Creative Technology Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 Platinum

Pros: Excellent gaming and DVD sound quality
Cons: 24bit process does not work with some third party applications.

This was the last replacement for my computer from the massive power surge that destroyed my motherboard and several other components. I had planned on writing reviews on these items in the order that I received them, but I still can not find my ...

Pros: Front panel access, firewire and high definition sound with 6.1 capability.
Cons: Expensive. Takes some knowledge to install/troubleshoot.

This past fall I was recording at a friends house using my old Sound Blaster Live! Platinum when I made the fateful mistake of using substandard adapters and one of them broke off into the microphone jack on the card itself. This was just the excuse I ...

Pros: Sounds amazing, can do anything, is perfect in every way.
Cons: Difficult to install.

Forgive me in advance for the length of this review, but the number of features this soundcard has is truly sick (but, like, sick meant in the good way, not like, in the cold/flu season way.) Why? For the last 5 years I’ve been using a ...

Pros: An excellent bundle for the money; Sound quality is second to none.
Cons: Pricey for the low-end user; MediaSource software a bit buggy.

This is the third sound “device” that I’ve been through after all my years with PC gaming and usage (one was onboard sound so I don’t know where you would categorize that), and I have to say that I am very pleased with the latest product ...

Pros: Exceptional Sound. Supports 7 speakers. Remote. Front Inputs (Including Optical).
Cons: Conflicts and installation problems for many. Lacks Customer Support.

I don't think I could possibly expand more on Gr8ful's description or review, except to point out some serious conflict flaws with this card. The card is a gem when it works properly, which is seldom for most on the first attempt. I had only one ...

Pros: Wonderful sound, good software package, ease of installation and use.
Cons: Lack of Linux driver support, certain software aspects.

I purchased the Audigy 2 Platinum as a replacement for the onboard audio chipset I had been usi ...

Pros: Excellent Surround Sound, Lots of Connectivity, Powerful Software
Cons: price is high compared to most soundcards

"The Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Pro Platinum" is pretty much the best soundcard you can get. It has an amazing number of features, top notch sound with surround sound capability, and lots of connectivity options. This model does carry a hefty price, but ...

Pros: Low distortion, Great overall quality
Cons: Timely install could bug some, High Cost

I bought this card not for all the inputs although they are really nice. I bought it for quality and that’s what I got with it. Installing the card went well at first, the instructions are very clear, it can take a while but if you follow them I’m ...

Pros: nice features
Cons: Loud popping noises, terrible software, terrible tech support.

Looks like I just wasted my money and hours of my time. This card never worked right. All I got was ...

Pros: Functional front panel and good documenation
Cons: Conflicts with Norton Antivirus

This is an otherwise solid performer, BUT it has major conflicts with Norton Systemworks 2004 (particularly Norton Antivirus) and the only workaround that allows Norton Antivirus to be enabled is to disable four Soundblaster startup items in msconfig. This is unacceptable and its software needs patched. Creative Labs' tech support will not communicate what functionality is lost when these four startup items in msconfig are disabled. There should have been a warning posted on the outside of the box cautioning of a possible conflict with Norton since Norton is so widely used.

Pros: Very high quality sound, 24 bit sound, lots of plugs for add-ons
Cons: Poorly written software

This sound card is by far the best I have ever had. It throws off such realistic sound. I am currently using it with a pair of 5.1 Zalman Headphones.

The unit comes complete with a nifty control unit that fits into any standard 5.25" bay. You can plug a pair of standard headphones into it, and control the volume from the knob.

The control unit in the expansion bay also comes with a remote. So you can change the volume, mute and change other sound settings on the fly.

On a negative side, Creative could have done better on the software. Even on my Dual P3 system the sound bar for the volume control takes a second or three to load. This is because their software overrides the default windows sound system and installs it's own proprietary sound suite.

Pros: Great features for music and games
Cons: Hard to install on computers with Integrated Audio.

The Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum came with my computer so I don't know how easy it is to install, however I have installed other Creative soundcards and as long as you don't have Integrated Audio (motherboard) it's pretty easy. The features of this card are best exploited by using it's music parameters and effects. I frequently record old cassette tapes onto my computer using this soundcards RCA inputs and the quality of sound is remarkable for cassette tapes that are 25+ years old. Once your music is in mp3 format you can use the audio clean-up and tempo adjuster for fun or DJ work. It also has 1/4" input/output jacks for an electric guitar and many decent effects which you can modify and save changes. The 1/4" output jack can be used to route your guitar through an amp so you don't fry your computer speakers. In order to take advantage of the 5.1 capability you will need a 5.1 speaker system. This is a nice feature if you play computer games and you want to hear AI/other players sneaking up behind you. I highly recommend this product.

Pros: Good beginning for audio in THX!!!!
Cons: Few options for update. Not compatible volume gain with external audio receivers. Poor CR.

ciudadruido@hotmail.com
Guayaquil
PROS: Very good sound for DVD & mp3. A powerful CPU is necessary to take advantage of the audio characteristics of recording and suitable programs of semiprofessional mixing audio.

Pros: Top Gamers card, EAX 4 for new games, THX certified
Cons: Nasty software configuration, not the best choice for music

I can agree with the previous reviewer mrspurg (wish i'd found his/her review before i spent 2 nights messing about...)
The software stops Norton 2004 AutoProtect working.
I tried a trial of Sophos and it darn well stops Sophos Intercheck Monitor working too, so no email or real time AV protection is available with either Norton or Sophos.
Also, my onboard LAN drivers failed to load from cold boot, then only 50/50 chance on reboot. Oh...and Cherry Keyboard KeyMan cannot initialise it's database.
Removed all Creative software and everything works fine !

I've got it all back on, working together, but you need to disable in msconfig CTDVDDet, CTHelper, RCMan, SBDrvDet.

Then it works ok....Oh, the card itself is fine. Great for gaming, not so hot for audio playback, but adequate.
The EAX software 4.00 is pretty good too (and it works..)

Pros: great sound
Cons: crash monger

Crashes XP Pro constantly. Drivers suck.
When it works, it sounds great. Drivers need to be improved. Most reviews wont tell you this card has the louisest drivers.