Having been an owner of a Herc GTXP (and just about every other consumer level sound card out there), the breakout box is the ONLY reason to choose the GTXP over the Audigy2. The Audigy2 music and .mp3 reproduction is just as good as any of the CS4630/CS4624 based sound cards, if not better (a toss up towards personal preference, really). In regards to games, there is no question, the A2 walks over every other card out there today, including the original Audigy.
By the way, that bit about Creative driving Aureal out of business via the judicial system is nothing but crap. It is just perpetuated, messageboard propaganda from the Aureal zealots. Although it certainly didn't help, the lawsuit Creative had towards Aureal was not what eventually put the company out of business. The problem was that they just didn't sell enough cards, period. Not only was chipset sales to 3rd vendors not adequate enough for sustainable cash flow, the company also made the same mistake as 3dfx and over extended themselves when they dump all that money into investment capital so they could produce the SQ series themselves (of which they couldn't afford in the end).