Listening Tests

Music

From low sample MP3s to standard CD audio the Audigy2 offers richer, crisper sound across the board. Bass is certainly more vibrant, and I don't just mean more powerful, I mean generally more pleasing in every respect. You really do need top quality speakers to appreciate how much better things sound as when I swapped to a set of "white box" 4.1s I had to listen pretty hard to hear any major differences between the Audigy and Audigy2 though to be fair the differences could be heard. On better speakers the improvements are fairly quickly evident, as is the degradation when the audio stream gets fed through the suffocating effects engine.

Overall the whole sound stage just feels more expansive and with the right speakers, a little experimentation with the settings and a good quality source the Audigy really does shine. I was listening to "Cry Me A River" by Justin Timberlake in 192kbps MP3 and with CMSS2 enabled and it was bordering on the realms of DVD-Audio quality!

Gaming

Gaming is essentially a case of "more of the same". If you own an Audigy then there's nothing new or exciting to be had from the Audigy 2 apart from cleaner sound quality which might be hard to notice at the window rattling volume levels most gamers use. Creative have also doubled the number of hardware voices from 32 to 64 with support for EAX3.0. If your sole requirement from a sound card is gaming and you already own an Audigy I'd probably be tempted to stick with it but if you're the kind of gamer who appreciate the finer points of in-game audio then you'll not be disappointed.

DVD-Audio

This really is the natural progression to CD audio and needs to be heard to be appreciated. Earlier multi-channel audio solutions didn't really capture the imagination, if you were around in the early 70s you might remember quadraphonic 4 channel sound? For reasons I don't fully understand the world wasn't quite ready for multi-channel sound in the past but I get the feeling its time has come at last and we're entering a new era of audio quality. If by the way you're wondering how sound can get any clearer, richer or more impressive/expressive than the good ole' CDs you already use then just remember that's what your parents said when the CD started to threaten their vinyl collection.

DVD Movies

At the moment you're limited to WinDVD 4 Plus/Platinum if you want to experience the benefits of Dolby EX, or at least that's the only player I'm aware of right now. Of course the movie needs to have been encoded to take advantage the extra channels.

Fortunately things sound wicked whether you're listening in EX or not with the full gamut of sound beautifully reproduced. There's enough give in the drivers to let you tweak the output to your chosen feel whether you like it bass heavy or bright and CMSS 3D can add a new dimension with certain titles.

MIDI

From being the must-have feature of the 1990s MIDI now barely gets a mention on the box. I suppose as most games now use other formats that's to be expected but a lot of people still cherish good quality MIDI on their sound card. I do little to nothing with MIDI myself so for the sake of an accurate appraisal I'll skirt the subject. All I can accurately say is that MIDI quality was every bit as good as on the original Audigy.

Headphones

For anything but true stereo headphones are always going to be something of a compromise but again I can say that performance was simply stunning, to my ears at least.

Conclusion

It's been argued that the Audigy2 is nothing more than the Audigy should have been and while I won't disagree I think that denying them the right to hold a little something in reserve is to not understand the nature of the business world. I've also heard Creative being slammed for offering a card that doesn't match the high end "pro" cards around for features and quality. Get real! The Audigy2 costs a small fraction of the cost of a fully fledged pro solution.

With the Audigy2 Creative have expanded and improved on what was already a tough to beat product and done it without pushing the price too far into the realms of fantasy. Granted it's not cheap by store shelf standards, but with THX certification, a moniker they no doubt pay a handsome sum to use, DVD-Audio, excellent components and a host of top notch features you'd hardly expect it to be.

Sure there are weaknesses, dropping to 16 bits/48 kHz in order to feed the audio through the effects engine for example is a real problem and one that needs addressing quickly. Also, I've no doubt many users would have liked to see some kind of DTS support from the Audigy2. If you imagine you can pay less than £100 for a sound card without there being some compromises I'm afraid you're mistaken. I've also heard of problems using the time shift feature with ATI's All-In-Wonder Radeons though I couldn't test that at the time of writing so check first if this matters.

Initial and very brief testing in an SMP (dual Athlon 2200+) system went well though this is something that needs investigating fully based on past performance with Creative's drivers on an SMP platform. Likwise Linux.

On the software and driver side things are much better but still not great. The applications work and work well but feel a little rushed with some fairly essential features missing, particularly the DVD-Audio player. They also feel very fragmented too with no single interface holding the show together. Some features you can access from the task bar, others you need to trawl through the start menu for. It's a complex task to create a slick interface for software with so many tasks to perform and Creative are getting better but they're not quite there yet. On the plus side once you're used to its quirks there's not much you can't do with it.

Overall Creative have once again done just enough to keep them ahead of the pack and built what must be one of the best, if not THE best consumer sound card on the market. Even for high end use the Audigy2 is a terrific choice provided you research its strengths and compatibility with your favourite software. You'll need top notch speakers to get most from the Audigy2 experience but ultimately that's an investment worth making.

So in summary, if you're as deaf as a post or own crappy speakers the Audigy2 is likely to be wasted on you. If you already own an Audigy and your prime concern is gaming the Audigy2 will offer very few tangible benefits. For everyone else there's enough quality on offer to make the Audigy2 a sound (sorry) purchase. With competition from NVIDIA's SoundStorm and VIA's Envy24 to name but two Creative are going to have to stay on their toes.

I really like the Audigy2 for lots of reasons, not least of which is the simply stunning audio quality. I'll hold off on saying it's the best all round solution available simply because I haven't tried them all but I will go on the record as saying it's the best mainstream sound card my ears have ever had the pleasure of hearing and is a fine addition to any PC where audio matters to any worthwhile degree. The Audigy2 is a very accomplished sound solution, like it or not!