Sound Blaster Audigy

Creative Labs advertised the Audigy as a 24-bit sound card, a controversial marketing claim for a product that did not support end-to-end playback of 24-bit/96 kHz audio streams.

The Audigy and Live shared a similar architectural limitation: the audio transport (DMA engine) was fixed to 16-bit sample precision at 48 kHz.

This fact was not immediately obvious in Creative's literature, and was difficult to ascertain even upon examination of the Audigy's spec sheets.

[citation needed] Audigy card supports the professional ASIO 1 driver interface natively, making it possible to obtain low latencies from Virtual Studio Technology (VST) instruments.

Some versions of Audigy featured an external break out box with connectors for S/PDIF, MIDI, IEEE 1394, analog and optical signals.

The ASIO and break out box features were an attempt to tap into the "home studio" market, with a mainstream product.

The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (SB0240) (September 2002) featured an updated EMU10K2 processor called CA0102 to gain access to CA0151 which is a separate chip.

However, the high-resolution audio was achieved by bypassing the DSP, being decoded directly by CA0151 chip also known as "p16v" to take advantage of which Creative substituted CA0102 for the old CA0100 used in Audigy 1.

IRIX has drivers for the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and it can be installed into the SGI Fuel series of workstations.

[citation needed] The Platinum model includes an audio front panel, called Platinum Drive,[8] which provides various multimedia connections in addition to an Audigy 2 ZS card with the following specs: Testing chain: External loopback (line-out1 - line-in3) Sampling mode: 24-bit, 96 kHz Measured values: The Platinum Pro model includes an external I/O Hub with various multimedia connections,[9] sometimes erroneously called the Platinum Ex, in addition to an Audigy 2 ZS card with the following specs: Testing chain: External loopback (line-out1 - line-in3) Sampling mode: 24-bit, 96 kHz Measured values: The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook (SB0530) is a CardBus version of the Audigy 2 ZS released in Fall 2004 for the notebook market.

The card struggled with compatibility due to quality issues with the CardBus host chipsets in many notebooks of the time, a problem also suffered with other companies' products, such as Echo Digital Audio Corporation's Indigo.

The audio system provided THX certified sound and 24-bit EAX ADVANCED HD in 5.1 or 7.1 surround.

While this results in good quality video even on basic systems, the device cannot be used by software that uses the standard DirectShow or VfW interface.

It is, however, fully hardware accelerated for DirectSound and EAX 4 and was sold as a cheaper companion for the more expensive ZS.

The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX (SB0300) was an external USB soundcard, supporting 24 bit playback, but with no DSP chip.

The newer model uses a CA10200 which is unleaded instead, and a new external I/O hub which has superior DACs offering higher digital-to-analog audio conversion quality.

[14][15] The Sound Blaster Audigy Fx (SB1570), released in September 2013, is a HDA card, it uses an ALC898 chip from Realtek,[16] includes a 600-ohm amplifier, Sound Blaster Audigy Fx Control Panel, EAX Studio Software, and independent line-in and microphone inputs.

[17][18][19] An alternate, independent WDM driver for Windows was developed to provide user-control of the EMU10K1 and EMU10K2 chips found in many Audigy-branded cards.

The kX Project driver supports mixing numerous different effects in real time and on the hardware of EMU10K1 and EMU10K2 chips.

[20] User daniel_k (Daniel Kawakami) from Creative's forums does maintenance updates to keep compatibility with the latest version of Windows and implements several non public fixes.

After Windows 10 1903 update, the drivers stopped working, they install, but there is no sound from soundcard, neither the Creative Audio Console cannot see the card.