[kelly]

What's the word on the Creative Audigy2? I may have opportunity to use one at work. I'm hoping its digital output is clean but I'm curious about its analog performance as well.

 

[Born2bwire]

Guys over at 3DSoundsurge forums have said that there is an overall improvement to the sound from the first Audigy. Nothing like I'm sure they would want to press upon people in their advertisments though. And the DVD-A seems to be fine as well, the only catch is that your DVD drive needs to be able to read DVD's at 5X speed, this is a requirement for the format and I know one person had problems because his drive wasn't fast enough. My impressions are that this is what the Audigy should been in the first place.

Ok, I have to say it, that raccoon was cute before, but now he's all dressed up for halloween and is now too damn cute. Dammit, can't help but love the lil guy!!!

 

[BoyElroy]

I've been running my new Audigy2 for about four days now and I have to say its a pretty big improvement over my old Audigy card. I'm currently running a PIII machine overclocked to 1 ghz with the Audigy2 feeding analog out to:

1) 5 speaker set up (2 Spica TC50's, 2 NHT Super Ones and a centerchannel) driven by my 5x100 watt Sony receiver.

2) 2 channel set up with the Audigy2 feeding a Gilmore Headamp/preamp, MccCormack DNA1 dlxe amp and Apogee Stage speakers.

Some impressions:

The card is much more quiet than my old Audigy card. I can still hear some machine hash coming through the Apogees at loud to moderate volumes, but it is fairly benign compared to the original Audigy (which was unusable with my primary home system) Neither card, though, compares to the low noise performance of my now-sold Echo card.

The card sounds pretty darn fine with DVD A at 24/96 playback. My new Buena Vista Social Club DVD A disc sounds noticeably better than the cd played back through my Theta/AA DTI 2.0 AA DDE 3.0 home rig. The highs are smoother, image placemnt more solid and 3D and treble and bass much clearer. The DVD A playback kicks booty.

Even playing back MP3's (with 24 bit upsampling enabled) was enjoyable. The Audigy with MP3 upsampling got rid of a lot of harshness and crap that made my MP3's difficult to listen to and I think the compressed files sound much more like 16/44 played back through the Audigy.

Even CDDA files sounded fine played back through my pc with little of the hiss and static that the old card generated.

All in all, I'm mighty pleased with the new card and think the upgrade is definately worth it for current Audigy owners.

Now I only have to find a CDDa media player that performs CDDA upsampling that I can play out through my Audigy2...

 

[Andrew LB]

Did you have the Platinum drive on either of these setups? Im trying to figure out if I simply bought the Audigy2 card without the drive, if my Audigy1 drive would work. From the pictures ive seen, the drives look exactally the same except for the logo on the front. The drive internals look the same as well as the pins for connecting the ribbon cable. Any thoughts on this? I want to save the money and not have to buy the whole Audigy2 Platinum if possible.

 

[kelly]

Is there any reason to have the Platinum version other than the convenience of front access?

 

[BoyElroy]

As far as I know, the cards and component DAC's and opamps, etc. are exactly the same. The only difference seems to be the front access attachment and some extra software.

I'm using just the standard Audigy2 card with no external box. It would be nice if they had a version with an external DAC, though.

 

[Andrew LB]

Quote:

Is there any reason to have the Platinum version other than the convenience of front access?

The front platinum drive for my Audigy1 has these features:

Digital Audio Coax in/out
Digital Audio Optical in/out
Analog RCA in
Midi in/out
1/4 Headphone
1/4 Microphone
Firewire

I really find the optical and digital coax to be extremely helpful for connecting my pc to my receiver or friends minidisc, DAT, HD Recorder, and other various gear.

 

[kelly]

I'd be using it with an outboard DAC. I see that the Audigy2 comes standard with a coax out. Is this full size and actually on the card or is it an adapter or what? Are regular RCA jacks on the back of the card?

 

[Andrew LB]

Sound Blaster® Audigy™ 2 On-Board Connectors Line level out (Front, Rear, Center, Subwoofer, Rear Center)
Digital Out for 5.1 support
Line in
Microphone in
SB1394 FireWire port
Telephone Answering Device in
Analog / Digital CD Audio in
15-pin MIDI / Joystick port extension header
Internal SB1394 header to Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Internal Drive (Upgrade Option)
AD_EXT extension header to the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Internal Drive (Upgrade Option)

 

[Andrew LB]

 

[kelly]

Andrew
I'm asking whether those outputs (R, L and digital) are RCA format or if they're something else (mini, multiout, etc.).

 

[Andrew LB]

If you are getting the card alone, everything is mini, and you dont get 1/4th the options you get as when you get the front drive, as seen two posts above...

You can check out the full specs from www.creativelabs.com

...and if you want a very good online retailer that has good photos of these products as well as great service, hit up www.newegg.com

 

[kelly]

Andrew
Thanks a lot. I replied before you posted the pictures. I hate that they don't include full size jacks on the back. Makes me wonder if Creative is a Dutch company or something.

 

[minidiscs]

I love my Audigy 2. I think it sounds better than my old Audigy. What are people using to listen to it ... I have a Klipsh 5.1 Promedia and a HD600 Clou Red plugged into a Headroom Little More Power. Although i have to say the output on the audigy 2 is very nice. I plugged the HD600 into the card without the amp and it was able to drive my HD600.

 

[Andrew LB]

I run the digital audio directly to my receiver via a toslink optical cable, then through my MG-Head OTL. The headphone output on the Audigy1 sucks IMO.