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发信人: chris (素敌だね), 信区: Hardware
标  题: Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX
发信站: 荔园晨风BBS站 (Wed Sep 19 17:01:08 2001), 转信

Even if the Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX didn't produce the
clearest, cleanest, and most detailed sound we have heard from a consume
grade PC audio card, the unveiling of Creative Labs' new generation
of audio cards still would be an event. For the last decade, the
company's Sound Blaster line has been the de facto standard that all
competitors literally emulated. The new Audigy line upgrades most
aspects of the Sound Blaster Live!: There's a new audio chip with four
times the processing power, a much-enhanced EAX Advanced HD standard for
future game effects, and 24-bit audio output with an extremely clean
100dB signal-to-noise ratio. Only time will tell how developers actually
program for the new EAX effects. Regardless, we were pleased to find
that the Audigy greatly improves the overall sound quality for
everything from old game titles to MP3s and DVDs. Some compatibility
problems persist with Athlon motherboards based on VIA chipsets, but the
depth of functionality, power, and performance make the Creative's
Audigy cards the best on the market today.
The top-of-the-line $250 Audigy Platinum eX model is packed with
audio-creation features and hardware, likely to be overkill for many
users. Installing the three parts to the Platinum eX is quite intricate.
First comes the main PCI card, which has rear connections for front and
rear speakers, line-in, coaxial digital out (doubling as a third analog
stereo output for 5.1), and an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port. While the
Platinum eX model only uses one actual PCI slot, ribbon cables connect
it to an extension card that requires a second open PCI bracket space.
This extension card is the go-between to the Platinum eX external
breakout box. A thick cable connects the extension card to the
breakout box, which contains a daunting array of audio connectors:
coaxial and optical digital connectors, headphone jack, yet another
firewire port, midi in/out ports, and additional line-in jacks. A
sizeable remote control uses a sensor on the breakout box to control
both audio- and video-playback software. The $200 Sound Blaster Audigy
Platinum package includes an internal 5 1/4-inch drive bay module for
the additional I/O functions. The $100 Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer
dispenses with the external drive altogether but comes bundled with Deus
Ex and Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

There are more than a dozen bundled software titles in the Platinum eX
package, including audio mixers, recorders, and editors. Like most Sound
Blaster products, the Audigy installation is fairly invasive, adding
drop-down menus and system tray applets that are not that easy to
remove. The payoff for these intrusions is the promise of the EAX
Advanced HD game effects, which are intended to advance game realism
on several fronts. The more powerful Audigy processor now can render
up to four different sound environments at the same time. This means
that a player may be able to simultaneously hear sounds that have
originated or passed through different audio environments. The Audigy
processor can also morph two audio environments for a smooth
transition in the effects--something that was not previously possible.
New routines also let developers simulate far-off and approaching
sound sources more realistically (Environmental Panning) and create
echoes in various settings (Environmental Reflections). The promise of
multi-environment audio exists only in the bundled tech demo for now,
but the immersion possible with the Audigy is impressive.

While some of the advanced functions can't be tested in current games,
the Audigy card does a startlingly good job on existing game, music, and
DVD tracks. Between the upgraded 3D processor and the new 24-bit
digital and analog converters doing the work, everything we played on
the Audigy sounded clean and clear. Even though past Sound Blaster cards
have produced more background noise than some high-end competitors,
we couldn't get a hint of a hiss out of the Audigy even at the highest
volume. On existing games, it succeeded in pulling new levels of
detail and sound separation out of subtle scores in Alice and Deus Ex,
separating out distant footsteps, voices, and low-level ambient
effects that we hadn't detected before. The four-point sound positioning
was also exceptional. For instance, in moving around one of the
fireplaces in Undying, the sound of crackling fire was precisely where
it should be relative to the game character and with very little of
the channel crossover that tends to deaden the 3D effect. A real
standout feature is the simulated 3D imaging from the headphone jack,
which is far and away the best we've heard. Turn your back on that
same fireplace in Undying even with inexpensive stereo headphones, and
the crackling is occluded so that is seems to be behind you and
positioned differently in the headphone soundstage. Superb.

The 24-bit processors play a big part in the improved sound quality. The
24-bit DACs on the Audigy card process sound at a higher bit rate
than other consumer cards with 16- or 20-bit audio. Just as higher
16-bit and 32-bit color depths on video cards allow for sharper colors
and smoother blending, so does a higher audio bit rate allow for more
information to get processed, resulting in a greater fidelity and
depth of sound. The Audigy will also improve the sound of standard
16-bit music CDs, because when 16-bit sound is mixed through a 16-bit
sound card, part of the mix is often squeezed down to fit. Creative says
that its new DACs keep the sound resolutions high throughout the
process and so can reproduce all of the stream more precisely. However,
the full result can only be had with analog speakers at the moment,
as currently available digital speaker sets use 16-bit DACs that must
downsample the Audigy's digital signal before converting it to the
analog format that's amplified to drive speakers. The Audigy processor
also seems to improve most DirectSound and EAX games because of an
upgrade to the reverb engine, the part of the chip that applies many
of a game's sound and environmental effects.

The well-defined audio output is especially well suited to high-end
speaker sets. Our Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 reference set produced a richer
midrange and noticeably better sound separation, detail, and bass
crossover to the subwoofer as compared to other cards we have reviewed
this year. The difference was clearest with high-quality recordings.
With well-recorded MP3s and CD music, the instrument separation,
imaging, and presence were exceptional. The software suite lets you play
endlessly with different environmental settings and equalizer presets,
but we found the defaults very well balanced and accurate, with no
trace of a synthesized sound.

Creative has also gone in a new direction by adding a IEEE 1394
(Firewire) port to the Audigy to be used for networking or importing
digital video. While 1394 is the standard for digital camcorders and
some other peripherals that need the fast 400Mb per second transfer
speeds, most PCs aren't yet equipped with onboard connectors, so the
Audigy stands in the place of a third-party 1394 PCI card. The 1394
connection also makes for a quick way to connect two PCs for a local
network. The card comes with Firewire drivers, which set up the IEEE
1394 port as a standard TCP/IP network device.

The rest of the Platinum eX package is for those serious about
creating audio at home. The external breakout box includes a full
range of analog and digital inputs, including MIDI ports. An audio
clean-up feature removes pops and hisses from old analog recordings, and
time-scaling changes the speed of a soundtrack without altering the
pitch. While few games still use MIDI soundtracks, it should be noted
that the software MIDI instrument sets are exceptional.

There is one serious downside for those who own Athlon systems. The
Audigy card has the same occasional difficulties with motherboards
with certain VIA chipsets as the Sound Blaster Live! before it. Our
initial installation on an Athlon PC with an Abit KT7A motherboard
resulted in audio and system hangs as well as audible pops and burps.
Most of the common patches and BIOS adjustments for this problem did not
work, and only upgrading the motherboard BIOS finally fixed the
problems, but this sort of tweaking is beyond most PC owners.

Nevertheless, when matched with the right hardware and drivers, the
Audigy performs magnificently across all game, music, and video media.
It is without question the highest quality sound card available for
the PC. Certainly, at $250 the Audigy Platinum eX is priced for a narrow
slice of users who really need its wide range of features. But the
immediate benefits of the Audigy's superior 3D processing and
high-quality output still are there to be enjoyed in the lower-priced
Sound Blaster Audigy cards. PC audio has finally been raised to a
level an audiophile can be proud of.

--
          I'll be here...
          Why...?
          I'll be `waiting` ...here...
          For what?
          I'll be waiting...for you...so...  If you come here...
          You'll find me.        I promise.

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