Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card

Average customer rating: 3.5

Hardware is exceptional; drivers are abysmal.
Frustrating
Software was written by gibbon monkeys.
No input
Great-Sounding Stuff

Listmania:

Media PC
Upgrade to a powerful computer
Build the best pc ever
Ultimate Computer

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card

Manufacturer: Creative Labs
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B00006RVQK

Related Categories:

Up to $75

Creative Labs

Internal

Internal

Product Description

With the introduction of the Sound Blaster Audigy 2, Creative has once more raised the bar for PC audio, bringing to you the most definitive audio experience yet!Sound Blaster Audigy 2 delivers high-quality multi-channel recording and playback at up to 24-bit/96kHz and is the first PC product to offer playback of Advanced Resolution DVD-Audio at an astonishing 24-bit/192kHz with a stunning Signal-to-Noise ratio of 106dB, delivering spectacular audio quality that has now redefined PC audio standards. With EAX Advanced HD, 6.1 speaker support and Dolby Digital EX support, movies and games will be experienced with a breathtaking level of immersion and intensity, while SB1394 allows super-fast transfer of audio to external players.

Amazon.com Product Description

For the highest-quality audio experience, 16-bit is just not good enough. Step up to Sound Blaster Audigy 2 to hear the amazing difference that 24-bit Advanced HD makes. It delivers astonishing clarity and audio details that are inaudible on current 16-bit audio solutions, bringing your music, movies, and games to life.

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 offers Advanced Resolution DVD-audio playback up to an astonishing 24-bit/192 kHz in stereo, and delivers an ultraquiet 106 dB SNR that's far superior to ordinary CD and MP3 playback. With 6.1 speaker support, your games and Dolby Digital EX movies will sound more encompassing than ever before. The new Creative MediaSource music player will revolutionize your MP3 experience with its intuitive interface and rich feature set, while the Audigy 2 chip with EAX Advanced HD support delivers awesome power for gaming. Get Sound Blaster Audigy 2 for 24-bit/192 kHz audio fidelity--it delivers simply the best audio quality for music, movies, and games. Nothing else comes close.

Customer Reviews:

Hardware is exceptional; drivers are abysmal........2006-12-30

I use a couple of Audigy 2ZS in my recording business. No other soundcard on the market, then or now, offers the flexibility and just great sound capturing capabilities of this card. Interestingly, all the later Creative products no longer support 192k/24 bit sampling, so this card is truly unique. The only other manufactured card supporting this brilliant sampling clarity costs US$250 more!

If you only get a hold of one of these cards to see how good audio CAN be on your computer, do it. It's jaw-droppingly good.

But I have to reinforce the driver problems described by others. I have dealt directly with the driver team at CL, and to say they are unhelpful is an understatement. Early drivers (e.g. those shipped on the CD) had some pretty bad flaws, but at least they allowed the card to work to its full potential (which is really astonishingly good!).

All the latest drivers (since late 2005) use the Creative "universal" driver model, which means they are designed to work correctly ONLY with the newer, low market level CL cards. All the new drivers have significant bugs and "showstopper" flaws, and completely prevent the card from being used properly (i.e. nowhere near it's actual technical specifications). Then there's a whole other discussion about CL supporting more than one card in any computer system. Old drivers worked beautifully with multiple cards, but new drivers just lock out inputs and confuse mixer settings and just don't work, full stop.

So if you want one of the clearest, most flexible, highest sample rate cards ever on the PC market up to this year, get one of these if you can (I've bought 3 spare cards in case any of my current ones die, as CL no longer support the product at all). Just don't expect the latest "mass market", "cloth-eared consumer" Creative labs drivers to work properly, and don't expect CL to help you with any technical problems. Ever.

To be honest, my next card will be anything BUT a Creative Labs product. But for me, the Audigy 2ZS is the BMW of the older audio card market. Have a drive, if you can. You just probably wouldn't want to own one.

Frustrating.......2006-05-05

Alright...when I can actually get this darn thing to work right it is an EXCELLENT sound card..But over the past few years I've had this thing I have had to reinstall the drives numerous times....I mean...much more than I should have to...This program will only function right for me for about a few months before I have to reinstall it again. I have updated my drivers and I'm sure nothing is wrong with my hard drive, still get the same problem...suddenly something stops working right, this time it was the fact that I can only choose 4.1 speakers..not even headphones or anything else...I dont even have 4.1 speakers....I have 6.1...Last time I couldn't change the EAX settings from default, so everything sounded horrible, the time before that I couldn't even open the EAX console period, mostly it's just problems with their EAX software. Which if you dont use everything sounds much worse by the way. If you can look past that problem though....great sound card...creative just needs to learn how to program decent software, cause the drivers for this sound card are absolutely horrid.

Software was written by gibbon monkeys........2005-11-30

I have had this card for 2 years now and it has worked fine for me as long as I didn't play with Creative's drivers or software.

All of a sudden, sound quit coming out of my rear speakers ONLY in certain Creative applications, and the speaker calibrator quit putting out any sound. So I uninstalled the drivers and tried to reinstall them.

Be aware that -

1. Creative will NEVER offer a driver pack on its webpage. You MUST, I repeat MUST start with your original CD to load some drivers, and then you can get Creative's patches from their webpage. Now that my CD is 2 years old, there appears to be a conflict with *its* drivers and creative's patches. Apparently not enough bananas were bought for the gibbons, and they wandered out to the jungle in search of nourishment before finishing a full driver package.

2. There is a good chance that once you go to reinstall your drivers, you will get a "Hardware not found" message (see Creative's tech support forum) and not be able to install the drivers. Want another banana, Creative programmer? OOO OOO OO AHH AHHH AHHH!

My card is now a steaming pile of $100 poo since their driver system is not working for me.

Wish I had my old Turtle Beach Santa Cruz back.

No input.......2004-09-02

I had this card installed in my Dell when I ordered it and I will say it does sound great BUT there is one proplem with it that I need and that is the input will not work. I called Creative Labs, Dell and got no where. Now maybe not many people need to use the input jack but it is a must for me. My old computer had a simple card but it did work. So if you want just great sound, this card is good but if you need to record albums, etc. then forget it, this card won't do it, or at least mine won't.

Great-Sounding Stuff.......2004-02-05

To suggest that this soundcard is a dramatic improvement over on-board sound is a massive understatement. I recently purchased a new computer, one far more powerful and speedy than my old one, but I soon discovered that my media didn't sound nearly as good as I was used to hearing. I'd had a Sound Blaster Live card in my old unit, but I could not install that in the new computer: It was not compatible with Windows XP. Hence, I had to buy a new soundcard, not something super-fancy or compatible with speakers in 100 different rooms: Just something that kicks out good stereo sound for a good three-speaker setup, not to mention the ability to utilize more channels should I ever decide to go that route. The difference in the sound blew my mind: So much richer, deeper, more full in both lows and highs. This thing makes my computer sound wonderful, whether I'm playing it through my computer speakers or running it through my stereo. Helps with cd burning as well, as it allows for full-range copying of discs with 24-bit sound. Highly recommended!

Electronics:

Electronics

Electronics