The Audigy 2 NX is the latest card in the Audigy range, and is a high speed USB external sound card box. It certainly isn’t the first external sound card from Creative – that was the Extigy, released a couple of years ago, but this new model offers superior sound, connectivity and functionality in a far more compact box.
The SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX comes in a cardboard and plastic blister combination packaging, which hides all of the rather unsightly bits such as the power adaptor and documentation whilst showing off the soundcard's sleek design.
The quoted specifications of the NX are shown below
Front/Rear/Centre/Sub SNR: 102dB @ 2Vrms
Headphone/Side SNR: 96dB @ 2Vrms
• 24-bit/96kHz Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) for various analogue inputs
• 24-bit/96kHz Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC) for up to 7.1 channels output
• Supports Sony/Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF) format input signal of up to 24-bit/96kHz quality
• Recording/Playback: up to 24-bit/96kHz
• SoundFont 2.1 Support for Midi playback
The card offers slightly lower SNR quality than its PCI cousins, but a rating of 102db is still more than enough quality to be indistinguishable with any PC speakers – super high end models such as the Cambridge Soundworks Gigaworks and Klipche included.
The DAC and ADC ratings are right up there with the top of the range Audigy 2 Platinum Pro ZS. The NX is compatible with DVD-Audio disks, and supports both 5.1 and 7.1 channel speaker systems. Note that to play back 5.1 DVD-A at full 24 bit / 96kHz quality, you will need a USB 2.0 rather than a USB 1.1 system. This shouldn’t be a problem for most users now, since USB2.0 has been the standard for well over two years, with add on cards for older systems including laptops available very inexpensively.
