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Creative's Audigy sound card, released towards the end of last year, was met with near-universal praise. The Extigy is an extension to the range and, put simply, is a sound card in a box that connects via USB.
While aimed primarily for use with notebooks, where sound is rarely well catered for, it could also appeal to those not willing to void their PC's warranty by opening up the system box. It also has the potential to be used as a separate Dolby Digital decoder for those who own DVD players without built-in decoding.
Contained within a reasonably sturdy black plastic box is an as yet unnamed sound chip. Sound quality is both technically and audibly inferior to the Audigy chip, with a higher data compression to allow for the bandwidth limitations of USB.
However, its 16bit/48KHz processing power is of higher quality than the Soundblaster Live, and Signal to Noise Ratio is excellent at 100db. The 24bit/96KHz conversion rates on the box refer only to the Digital to Analogue Converters.
While this does give a cleaner overall output, the chip itself can only process at up to 16bit/48KHz, making true 24/96 sound impossible. As a result, the Extigy won't sound as good as a card that provides proper 24/96 sound.
Both EAX and Advanced HD are supported. EAX Advanced HD adds depth to game music by being able to process four different audio environments at a time.
Creative's CMSS, also included, can 'upmix' mono, stereo or 4.1 sounds into 5.1, which can be exported to speakers via optical, S/PDIF or through the three analogue mini-jack connectors at the rear of the box.
The list of ports is not as extensive as you would find on the Audigy Platinum or Platinum EX, but it's still pretty impressive. Optical in and out ports hog the front-left side, next to the headphone, microphone-in and line-in ports. Both Midi in and out ports are at the rear.
Unfortunately, the volume and power buttons feel quite flimsy as though they could snap off rather easily.
Installation is simple: just plug the Extigy in and install the drivers. Although it is an audio device, the Extigy does not conform to USB audio standards, as all the processing is done within the box. Therefore the only demands on the CPU come from shipping data to and from the USB bus.
However, as it runs through a USB connection as opposed to the more traditional PCI bus route, there are inevitable bandwidth limitations. In practice, the Extigy can only handle four CD-quality audio tracks at a time before overloading, making real-time audio mixing impractical; PCI can muster over five times as many tracks.
The power supply is very bulky, and it's a pity that this could not have been either shrunk down or squeezed into the Extigy itself. Creative's reason behind this is that positioning the power source next to the workings inside the Extigy would create electromagnetic interference, hampering the overall quality of the sound.
The unattractive but fully featured remote control is a handy addition, as is Creative's new speaker auto-detection feature. This detects what speaker arrangement is plugged in, for example 5.1 or stereo, and alters the output accordingly. This is done by measuring the voltage output of the connectors and is due to appear on Audigy drivers in the near future.
On the list of easy-to-use software included in the package are two audio recorders, one for streaming audio over the internet and the other for recording from CD to hard drive.
A Realjukebox-style music player and audio file management application are also included, although their limited features mean that they may not be particularly useful to most users.
The Extigy is an innovative idea that is pretty much peerless. Abit, for example, offers some USB decoders and conversion devices, but no external device currently competes with the Extigy.
And with good reason: the market for such a product is likely to be small, as there are few real benefits for the average user in having an external sound card. Nevertheless, there is a lot inside this box for £150.
Price: £149.99
Contact: Creative 0800 973 069
uk.europe.creative.com
See also:
Impressive enhancements keep this sound card and speakers ahead of the pack. 06 Jan 2003
All Sound Cards
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