Date: June 6, 2003

Product: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum eX

Price: Guru3d.com PriceWatch: ~$200

Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum eX

When I first received the Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum eX I immediately became tongue tied.  Not because of the absurdly long name, but what in the heck do I do with this thing?  Why would anybody need a completely external break-out box?  The AudigyDrive, and all like products, are pretty near perfection for ease of use and connection.  And they generally sound pretty good, too.  So I think: Tear it apart!  No, no, that would void the warranty.  Wait a minute, it's a Press Kit … there ain't no warranty.

Heh.  Heh.  Heh.

There are many, many good reasons to have a completely external box for your sound card.  Chief among them are that the insides of a computer case, with its myriad fans, disk drives, expansion cards, CPU's, connection busses, and not to mention cold cathodes, make a rather electrically noisy environment for good clean sound.  Also moving a small box around is much easier than moving your whole computer around to make audio connections.  And you certainly don't have to worry about showing somebody your butt crack by climbing under your desk to plug something in.  But then, I tend to do that just for fun.

Let's check out the specifics of the Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum eX.  But let's just call it "The eX."

Ready for a long review ? Let's go ..