In Conclusion
Although this review highlights many of the missing features that are found on the Live! and Audigy, most of them arising because of the bandwidth limitations of USB, we really liked the way Creative approached the Extigy, and the results show.
 The Extigy delivers on the promise to take notebook audio to new heights. Listening to MP3s and watching DVDs on a notebook computer has never been much of a kick before the Extigy. Technophobics will also appreciate the ease of installation, even for desktop PCs.
However, in all honesty, there are two groups of users who should not buy the Extigy: the gamers and the desktop musicians. These two groups of users would be better served with an Audigy or Live! sound card because of lower CPU utilization, full-blown EAX effects, and MIDI and SoundFont features for music composition.
Creative is very excited about the prospects of the Extigy, especially since it caters to a very specific niche that no mass-market sound card manufacturer has touched yet. It also heralds the company's move into consumer electronics territory owned by big names such as Sony. What's more, notebook and portable computers are increasing in market share over desktops.
The Extigy is an interesting concept that is very nicely realized, and we hope to see more powerful external Sound Blasters in the coming months!
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