Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value

Great upgrade for analog recording

Strengths: Creative labs quality, low price, recording quality rivaling much higher priced units.

Weakness: Slight tweaking required when using line in. (May not be the fault of the unit)

Most people it seems are reviewing this card for playback use. My primary use is audio recording and I'll look at it from that standpoint. My audio recording is somewhat demanding. I have a sizeable theater organ installed in my house, and record it using condensor mics through a mixer board with the line out of the mixer going to the line in of the Audigy. The Audigy was an upgrade to the sound...
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Most people it seems are reviewing this card for playback use. My primary use is audio recording and I'll look at it from that standpoint.

My audio recording is somewhat demanding. I have a sizeable theater organ installed in my house, and record it using condensor mics through a mixer board with the line out of the mixer going to the line in of the Audigy. The Audigy was an upgrade to the sound card supplied with my computer.

I monitor the recording with headphones and the first thing I noticed was that the Audigy was significantly quieter than the original sound card. This card is so quiet I thought that my mixer was turned off! The sound quality is vibrant and detailed, quite a leap from my previous card.

The only gripe may not be the fault of the card or its drivers at all, may be in my computer. Whenever I start the system up, I must go to the audio control panel in the computer and switch the 'recording in' from mic to line, back and fourth to 'wake up' the system to the fact that I want to use line in as a recording source. Once this is done, it's all good and recording is effortless.

I may switch to using a laptop for this application in the future so I can record organs on location in theaters, too. For that I will use the Audigy 2ZS. The thing I like about this card, however, is that its recording specifications for all practical purposes equals that of other Creative Labs products costing much more. Since recording, not playback, is my primary goal with this computer, this economical card serves my purposes very well.

Note that I did not consider the USB units because the theater organ is equipped with MIDI playback and record, and these features are used to record the audio of the organ while it plays back a MIDI recording in order to eliminate picking up key and pedal clacking while playing 'live'. MIDI is being transmitted through the USB ports, and I do not want this USB usage to interfere with audio. Keeping these two separated makes for a potentially better audio recording since the audio does not have to share USB with MIDI.

Some people might shy away from the card thinking that 'value' in the name means a low quality stripped down product. This is sure not the case.

By steamrocks - Aug 22, 2006

Nice sound card

Strengths: Great sound, specially for action games

Weakness: none so far

I am using this card with a Logitech 5.1 speacker system and the sround sound quality is great with movies and games. You will feel the diffrence with an onboard card if you are a hardcore game player.

By sabor - Jun 18, 2006

Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value

Strengths: Nice improvement from onboard sound card

Weakness: Price?

After I installed the card, I did notice some improvement from my onboard card, although I believe I need better speakers to take full advantage of all the features offered (I have logitech Z3 5.1 right now). I'm not an audiophile, so the current level of sound quality is adequate for me, but I am also curious what this card can do with a better speaker set. Card came with Splinter cell, which I...
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After I installed the card, I did notice some improvement from my onboard card, although I believe I need better speakers to take full advantage of all the features offered (I have logitech Z3 5.1 right now). I'm not an audiophile, so the current level of sound quality is adequate for me, but I am also curious what this card can do with a better speaker set.

Card came with Splinter cell, which I already had. I can just give it to someone else I guess.

Anyways, it's a good purchase. Not a lot different in sound quality from Audigy ZS while playing games and movies , which sells for much more.

By roggan - Apr 26, 2006

Nice upgrade

Strengths: Relatively inexpensive upgrade to integrated sound. Software has decent amount of customizable options. Easy installation. Comes with full Splinter Cell game (better than nothing).

Weakness: No fiber optical in/out connections for connecting to a/v receiver.

This is the first audio card I've bought and must say that it offers noticable audio quality improvement. I got it for $40 after rebate at compusa so the price was right. Installation was like any PCI addition, just plugging into an open slot and installing drivers. Software has equalizer and other customizable options for various speaker set ups. I've got my computer hooked up to my a/v receiver...
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This is the first audio card I've bought and must say that it offers noticable audio quality improvement. I got it for $40 after rebate at compusa so the price was right. Installation was like any PCI addition, just plugging into an open slot and installing drivers. Software has equalizer and other customizable options for various speaker set ups. I've got my computer hooked up to my a/v receiver with 5.1 sound. Unfortunately I've just got it plugged into the headphone jack with a y-split cable because there is no fiber optical input. Nevertheless, sound quality is noticeably louder and clearer than integrated chip even with this set up. But can't complain for a mere $40. If looking for more options the price range would inevitably move up the ladder.

By jayarebee3 - Feb 28, 2006

Great Sound Great Value

Strengths: Great Sound, Sound Effects and Cool Things to play with

Weakness: No Gameport (old joysticks).

I am very pleased with the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value Audio Card. It has 7.1 surround sound support which means that you can have 7 speakers and a subwoofer hooked up, with different sound coming from every speaker. It is incredible with modern DVD's and with games. The software has many sound presets you can play with. For example you can adjust the sound to sound like you are at a...
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I am very pleased with the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value Audio Card. It has 7.1 surround sound support which means that you can have 7 speakers and a subwoofer hooked up, with different sound coming from every speaker. It is incredible with modern DVD's and with games. The software has many sound presets you can play with. For example you can adjust the sound to sound like you are at a concert hall, a cave, or a bathroom. You can also change the speed of your played back mp3's and the tone (ie can change male singer to female). The Audigy right now is the most supported soundcard in today's games. In order to use OpenAL in games like Quake4 and other games a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 or better must be installed. When I upgraded to the Audigy 2 from the Soundblaster Live, I definitely have a much more booming sound in Quake 4 and other games. The disadvantage is that there is no gameport on this soundcard, so I still had to have my soundblaster live in another PCI slot so I could plug in my old joystick (or steering wheel). Also, I have frequent problems with the system mixer control panel. One time the speaker configuration panel was not working and I had to reinstall the drivers. Now the graphic equalizer control panel is not working and I will have to reinstall the drivers again. The Audigy 2 is specially suited for DVD playback audio, and will give you a higher quality than older sound cards. Benchmarking the Audigy 2 compared to my Live, I see a couple FPS increase in about 1/3 of my games. Make sure you have good speakers if you get this card.

By gtguy01 - Feb 3, 2006