|
When it comes to
music, the Audigy 2 is something of a mixed bag. Beyond the
Effects Engine 48kHz resampling the Audigy 2 also resamples
44.1 kHz sources, e.g. CDs – somewhat annoying when you
consider it can playback 24/96 or 24/192 sources without
resampling. It is also the only PC DVD-Audio capable card
available when using the included Creative MediaSource
Player.
Nicely enough, the
software bundle included a DVD-Audio sampler disc containing
17 tracks encoded at 24/96kHz in 5.1 to give you a taste of
what DVD-Audio offers.
It is worth noting
that DVD-Audio output is only available using the Analog
outputs; Digital output is disabled during playback because
of copy protection schemes that had to be supported.
For playback of CDs I
used Windows Media Player 9, while for MP3s I used
WinAMP
2.81 along with the
MAD,
SSRC
waveOut & ASIO Output plugins. For optimum output
quality I configured options as specified beneath:
Next I modified the
SSRC waveOut output plug-in, settings used shown beneath
also (The sample rate was changed to 48000Hz when not using
the digital output).
Finally, I configured
the ASIO Output plug-in:
For testing music
playback I used a variety of sources, including Episode II:
Attack of the Clones soundtrack (192Kbps MP3), Medal of
Honor: Allied Assault (128Kbps MP3), Close Encounters of the
Third Kind (CD), Gladiator – More Music From… (CD), Con Air
Soundtrack (CD), The Two Towers (CD) plus several others as
well as the DVD-Audio sample disc.
When listening music
it became instantly obvious that Audigy 2 drivers feature no
Stereo x2 mode (rear speakers replicate the front), rather
assuming if you want multi-channel output you’ll use CMSS/CMSS
2 instead. As I’ve stated before I’m not particularly into
using any audio up-mixing features, though it is possible
Creative Labs will allow the use of such a Stereo x2 output
mode with future drivers. The 5.1 encoded DVD-Audio sample
disc played perfectly over each channel with the both of the
speakers systems I used.
Sound quality during
playback was excellent (particularly that of the Analog
output), I would say for the most part it’s clearly better
than the
Audigy/Extigy
and the likes of the nForce APU,
Game Theatre XP or the
SonicXplosion, though some purists may still prefer the
Santa Cruz for music. Even on lower-end Speakers like the
Inspire 6700 the difference between the Audigy 2 and
Audigy/nForce/Extigy was fairly noticeable.
The high-resolution
of DVD-Audio was somewhat lost with the
Inspire 6700, though shone through on the
MegaWorks 510D offering a nice qualitative enhancement
over CDs in terms of clarity and of course, it’s
multi-channel aspect. SACD is unfortunately not supported,
though the creators of SACD have no plans to support that
format on the PC so there’s little Creative Labs could do in
that regard.
As with other
Creative soundcards, only basic tone (Bass & Treble)
controls are available and while the EAX Console/Control
Panel provides a parametric equaliser, you better stay away
because of the 16/48 resampling that would entail, do’h).
|
