To get great sound get out of the box.
Written: Mar 09 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great sounding, convenient USB connection, full digital inputs and outputs.
Cons: Mini-jack analog connectors, mediocre microphone jack, lame bundled software.
The Bottom Line: Extigy gives better sound than most sound cards in addition to full digital inputs and outputs. There's no excuse to stick with your computer's cruddy built-in sound.
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| mediageek's Full Review: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy Sound Card |
I've been using an Aureal-based PCI sound card for a few years now with decent results. My favorite part of that card is that it has an optical digital output which allows me to make high-quality recordings to my minidisc recorder. Unfortunately this card, which I paid $79 for three years ago, doesn't have digital inputs. I've looked at the Sound Blaster cards with external "breakout boxes" housing the connectors, like the Audigy Platinum EX, but found them a tad expensive at $200-$250.
When I first heard about the Extigy I almost immediately thought "I gotta get one." A USB connected sound card that doesn't take up a PCI slot that also includes full digital inputs and outputs AND has Dolby Digital Decoding for $150? I couldn't see how one could go wrong. After owning it for about a month I could hardly be happier.
The Extigy is a USB connected external sound card (for Windows PCs only) that shares the Audigy's high-fidelity specs, like 24 bit 96KHz sampling and full digital in and out. The unit itself is about the size of two VHS videocassettes laid next to each other, with jacks on the front and back. The Extigy does Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding, so there are outputs for front, center, rear and subwoofer speakers in the back. I don't have a surround set-up so I just run the front speaker outputs to my Harmon Kardon AVR25II receiver with JBL Control 1 speakers. The front inputs include optical in and out, line in and out, headphone and mic jacks, along with mic volume and master volume control knobs. The back also includes MIDI in/out which I have no use for.
One small drawback is that the analog inputs and outputs are all 1/8" mini-jacks rather than RCA jacks as found on the Audigy Platinum EX (which is about $50 more and internal). I guess that's a cost saving and space saving maneuver -- one stereo mini-jack serves the function of two RCA jacks. But mini-jacks are a little more prone to physical wear and tear and resulting noise. However, the optical I/O is what I'm really interested in, and so they're not a deal-killer for me. Also, with some care, mini-jacks should not hurt the fidelity, provided you keep your cables in good shape.
I'm very critical of most internal PCI sound cards because the inside of a computer is a rotten environment for hi-fi audio processing -- there is just too much RF noise and unshielded electronics that interfere. As a result, most PC audio is far lower quality than the theoretical limitations of the hardware. Even worse is the sound that comes from motherboards with sound included on the board. Many of the cheaper computers from Compaq, Dell and other major manufacturers have this and the noise level on them is atrocious.
Many professional sound cards, like the Digidesign Digi001, move the actual A/D hardware outside the computer, so that the PCI card is just an interface, and that results in much better sound. The external nature of the Extigy and it's cheap price are what attracted me to it.
Although it's USB based, the Extigy relies on special Windows drivers--which I think is stupid--and so is not fully plug-and-play, and also is not Mac compatible. It took two installations to get it to work, though I'll note that I disabled by existing internal sound card for the second install, so it could be that it was interfering.
The noise floor for recording analog audio was at least 10 dB lower than what I was used to experiencing -- around 70-79 dB vs. 55 - 60 dB with my old card. I made that measurement by having the Extigy hooked up to my stereo and recording silence. Some of that noise could be the result of my signal path--a little residual noise from the receiver perhaps. Nonetheless it's a very good and low real-world number.
I do a lot of recording with minidisc that I edit on my computer. Before I had to send it into the PC via the analog input on my soundcard, which means I lost a lot of the advantages of digital recording and would gain some noise. For basic voice interviews like I do it's not a huge issue, but not ideal either. By comparison, the direct optical connection from my minidisc deck's output to the Extigy was absolutely quiet. I don't know if it is entirely bit-accurate, but the sound is utterly true to the original to me.
I also listened to some mp3s and CDs. The Extigy will only play CDs read digitally with the data sent over the USB. Most soundcards default to an analog connection between the CD drive and the soundcard, which is always intolerably noisy and low-fi for me--the thin chintzy cable that connects your CD drive and sound card is awful and picks up tons of interference, especially from the hard drive. I could do direct digital CD playback on my old card and it was pretty good, but the Extigy is simply nicer sounding, with more depth and a broader soundfield. I'd definitely sounds at least as good as mid-fi home CD players.
MP3 playback was also much better. On 128 kbps mp3s there was some restoration to the high-end which can often get very harsh and brittle, resulting in an overall smoother, more pleasing sound. That doesn't mean that they sounded like CDs, but the improvement was very pleasant. On higher bitrate mp3s the clarity only improved. Not every mp3 I tried sounded so much better than with my old sound card-- there's a lot of variation in source material and codecs that can affect the final mp3 -- but I can say there was a noticeable improvement with them all.
The Extigy also includes a wireless remote control. When I first took it out of the box I thought is was kind of a useless thing, since I sit only about 18" away from the computer. But once I messed around with it, it actually made sense. Using the remote I can easily access a CD-R full of mp3s that's in the computer's CD drive, and navigate around choosing tracks to listen to. It also controls basic things like volume and such. I don't use it much sitting at the computer, but when reading across the room it's pretty convenient.
Let me say that it's also nice that the Extigy has volume controls and headphone inputs right on the front panel. It's often a pain to try and accurately adjust the volume of the computer volume using the on-screen controls. With the Extigy you can just use a conventional volume knob, which is simple and works. The headphone jack is also simple and very logically mutes the audio output when you plug in your headphone.
My overall impression of the Extigy is that it is a versatile and very nice sounding sound device that is an utter bargain at just $149 street price. There are other USB based sound cards out there from companies like Roland. These cards have an advantage in that they are cross-platform (both Mac and PC), but they also tend to be more expensive and have fewer features than the Extigy. It is not perfect, but then I don't expect perfect at that price.
If you want surround sound out of your computer's DVD drive you can just hook up amplified speakers to the Extigy and you're in business. In fact, though I haven't tested it, apparently you can hook up the Extigy to any DVD player's digital audio outputs and use it to decode the Dolby Digital signal even if it's not hooked up to a computer.
The bundled software is stupid and occasionally unintuitive (though I'll say that the software mixer is not as unintuitive as what's included in the Sound Blaster Platinum), so I recommend sticking with the more popular audio apps.
Without a doubt I can recommend the Extigy to anyone looking to get better quality sound out of their computer with a minimum of hassle and without spending a bundle.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 134
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Epinions.com ID:
mediageek
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Member: Paul Riismandel
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
I'm a true mediageek--into all sorts of electronics and gadgets for making media.
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