of making the bitrates higher and higher, couldn't they concentrate on things like what Aureal had done with its A3D? It would be subtle, but it does detract from games a bit when a gun going off in front of you sounds the same as if it were through a 1-foot brick wall. They could add realistic reflections and occlusions, like were wiped out along with Aureal. Just basically give the chips more processing power and advanced features to go with it.

 

[Tab]

Hmm, so then around a $120 Price Tag?

 

[JellyBaby]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Instead of making the bitrates higher and higher, couldn't they concentrate on things like what Aureal had done with its A3D? It would be subtle, but it does detract from games a bit when a gun going off in front of you sounds the same as if it were through a 1-foot brick wall. They could add realistic reflections and occlusions, like were wiped out along with Aureal. Just basically give the chips more processing power and advanced features to go with it.

Some hurdles: not everyone has the proper speaker setup to benefit from EAX enhancements, they're hard to notice unless you have premium speakers, and Creative apparently thinks it can sell new products just fine without doing that.

 

[Flashram]

What a bunch of crap. Instead of offering a driver update on their existing cards they come out with a whole new line. THX on a PC card is a joke. I'm sure they are passing that licensing fee onto us, hence the $129 retail price when the other Soundblaster cards generally retailed at $99 when introduced.

 

[Super6]

I miss Aureal....the choices were more clear cut then.

Super6

 

[Kermit]

Oops... ASIO recording ONLY AT 48KHz/16 bits makes it useless for me... I can do that on my Live
man!

 

[boyRacer]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Instead of making the bitrates higher and higher, couldn't they concentrate on things like what Aureal had done with its A3D? It would be subtle, but it does detract from games a bit when a gun going off in front of you sounds the same as if it were through a 1-foot brick wall. They could add realistic reflections and occlusions, like were wiped out along with Aureal. Just basically give the chips more processing power and advanced features to go with it.

Exactly. I would rather take better 3D positioning over anything else... a 6.1 system for a PC is a little overkill for me... if i were to go that far i might as well hook it up to a HT system... but that's just me.

 

[spanky]

i will use my sblive til it dies. then i will get another one.

 

[yellowperil]

The first Audigy was vague about its recording capabilities. From the press release it seemed like it could do 24/96, which got a lot of people (myself included) interested, but it turns out it could only record 24/96 from it's digital input, the analog input was internally resampled to 16/44.1 or something. I guess now the Audigy 2 can record 24/96, but not in ASIO (not an issue for me since I use WDM drivers only). The price is better than what I paid for the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 ($165), and I assume it still has SF2 support, but I see now you have to buy the Live Drive to get MIDI support (unless you use the joystick port on your mobo).

 

[arcas]

I don't know if this is what you're talking about but there was a story in The Register that mentions Creative and DRM:

To protect against unauthorised duplication, Sound Blaster Audigy [or Sound Blaster Live!, in the other readme] shuts down its digital output when encrypted files are played back through a Microsoft DRM supported audio player (for example, Creative PlayCenter)

This is somewhat troubling as I'll be using my digital output to pipe music from my main computer to the main stereo 50-60 feet away on another floor in the house (ie. probably too far to send analog or line-level signals reliably). Not that I use Windows or have any WMA files but if this becomes a trend...

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: bluemax
Anyone else notice with some interest, the SLiX mini-system?
Page 5, go to bottom

Press release over at 3DSS says it's just a test unit Creative is using to demo the Audigy 2 with, and that they have no intention of selling it.

http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/press/pr2418.html