All user reviews of 4/5 for the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

I bought this on a great closeout sale around 2005 years ago from zipzoomfly.com for $75 with rebate. Hard to find it for that price.

Allows internal recording on your PC Desktop, practically no latency when recording since you do not have to go through a USB or some other slow external interface. And you can conveniently plug your 1/4' jack right into the front of your tower! I used this for overdubbing bass tracks from some demos that needed bass lines and recorded some personal projects.

Need to know how to put computers together. If you are not hardware savvy, this is pretty much useless to you. Quality seems great for my purposes but it might not hold up to a real studio recording, this seems more for personal use.

Well constructed. I did have some of the pins on the card that connect the ribbon to the front panel bend a bit after multiple removals for one reason or another. Other then that this card should last you, even second hand.

Great low latency card for people who aren't afraid to break open there desktop and mess with it. May not be up to studio quality standards. Can be expensive if you pay full price. You should be able to find a used one or one on sale on eBay or some other internet site. Don't pay retail. But I would recommend it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

I bought this on a great closeout sale around 2005 years ago from zipzoomfly.com for $75 with rebate. Hard to find it for that price.

Allows internal recording on your PC Desktop, practically no latency when recording since you do not have to go through a USB or some other slow external interface. And you can conveniently plug your 1/4' jack right into the front of your tower! I used this for overdubbing bass tracks from some demos that needed bass lines and recorded some personal projects.

Need to know how to put computers together. If you are not hardware savvy, this is pretty much useless to you. Quality seems great for my purposes but it might not hold up to a real studio recording, this seems more for personal use.

Well constructed. I did have some of the pins on the card that connect the ribbon to the front panel bend a bit after multiple removals for one reason or another. Other then that this card should last you, even second hand.

Great low latency card for people who aren't afraid to break open there desktop and mess with it. May not be up to studio quality standards. Can be expensive if you pay full price. You should be able to find a used one or one on sale on eBay or some other internet site. Don't pay retail. But I would recommend it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The usual features are there, I think. I like this card cuz it has RCA IN; RCA Outs would be nice; or just more INs/OUTs over all. The midi is doable--there's a MIDI gameport I don't use and two little midi ports for in and out (they look like keyboard/mice plugs); they require an adapter that came with the card. I use those from a MIDI Out on the MPC3K. With CakeWalk, XP Pro --no problems w/latency/drivers, thus far. I do NOT like the separate hardware interface with all the plugs/ports in and out--it takes up space in a hard drive bay even though it looks cool and has a remote control.

Price paid

$199 US (Overpriced IMHO)

UTILIZATION

A blind paraplegic could use this thing (no offense!), but it was out of the box, in the machine and working in like 20 min. Even when I moved up to XP, a simple reinstallation of the drivers made the thing work again without problems.

GETTING STARTED

I think it's solid and won't crack or anything pulling stuff in and out. Buttons could be larger and the actual soundcard (in the motherboard slot) is just like the $30 card with more ins/outs. I use a fourtrack portastudio's like a recording backup for the PC/soundcard; it's much more stable.

OVERALL OPINION

I can't compare with other similar cards. The sound quality is good to me. I get hot mixes and relatively low noise; the noise I get is not from the card.

I love it cuz it's all I have at the moment. I use the thing like a hard disk recorder, (and of course to spit audio out) although it brings in the audio *and MIDI nicely. The PC was much improved with this soundcard and while it was overpriced, I'd probably pay it again.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Unknown ( 6-, 2002)

The features are basic on the version i bought, which is the platinum ex. Its has ports for a coaxial jack, a front conection for headphones and an additonal line in.

Price paid

$500 bz (approx. $250 US)

UTILIZATION

This device is fairly easy to use. I am in the verge of upgrading to a EMU 1820, but thats because at this point in time i really need something more. ITs one of the less troublesome drives i've worked it.

GETTING STARTED

Well, i can say that after about 3 years of usage i haven't had any problems with this baby, i keep changing PCs i use it with and its proved quite mobile and helpfu.

OVERALL OPINION

This Sound Drive is what i would call the basic for home recording. Its quality is good enough for you to listen to yourself and start getting a good idea of strategies you should use to improve in your PRODUCTION techniques.

I can say i've grown an affectioon to the thing.. he he! but thats because its been my friend out in the third world, where these things are not easy to come by!

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: belizeño ( 6-, 2005)

There are a lot of inputs you can choose from depending on your mixer output, so I have no complaints with that. And if you’re using ASIO you get real-time monitoring of the dry incoming signal, so you don’t have to activate hardware monitoring (it's on all the time). The card sucks big time for games, though. I’ve got on-board Realtek, so at least that does it for me. Two things disappointed me: -No recording on 44.1 with ASIO. -With the 2496 driver you can only record from the external inputs (Line In 1-3). The media converter is a nice bonus.

Price paid: 210 Euros

UTILIZATION

Rather straightforward, and besides the self-important installation of autostart programs (easily removed with Services and MSConfig), it’s very easy to use.

GETTING STARTED

If you’re using ASIO, the driver communicates directly with the hardware, so it doesn’t use the media panel from windows. It means that you do not control the inputs from the record input slider. No big deal.

OVERALL OPINION

I was using a Live! Platinum 5.1, and I thought that the audio was already good. The Audigy 2 has better playback, but I find recording is only slightly better. This card seems to be very sensitive to IRQ sharing, so if you buy this card be careful to avoid errors while recording: -Install Windows 2k or XP as “Standard PC” (the F5 trick during installation) to disable ACPI –even if your motherboard doesn’t have a setting to turn it off. Also, let the BIOS handle resources. -Make sure the card has its own IRQ (mine is 12 right now), otherwise you might not get a good recorded sound. I can only compare the sound to the SB I was using before, so I don’t know how much worse is the sound compared to one of those M-Audio or Echo cards; the card sounds good to me. I'm using the Creative drivers; haven't tried KX yet.

I’ve been using it for a year now, and has served me well. It doesn’t get as hot as my old SB Live!, which means the parts and solder points are under less stress. A nice piece of hardware.

Most of my complaining has to do with the software implementation of this rather nice piece of equipment. Since I have to take every aspect into consideration, I’ll say that I’m happy, but not impressed.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: running ( 8-, 2005)