Help me understand creatives external/laptop lineup...

[Maximilian]

From what i can tell its a mess, like what i thought about HP's current printer lineup, a total shambles. It really isnt obvious what anything does compared with anything else. Just to make this easy ill list a bunch of questions i have:

1. Why is this live! 24 bit thing being sold everywhere still whereas its successor the audigy 2 nx is nowhere to be found, except on ebay or amazon. What gives?? Whats the difference between the two anyway?

2. What is this xmod thing for? Who is this aimed at exactly? It dosent have as much ports as the live! or the audigy 2 NX so its not a replacement for them. Whats the deal with the xmod?

3. Where does an extigy fit into this mess? I couldnt find it on creatives site, the review is dated 2002 so i guess extigy is old right? But the soundblaster live! is just as old is it not?

4. They seem to have two expresscard soundcards for sale this XTREME one and this one that just says "notebook". Just looking at those the xtreme one seems better, the other one looks like the plain version with less features, turns out the opposite is true and the one that dosent say xtreme is the newer version. What is the difference between these two cards?

5. Is the 5.1 surround the actual replacement for the prematurely dead audigy 2 NX? Is this also a replacement for the live! too?

 

[Maximilian]

So a week later and noone knows anything?

 

[Ghouler]

Originally posted by: Maximilian
From what i can tell its a mess, like what i thought about HP's current printer lineup, a total shambles. It really isnt obvious what anything does compared with anything else.

That's an accelerated product lifecycle for you. With most brands no-one fully understands the line-up. Consider my comments below as an exercise in wild-ass guessing only

Just to make this easy ill list a bunch of questions i have:

1. Why is this live! 24 bit thing being sold everywhere still whereas its successor the audigy 2 nx is nowhere to be found, except on ebay or amazon. What gives?? Whats the difference between the two anyway?

I think original Live was 16 bit card, the first Audigy card was 16 bit too, while Audigy 2 was 24 bit already. I do not follow chronology of products from Creative but there is a big chance that Live 24 bit was added only after the Audigy NX (presumably 16bit) as this would make some sense considering Live was quite a strong name in sound cards so releasing a 24 bit version at some stage was, arguably, a logical step.

2. What is this xmod thing for? Who is this aimed at exactly? It dosent have as much ports as the live! or the audigy 2 NX so its not a replacement for them. Whats the deal with the xmod?

It seems Xmod is meant for conservative laptop or Mac user i.e. someone who uses the mic, headphones, perhaps small stereo speakers, has no aspiration to record anything, digitalize vinyls or hook up surround speakers. I think the macoid design plus X-Fi features are what differentiates it from live!24 and audigy2nx

3. Where does an extigy fit into this mess? I couldnt find it on creatives site, the review is dated 2002 so i guess extigy is old right? But the soundblaster live! is just as old is it not?

Live! is old but live24bit isnt. Extigy is ancient.

4. They seem to have two expresscard soundcards for sale this XTREME one and this one that just says "notebook". Just looking at those the xtreme one seems better, the other one looks like the plain version with less features, turns out the opposite is true and the one that dosent say xtreme is the newer version. What is the difference between these two cards?

There is X-fi extreme audio notebook (silver) and x-fi notebook (black)
Differences I can see are:
1. Extreme notebook (silver) has an option to connect surround speakers via speaker docking moduls, X-Fi notebook (black) is headphones or stereo speakers only
2. Extreme notebook is wider (silver) - will only fit 52mm ExpressCard slot while X-Fi Notebook (black) can fit either 34mm or 52mm slots
3. X-Fi Notebook (black) can stream music wirelessly to wireless receivers

[/quote]

5. Is the 5.1 surround the actual replacement for the prematurely dead audigy 2 NX? Is this also a replacement for the live! too?

Dunno about that. Audigy 2NX does not seem to be dead though, it is on sale at e.g. ncix.com

 

[Maximilian]

Thanks for the replies ghouler, if my xonar U1 works out like those people you linked to on asus forums in the other thread i might check out creatives x-fi 5.1 surround thing, although ive seen people have problems with that too.