Soundblaster Extigy - High quality, good price
Written: Jun 20 '02 (Updated Jun 20 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small, external, USB, independant volume/mic gain knobs
Cons: No 1/4" inputs, not as feature-packed as the Audigy Platinum
The Bottom Line: Feature rich soundcard. USB means it can be moved to and from any computer with USB. Good price, high quality.
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| mode9's Full Review: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy Sound Card |
First off, I use my PC as a budget recording studio. Previous to buying my Extigy, I used a SoundBlaster Live! soundcard.
The first thing I noticed was the incredible reduction in hiss/fuzz. I'm told that hiss/fuzz is mostly caused by interferance from internal components (the SoundBlaster Live! series are PCI cards), and since the Extigy is external and shielded well, none of this interference comes through to the recoding.
The front panel of the Extigy has 2 optical in/outputs, a headphone jack, a mic jack, a mic gain knob, a volume knob, a "stereo to surround" button, and some cool lights.
Having the mic and headphone jacks at the front of the card is great, as chords don't have to stretch and tangle with everything behind the computer. I also think that having the volume knobs on the Extigy was a great idea. They don't actually control the volume from within the card, but control the volume as one would from the volume panel in the system tray. It's just a lot more convenient.
All the in/outputs on the Extigy are 1/8" instead of 1/4", probably to keep the size down. For most people this shouldn't be a problem, but for those that use their PCs for recording, it may cause an inconvenience. The microphone and headphones I use have 1/4" jacks, so I have to use 1/4" to 1/8" converters. When the Extigy is stood vertically, the converted jacks (because of their weight) sometimes sit wierd/become loose and may bother some people. When that happens to my headphones, the left and right channels cut out a bit, so just keep that in mind.
I haven't tried out the DTS decoding of the Extigy, mainly because I don't have surround speakers, or the optical in/outs so I won't comment on them.
The software included is a little on the thin side. A friend of mine bought the Audigy Platinum. His box came with Dues Ex as well as another game, and some additional software that doesn't come with the Extigy. I feel a little sad. The thing that really erked me is that the Extigy does not support SoundFonts, like the Audigies do! Now that might not mean anything to you, but for those that compose music on their PCs, that's quite a feature to leave out.
The Extigy ships with a remote control, like the Audigy Platinums. The remote allows you to play your MP3 library, as well as control almost all the other functions of the Extigy. I personally don't use it because I usually sit in front of the computer when I use it.
When you connect the Extigy to a computer that already has a soundcard, it will take over until you disconnect it, at which point the previous soundcard will be given control back. This is great because you don't have to fiddle with Add/Remove Hardware.
To close, the Extigy definately is worth looking into if you are in the market for a new soundcard, especially if you have a laptop or want to switch a soundcard between several computers, like me.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
mode9
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Location: BC, Canada
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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