3DsoundSurge Review: Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro


	Victoria Brooks and Christopher Ambrose put Creative's Audigy 4 Pro to the test

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Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro

by Victoria Brooks and Christopher Ambrose

Edited by Mark Muschett

Last updated January 6, 2005

Movies

High quality output is the name of the game here. With driver support for decoding Dolby Digital EX, Dolby ProLogic II, and DTS-ES to your Stereo thru 7.1 setup, you don't have to use a software decoder like PowerDVD if you don't want to. Just do SPDIF passthru in the player, and enable decoding in the Audio Console. You can even connect external players, like a DVD player or game console, into the various SPDIF inputs and decode those as well. Those with external receivers can choose to pass it on to the receiver if they wish.

I tested the movie playback, with SPDIF out on the DVD player software (PowerDVD 6) and decoded via drivers, and everything worked as should be expected.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended Edition under PowerDVD 6

Set PDVD to do SPDIF, and enabled DD/DTS decoding on the Audio Console. Worked like a charm in both DD EX and DTS ES. Full Dynamic range was enabled.

Strauss – Public Available Concert on DTS 44.1 Audio

I couldn't get the .wav file to play, however, burning it to CD allowed MediaSource to play it correctly, utilizing the driver decoder. Also played via SPDIF-In from external DVD player. You must enable “DD/DTS SPDIF-In decode” in the Audio Console. Also was able to stream from the CD to external decoder. Just disable the driver decoder, and use SPDIF passthrough.

Recording

You can either record via WDM, or for low latency recording, ASIO. Since this the Pro, it supports recording in 24/96 ASIO 2, and 16/48 ASIO, and that's it. But what it does offer, it does nicely, as you can see from the RMAA test results. No balanced inputs, sorry. 3 Analog stereo inputs, and 2 digital inputs (toslink/coax SPDIF). Pretty much standard fare for a card with an external breakout unit, and definitely welcome by those without one who need the extra ports. No phono RIAA port, which is typical these days. If ripping from vinyl, and usingan old phono player, I'd suggest investing in a phono to line-out external converter. Supports recording of multitracks using the 3x analog inputs, and has bitperfect SPDIF recording.

Bitperfect SPDIF recording can be enabled via the Audio Console, which should be welcome for anyone transferring from DAT or other digital sources. This disables any features that would corrupt the stream, and allow for a clean recording.

Conclusions

This definitely qualifies to be considered a prosumer card. The lack of balanced ins and outs prevent it for being a true professional card, along with some minor resampling issues, but if you use unbalanced lines, then this card can satisfy your recording needs, even for 24-bit recording. For the serious gamer, you get everything you need for serious power gaming, plus you can run your game consoles through the inputs for Dolby and DTS decoding. Movie lovers will enjoy the clarity and dynamic range offered. Music lovers will be able to have the quality they desire for whatever rigs they use, be it multimedia systems, HT systems, or quality headphones and dedicated headphone amplifiers. If you are looking for a one-card solution for everything, and are serious about wanting quality playback, the Audigy 4 Pro is one to seriously consider. MSRP is $299 US, but street prices have already dropped to about $250 at some reputable locations.

All in all a package of features, price and performance that add up to the very first sound card to earn the 3DSoundSurge Surge of Approval and Gold Medal of Excellence!

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