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)