Sound Blaster Extigy Review
Vote: Thumbs Down or Thumbs Up Our Rating: 9.5% Manufacturer: Creative
Specifications
It’s fairly important we take note of the specifications of this baby taken straight from the Creative website, some of them, for a PC sound card, are pretty damn impressive to say the least.
High Definition Audio Quality
- High Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) exceeding 100dB using high linearity, low distortion 24-bit converters with resolutions of up to 96kHz
- 24-bit / 96kHz Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) for various analog inputs
- 24-bit / 96kHz Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) for 6-channel analog speaker and headphone output
- Independent 24-bit Analog-to-Digital Converters for Line and Microphone input controls to provide recording and mixing flexibility
- Supports Sony/Philips Digital Interface (SPDIF) format input signal of up to 24-bit / 96kHz quality
Professional Quality DSP Engine
- Creative's high performance hardware Digital Signal Processor for precise sampling rate conversion, CMSS®, 3D audio algorithm processing, digital mixing or bass management; as well as accurate Dolby Digital processing
- Host based 32-bit floating point effects engine for professional quality real-time effects, processing, mixing and positioning of audio streams
EAX® ADVANCED HD™ Advanced Audio and 3D Audio Technology
- Optimized user-selectable settings for headphones, two, four or six speakers and external A/V amplifiers
- Improved Creative Multi-Speaker Surround™ (CMSS) technology accurately places any mono or stereo source in a 360o audio space
- Realistic EAX technology reverb, panning and elevation effects bring life to your music and games
- Advanced Time Scaling feature allows variable playback duration without altering pitch of original content
- Powerful Audio Clean-Up feature removes noise and 'clicks' from playback of vinyl disks or cassette tape recordings
Dynamic Dolby Digital® Playback
- Dolby Laboratory approved hardware. Dolby Digital decoding that does not rely on the host processor power for decoding, resulting in a consistent Dolby Digital playback that does not depend on the software or hardware DVD player
- Dedicated Dolby Digital (AC-3) hardware DSP decoder with support of up to 24-bit I/O data format. Ability to decode Dolby Digital streams from optical, coaxial SPDIF input or host PC via USB connection
- Built-in 24-bit DACs provide optimum audio resolution for Dolby Digital playback, making it the perfect partner for DVD applications
- Optimum bass management feature allows speakers of different sizes to be accommodated - be it Creative Inspire™ range of 5.1 channel speakers or '6-channel ready' home A/V amplifiers
- Provides mixing of Dolby Digital audio with the real-time gameplay audio effects - a feature that a normal consumer Dolby Digital A/V receiver is not capable of supporting Advanced USB Features
- Optimized dynamic bandwidth allocation architecture for audio data transfer via USB bus. This architecture provides support of simultaneous playback of 5.1 multi-channel audio together with a compressed Dolby Digital (AC-3) stream. This is ideal for playing 3D games with Dolby Digital tracks
- MIDI I/O connection to PC via high speed USB assures reliable, immediate MIDI transfer for professional quality MIDI recording and/or playback
- Works as a stand-alone unit or with more functionality when connected to the PC via the USB connection
Works with the Following Standards
- Windows 98SE, 2000, Me and XP
- Sound Blaster MIDI and General MIDI
- Plug and Play™
- EAX ADVANCED HD for music
- EAX
- Microsoft DirectSound®, DirectSound®3D & derivatives
- Dolby Digital
- USB 1.1
Sound Blaster Extigy Audio Performance
- Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) >= 100dB
- Crosstalk (Left/Right and vice versa) = -97dB
- Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (A-Weighted) = 0.006 %
- Frequency Response at -3dBr = < 10Hz to 23kHz Specifications are based on digital-to-analog audio playback (e.g. CDDA, WAV, MP3, Dolby Digital)
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