ICEHardware - Instant Ownage | Creative Audigy Player (II) Review

Bundled on the drivers and applications CD is Creatives Gold Mine Experience which is basically a showcase of the new hardware effects on offer from card. At the moment few games support them but in the future the promise of further immersing the player in games makes Advanced HD an exciting prospect. Heres a quick run down on the effects on offer ...

Obstruction - In the same way that you cant see objects around corners you also cant hear noises as well when there is no direct line to the source. The obstructive effects simulates this into the environmetal sounds. In the example you hear a motor running around the corner of the cabin and how it becomes more of an ambient sound as you move around the building.

Occlusion - Sound waves travel through various materials in different ways affecting the final noise reaching your ears. For example hearing the music outside a club is very different from how it sounds inside, the occlusive effects simulate this. In the example you hear a motor running somewhere around the cabin and as you move in the sound becomes gradually duller reflecting the effect of the brick walls.

Exclusion - This effect is a simulation of a sound coming in through an opening and how you hear it as it gets closer. The demo has a mine cart travelling towards you through the tunnel, initially the noise it makes is occluded but as it gets closer you can hear it before you see it.

Environmental Reflection - Real life sound waves bounce off nearly all surfaces creating secondary waves reaching the listener. In an enclosed space this is particularly noticable and while an echo can be simulated environmental reflections can spatialise the effect in 3D to create a more convinicing environment. In the demo a crow flies overhead with the reflected noise moving along the canyon as the crow does too.

Environmental Panning - When approaching an environment such as a cave you can hear the difference despite its being a distance away. This effect simulates this by creating a false environment and placing it appropriatly using the speakers so it appears to be in front. In this case the bats flying out of the cave indicate its position and the environment inside.

Environment Morphing - This is a really nice effect, often in games moving from one location to another can cause a sudden change in audio effects, for example stepping into a large hall while firing a gun might be accompanied by an abrupt application of reverb. In reality of course the change is a lot more subtle and gradual, environmental morphng smooths the transition between the borders. In the example you pass into a cave with the echoy effects gradually increasing.

Extreme Effects - Hard to explain but basically this shows off the ability of the card to generate complicated effects such as multiple reverb effects ... see the screen grabs, their descritption is better than mine!! The demo has a ghost minor coming towards you laughing in an evil manner.

Conclusions

As far as exciting bits of kit go soundcards have never really rated too highly, that said the recent influx of interest particularly in the multichannel stakes has bought the newer generation of cards to the top of manys wish lists. Compared to a 2-channel card the audigy is a masterpiece however the difficulty comes in decciding whether the new features offered by the audigy warrant an upgrade if you already own a 5.1 card.

Firstly there no doubting the superb advances made by creative in audio playback quality, I honestly wasnt expecting to hear all that much difference compared with Live! value I had before but the 24bit DACs really do seem to improve the quality. There was no decernable noise at any volume and reproducion of CD and MP3 audio was with unparalleled clarity and crispness. The audigy also handles Dolby digital and DTS signals with equal aplomb, regardless of whether its simply passing the AC3 signal through to an external decoder or doing it itself movies sound superb. The podrace scene from Star Wars Episode 1 stands out above most, transporting you right into the middle of the action while not being at all overpowering. In games too the reproduction and EAX effects are so effortless and clear you find the experience being hightened even more.

The extra features such as DREAM and time-scaling while being fun for a while dont have any real lasting appeal and I also found the taskbar and playcenter to be a little frustrating. You dont have to use any of these of course so in some ways its nice creative at least made them available.

In terms of connectivity too the audigy offers all that you could possibly hope for from a soundcard (particularly the digital out which I'm glad to see becoming standard on most cards now) and more still in the form of the SB1394 port allowing high-speed connectivity to other computers and devices.

In closing I would say that theres no doubting the quality of the audigy cards from an objective point of view and as my first true experience of 5.1 sound I cant recommend the card enough as it really did exceed my all expectations. However I cant help thinking I'd be a bit disappointed if I'd upgraded to this from a different 5.1 card especially given the relatively high price tag. There certainly are the advanteges such advanced HD and the firewire port with potential in the future but do these really warrant the change? I really want to give the Audigy a gold award as it truely deserves it if youre upgrading from a 2-channel card but I have reservations about just how great a step this next generation is for live! 5.1 users so a silver will have to do.