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Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Reviewed

Posted by timothy on from the handy-built-in-digital-out-disabling dept.

Julio writes "For some, the Audigy 2 is what the original Audigy should have been, however without trying to underestimate Creative efforts, they are bringing us today a revamped soundcard that is set to raise the bar like the original Live! did, many years ago. You will be happy to know that Creative has taken care of the board quality from the ground up, newer and better DACs are used to ensure 24-Bit/96-kHz/192kHz playback and among the rest of niceties the card offers you have DVD-Audio playback, full 6.1 surround sound, THX certification and the mandatory (for a Creative soundcard) EAX Advanced HD."

2 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. I hate to be a troll... by YahoKa · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    but Creative sucks.

    I regret every buying creative soundcards ... they leave you stranded in terms of drivers and support.

    Slashdot shouldn't be giving creative free advertising on the front page

  2. integrated sound has to killing them by asv108 · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    A few years ago hardly any motherboards came with integrated sound and those that did were of poor quality so if you were a gamer or someone who was casually in to music you had to buy a card from creative or somebody else.

    Today, most motherboards come with integrated sound and most of the newer ones come with digital outs and 5.1 compatible chips. Why would anyone purchase an Audidgy 2? If your an audiophile, you know better than to touch a creative product especially after the crappy digital IO on the Live series. Speaking of the live series, the drivers are simply horrendous. Talk about bloat, I bought an Audigy for the front firewire, and the drivers are ridiculous. You can't download just a barebones driver and when you do install the full CD setup, creative tries to take over your system even if you do a minimal install.

    So why should anyone purchase an Audigy 2? Especially considering that it has DRM and worst drivers I've encountered. Creative has abused their strong position in the soundcard market for too long and has failed to deliver products that meet their customers needs. Now, almost all motherboards comes with audio that is perfectly adequate for gamers and basic AV work. If you need to do anything more(audiophiles), creative is not a good choice anyway.