Speakers
Like all Live! cards, the Audigy supports 2-speaker and headphone stereo, as well as the popular 4-speaker output.
Similarities aside, we're surprised that Live!Surround was removed from the Audigy. Anyway, calling it Audigy!Surround sounds bizarre. Without Live!Surround, you can only obtain stereo from the Audigy when connecting to older Dolby Surround or Pro Logic receivers (unless the receiver is also "5.1-ready" and have 6-channel discrete inputs that connects to the 5.1 output of the Audigy).
The Audigy also retains the 6-channel (5.1) output capability of the Live! 5.1 cards, and the shared analog center/woofer and digital output mini-jack located at the at the top of the backplate. (The leftmost jack in this picture.)
The analog 6-channel output will provide great multi-channel audio because you can:
- use affordable 5.1 multimedia speakers with the Audigy
- connect to a home theater with 5.1 inputs (via 6 RCA connectors)
- use the PC to watch DVDs with 5.1 surround sound decoded by the CPU or the Audigy's Dolby Digital decoding drivers (yes, its still done with your CPU)
- have games with 3D sound support positioned in 5.1 - even the center channel is used for 3D audio positioning
- with the Dolby Digital API, future games can use the internal Dolby Digital decoding feature to playback high-quality 5.1 soundtracks
- use CMSS to perform stereo expansion, which processes stereo sound and spreads them across all 5 speakers
| Do note however that the Digital DIN inputs of the FPS2000 and DTT2500 only support 4 channels from the Digital DIN input. These speakers can't recognize the center/woofer signal so you can't get 5.1 output from the Audigy. |
The center/woofer output jack can also be switched to digital mode, giving the Audigy the ability to transmit 6 (5.1) channels of audio over a single cable. This output connects to digital Cambridge SoundWorks speakers with Digital DIN inputs, like the FPS2000, DTT2500 and DTT3500.
Other manufacturers have released a few Digital DIN speakers to tap the Live! market but not surprisingly, Creative and Cambridge SoundWorks remain the primary supporter of this format.
Newer Creative and Cambridge SoundWorks speakers like the MegaWorks seem to do away with the Digital DIN input altogether, favoring a similar mini-jack input on the speaker system instead. Irregardless of which type of inputs (Digital DIN or digital mini-jack) are found on the speaker system, all 5.1 channels are sent out by the Audigy when it is put in 5.1-speaker mode. It all depends on how many channels the speakers are able to extract from the output provided by the Audigy.
With a myraid of speaker connection options, the Audigy is able to work well with most sound systems including headphones and the popular 4-channel speaker systems. If you want to connect better speaker systems to the Audigy, a quick change in the Surround Mixer will do the job.
Like the Live! 5.1 cards, the Audigy has great support for 5.1 speakers, Dolby Digital decoding and S/PDIF passthrough. The clean analog outputs may even negate the need for digital speakers altogether. Couple the Audigy with a 5.1 speaker system like the Creative Inspire 5300 and you've got a cost-effective surround sound solution.
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