Sound Blaster Audigy
Sound Blaster Audigy is a product line of sound cards from Creative Technology. The flagship model of the Audigy family used the EMU10K2 audio DSP, an improved version of the SB-Live's EMU10K1, while the value/SE editions were built with a less-expensive audio controller.
The Audigy family is available for PCs with a PCI or PCI Express slot, or a USB port.
First generation
The Audigy cards equipped with EMU10K2 could process up to 4 EAX environments simultaneously with its on-chip DSP and native EAX 3.0 ADVANCED HD support, and supported from stereo up to 5.1-channel output. The audio processor could mix up to 64 DirectSound3D sound channels in hardware, up from Live!'s 32 channels.Creative Labs advertised the Audigy as a 24-bit sound card, a controversial marketing claim for a product that did not support end-to-end playback of 24-bit/96 kHz audio streams. The Audigy and Live shared a similar architectural limitation: the audio transport was fixed to 16-bit sample precision at 48 kHz. So despite its 24-bit/96 kHz high-resolution DACs, the Audigy's DSP could only process 16-bit/48 kHz audio sources. This fact was not immediately obvious in Creative's literature, and was difficult to ascertain even upon examination of the Audigy's spec sheets.
Aside from the lack of an end-to-end path for 24-bit audio, Dolby Digital and DTS passthrough had issues that have never been resolved.
Image:Audigy 1 livedrive too dark.jpg|thumb|First generation break out box
Audigy card supports the professional ASIO 1 driver interface natively, making it possible to obtain low latencies from Virtual Studio Technology instruments. Some versions of Audigy featured an external break out box with connectors for S/PDIF, MIDI, IEEE 1394, analog and optical signals. The ASIO and break out box features were an attempt to tap into the "home studio" market, with a mainstream product.
Sound Blaster Audigy ES
This variant uses the full EMU10K2 chip and is, as a result, quite similar in feature set. It is only missing its FireWire port.Sound Blaster Audigy SE & Audigy Value
The Audigy SE and Audigy Value are stripped down models, with a less expensive CA0106 audio-controller in place of the EMU10k2. With the CA0106, the SE/Value are limited to software-based EAX 3.0, no advanced resolution DVD-Audio Playback, and no Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Digital EX 6.1 playback. With these cards only one of the mic, line in, or AUX sources may be unmuted at a time. The Audigy SE and Audigy Value both carry the SB0570 model number. It is possible that the same card was sold in different markets with different names, that perhaps the cards were sold with one name for a while and later it was changed or it's possible they could even be slightly different cards.The SE is a low-profile PCI card in the Audigy family, and still has many unsold units at online retailers unlike the other Audigy cards.
Sound quality
Wavetable
64-voice synthesizer
Audio path
Analog-Digital Converter : 24 bit @ 96 kHz
Digital-Analog Converter : 24 bit @ 96 kHz
recording: 16‥24 bit @ 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 96 kHz
Digital path
S/PDIF: 24 bit @ 44.1, 48, 96 kHz
Sound channels
Analog: 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 and Creative Multi Speaker Surround which means that Audigy SE 7.1 cards can upmix mono or stereo sources to 7.1 channels.
Digital: 2.1
Sound Blaster Audigy LS
The Sound Blaster Audigy LS is similar to the Audigy SE in that it supports neither hardware acceleration nor FireWire.Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX
The Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX is similar to the Audigy ES, but supported an external break out box instead of the standard internal version. It came with a Firewire port and was introduced before the AS models.Sound Blaster Audigy VX
The VX is a low-profile PCI card in the Audigy family.Second generation
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 series
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 featured an updated EMU10K2 processor called CA0102 to gain access to CA0151 which is a separate chip. Collectively CA0102 and CA0151 was sometimes referred to as EMU10K2.5. To address the biggest shortcoming of the original Audigy, a revised DMA engine allowed end-to-end high-resolution audio playback: 96 kHz 6.1 channel recording, and 192 kHz stereo. However, the high-resolution audio was achieved by bypassing the DSP, being decoded directly by CA0151 chip also known as "p16v" to take advantage of which Creative substituted CA0102 for the old CA0100 used in Audigy 1. Using the DSP with high-resolution audiostreams resulted in the Audigy's characteristic downsampling, for mixing with other audio sources.Use of Windows Vista or 7 should mitigate the DSP sample rate conversion issue as setting the card to 16-bit/48 kHz resamples audio using the much superior 32-bit float Windows audio stack before sending it to the card. It is unclear whether this works for all use cases.
The Audigy 2 supported up to 6.1 speakers and had improved signal-to-noise ratio over the Audigy. Audio output was supplied by the AC'97 codec on the front outputs and I²S on the rear. It also featured built-in Dolby Digital Surround EX decoding for improved DVD play-back. An IEEE 1394 connector was present in all modifications except Value.
Audigy 2's 3D audio capabilities received a boost when compared to its predecessors. Creative created the EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD standard to coincide with Audigy 2's release. The chip again can process up to 64 DirectSound3D audio channels in hardware. It also has native support for the free and open source OpenAL audio API.
Image:Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS.jpg|thumb|300px|Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gold
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS series
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS was a revision of the Audigy 2 with a slightly improved signal-to-noise ratio and DTS-ES for DVD playback. The Audigy 2 ZS supports up to 7.1 speakers via 4-pole mini-jacks, although it used a non-conventional pin out: Side R/L are on Line Out 2/3, respectively.Most widespread card of Audigy series. Unofficial drivers for 32 and 64-bit editions of Windows 10 / 8.x / 7 / Vista SP2 / XP SP3 are available.
IRIX has drivers for the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and it can be installed into the SGI Fuel series of workstations.
There was also a cardbus version of the ZS for use with notebook computers.
The PC cards earned the distinction of being the first computer sound cards to be THX-certified.
;Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
The Platinum model includes an audio front panel, called Platinum Drive, which provides various multimedia connections in addition to an Audigy 2 ZS card with the following specs:
Testing chain: External loopback
Sampling mode: 24-bit, 96 kHz
Measured values:
- Noise level, dB : -101.3
- THD, %: 0.0034
- IMD, %: 0.0080
- Stereo crosstalk, dB: -91.8
The Platinum Pro model includes an external I/O Hub with various multimedia connections, sometimes erroneously called the [|Platinum Ex], in addition to an Audigy 2 ZS card with the following specs:
Testing chain: External loopback
Sampling mode: 24-bit, 96 kHz
Measured values:
- Noise level, dB : -104.3
- THD, %: 0.0015
- IMD, %: 0.0070
- Stereo crosstalk, dB: -103.2
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor
The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor was an external USB soundcard, which combined audio playback, accelerated video editing and a 4-port USB 2.0 hub in one solution. It featured accelerated video encoding with DoMiNoFX video processing technologies. The audio system provided THX certified sound and 24-bit EAX ADVANCED HD in 5.1 or 7.1 surround.The video capture of the device is hardware-accelerated; encoding it to a complex format in real-time rather than using the CPU. While this results in good quality video even on basic systems, the device cannot be used by software that uses the standard DirectShow or VfW interface. Because of this limitation, the supplied software to capture video must be used. This prevents use of the device in conjunction with a video camera as a webcam, as standard webcam interfaces use DirectShow.
Creative has made the free VidCap application available on their website. It allows quick and easy capture and output to devices. Captured files can be imported into a video editor application or DVD authoring program.