Out of nowhere, it looks like Creative Japan have officially announced their latest series of soundcards to compliment their Audigy line, Surprisingly named Audigy 4 (what happened to 3 Creative?!). The translated info should be enough to give you a fair idea of what's changed / to be expected from the new cards.

Apart from enhanced sound quality via better DACs and a most probable performance increase, I cant see any other real outstanding adjustments to the new line based on the info provided at this stage. What i'd love to have seen from the new models is the ability to encode Dolby on the fly via a digital connection (like the good ole' Soundstorm). The sooner we see a seperate soundcard solution capable of doing so, the better...

Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro from the first generation Sound Blaster Audigy which is sold in 2001 counting, becomes the card design of the fourth generation eye, the sound quality and the efficiency where the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS series which the PC user of the entire world recognizes is superior furthermore brushup. It loads the up-to-date D/A converter of the 120dB dynamic range, actualizing the specifications, Signal-noise ratio 113dB in all the 7.1 channels.