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Here is an article from the Singapore daily, The Straits Times. Click here to view this article at the original site. We have mirrored it here because the site only keeps articles for a few short weeks. Creative's new card strikes a chord on qualityThe firm has refocused on its core competencies with Audigy cards, designed with audiophiles in mindBy Steve Dawson CREATIVE Technology has set up a special room at its headquarters that most audiophiles can only drool over. This soundproof room has foam-covered walls, state-of-the-art audio equipment and comfortable chairs on which they can sit and listen to music. To be precise, to sit and appreciate the quality of music produced by the new Sound Blaster card, the Audigy, that the company launched on Tuesday. While market analysts were obsessing over the listed company's first full-year loss since 1996, its founder and chairman, Mr Sim Wong Hoo, was obsessing over divinity. 'We have created a Sound Blaster shrine for people to go and worship,' he said. But worship is only for those with 'golden ears', Creative's audiophiles who are entrusted with assessing increasingly demanding audio standards. These are people who can hear all the different fundamentals of music, discerning frequency, noise interference and other nuances that escape the unsophisticated ear. 'You have to build that kind of room to really enjoy it. And I really enjoy it,' he said with a laugh. He said he was close to tears when he first heard the quality produced by the three new versions of the Audigy cards. They range in price from US$99.99 (about S$175) to US$249.99. If not for the inconvenience of having to wait to boot up a computer, these sound cards could have helped the computer to replace the hi-fi already. 'You need the instant 'on'. You don't want to have to boot up a computer to enjoy your music,' he said. Quality is also an issue. Computers that hang, fan noise and hard-disk problems - all keep PC owners from junking traditional sound systems en masse for now, he believes. The Audigy card is four times as fast as the previous Creative processor and has a 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), higher than any of its earlier products. The higher the SNR, the less background noise there is. Creative built its business on its sound cards. And in the light of its recent poor results, has been refocusing on its core competencies. Creative, said Mr Sim, is a complex company. He said: 'Many people say, 'Ah, Sound Blaster - this is a sound card company'. That's really very understated.' One of its core products is its Nomad Jukebox, a high-capacity portable music player that stores a large volume of music using a format called MP3 that does not need tapes or CDs. It has been well received by critics. However, the launch of different Jukebox models may not go as planned this year.
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