The really interesting Audigy’s are the ones that come with the AudigyDrive. You get two choices here also, an internal AudigyDrive, seen in last years’ Live Platinum, and an external version, ala the Hercules Game Theatre XP.  The AudigyDrive offers copious amounts of input/output options.  There is one ¼” headphone output with volume control, RCA inputs, a microphone input (with a gain control), SB1394, optical in/out, mini-midi in/out (includes two adapter cables), and SP/DIF in/out.

All are gold plated, with the exception of the optical, where photons don’t know much about electrical friction.  I was surprised not to see some USB dongle on it as well, but if you’ve got IEEE-1394, who cares about USB?  Both come with a nifty remote control, which works much better than we imagined, which duplicates the majority of the Audigy’s functions within a TV-like on-screen-display.  The Platinum series are geared toward a home studio type of thing, where you need some extra inputs and outputs.  The AudigyDrive itself is digitally connected to the Audigy by SB1394, Creative’s somewhat proprietary implementation of IEEE 1394 (not FireWire, that’s an Apple IEEE1394).  Both digital and analog signals can travel over this connection, depending on the source material.  The Platinum’s are heavily geared for sound/wav editing, mixing, sequencing, the stuff you’d find in a small home recording studio.  The difference, AudigyDrive module aside, really is in the software.  Creative is really pouring on the value here, offering Tons and Tons © of software, from Cubasis STE, Deus Ex, to no less than three wav editors.

The first two, the MP3+ and the Gamer, both retail for $US99 and the Platinum is $US199.  For an extra fifty bucks the Platinum with external Drive is priced at $US249.

Basically, we just want to talk a little about the new technology and not the software bundled with the cards.  It’s just too confusing and would make this review 25+ pages long!