Creative Audigy 2 sound card very urgent

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.
Are you in for an Audigy 2? Well, the list of new features offered is extensive to say the least and we certainly put the card through its paces. Read on for a detailed exploration into the Audigy 2.



Connectivity

Besides the optional Joystick/MIDI bracket, the Audigy 2 features Line & Mic inputs, 3 Stereo Line Outputs, a single Digital Output and a single Firewire/IEEE 1394 port. Output wise the Audigy 2 is fairly flexible, too, supporting up to 6.1 channel Analog output, with the rear center channel carried on Line-out 3 in addition to the Front center and Subwoofer independent channels (compatible with currently available Creative 6.1 Speaker systems).
Unlike most other Soundcards though, the Audigy 2 can also send a 2, 4 or 5.1 channel signal over it’s digital output using a 4 pole mini-jack. For the most part this will only remain compatible with Creative’s own Speaker systems e.g. MegaWorks 510D, Inspire 5700, etc. while other receivers are likely to output this signal as stereo. During our tests I used both multi-channel Analog & Digital output modes.