Rating: 
Summary: Does what it's supposed to, after some adjustment
Review: First off, I have no major complaints with this product. I use it with my laptop and 5.1 setup and it works fine in that it plays audio and sounds pretty good.
The remote it comes with is an extremely cool feature, although good luck using it with iTunes as it becomes limited to prev/next song and a scroll (which is useless because you can't select). However, with Windows Media Player you will get more functionality, and with the bundled program all of the remote's buttons work.
I should point out that when I first received this product, it would not power up, so I had to order a replacement. Just a fair warning, even though the tech support guy said he had never heard of somebody with that problem.
When I first tried to install the replacement, my computer had a tough time recognizing it, and I eventually had to disregard the installation instructions that came with it and agree to Windows XP's driver installation window, but then it worked fine.
One more thing, I figured that I would be able to play surround sound audio with this (as in all of the channels functioning seperately), but apparently my PIII 1GHz, 316MB memory laptop isn't up to speed. So now whenever I want to play DVDs or DVD audio, I have to unplug the Audigy and use my headphone jack to connect my speakers so the audio doesn't get choppy.
Anyway, I almost feel like a lot of my issues with this product are more or less not going to be the norm, so I went ahead and gave it 4 of 5.
Rating: 
Summary: good hardware, bad software
Review: First of all, you will hear the difference. I absolutely guarantee it. You're laptop (or default pc) audio cannot even begin to measure up to the awesome power of the Audigy. You will hear it the moment you plug this marvel into your USB port. Even your mundane and boring-to-the-death windows system sounds now carry a cadence that was simply not there before.
The sound card supports 7.1 speakers (for hardcore gamers) as well as the more pedestrian 5.1 setup (like mine). the handling of surround sound is superb. The availability of EAX (the patented SoundBlaster HARDWARE sound package) provides for seemless transitions, and the direct hardware equalizer and on the fly effects are a tremendous bonus if you are planning to use this second sound card's output for DJ-ing (like i am).The fact that this has an independent power supply might seem inconvenient at first, and frankly... it is... There is a tradeoff, however... You will not believe how loud your speakers can actualy go now without distorting! Deafening. Almost like a pre-amp in that respect. The negative reviews for this card startle me. Jeff Rutsch is incorrect when he says the USB cable is short. Its 4 feet. Too long for me, actually... furthermore, if you want a 20 foot cable, go out and buy it! No issues whatsoever with magnetic shielding... Its a SoundBlaster for heaven's sake! I have also not had any problems with the installation (even though it took a good hour!) or recognition. It does help if you "Safely Remove" it and/or plug it in before booting up... Otherwise the remote does not always work properly. Also, talking about CD sound, Jeff (even if he is a computer guru, as he claims) did not do his homework. By default your CD-ROM drive converts the digital audio into analog for playback. If you do not adjust this setting, that is the way it will stay after you install the new hardware. Come on Jeff! That was both in the help file and the tutorial program! You should have read those! Woody Jin's comments also amuse me. There apparently is a white noise that you can't really hear, but its there. What??? :| If you can't hear it.. its not there by definition... Right? As a matter of fact my experience has been that my onboard laptop audio sounds like a woodsaw compared to this.... Actually the Audigy2 does not produce *any* background noise. At all... My only "problem" with this device is that it almost neccecitates a speaker upgrade... I am eagerly awaiting my new set of speakers right now, in order to better experience the explosive sound of the Audigy2 card...
Rating: 
Summary: Your ears will sing praise to you
Review: First of all, you will hear the difference. I absolutely guarantee it. You're laptop (or default pc) audio cannot even begin to measure up to the awesome power of the Audigy. You will hear it the moment you plug this marvel into your USB port. Even your mundane and boring-to-the-death windows system sounds now carry a cadence that was simply not there before.
