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Creative
Labs Audigy Player
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Author : Wayne
Date : 20th November 2001
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Introduction :
In an industry that can make and break companies
in a matter of days, Creative Labs' reign at the top of the
audio arena has been nothing short of amazing. In the good old
days of DOS gaming, the only way to be certain that you were
getting "Soundblaster Compatibility" was to actually
buy a Soundblaster, and even though the industry has moved towards
the more universal sound standards championed by Microsoft's
DirectX, we still see the Soundblaster line holding a healthy
command of the sound card market.
It seems remarkable that it's now three years
since the Soundblaster Live was introduced, and although its
uniquely programmable Emu10K1 audio chip has seen steady, if
unspectacular improvements over those three years, Creative
was beginning to feel the pressure from the new generation of
technologies introduced by the likes of Sensaura, QSound and
even NVIDIA. Not wanting to fall too far off the bleeding edge
Creative realised it was time to develop a new audio chip, and
with a claimed 4x power advantage over the Emu10K1, Audigy was
born.
The entire range of Audigy cards are based on
the exact same board, with the only differences being in the
software bundle or the inclusion of the Audigy Drive, a plug-in
external or internal breakout box that offers a wealth of additional
inputs, outputs and controls.
The card we'll be looking at today is the Audigy
Player. Like the Audigy Gamer, Audigy MP3+ and Audigy Digital
Entertainment, the player ships as a bare card plus software
bundle offering a more cost effective option for those who can't
stretch the funds and buy into the Platinum range. Here's the
specs :
| Feature |
Description |
| MIDI
Features |
| Synthesizer
Chip |
Audigy |
| Synthesizer
Type |
Wavetable |
| Polyphony |
64 (with
8-point interpolation) |
| RAM size |
Based
on System RAM, up to 1GB |
| Sample
Sets |
4 MB |
| Synthesizer
Effects |
Reverb,
Chorus, Flanger, Pitch Shifter, Distortion, etc |
| MIDI Channels |
48 |
| Effects
Engine |
32-bit |
| Digital
Audio Features |
| Duplex
Type |
Full |
| Max. Recording
Depth |
16-bit |
| Max. Recording
Rate |
48kHz |
| Max. Playback
Depth |
24-bit |
| Max. Playback
Rate |
96kHz |
| Signal-to-Noise
Ratio |
100dB |
| Soundfont
Support |
Yes, including
Soundfont 2.1 |
| Built-in
Amplifier |
No |
| Compatibility |
| Windows
XP |
Downloadable |
| Windows
ME |
Yes |
| Windows
2000 |
Yes |
| Windows
98 |
Yes (Win
98SE required for SB1394 support) |
| Windows
95 |
No |
| Windows
NT 4.0 |
Yes |
| Windows
3.x |
No |
| DOS |
Yes |
| Linux |
No |
| General
MIDI |
Yes |
| MPC3 |
Yes |
| Plug &
Play |
Yes |
| Sound
Blaster PCI |
Yes |
| EAX Support |
Yes |
| Microsoft
DirectSound |
Yes |
| Microsoft
DirectSound 3D & Derivatives |
Yes |
| PCI 2.1 |
Yes |
| AC97 |
Yes |
| MPU-401
UART |
Yes |
| Dolby®
Digital 5.1 decoding |
Yes |
| EAX Advanced
HD |
Yes |
| ASIO Support |
Yes |
| Connectors |
| Microphone
In |
Yes |
| Line In |
Yes |
| Line Out
(Front)/Speaker Out |
Yes |
| Line Out
(Rear) |
Yes |
| MIDI/Joystick
Port |
Yes, as
a separate attachment |
| MPC3 CD
Audio In |
Yes |
| Auxiliary
In |
Yes |
| S/PDIF
In |
No |
| Telephone
Answering Device (TAD) In |
Yes |
| 24-bit
DAC (Digital to Analog Convertor) |
Yes |
| 24-bit
ADC (Analog to Digital Convertor) |
Yes |
| Analog/Digital
Out |
Yes (Analog:
Center & Subwoofer / Digital : 6-channel S/PDIF) |
| Digital
DIN Support |
Yes |
| SB1394
Connector |
Yes |
| CD Digital
In |
Yes |
| Others |
| 4 Speaker
Support |
Yes |
| Creative
MultiSpeaker Surround |
Yes |
| Creative
Environments |
Yes |
| 5.1 Speaker
Support |
Yes |
| Headphone
Support |
Yes |
| Front/Rear
Speaker Level Adjustment |
Yes |
| Center
Speaker Level Adjustment |
Yes |
| Subwoofer
Level Adjustment |
Yes |
| Crossover
Frequency Adjustment |
Yes (10
- 200Hz) |
| CreativeWare
Program Elilgibility |
Yes |
| Dolby
Digital 5.1 Pass-through |
Yes (with
Dolby Digital-capable softDVD player) |
| DTS pass-through |
Yes (with
DTS-capable softDVD player) |
| AudigyDrive |
| AudigyDrive |
No |
Before we look at what's changed, it might be
worth talking about what hasn't. With competitors offering 64
or more 3D audio streams, most people felt that Audigy would
also improve on the Live's ability to handle only 32. This hasn't
happened and Audigy offers the same 32 stream maximum as the
Live did, and although this may seem odd on the face of it,
I actually don't see it as a problem. I doubt the human brain
has the ability to analyse and track even 32 positional 3D audio
streams let alone 64 or more. More surprising perhaps is Creative's
decision not to add MP3 acceleration, and while most semi-modern
CPUs are perfectly capable of decoding MP3's with plenty of
headroom to spare, it does seem a shame that this feature is
missing.
What has been added however is a a much improved
3D audio engine with better reverb handling (up to four simultaneously),
Audio Clean-up to remove hiss, pops and crackles from analogue
sound sources, DREAM which is a versatile stereo expansion utility,
SoundFont 2.1 support, ASIO support, 96 kHz 24 bit DACs and
the impressive inclusion of an SB1394 (Firewire) connector.
Let's examine the card itself :
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