Home > Consumer Reviews > Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy MP3+ Sound Card

The Audigy card produces excellent sound, if at a fair additional cost over the Live! series. This card has been gone over well under Audigy Gamer in terms of its gaming capabilities, (the Gamer and the MP3+ are virtually identical cards with differing software packages) so I'll talk more about the MP3+ here and its music software... While I haven't had much experience with EAX games, some of the ambience effects (called "Environment" effects in the Surround Mixer, including concert hall, theater, etc.) when used with music are actually realistic and useable in certain situations (unlike many of the ambience effects included on your average stereo minisystem..). More often, though, you'll use the Advanced EQ effects (Rock, Techno, Classical, etc.), not the Environment effects, for listening to music. In general, I've found these to be appropriate for the genres they describe and better than some equalizer presets given with other software; I've disabled the Windows Media Player equalizer and use the Creative one instead. I believe the mixer with all the effects is the same on the Gamer and the MP3+.

While I don't have a whole lot of experience with different mixing software, Mixmeister is excellent and useful, while Mixman seems to me more like a toy. Mixmeister is great for mixing party music-- you can make the transitions sound surprisingly professional. Put two songs next to each other, turn on beat mixing, perhaps fine tune its automatic settings somewhat (very easy), and have the computer slightly speed or slow the two songs so that by the time they overlap their beats are synchronized, so people don't need to adjust while dancing. You can also use it to speed or slow whole songs-- add a little more energy to a song by speeding it up a few beats per minute. The Audigy chip on the card handles this, I believe; at any rate, I've noticed no slowdown on my computer with any dynamic tempo shifting.

Mixman allows you to remix music yourself, techno style, and record your work as MP3, but in my opinion it comes with too few tracks and effects to really be useful, and it seems to me you may only be able to do 20 MP3 exports; I haven't checked with Creative Labs to see if there is something you can do to lift this limit, but frankly I haven't once thought it worth my time to do so, either.

I don't know if the rest of the player software that comes with the Audigy MP3+ also comes with the Audigy Gamer, but in general, it's hit or miss. Creative PlayCenter is harder to use and less attractive than Windows Media Player or RealJukebox; Oozic player is even harder to use, and while 3-D visualizations are far cooler than anything WMP or Winamp can do, I wouldn't switch for them, and they need a pretty fast video card to play without having skips in the video. IMRadio is by far the best internet radio app I've seen, but it is also a free download from the internet.

To comment on the sound quality of the actual card: Very impressive. When hooked to a Klipsch Provision 4.1 audio system, even at the highest levels, there was a very slight hissing, but that was all (and with a Klipsch 4.1, if any sound signal ever did play with the system on max, expect your ears to fall off in protest). The sound card will also play without skipping regardless of how much you run on the system-- at least, i've never run into a problem, which i used to do with my old Montego II OEM version.

Overall, extremely high-quality card, and a worthwhile upgrade. I've been critical of the software, but you're getting the card for the card's sake. The Audigy card is one of the best, and both versions come with an excellent mixer app. When deciding which to get, Gamer or MP3+, if you like the games that come with it, get a gamer. If you want to change song speeds (more fun than it sounds), get an MP3+. If neither, flip a coin.

I went ahead and bought this card even after reading the reviews saying how difilcult it was to install the software and somewhat expected to have trouble. I have a mid-range system...AMD XP1600...512 meg RAM...Windows XP...nothing too special and the card is AWESOME! I did have some compatibility issues with the bundled software but I bought the card for the card and not the software. I use my computer for my home stereo and have an extensive MP3 collection so I take my sound seriously so I look for near flawless performance and the card does just that. I will admit that the software that comes with the card is pretty useless. I have an MP3 player already so I did not use that software nor do I use any of the other software that came with the card. My suggestion is to install the card and drivers alone. I also use the Creative 5.1 speakers (until I can afford the Klipsch) and everything is wonderful.

I initially bought this sound card because of its price. I also bought it because it comes from the renowned family of Sound Blaster Sound Cards. I am definetely not an expert on sound cards or computers for that matter but I can definetely hear the difference compared to my old PCI 128 card. Although, I'm sure there isn't a person out there who wouldn't hear the difference after such a drastic upgrade.

Coupled with Creative Labs Inspire 5.1 (Analog) speakers, the sound is clear and very loud. However, if you are not playing music and are just browsing around your desktop applications, you will hear a slight buzz when you move the mouse around. This is only audible when you have speaker volume considerably up. It doesn't bother me because the only time I hear it is when the thing is not in use. Maybe digital speakers would void this little nuisance. I am not going to let it affect my rating.

I have yet to experience EAX supported games but from the demos the package comes with, it seems like it really adds to the realism in terms of sound being effected by its environment (e.g. walking from one side of a wall, where there is a loud machine, to the otherside, where the loud noise is muffled by the wall).

Lastly, I bought the MP3 version because the Audigy Gamer didn't have any games I'm interested in at the moment (the games don't even have EAX support) and because I'm into the whole digital music scene. However, the mixing software seems a bit weak in my opinion. I haven't really used it that much to tell you the truth. Overall, this is a great buy. This card should satisfy most people's need for clear and loud sound in a small to medium sized room.

I purchased this card last week (upgraded from a Soundbaster 5.1, MP3). The Audigy card worked wonderful for 15 MINUTES!! Best sound I had heard from a sound card. Then the lockups started, complete lock up on my XP (first time the XP had completely locked up) had to completely turn off the computer. This happened about every 10 minutes or so. I had downloaded all the XP update drivers from Creative but they don't work. This card may work well on Windows 98 or ME, but I told you so if you own XP. I had to return the card and re-install the old 5.1. In addition, Creative support never returned my e-mail support request. P.S. Do a search on Google under Audigy Problems and you will get a ton of problems with users on XP.

The Creative line of sound cards have been arguably the most consistent in terms of quality. This one continues the trend. I had a Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer before, and this one improves the sound quality quite dramatically, I was surprised. Other people who have reviewed this have complained of XP problems, I suggest downloading the Windows XP update on creatives site, but people have most likely done that. I just fiddled with the BIOS until it worked, but it was worth it. All the little programs they give you are pretty useless and just take up space and start up when you enter windows, and its annoying. I do love the Firewire port which is ultra-handy for my DV camera. And as games start to program for the audigy sound effects, it will be surreal, the product demo thing was excellent, and if games sound anything like that then there is a lot to look forward to. It's the best sound card out there that isn't a professional sound card, and I'm not going to pay 300-400 dollars for a sound card, so there you go.