Rating: 
Summary: Creative Labs has yet to fix their driver problems....
Review: Most of the published reviews for the Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum are bunk. Having chatted with numerous end users and techs since initial purchase, my findings have proven common place. Creative Lab's failure to address documented problems dating back to the AWE64 is reprehensible.Strengths:
Easy installation, front access controls are very nice (especially the addition of a firewire port), sounds are rich, remote control is cute. The command bar up top can be hidden. Weaknesses: The card may cause some games to crash resulting in a hardlock. Summary:
This card replaced an aging PCI 128 Creative Labs. Installation was very simple. The Audigy only takes up an additional slot if your case does not sport a joystick mount. I first installed the card into my main 1.8GHz P4 Win98SE gaming computer residing in a 19" rack; but sacrificing one of the few external drive slots became a problem as well as crashes and intrusive noises (pops, chirps, etc.). The card was moved to an AMD 600MHz Win2kPro IBM Aptiva tower. Would I purchase another? If/When Creative Labs updates the drivers to address some game crashing and bothersome noises, possibly; however I am now strongly considering Turtle Beach.
Rating: 
Summary: Creative and Software
Review: My first "expensive" sound card was the AWE32 . The times when Creative was shining . Then I used to buy the SBLive! . It had a beautiful sound but in the records it had a hiss sound in the back . Creative Audigy "PLATINUM" is not just for the games . If you want to play games and listen to music in your PC , go and buy Live! or the cheaper models of Audigy . Why spend more money just to say : "I have an expensive sound card ?" ? If you use this card just to play games and listen to music , then you only use the 5% of this card . This card provides excellent recording performance for the users . As a sound card , it can be rated as 5/5 , but Creative does it again and fills your PC with unnecessary programs . And the performance of your PC dramatically decreases ... Why should I need the remote center ? Why should I need another menu for my card ? In the statup , it fills the memory with hundreds of unnecesary processes . So you need to INSTALL what you need to prevent your PC from crashes . But again , Creative needs to rebuild it's software . As an example PlayCenter is really a very bad program . But the card as itself is a 5 /5 card.
Rating:
Summary: a good sound card if you are in need of a studio
Review: This is a good sound card for those who wanna be a radio announcer or want to make voice-overs to sFX in radio dramas, but for gamers it's just a lot of fluff. If you are into recording and singing I suggest going all the way and getting the Platnum ex, if you are into games, I suggest the Gamer version, it's (. . .)cheaper and comes with Giants to boot. This card emulates 5.1 channels in most games but is not as good as Phillips in correctly emulating them. The only games I had a real problem with were Baldur's Gate Series(all of them including SoA&ToB). These games cannot emulate speech through the center channel but instead emulate the music/fx in the center. This bothers me personally because BG is my favorite game. Phillips will play speech through center in ToB but not in the others. IceWind Dale works great with this Audigy card but Baldur's Gate II SoA/ToB is terrible. The best games are Creative's 'featured' games, including Diablo, Deus Ex, and a handfull of others. BGII/ToB is on the EAX list but it doesn't work in 5.1(at least not appropriately)
'Advanced' HD EAX has yet to prove itself. When games come out(next 6 mo) This card will show what it can do(hopefully). Not trying to disappoint but the Goldmine Demo was not that impressive to me. This Demo was supposed to show the cards full potential with EAX advanced. Birds chirping arounnd and wing flapping was pretty life like but the other things you can do were nothing shocking. I did notice a bunch of static when I tried to run some game demos in EAX that were supposed to be HD Advanced It is probably a driver issue that will be fixed when EAX 3 comes out.
To conclude, do not buy this product just because it's from Creative, that is not a good reason at all and they're are better cards out there. Hercules is comming out with Maxi Theater X, a 6.1 sound card(six speakers and a sub= 7!) For right now there is Phillip's Acustic Edge which has an excellent player and Power DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Card at a Great Price
Review: Want truly superior gaming, audio playback, and recording sound? Do you record audio to you computer? Do you play video games? This card will rock your world with it's hardware sound effects and multiple level EAX environments that create a virtual world only the Audigy Platinum 2 can beat. With Dolby DTS and 5.1 codec, and multiple audio inputs and outputs with the live drive, you won't ever buy another brand! Turn your computer into a complete recording studio in minutes! Want to sound like you are recording live? choose from different accoustical environments to suit your sound. The hardware is quiet and packs 100 db s/n (signal to noise) ratio and 24 bit encoding and up to 96 kHz sampling (better than CD). With awesome technology like this, you can become a pro DJ, Track Master, or warp to the world of your video game with one great card. Now all you'll need is a bigger hard drive to store all of your music and games on!
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Best Consumer Audio Cards on The Market
Review: Want truly superior gaming, audio playback, and recording sound? Do you record audio to you computer? Do you play video games? This card will rock your world with it's hardware sound effects and multiple level EAX environments that create a virtual world only the Audigy Platinum 2 can beat. With Dolby DTS and 5.1 codec, and multiple audio inputs and outputs with the live drive, you won't ever buy another brand! Turn your computer into a complete recording studio in minutes! Want to sound like you are recording live? choose from different accoustical environments to suit your sound. The hardware is quiet and packs 100 db s/n (signal to noise) ratio and 24 bit encoding and up to 96 kHz sampling (better than CD). With awesome technology like this, you can become a pro DJ, Track Master, or warp to the world of your video game with one great card. Now all you'll need is a bigger hard drive to store all of your music and games on!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Card works fine in Windows 2000 and XP
Review: Works fine in Windows XP. I installed a fresh copy of XP on a new hard drive and after the installation the card did not function. After going to Creative's web site and downloading the drivers, everything popped to life and worked perfectly. The drivers ARE on their web site and if past history is any evidence, those drivers will likely be updated regularly. I do not have much use for the "included software" as I have other software that I already use for audio or video editing and such. The remote control is not anything I have ever needed or used. I am really hoping to use the Firewire (SB1394) connection to network two PCs sometime in the near future. Previously had it installed in a Windows 2000 machine where it ran flawlessly. One little hint regarding other reviews and XP. When you are going to buy a product like this, why not go to the manufacturer web site FIRST and see if they have drivers available for a particular operating system. If they don't then don't buy it!
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