Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy Sound Card

by Creative

Product Details

Product Manual [3.41mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000062TTF
• Item model number: SB0103EX
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #41 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Internal Sound Cards
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 4, 2002

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Sound Blaster Extigy is the revolutionary, external, quality-audio solution from Creative. Designed to provide stunning digital audio to notebook or desktop users who cannot open their PCs--or would prefer not to--it installs quickly and easily by USB. A remote control is standard.

With 24-bit DACs and a 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio, hardware Dolby Digital decoding, multi-channel output, and 24-bit/96 kHz-compatible connectivity, the Sound Blaster Extigy gives a powerful, high-end audio and home-theater experience. It also offers EAX Advanced HD music features such as Audio Clean-Up, Time Scaling, and Dream, and can operate as a stand-alone Dolby Digital decoder for use with DVD players or entertainment consoles.

Quick Installation with USB
Sound Blaster Extigy easily plugs into any available USB port on your PC or notebook. Connect your speakers, load the Sound Blaster Extigy’s suite of software, and elevate your music-listening experience forever.

Connect Your Digital and Analog Devices
With an emphasis on versatility, you can now connect your PC or notebook to most digital entertainment devices such as DVD players, CD and MP3 players, MIDI devices, stereo and multi-channel speakers, headphones, and more. Featured ports include optical digital-audio and MIDI in/out, S/PDIF-in (coaxial digital-audio), line-in (analog), and mic-in.

Tweak Your Sound from Across the Room
Convenient and fun, the front-panel control knobs and wireless remote provide you with total control of your sound experience. If you own surround sound speakers, you will love the one-touch CMSS button that turns any stereo recording, including MP3 and WMA music files, into a surround sound masterpiece. Be the first to benefit from the high-powered, easy-to-use Sound Blaster Extigy--the external Sound Blaster that adds stunning digital audio fidelity to your PC and notebook.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too Many Flaws, June 10, 2003

By 

Tony He "kompressor" (Kirkland, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

Great sound is almost a necessity to me, but like most college students, I opted for a laptop instead of a desktop. I felt that the only way to take full advantage of my 5.1 analog surround sound system was to connect my laptop to the SB Extigy. Connecting via USB was more or less a nightmare for me: playing anything through my CD-ROM drive produced loud pops and cracks that noticeably distracts from any music listening or movie watching (the Extigy was the ONLY USB device attached to my laptop at the time, and yes, I did enable DMA for my CD drive). Playing any material with a Dolby Digital stream, even after the movie had been copied to my HD (DivX with AC3 audio) was even a greater disappointment, especially since the Extigy so proudly wears the Dolby Digital logo. As long as I'm playing sound through USB on the Extigy with the Creative drivers, approximately 20% extra processing load is put on my 1.7 GHz Pentium 4-M processor. This extra processor usage is acceptable to some, but definitely not to gamers.

My laptop also has an optical-out link, so I hooked up my laptop to the Extigy using a [$] optical miniplug to TOSlink cable.... Virtually all the cracking and popping noises disappeared even when I played DVDs and DivX movies with AC3 audio. However, my Toshiba laptop's optical out port requires my old Yamaha sound drivers - not Creative's. This means that I can't have any EAX sound effects for music or games; it's a slightly disappointing tradeoff, though I'd rather have flawless output than EAX effects.

For those with desktops, don't even consider the Extigy. A PCI Audigy is cheaper and significantly better. For those with laptops without optical out, it's either 2.1 audio from your laptop without the Extigy, or up to 5.1 audio with the Extigy along with occasional loud pops (I would personally prefer clean 2.1 audio in this case). If you own a laptop with optical out, then get the Logitech Z-680. The cost of the Z-680 is just about equal to the cost of the Extigy + the cost of a mid-range analog 5.1 audio system, except the Z-680 has hardware Dolby Digital/DTS decoding built-in, with optical, coax, and analog inputs, plus 505 Watts RMS output (1000W peak! Take that Kiplish). Did I mention that they are also THX multimedia certified? Just icing on the cake.

Do yourself a favor and skip on the Extigy if you can. USB 1.1 has a relatively narrow bandwidth and USB (even Firewire) relies too heavily on the main processor for data transfers. Though Extigy is an interesting product and worth some merits, wait for the next generation of high-end external computer sound cards (or get the Z-680 now!).

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sound Blaster Extigy is very nice and the price is right!, March 14, 2002

By 

E. Jeffrie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

I bought my Sound Blaster Extigy because of the price, but the USB features since I ran out of PCI slot. I was surprised that Sound Blaster Extigy is EXTREMELY easy to install. Just turn the sound card on and plug the USB cable to the computer and install the driver. I did it without any problem.

Another cool feature of extigy is, the card is external so I don't have to crawl to the back of my computer and try to switch the jacks. I use The Logitech 4.1 THX speakers and The speakers produce the most awesome 3D sound when I watch Jurasic Park III, it seems like the dinasours were in the living room.

Creative Labs unfortunately has bad reputation of having the slowest customer service. I wish they will improve it in the future, since they are no.1 sound card company.

Overall, I recommend this external sound card. The price is right and the quality is very nice.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simplicity , Versatility , Affordability !!!, March 12, 2003

By 

IronCan "ironcan" (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews

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

I originally bought this extigy for my desktop cause it's a sony and I can't upgrade it internally. Here are my thoughts:
Pros: Simple and Easy installation
Theatre quality sound effect
Reduce noise normally overlooked by its competitions
Multiple connectivity (also work with PS2 and DVD players)
Great Virtual Surround Sound even with 4.1 system
Remote control
Affordable Price
One plug connection when using 510d or 550thx (Cambridge
Soudwork) speaker systems
Cons: USB 1.0 is a bit slow and may slow down computer system
from time to time. (Hopefully creative comes out with a
USB 2.0 or Firewire version of Extigy soon.)
Overall, I am very pleased with this product mainly for it's simple installation process as well as the quality sound it makes. I have both Altec 641 as well as Cambridge 510d speaker systems. On the 510d...man...they are a perfect match, producing flawless sounds. Don't get me wrong, cause even with the Altec 641 (4.1 system) you can hear every single rain drops when watching a DVD, just as if you were under the rain. Don't take my word for it. You have to experience it to believe it!
I hope you get to enjoy this as much as I do. And hope my review is helpful to you as well!!! Have a nice day !^_^!