Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX
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Ever dreamt of setting up a computer as the center of a
full-fledged home entertainent system?
One problem with doing that (apart booting up Windows everytime you want
to play some music) is that it's hard reach the sound hardware -- inputs and outputs and such -- which is traditionally found at the back of the PC.
Creative's LiveDrive option, which puts a sound patch bay on the front of
the PC, solves this problem somewhat, but what if you want to hide away the PC
altogether? Who needs to see a large beige box in their entertainment unit?
An AV System in Your Front Room
This is where the Platinum eX, the most expensive and
full-featured model in Creative's new line of Audigy sound cards, comes into
play.
The key hardware feature of this card is an external patch box (which
CReative that sits on your desk, tethered to the sound card by a thick
multi-headed cable. With its several digital and analog input and output ports
and infra-red remote control, the patch box offers gamers, musicians, home
entertainment enthusiasts and MP3 fans easy access to sound functions.
Although Creative provides a large setup poster, installing the Platinum
eX is not for newbies; only those familiar with a PC's innards should attempt
it, as there are a few internal power and data cables as well as a main card and
a daughter card.
Plain Box; Logos Everywhere
The external box is a reassuringly
heavy, industrial-black steel box. A touch of flair in its design would have
been welcome, as it sits in plain sight. Stick-on rubber feet are included.
It contains the analog (including mic headphone) and digital outputs,
both electrical (SPDIF and MIDI) and optical (TOSlink), as well as an SB1394
port (Creative's version of the IEEE 1394 or FireWire interface); the inclusion
of USB and game ports would have made it perfect.
In testing, we tried the TOSlink optical output to record a list of MP3
files to our Sony MZ-R500 minidisc player-recorder.
The Sony failed to detect the optical signal, but a call to tech help got
to the root of the problem: The default sampling rate of the Audigy is set at an
audiophile-grade 96 KHz (compared with the 44.1 KHz of CD audio). Throttling it
down to 48 KHz sorted things out.
One gripe is the way Creative displays its brand all over one's PC
through its bundled software. Not only is it annoying, some of the software
isn't useful either. For example, the Minidisk Center software, which claims to
help you record to minidisk, is a bare-bones audio player which looks weak in
comparison with Winamp or Real Jukebox. In addition, there is a feeling of a
lack unity to the utility and control software; they seem to be scattered across
several programs.
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