The sound card supports 7.1 speakers (for hardcore gamers) as well as the more pedestrian 5.1 setup (like mine). the handling of surround sound is superb. The availability of EAX (the patented SoundBlaster HARDWARE sound package) provides for seemless transitions, and the direct hardware equalizer and on the fly effects are a tremendous bonus if you are planning to use this second sound card's output for DJ-ing (like i am). The fact that this has an independent power supply might seem inconvenient at first, and frankly... it is... There is a tradeoff, however... You will not believe how loud your speakers can actualy go now without distorting! Deafening. Almost like a pre-amp in that respect. The negative reviews for this card startle me. Jeff Rutsch is incorrect when he says the USB cable is short. Its 4 feet. Too long for me, actually... furthermore, if you want a 20 foot cable, go out and buy it! No issues whatsoever with magnetic shielding... Its a SoundBlaster for heaven's sake! I have also not had any problems with the installation (even though it took a good hour!) or recognition. It does help if you "Safely Remove" it and/or plug it in before booting up... Otherwise the remote does not always work properly. Also, talking about CD sound, Jeff (even if he is a computer guru, as he claims) did not do his homework. By default your CD-ROM drive converts the digital audio into analog for playback. If you do not adjust this setting, that is the way it will stay after you install the new hardware. Come on Jeff! That was both in the help file and the tutorial program! You should have read those! Woody Jin's comments also amuse me. There apparently is a white noise that you can't really hear, but its there. What??? :| If you can't hear it.. its not there by definition... Right? As a matter of fact my experience has been that my onboard laptop audio sounds like a woodsaw compared to this.... Actually the Audigy2 does not produce *any* background noise. At all... My only "problem" with this device is that it almost neccecitates a speaker upgrade... I am eagerly awaiting my new set of speakers right now, in order to better experience the explosive sound of the Audigy2 card...
Rating:
Summary: Good, could be great!
Review: I bought the Audigy 2 NX to hook into my laptop into my surround receiver. I'm especially pleased with the CMSS 3D surround "up-sample" feature. CMSS 3D beats SRS Circle Surround 2 upsampling (which only provides a mono signal to the surround speakers) easily, and is very competitive (although quite different!) with Dolby Pro Logic II upsampling. However, I have several issues/problems. 1) The Audigy doesn't remember the mixer volume settings (eg Master and Wave) across a power up/down cycle of the Audigy hardware. I really hate having to go in and reset the volume every time I turn the system on. 2) I would like to apply CMSS 3D to my radio and other analog signals, but cannot because CMSS 3D does not get applied to "line in" signals, only to Wave signals. 3) There is no way to set the speaker distance to compensate for speakers that are at differing distances from the listening position. Competitor products like the M-Audio Sonica Theatre and stereo receivers have this capability. 4) There is no speaker size setting (eg small, medium, large) to ensure proper bass management. If the surround speakers are small, bass going to them should be routed to the front speakers or subwoofer (if present). Again, the M-Audio Sonica Theatre has this capability, as do stereo receivers. 5) It would be really useful to have VU meters for input and output (all channels) built into the driver. The M-Audio Sonica Theatre has very useful VU meters. Unfortunately the M-Audio also makes my system (XP) crash! 6) I find all the different "consoles" to be confusing and time-consuming to launch. They should combine the Surround Mixer, EAX, Graphic Equalizer, and Speaker consoles.
Rating:
Summary: Good, could be great!
Review: I bought the Audigy 2 NX to hook into my laptop into my surround receiver. I'm especially pleased with the CMSS 3D surround "up-sample" feature. CMSS 3D beats SRS Circle Surround 2 upsampling (which only provides a mono signal to the surround speakers) easily, and is very competitive (although quite different!) with Dolby Pro Logic II upsampling. However, I have several issues/problems. 1) The Audigy doesn't remember the mixer volume settings (eg Master and Wave) across a power up/down cycle of the Audigy hardware. I really hate having to go in and reset the volume every time I turn the system on. 2) I would like to apply CMSS 3D to my radio and other analog signals, but cannot because CMSS 3D does not get applied to "line in" signals, only to Wave signals. 3) There is no way to set the speaker distance to compensate for speakers that are at differing distances from the listening position. Competitor products like the M-Audio Sonica Theatre and stereo receivers have this capability. 4) There is no speaker size setting (eg small, medium, large) to ensure proper bass management. If the surround speakers are small, bass going to them should be routed to the front speakers or subwoofer (if present). Again, the M-Audio Sonica Theatre has this capability, as do stereo receivers. 5) It would be really useful to have VU meters for input and output (all channels) built into the driver. The M-Audio Sonica Theatre has very useful VU meters. Unfortunately the M-Audio also makes my system (XP) crash! 6) I find all the different "consoles" to be confusing and time-consuming to launch. They should combine the Surround Mixer, EAX, Graphic Equalizer, and Speaker consoles.
