Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster Audigy2 External Sound Card Sound System (70SB030000000)

by Creative Labs

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000DBMEU
• Item model number: 70SB030000000
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 16, 2003

Product Description

Revolutionize your PC and Notebook music, games, and movies with the ultra-premium sound of Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX with remote. This high fidelity, external, USB 2.0 ready sound system delivers superior 24-bit ADVANCED HD audio quality, 24-bit DVD-Audio playback, and captivating 7.1 surround with Notebooks and PCs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, could be great!, November 11, 2003

By 

William Wood "Bill" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster Audigy2 External Sound Card Sound System (70SB030000000) (Personal Computers)

I bought the Audigy 2 NX to hook into my laptop into my surround receiver. I'm especially pleased with the CMSS 3D surround "up-sample" feature. CMSS 3D beats SRS Circle Surround 2 upsampling (which only provides a mono signal to the surround speakers) easily, and is very competitive (although quite different!) with Dolby Pro Logic II upsampling.

However, I have several issues/problems.

1) The Audigy doesn't remember the mixer volume settings (eg Master and Wave) across a power up/down cycle of the Audigy hardware. I really hate having to go in and reset the volume every time I turn the system on.

2) I would like to apply CMSS 3D to my radio and other analog signals, but cannot because CMSS 3D does not get applied to "line in" signals, only to Wave signals.

3) There is no way to set the speaker distance to compensate for speakers that are at differing distances from the listening position. Competitor products like the M-Audio Sonica Theatre and stereo receivers have this capability.

4) There is no speaker size setting (eg small, medium, large) to ensure proper bass management. If the surround speakers are small, bass going to them should be routed to the front speakers or subwoofer (if present). Again, the M-Audio Sonica Theatre has this capability, as do stereo receivers.

5) It would be really useful to have VU meters for input and output (all channels) built into the driver. The M-Audio Sonica Theatre has very useful VU meters. Unfortunately the M-Audio also makes my system (XP) crash!

6) I find all the different "consoles" to be confusing and time-consuming to launch. They should combine the Surround Mixer, EAX, Graphic Equalizer, and Speaker consoles.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good hardware, but has room for improvement, August 15, 2004

By 

Vinayak Raghuvamshi (Pune, India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster Audigy2 External Sound Card Sound System (70SB030000000) (Personal Computers)

I work in the streaming media industry and have used many different types of sound cards...

The Audigy 2 does its job, but I think there are a few annoyances.

1. It is an external sound card with an USB interface, but it still needs a seperate power supply (although it needs just 5Volts)

2. Your computer has to be ON all the time even when you are just trying to route the audio from another external device like your VCR. This makes no sense to me given the fact that this sound card has its own dedicated power supply. So, even though it is an "external" card, it is still pretty much wedded to your computer. I could as well have used a cheaper internal card that does the same thing.

3. The Media control software crashes very easily. Especially when you try to launch the media control when your Audigy card has been powered off

4. When you use the "Mute" button on your remote, many times you find no way of Un-Muting - pressing the Mute on your remote does not have an effect and you have to walk over to your computer and manually un-mute it. This happens to me 9 out or 10 times.

5. There is huge difference in the volume levels of your audio output depending on whether you play audio using the Creative's media player Or some other player like the Windows media player. They have a "smart" volume control but enabling it made the audio sound kind of "choked up".

I would suggest that you buy this card if you plan on using it solely with your laptop. But if you are planning on using this as a control center for all your audio devices at home, then you may want to look some place else (unless you dont mind keeping a computer near your VCR/DVD Player etc and it stays on all the time)

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Your ears will sing praise to you, April 6, 2004

By 

iloveads47 (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster Audigy2 External Sound Card Sound System (70SB030000000) (Personal Computers)

First of all, you will hear the difference. I absolutely guarantee it. You're laptop (or default pc) audio cannot even begin to measure up to the awesome power of the Audigy. You will hear it the moment you plug this marvel into your USB port. Even your mundane and boring-to-the-death windows system sounds now carry a cadence that was simply not there before.

The sound card supports 7.1 speakers (for hardcore gamers) as well as the more pedestrian 5.1 setup (like mine). the handling of surround sound is superb. The availability of EAX (the patented SoundBlaster HARDWARE sound package) provides for seemless transitions, and the direct hardware equalizer and on the fly effects are a tremendous bonus if you are planning to use this second sound card's output for DJ-ing (like i am).

The fact that this has an independent power supply might seem inconvenient at first, and frankly... it is... There is a tradeoff, however... You will not believe how loud your speakers can actualy go now without distorting! Deafening. Almost like a pre-amp in that respect.

The negative reviews for this card startle me. Jeff Rutsch is incorrect when he says the USB cable is short. Its 4 feet. Too long for me, actually... furthermore, if you want a 20 foot cable, go out and buy it! No issues whatsoever with magnetic shielding... Its a SoundBlaster for heaven's sake! I have also not had any problems with the installation (even though it took a good hour!) or recognition. It does help if you "Safely Remove" it and/or plug it in before booting up... Otherwise the remote does not always work properly. Also, talking about CD sound, Jeff (even if he is a computer guru, as he claims) did not do his homework. By default your CD-ROM drive converts the digital audio into analog for playback. If you do not adjust this setting, that is the way it will stay after you install the new hardware. Come on Jeff! That was both in the help file and the tutorial program! You should have read those!

Woody Jin's comments also amuse me. There apparently is a white noise that you can't really hear, but its there. What??? :| If you can't hear it.. its not there by definition... Right?

As a matter of fact my experience has been that my onboard laptop audio sounds like a woodsaw compared to this.... Actually the Audigy2 does not produce *any* background noise. At all...

My only "problem" with this device is that it almost neccecitates a speaker upgrade... I am eagerly awaiting my new set of speakers right now, in order to better experience the explosive sound of the Audigy2 card...