Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card

by Creative

Product Details

Product Manual [1.82mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006RVQK
• Item model number: SB0240P
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 17, 2002

Product Description

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.

From the Manufacturer

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/96 kHz resolution and is the first PC product to offer playback of Advanced Resolution DVD-Audio at an astonishing 24-bit/192 kHz with a stunning signal-to-noise ratio of 106 dB, 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.

Advanced Resolution DVD-Audio
The only PC-based solution to enable the Advanced Resolution era of 24-bit music fidelity with 192 kHz in stereo and 96 kHz in 5.1. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 brings you the purest music-listening experience on the PC with support for the music industry's latest high definition format: DVD-Audio, which reproduces music with greater brilliance and clarity compared to audio CDs, while preserving the depth and warmth of the original recording.

Sound Blaster 24-bit Advanced HD Audio
The best Sound Blaster clarity ever, rivaling home-theater audio quality for music, games and movies--vastly superior to host audio. Sound Blaster 24-bit Advanced HD audio performance at 106 dB SNR in the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 delivers up to eight times better clarity than host audio. The new Audigy 2 chip, premium quality 24-bit/192 kHz digital to analog converters (DACs), and a true 24-bit Advanced HD audio path ensure "hiss-free" audio fidelity and exceptional clarity of 106 dB SNR. Powerful Audigy 2 processing enables full 24-bit/96 kHz audio resolution in discrete 5.1-channel surround sound with playback of Windows Media Audio (WMA) 9 Professional, the Web's first digital 5.1 surround sound audio codec from the Windows Media 9 Series.

THX-Certified
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 is currently the first and only add-in sound card to be THX-certified. Being THX-certified means that the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 has passed the most stringent and rigorous audio quality and performance tests set by THX, the audio experts in the movie industry, so you can be assured that the awesome THX audio experience you've enjoyed in the cinema will be reproduced faithfully on your PC.

6.1 Surround Sound
Experience superior multi-channel audio from MP3s, CDs, DirectSound 3D games, and Dolby Digital EX movies with a rear center speaker. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 enhances immersion with improved directionality and ambience perception delivered through an additional rear center channel on 6.1 speaker systems, bringing vivid and intense realism that will thrust you right into the heart of your favorite music, games and movies.

Creative MediaSource
The most exciting features yet with library search, automatic playlist volume control, and hiss removal for MP3s. Creative MediaSource provides you sophisticated and intuitive control over your entire MP3 and music library. Its intelligent search engine helps you quickly locate songs. SVM (Smart Volume Management) helps you maintain a balanced playback volume level across your entire playlist so you won't have to adjust the volume between songs. Audio Clean-Up gives even your old music collection a facelift by removing hisses and clicks from recordings of old cassette tapes and vinyl records.

24-bit/96 kHz Recording
The purest commercially available recording path captures the quality and subtle details of your audio creations. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 lets you make rich 24-bit recordings to your PC from analog sources with an unprecedented 24-bit/96 kHz recording capability, while ASIO support allows compatible music creation software to link directly to ASIO compliant hardware, allowing multi-channel recording simultaneously at 16-bit/48 kHz at ultra-low-latency of less than or equal to 2 ms.

EAX Advanced HD Gaming
The ultimate platform for delivering unparalleled audio realism from the hottest gaming titles. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 gives you the ultimate game audio realism with its built-in EAX Advanced HD technology, which delivers accurate reverberations, seamless audio transition between environments, effects processing power capable of simultaneously processing multiple environment effects and more. All of which can now be enjoyed in over a dozen premier game titles, including Unreal Tournament 2003, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Neverwinter Nights, Hitman 2, and Soldier of Fortune 2.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very happy with it, April 7, 2003

By 

Carlos Santiago (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card (Personal Computers)

Let me start right off by saying that I am not an audiophile and maybe I can not discern between a good/bad quality audio stream, so the fact that I purchased this audio card would seem like a big waste of money.

I actually purchased this card after I started having a few resource problems between a fire wire card and my onboard audio that were getting to be very irritating.

When I read that this card had integrated fire wire connectivity in addition to the sound capabilities, plus two bundled high quality games (Soldier of Fortune II and Hit man 2) I told myself I couldn't go wrong by spending a few more bucks than the average sound card.

This card does make an extremely noticeable difference in the way we listen to any kind of audio. MP3s just sound better, period. A few of my MP3's that previously were almost unplayable now simply sound better, I don't know how it works, it just does.

My Unreal Tournament 2003 game is a totally different experience with this card. Boy, I was simply mesmerized with the positional EAX sound performance of the Audigy 2 card with this game. With my onboard sound, I had a lot of difficulty locating enemies by using positional sounds, but now it is so much clearer and crisp, it's unbelievable. Here's where I got totally convinced about the true difference between my onboard sound, which I thought was more than enough, and a truly remarkable work of technology.

I also tested the fire wire with my video camera and it works like a charm, plus now I do not suffer from system resource problems anymore.

Card installation is simple: With the PC off, insert the card, make sure to disable onboard sound (via the BIOS) if any, boot up, install the drivers from the CD, restart and done. Make sure to download the latest drivers afterwards.

Don't get intimidated by the price tag. This is one of the best investments you could make for your PC if you want to enjoy true quality audio.

5 stars

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fabulous sound but watch out..., March 11, 2003

By 

alizmus (long branch, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card (Personal Computers)

this is probably one of the best sound cards you'll come across. great sound and great features.

but watch out. for certain motherboard-sound card combinations (like intel, for instance), this card suffers from a "sqeal of death". every now and then a high pitched sqeal is emitted from the card and the computer freezes requiring a reboot. this occurs frequently and is very irritating. the problem is said to be with the software drivers so make sure this problem is fixed before buying this card.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hardware is exceptional; drivers are abysmal., December 29, 2006

By 

Peter Naus "Spd Rdr" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card (Personal Computers)

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.