Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX

The new Audigy cards offer many technical improvements over previous sound cards. To start with the quality of sound they can handle has been upped to 24-bit at 96KHz with an extremely low 100db signal to noise ratio, meaning they produce the clearest sounds possible. In addition Audigy uses a new 32-bit processor that's four times as powerful as the old Live! sound cards. This lets the Audigy create a whole new set of musical and gaming effects called EAX Advanced HD. While playing music real-time environmental effects can be applied, as well as special effects such as audio clean-up and time scaling.

For games the new EAX effects can process four separate environments at the same time, while also being able to morph sounds between locations and create realistic reflections letting it generate the most realistic sounding game environments ever.

The Platinum EX version of the Audigy makes use of an external break out box that provides desktop access to most of the card's external ports including optical and coaxial S/PDIF, headphone and microphone jacks, MIDI in and out as well as a SB1394 FireWire port. There's also a massive bundle of supplied software that'll help you get the most out of the Audigy's sound covering everything from music sampling, composing and play back.

With the improvements in sound quality, full support for 24-bit S/PDIF, an improved low latency ASIO driver and a break out box the Platinum EX offers fantastic sound quality, a huge list of advanced features and is the perfect choice for any music enthusiast wanting to create and record professional music tracks, never mind getting incredible sounding games. --Nick Baxter

Manufacturer's Description
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX is the professional home studio solution that opens up a whole new world of unprecedented high-definition audio with the flexibility of an external drive. You'll experience incredible audio clarity. The increased power of the Audigy chip enables EAX Advanced HD to deliver a host of innovative high-definition audio effects with next-generation, interactive, 3D audio for gaming and sophisticated effects for music.The external Audigy drive has the most comprehensive connectors for analog or digital devices, including professional audio gear, home-stereo receivers, Optical DACs, MIDI devices, and DV camcorders. You'll also have the advantage of high-capacity connectivity to SB1394 qualified devices like DV camcorders, the future SB1394 NOMAD Jukebox, external hard drives, and high-speed CD-RWs.

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