Was quite surprised to see a new review on SoundSurge. Of the Audigy Pro 4 no less. Received a gold surge of approval.
"When I first connected the Audigy 4 to my receiver, and played my music from Foobar2000, I was prepared for the worst. However, when I started listening, my first thought was that I was still playing music that was converted to analog on the Pioneer via SPDIF, and checked all my settings. I then learned that I had indeed had it all setup correctly, and that the audio was being produced from the Audigy 4 analog outputs. What a pleasant surprise, needless to say. The audio was clear, clean, instruments were distinct, and the background was not meshed into the foreground, and vice versa. I came to the conclusion that this was not just a remake of the Audigy 2 series. Sure, the functionality is basically the same, but the core hardware got a very nice upgrade.
I then gathered my usual henchmen of songs that I know quite well, and connected my headphones for some serious listening, and comparing to my other soundcards. In summary, the cards competes very well with my Pioneer, and it AK4586 DAC. The Revolution 7.1 was outclassed, pure and simple. The Audigy 4 had all the tonal strengths of the Revolution 7.1, and then some. The performance was literally like listening to a hi-grade component player, which was once only achievable by using professional studio cards. It's about time the Audigy lived up to its marketing name."
Of course the 4 does run about $250, but it appears that if you want the best of everything in one card from a "consumer level" card, the 4 Pro may actually deliver the goods on all fronts.
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro
"When I first connected the Audigy 4 to my receiver, and played my music from Foobar2000, I was prepared for the worst. However, when I started listening, my first thought was that I was still playing music that was converted to analog on the Pioneer via SPDIF, and checked all my settings. I then learned that I had indeed had it all setup correctly, and that the audio was being produced from the Audigy 4 analog outputs. What a pleasant surprise, needless to say. The audio was clear, clean, instruments were distinct, and the background was not meshed into the foreground, and vice versa. I came to the conclusion that this was not just a remake of the Audigy 2 series. Sure, the functionality is basically the same, but the core hardware got a very nice upgrade.
I then gathered my usual henchmen of songs that I know quite well, and connected my headphones for some serious listening, and comparing to my other soundcards. In summary, the cards competes very well with my Pioneer, and it AK4586 DAC. The Revolution 7.1 was outclassed, pure and simple. The Audigy 4 had all the tonal strengths of the Revolution 7.1, and then some. The performance was literally like listening to a hi-grade component player, which was once only achievable by using professional studio cards. It's about time the Audigy lived up to its marketing name."
Of course the 4 does run about $250, but it appears that if you want the best of everything in one card from a "consumer level" card, the 4 Pro may actually deliver the goods on all fronts.
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro
