Pc and Home digital domaine
Written: Nov 18 '02 (Updated Mar 10 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Awesum, Connectivity and diversity!
Cons: Absolutely None..
The Bottom Line: Complete portability, connectivity, and future expandability make this an exceptional value!
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| cappyx's Full Review: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy Sound Card |
Extigy; By Creative Labs
What I was shopping for was a device that could bring together our pc and home theatre and thus remove all of the amplifiers and large old home speakers from our entertainment room. The creative labs extigy has proven to be an incredibly versatile product that has done just that. In my review I will do my best to cover all that I can on this device, which I will refer to from here on in as “xtg”.
Connectivity: the xtg offers many connections both digital and analog this unit also functions alone, without the pc powered up, which is a major plus. The xtg has both optical and coaxial digital inputs, a mic input with level adj, a line in or aux input “analog” type, a midi input for use with a key board which I do not have so will not comment on. The xtg also has a wide variety of outputs as well. Separate 1/8 jacks for 5.1 channeled speaker sets, I recommend you invest in a 5.1 speaker set so that you will see the xtg come to life, an optical digital output, and a 1/8-headphone jack.
Noise: I have noted that the analog inputs are subject to the typical noises that are present in all analog systems however, it seems, the digital inputs are completely noiseless. Be sure if you are using the digital input that you mute all the analog inputs or you may experience noise from the devices that are on line but not in use. I have experienced some clicking noises in very few programs such as pinball which comes with win xp but have not experienced these noises with any other programs.
Cmss: the xtg has a feature called cmss this feature claims to be able to take any 2-channel source and up convert it to a simulated 5.1 environment. While for the most part this feature is really great and works quite well it does not work on everything. At the time of this writing it will not up-convert anything that is played using winamp as a matter of fact it really does not like winamp at all. The media player that comes with xtg is not that great win media player is much better, it just sounds better and yes it will up convert wma and mp3 files however win media player 7.1 has its own ambience system called “wow” which when you try to use both the wow effects and the 5.1 up convert you get too much ambience. You will have to play with the wow effects settings and the graphic eq until you get the perfect balance between the two. This is achievable and it really sounds great when you get there but be prepared to have a lot of patience because you will need them. Any 2-channel source that you plug into the analog line input should up convert to sim5.1 with no problem using the cmss feature.
Home theatre: ok this is my favorite part. In my opinion if you do not buy a 5.1 speaker system for this xtg you are seriously missing out on everything this unit has to offer and I recommend the Klipsch pro media 5.1 this set is not cheap but it will really show you everything that the xtg has to offer as the Klipsch pro media 5.1 speakers boasts a powerful 500 watts from a BASH digital hybrid dual power supply switching amplifier 5 satellite speakers and a dual 8” flared port 6th order subwoofer! I have my TV channeled into the analog line input and utilize the cmss to up convert the stereo signal to sim5.1 this works great and sounds awsum! I have a stand alone DVD player utilizing the coaxial spdif input to acquire the true 5.1 digital surround and the audio is incredible. I also have the usb connection from my pc and can also play DVD movies from my DVD rom drive and watch on the pc screen as well but I prefer the outboard player for this. If you do use your internal DVD rom player be sure to set your output to spdif so that the xtg can decode the true 5.1 digital signal usually this can be done inside of the program or application i.e. power DVD for example. I currently use my cd drive in my pc for playing audio cds however I usually just open win media player and play from the library I have downloaded most of my audio cds into that. The xtg can also be connected directly to a home receiver. There is an optical output on the front of the unit to allow you to do this you can also take advantage of the mic input for karaoke.
Pc connectivity: basically the xtg is tied to your pc via usb cable. Thus the unit is completely independent for the most part, however, it does rely on window-based drivers. The xtg is portable and able to be moved to any pc or laptop that can support it. When you disconnect the xtg from the pc your original soundcard is re-enabled automatically and visa versa when you connect the xtg. I have noted that if there is a power spike or a split second interrupt of power i.e. lightning storms “very popular here in Florida” the xtg is rendered inactive and the only way to restart it is to reboot the computer. The only way I have gotten around this problem is to plug it into my ups “uninterruptible power supply” this keeps the unit active during power spikes. The xtg comes with a remote which is great for both pc and independent use however I have had times when the unit has forgotten that it has a remote and the only way to get the xtg to remember the remote is to reboot my pc. The xtg works great with both cd audio and DVD audio/video be sure that your drives are set for digital or spdif output so the xtg can decode any Dolby digital 5.1 streems and can play from the digital data for audio cds. The xtg does a great job with win media player but it does not like winamp very much. Im radio software is included and it is ok but nothing to brag about I have noted that the Im radio sometimes is in conflict with some windows programs i.e. the pc cannot open some executable files from the quick start menu while Im is active. There is software bundled with this that I am not going to get into as I find it useless however if you install the software I can recommend that you set it all to NOT start on windows startup. You should always check the creative site for driver updates the lst update fixed most of the exaggerated ambience problems I had. And last but not least here is a big issue; the tech support phone number is a toll numberL this I thought was kind of cheesy! I did email tech support and did get a response back in 3 days and on a scale from 1-5 I would rate the response at 3 or average. Do take note here that tweaking will be a necessary and time consuming part of this product but it is worth the effort after you get that certain sound that fits you the best, tweaking will be done between the xtg and the apps you run with it to make them both work together in harmony. I also recommend buying from a store that will give you a full refund without restocking fees just incase you decide that this is not for you. I would not recommend buying the xtg from a web site as returns are way to hard and sometimes impossible.
DTS: unless your DVD rom drive has its own dts decosion software the xtg will not decode dts only 5.1 digital is decoded through the xtg. Dts is also not decoded through the xtg even if an outboard DVD player is used through the coaxial spdif input either. This is kind of disappointing but no biggy as I just don’t see what the big deal is about dts in my opinion the dynamics are in the mastering of the DVD. A properly mastered 5.1 track is awsum! A lousy mastered dts track sounds just like a lousy mastered dts track. And, to me anyway, a properly mastered 5.1 and properly mastered dts track sound identical.
Bottom line: for the money and what the xtg has to offer it cannot be beat, here you have a completely portable unit that can handle both your pc and home theatre. It is stylish and can be used in the future “as long as drivers are available for future win op systems”. I can recommend this unit 100% below is a list of perifs that I used when evaluating the xtg this will give you a better idea how it will run on your system:
>Pc: vpr matrix p4 1.6ghz, 512mb ddr ram, usb1.1, DVD rom, cdrw.
>Outboard DVD: apex ad-500a
>TV: Panasonic analog “old”
>Spkrs: Klipsch pro media 5.1, 500watt Bash digital hybrid dual pwr supply switching amp.. With 5 sat Spkrs and sub enclosure featuring dual 8” woofers with flared port 6th order technology… a must have with the xtg!!! Review on these to follow soon.
>> UPDATE: Recently I purchased an Xbox gaming system which features a digital output 5.1 link. This patched directly into the Creative Labs Extigy and added even more expandability to my system. Currently Xbox is the only game system on the market with "IN GAME" Dolby Digital 5.1 and wow, what a difference it makes when you utilize the 5.1 sound. Patching it in was simple and basic. As I had stated in my review the biggest thing about the Creative Labs Extigy is the expandability and future usability. This also seems to be a product that has held its retail value for quite some time as I had just checked and saw that the price is still the same today 3/11/03 as it was when I had purchased it in mid 2002. Creative Labs has really made quite an innovative piece of hardware with this unit.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 149.00
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Epinions.com ID:
cappyx
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Reviews written: 8
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