Rating:
Summary: good hardware, bad software
Review: i bought this card because i have a dell laptop which has either a poor sound card, or its wiring is poorly shielded, resulting in noticable interference when listening. the audigy2 external sound card solves this problem--the sound is clear, crisp, and has no noticable interference. i have several issues with the software however. first off, once you'll install the software on your computer you'll have to download a plethora of software updates and fixes from creative's site. secondly, the software is poorly integrated with the hardware--on numerous occasions the software could not detect the sound card, and the 'diagnostic' utility that comes with it advises to reinstall the software, rather than fix the problem; geez, thanks. thirdly, often i had to manually shut-off my laptop because windows could not shutdown a background process--i never had this problem before installing this card. fourthly, sometimes the card is detected by the system, and sometimes it is not (this could be an issue with their hardware). overall, i have mixed feelings--sound is great, but it may be frustrating to get it.
Rating:
Summary: Best USB Sound Device, For the price
Review: I bought this to replace the cheap 5.1 surround sound/dvd player i had bought a couple of years ago, and to play everything off my laptop, on the tv. This sound card's CMSS is one of the best 2-channel converter i have heard! The audio on music tracks is truely amazing with 24-bit sound, i can hear a complete new depth to my music, and now i find myself listening to older songs and discovering new depth to each one. I really reccomend this product to anyone, desktop or laptop, it's worth every penny!!!
Rating:
Summary: Terrible Tech Support
Review: I bought this to utilize optical out to my receiver in order to eliminate hiss and noise that comes from using an analog port inside the computer.
TECH SUPPORT is useless! Works with my notebook, but does not work with a brand new Dell Dimension 4700 Tower; phone support would not help me because I have had this more than 2 months, and email support said that they do not "support 3rd party hardware"; that is pretty lame when the "hardware" is a brand new dell computer.
The product does work for my purpose, and I don't have any problem with Bass output (as long as my computer volume is not on max and I use my receiver to control it); however I suspect that any other (cheaper) USB sound device with an optical out would do the exact same for me.
The product is expensive for what you get. The remote that comes with it is also very lame!
Rating:
Summary: Noise in the headphone jack, s/w install probs
Review: I had terrible problems getting the Creative drivers to *install*. (They won't install unless the installer sees the device, and it couldn't. I kid you not.) After much messing around, emails to Creative tech support, and more messing around, I got lucky and the drivers installed. Sound out of my speakers was very good (*much* better than the AC '97 audio on my motherboard). Sound out of the headphone jack was disappointing--there's a definite hiss. Tweaking levels in the mixer made no difference. CAVEAT: I use isolating in-ear headphones (Etymotics), so I don't hear any background noise (like computer fans). If you're using typical headphones in a typically noisy environment you might not notice. Still, it's ridiculous for the headphone jack to be anything but quiet.
Rating:
Summary: Good and easy alternatives to internal devices
Review: I have bought this device a few days ago, because my computer's internal sound device keep fails. (I have Sony RS-630G desktop, and it has Soundmax sound device integrated in its motherboard. However, the device fails to play sounds after a while. Since it plays again once rebooted or drivers reinstalled, I guess it is the matter of device driver; but Sony hasn't upgrade the sound driver yet.) Anyway, it works great so far.
Comments:
1. The greatest advantage is that you don't have to open the computer. Simply plug the device into computer via USB cable, and install the drivers and software as needed. Since it's in very compact casing, it doesn't take up much spaces: slightly wider than the size of 2 cigarette boxes put toghther horizontally.
2. Remote control is nice when you want to switch volumes or mute it while you're not in front of computer.
3. Sound quality is satisfactory. However, for some reason I hear subtle noise in certain sound level. Probably it's because I am using standard 2 speakers which came with my computer. Acceptable.
4. It happens while I watch movie file with voice. If I skip the movie while voice was playing, there is a sharp noise(zip!) and a (very) slight delay until it plays voices or sounds of the point I skipped to. Also acceptable.
5. Some people down there complains about softwares. Since I haven't used bundled softwares except the operating driver yet, I can't really comment on that. (I don't think that I will somehow use bundled software.)
6. Instruction manual is acceptable, but not detailed enough. I would have been happy if the company put more detailed instructions rather than same way-too-brief instruction in other languages.
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