Audigy 2 Platinum: Top of the line in sound

Author's Rating:

Pros: Wonderful sound, good software package, ease of installation and use.

Cons: Lack of Linux driver support, certain software aspects.

The Bottom Line: 
This is an absolutely excellent product, is easy to use, and comes with a great software package. With such wonderful sound, it definitely gives the best bang for the buck.

Author's Review
I purchased the Audigy 2 Platinum as a replacement for the onboard audio chipset I had been using for some time. I build my own systems, and as the chipset could do everything I required at the time, sound has always been the aspect to lag behind on my computers. I decided to go with the Audigy 2 Platinum due to the excellent things I had heard about it, and I desired a card which would last me quite a while without really going obsolete. I have not been disappointed in the least.

Hardware Installation:
Installing the card and audigy drive was an extremely simple process. The card itself slid right into place, without becoming a space obstruction to any other cards, as some may know high end sound and video cards can be, and the audigy drive is installed just as any other 5 1/4" drive. Several wires need to be attached between the card and drive, but after that the hardware portion of the installation is complete. It is a fairly simple processes, making even moderately knowledgeable computer users capable of installing the hardware. As mentioned before though, it does require a 5 1/4" drive bay, and also a power connection, so one must be certain to have both free before installing the audigy drive.

Software Installation and Driver Support:
Once again, software installation of the supplied drivers is a very simple process, but with one caveat; Creative currently only supports the Windows operating system, so installation can become much more difficult on a Linux system. I run a dual boot system between Win2K and Linux Mandrake 9.1, and while installation on the Windows system was a piece of cake, initially I couldn't even install Linux after having installed the card (I had originally planned to wait until having installed the Audigy 2 before reinstalling Linux) as the installation process would lock on hardware detection. After some fiddling with bios settings, I could finish installing Linux, only to find out that at the time there were no official Linux drivers, and only moderately working Audigy drivers written by Linux developers. Currently, I can in fact get sound when booted into Linux, but only after doing a bit of tweaking with the sound settings every time I start up. This is the Audigy's greatest flaw, but when the majority of the potential market using Windows, Creative cannot be faulted too much, and my rating of the product remains little changed.

Software Package:
The Audigy 2 comes with a good software package, including software to change any number of settings, and the Creative Mediasource Player, which I will touch upon shortly. This is another area this product shines, making it very simple to change EAX settings, adjust the mixer, and calibrate a wide array of different speaker setups. There are also a number of other useful utilities which are provided with this card. However, the software support for the remote has changed from the Audigy Platinum, which in my opinion are for the worse. Now, the remote interfaces almost exclusively with the Mediasource Player, and without the player open, the various configurations which one may set up on the remote are useless. For Winamp fans, the remote no longer directly interfaces with the Winamp player. There is a plug-in for Winamp which does allow the remote to work, but last time I tried it out, there were still a number of bugs which needed to be worked out before it really could be used.
However, the Mediasource Player does possess a number of highly desirable features. It has a CD-ripping feature, which allows for ripping at various bit-rates (I listen to most of my music while using my computer, currently being a programmer, and so being able to rip my CD's to mp3s is very useful). Along with this, CDDB is integrated, providing for easy obtaining of track information. Even CD burning is integrated into the player, although this is generally less useful than some of the player's other features. There are a number of other smaller various features provided in the Mediasource Player which make it quite a useful piece of software.
In addition, the various EAX settings provided allow for a refined sound to music, no matter what genre of music one may listen to, a definite plus to those who listen to large mp3 collections.

I use the Audigy 2 Platinum with a simple 2 speaker subwoofer setup, and also headphones when the occasion calls for it. With the ability to configure the Audigy based upon the current speaker setup, either setup provides clear, crisp sound. For enthusiasts and audiophiles, the Audigy 2 supports Dolby Digital, 6.1 surround sound. I haven't been able to listen to a setup like that, but with my experiences with what I do have, I can only imagine the quality of sound in such a high end setup. Besides the speaker/headphone ports, between the card and drive this product also possesses two Firewire ports, midi in/out, digital and optical in/out, microphone support, and auxiliary input ports. There is no dearth of functionality in this product.

I would recommend this card to anyone looking to upgrade their sound system, and willing to pay a little extra for such an excellent product. Linux users beware, however, as Creative does not officially support Linux drivers, and it does not appear this will change in the near future.