Creative Jumps The Numbers With Audigy 4

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Audio guru Creative has unveiled its latest headlining sound card, the Audigy 4 Pro. Aimed towards amateur musicians, audio enthusiasts and gaming aficionados, it rather confusingly supersedes previous top dog, the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro.

I say confusing because – as sharp eyed readers will spot – the company seems to have skipped the idea of an Audigy 3 branded product altogether. Reasons for this are unclear, other than to add a bit of zip to the marketing. Of course, it does send Creative down the rocky road of potentially exponential numeric branding, with Audigy 8s, 16s and 32s perhaps only a few years away!

The new card doesn't bring any radical new features to the table over the Audigy 2, but does offer improved digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) that produce a claimed signal-to-noise ratio of 113dB, a new high for consumer sound cards.

Audigy 4 Pro users can expect a cinema-style experience for movie viewing, through either 5.1 or 7.1 speakers, thanks to on-board DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX decoding, and THX certification is still in place.

Gamers are also well catered for with EAX 4.0 support and an upgraded version of Thief: Deadly Shadows ships with the card to give buyers an immediate sample of the latest real time audio effects. Additional software supplied includes Steinberg’s Cubase LE, Wavelab Lite 2.5, Image Line FL Studio 4 Creative Edition and Creative Smart Recorder.

Whether these features are worthy of branding the card with a four will soon be revealed as the Audigy 4 Pro goes on sale immediately with an RRP of £179.99 including VAT.

Links:
www.uk.europe.creative.com

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