Buy.com: SoundBlaster Extigy 5.1 Sound Card $121 shipped

[bit]

http://buy.com has Free shipping on order over $99 and under 20lbs.

Get the new Creative SoundBlaster Extigy SB0130EX USB 24BIT 5.1 Channel EAX for only $121 shipped free!

 

[hoihtah]

how good is this extigy?

 

[hkssupra69]

is this an upgrade from audigy? Audigy's fairly new though. Time to do some research.

 

[DTBH]

I think the extigy is the external verision of the audigy... or am I wrong?

 

[hollowman]

it's just external part. you still need the audigy sound card. (it's just like live drive.. just external one.)

 

[masgrada]

This might sound like I'm complaining about the Extigy, but it actually added a ton of functionality to my computer

I just bought one today and the software sucks, but i'm looking for the potential for the card. It's a brand new item for creative and i'm sure they will work the kinks out and supply us with a little more functionality.

The hardware is great, sounds great. It's made of a little cheaper plastic and one of my knobs rubs a bit on the side of it's hole, but it looks cool. I'm not expecting to put this baby through any durability tests. I bought it for the REMOTE CONTROL!

This Remote is the whole reason I bought this baby. Everything else is just perks. Being able to sit on my ass across the room, not ony having only fate randomly choose the songs being played is one of the big reasons i bought this bad boy. The remote does have some lag, about 1/2 second. It can control other programs with the software they supply you with, but it's a bit difficult. I cant wait till they make a driver or somthing that works seemlessly with Winamp, for now I'm forced to use thier lame "Creative Play Center." Also if you turn it off, sometimes to regain functionality to the remote, you must restart thier "Creative RemoteCenter" because it will exit the program if the unit is not detected(e.g. turned off, or disconnected) Just more software problems that can be fixed in time.

If you don't know, it's a USB sound card, you don't need anything else. I suppose it would be good if you wanted something better for your laptop. Although from what I gathered before i bought the card, you might need a faster system to run it efficently. I havn't had any problems with it so far running it on a 900mhz amd t-bird and giving it it's own USB controller. When I get back to school I'll try it while running multiple other USB devices on a hub just to see what happens.

The signal to noise ratio is considerably higher than that of internal cards. 100db SNR - So your limiting factor will be your speakers. Everyone has klipsh right? Actually this baby is supposedly good enough for your top of the line home entertainment system or so i'm told. I havn't had the chance to try that out. It can be used as a stand-alone 5.1 decoder for digital sources, and yet again, i havn't ahd to try that out either.

It's a brand new item for creative and i'm sure they will work the kinks out and supply us with a little more functionality. The only quark I cant seem to work out is the rear speakers are silent with out a digital source, and they don't give you the nice audio positioner that the Live! card had. I guess we will just have to wait for that one to get fixed.

Here's a review from tbreak
EXTIGY REVIEW

 

[masgrada]

Oh yea.. I love it, It's so much fun!

 

[OTR]

<< it's just external part. you still need the audigy sound card. (it's just like live drive.. just external one.) >>


I don't think so. It is a self-contained system. Good deal!

 

[Akira13]

<< it's just external part. you still need the audigy sound card. (it's just like live drive.. just external one.) >>



Creative touts it as their first external sound card; it's USB, and it looks very cool.

 

[absolutiza]

here is the link

 

[VH2000]

<< it's just external part. you still need the audigy sound card. (it's just like live drive.. just external one.) >>




Wrong!
This is a self-contained external USB sound card - no internal card needed.
I bought it and it works great, BUT (there is always a "BUT") when I was running
Nascar Racing 2002, it drew so much from the computer that my graphics framerate
was only like 5-20 fps depending on what was going on on the screen. The sound worked
great, but the framerate was unbearable. So, I picked up an Audigy X-Gamer and everything
works great. I'm getting 40+ fps. BTW - I'm running a Leadtek Geforce2 Pro 64mb AGP video card.

So, with my experience, if you plan on playing alot of games, DO NOT get the Extigy!!

 

[mdetz]

Heard it doesn't support AC3... Anyone know if that is true?

 

[Wag]

Yep. No AC3 support, no DTS support, and doesn't pass-through the signal either. Useless.

 

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

when I was running
Nascar Racing 2002, it drew so much from the computer that my graphics framerate
was only like 5-20 fps depending on what was going on on the screen

Yep. No AC3 support, no DTS support, and doesn't pass-through the signal either. Useless.

Sounds kind of like an expensive, metal, power-sucking virus, with another remote to loose.

 

[Thorin78]

the main problem is that it uses USB to send to the extigy. USB uses alot of CPU resources so when there's alot of traffic going through that, you actually lose quality for other processes. If they could do this with the firewire, it might have been a better result.

 

[VH2000]

<< when I was running
Nascar Racing 2002, it drew so much from the computer that my graphics framerate
was only like 5-20 fps depending on what was going on on the screen

Yep. No AC3 support, no DTS support, and doesn't pass-through the signal either. Useless.

