By
John Lui
07/11/2001
URL:
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/pcperipherals/0,39051168,38012863,00.htm
It's taken three years for Creative to come out with new line of sound cards after the Live! Series -- and who can blame them?
After you've made sound cards that bleep, then offer CD-quality stereo, then 5.1 surround-capable hardware - as they did with the SB Live! Platinum 5.1 last year -- most would say you've hit the wall.
That's Creative's constant problem: Developing new sound products for a market that's pretty happy with just the basics. With the new Audigy series, they've decided to go the Intel way: A climb up the processor speed hill to deliver more powerful audio options.
Meanwhile, they've also opted for a bit of audiophilia, by upping the maximum audio sampling rate and signal-to-noise ratio. But what sets the Audigy series apart is the inclusion of an IEEE 1394 (FireWire, or in Creative's parlance, the SB 1394 ) port -- once you see what a FireWire card costs, you'll find that the sound functions are being given away almost for free.
The DE, which stands for Digital Entertainment, is the cheapest card in the range as it lacks the external connector boxes of the Platinum or the Platinum eX models. However, the heart of the system -- the Audigy PCI card - is the same in all three models.
Software and Installation
Creative still keeps to its "one setup poster, all other info on the CD" dictum with the Audigy series. Some may prefer a hardcopy manual, but printing the files doesn't seem much of a hassle.
The setup software was up to Creative's typical high standards. With it, you can ensure that your speakers are all correctly connected and positioned. In the usual Creative style, there is a wealth of software and audio files bundled, not just to set up the system but to also demo what it can do.
Of note is Goldmine, which shows off, among other things, the "multi-environment" power of the card, is which a listener hearing sounds coming from different locations can also hear each source's unique reverb environment.
Even if you don' have any FireWire devices such as an external hard disk or camcorder, you can still use the SB 1394 port as a blazing fast 400 Mbps networking interface, using the bundled Firenet software. Typical of Creative software is that toolbars and icons pop up all over your screen, but they are easily banished with a few preference tweaks.
Squeaky Clean Sound
Creative is banking on performance-hungry users to want this product. Upping the digital-to-analog conversion rate from 16 bits (in the Live! series) to 24 bits, and moving the signal-to-noise ratio from 96 db to 100 db are impressive accomplishments on such a small device.
Coupled with the scrubbing of the signal is the overall boost in hardware acceleration for audio processing. The new Audigy chip advances on the EMU 10K1 chip of the Live! series by being able to add more effects to audio streams used in digital entertainment and gaming.
Testing with rock and pop music playback showed no audible difference between the Audigy and the older Live! cards; but then you don't buy the Audigy just for music playback alone. However, it does come several effects modes that use the processor to spice up plain old two-channel stereo, if you like hall or disco reverb effects.
But simple music playback, through Creative's new Inspire 5.1 5300 analog sat-sub speaker system, sounded excellent, with crisp, non-fatiguing trebles and very rhythmic, satisfying bass.
Musicians will also like to myriad of digital-input and -output, MIDI and ASIO-compatible features as well, but they will be better off with the higher-end Audigy models which offer easy-to-reach external boxes for connectors and cables.
Movie Playback
Using The Matrix as a test disc, we tested the ability of the card to cleanly decode and steer the 5.1 Dolby Digital signal to the correct speakers. We weren't disappointed: In the scene in which Neo first meets Trinity in the techno club, their dialogue was clearly audible at low to medium volume settings despite the thumping ambient music.
Speech and other sounds were also sent to their correct positions on the 5.1 soundstage: There was no ambiguity as to where a speeding car or flying bullet and its reverberations were.
Creative chose not to bundle DVD playback software with the card, a puzzling omission since users may have older software which support only Dolby Surround instead of DTS or 5.1 Digital, formats which the card supports to full advantage.
Games
Using a demo copy of RealMyst, one of a number of games with EAX sound support, brought about the same great atmospherics as DVD playback. In 5.1 speaker mode, rain-lashed scenes sent shivers down your spine; thunder jolted you.
Creative has also announced an upgrade to the EAX gaming sound mode, called EAX Advanced HD, that takes advantage of the more powerful hardware acceleration of the Audigy chip. For now, there are no games that make use of the new mode, but Creative promises a few to come soon.
Conclusion
The Audigy line is now the premier series in the Creative lineup, moving the Live! series to the mid-range. The price adjustments to the Live! line, of course, makes the older series more affordable for those who want need basic 5.1 Dolby and EAX decoding.
But at a street price of around US $80 (S $160, M $345), the SB Audigy DE card offers good value. You not only get more powerful sound processing, 5.1 Dolby decoding and EAX, you also FireWire, an option which costs around US $50 (S $100, M $216) by itself.
| Quick
Facts |
| Product: |
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy DE
|
| Compatible OS: |
Windows NT, 2000, 98, ME; XP later |
| Formats supported: |
General MIDI, MPC3, Plug-and-Play, EAX, Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding, four speakers, Creative Environments, Creative MultiSpeaker Surround, Microsoft DirectSound, Microsoft DirectSound 3D & Derivatives, EAX Advanced HD, ASIO
|
| Processors: |
Audigy, 24-bit DAC (digital to analog convertor), 24-bit ADC (analog to digital convertor)
|
| Rear connectors: |
SB 1394 (FireWire), joystick in, digital/SPDIF out, headphone, MIDI in/out, line in, mic in, analog out (stereo front), rear channel out.
|
| Internal connectors |
TAD, CD in, Aux in, CD-SPDIF in
|