Sounds kind of like an expensive, metal, power-sucking virus, with another remote to loose. >>




Exactly!
I think they are pushing it towards notebook/laptop users, but do you really
need that much sound for a notebook?!?!

 

[jclark]

Firewire would be helpful, but firewire's still a lot slower than the PCI bus. FW is still relatively rare in the consumer PC world, too, while USB is fairly universal.

Even with USB I'd buy one IF IT SUPPORTED SOUNDFONTS! Soundfont 1.0, 2.0, DLS, anything! I'd pay twice the current price of the Extigy for something I could plug into both my PC and laptop, load soundfonts on to, and use stand-alone with a MIDI keyboard and amp. With just the 8M ROM GM set, though, it's not worth it to me. It requires a power adapter, and it's huge, so it's not practical for a laptop, and it uses too much CPU to be used with a PC.

But hey, it's a first-generation product. Maybe the next-generation will have USB power and soundfont capability. Maybe ESS will release something badged as a 'professional' product that will do what I want. Maybe Hercules will.

 

[StrangeRanger]

I just picked one up for one reason, it has got spdif in that I can use with my DAT deck. Unfortunately, that doesn't even work right. My bad, I should have known. It is a cl product after all. I swore them off years ago and should have stuck to that decision. But the possibility of spdif in to my lappy for only $125 was too tempting. The piece of sh!t extigy crashes my system constantly after like 15min of recording. The software sucks, it's a resource hog, and worst of all, I have lost my receipt so I can't return the POS. God damnit! Burned by cl again!
j

 

[gfgray]

The cpu usage is too high. If you plan on gaming with this thing, don't. Wait for the USB 2.0 version.

 

[Mani]

It does have nice sound quality and is a good upgrade for notebook users who long for better MUSIC -not games unless you got cpu cycles to spare.

 

[mchammer187]

<<

<< it's just external part. you still need the audigy sound card. (it's just like live drive.. just external one.) >>




Wrong!
This is a self-contained external USB sound card - no internal card needed.
I bought it and it works great, BUT (there is always a "BUT") when I was running
Nascar Racing 2002, it drew so much from the computer that my graphics framerate
was only like 5-20 fps depending on what was going on on the screen. The sound worked
great, but the framerate was unbearable. So, I picked up an Audigy X-Gamer and everything
works great. I'm getting 40+ fps. BTW - I'm running a Leadtek Geforce2 Pro 64mb AGP video card.

So, with my experience, if you plan on playing alot of games, DO NOT get the Extigy!! >>




what kind of cpu do u have?

i have a northwood @ 2.4 ghz & radeon 8500 and am looking to get this so i think i have cpu cycles to spare

i already have a an audigy but wanted some of the extra functionality of the extigy

 

[mydangpleeze]

just wanted to let you guys know my fren got one a few days ago. the unit itself with remote looks quite cool, however as mentioned earlier in the thread it does put a heavy burden on ur resources. it totally jacked up my frenz counter-strike, especially if u r also using other usb devices such as keyboard n mouse. he has an xp 1700, 512 ddr, 8500dv and cs looked like crap. totally unplayable on his puter...so i'd advise against it if ur gonna do some serious gaming.

 

[Shinj1EVA]

Yea.. USB devices tend to eat away at your computer resources. I make a habit of unplugging my powered USB hubs when i play games, leaving only my keyboard and mouse plugged in. Seems to improve performance quite a bit. I still say Audigy Platinum eX would be a better choice (albeit more expensive) It's got firewire! That's all that matters to me

I got the Audigy Platinum simply because i don't need any more stuff dangling from my computer. No space in my dorm room as is.

 

[lostatlantis]

hello everyone,

Extigy is an interesting product... no doubt about that. I knew about it the day it was announced, and i really wanted one since I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop with geforce2 Go (decent play with Quake 3, etc) AND a set of Klipsch 4.1 With my current set up, I have a y-splitter so the 4.1 klipsch is basically outputting the same stereo signal front and back (btw, does y-splitter takes away from signal strength and quality of sound????). The extigy is exactly what i need ...


except, i WISH it is firewire!!!!!! I have firewire on my laptop, and I've been dying to make use of it.

USB 1.1 is so slow, Creative labs has already formally declared the extigy inadequate of performing the entire set of EAX 2.0 effects without clipping sounds, etc.

I really hope creative comes out with a Firewire version... USB 2.0 is still CPU dependent, just like USB 1.1, even with its higher bandwidth. Intel backs USB 2.0 precisely for this reason, because the USB structure inherently needs more CPU attention than firewire.

Come on creative, come out with a polished extigy 2.0 using Firewire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! throw in an internal AC3 /DTS decoder, and i will PREORDER one, full retail. (well, maybe not, but you get my idea )

 

[RedGSR]

If you were to plug this thing to a laptop and a laptop plugged into a tv? Could you use the remote to control the DVD functions? Would be awesome to have a DVD player.