Home > Consumer Reviews > Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy Sound Card

Great sound is almost a necessity to me, but like most college students, I opted for a laptop instead of a desktop. I felt that the only way to take full advantage of my 5.1 analog surround sound system was to connect my laptop to the SB Extigy. Connecting via USB was more or less a nightmare for me: playing anything through my CD-ROM drive produced loud pops and cracks that noticeably distracts from any music listening or movie watching (the Extigy was the ONLY USB device attached to my laptop at the time, and yes, I did enable DMA for my CD drive). Playing any material with a Dolby Digital stream, even after the movie had been copied to my HD (DivX with AC3 audio) was even a greater disappointment, especially since the Extigy so proudly wears the Dolby Digital logo. As long as I'm playing sound through USB on the Extigy with the Creative drivers, approximately 20% extra processing load is put on my 1.7 GHz Pentium 4-M processor. This extra processor usage is acceptable to some, but definitely not to gamers.

My laptop also has an optical-out link, so I hooked up my laptop to the Extigy using a [$] optical miniplug to TOSlink cable.... Virtually all the cracking and popping noises disappeared even when I played DVDs and DivX movies with AC3 audio. However, my Toshiba laptop's optical out port requires my old Yamaha sound drivers - not Creative's. This means that I can't have any EAX sound effects for music or games; it's a slightly disappointing tradeoff, though I'd rather have flawless output than EAX effects.

For those with desktops, don't even consider the Extigy. A PCI Audigy is cheaper and significantly better. For those with laptops without optical out, it's either 2.1 audio from your laptop without the Extigy, or up to 5.1 audio with the Extigy along with occasional loud pops (I would personally prefer clean 2.1 audio in this case). If you own a laptop with optical out, then get the Logitech Z-680. The cost of the Z-680 is just about equal to the cost of the Extigy + the cost of a mid-range analog 5.1 audio system, except the Z-680 has hardware Dolby Digital/DTS decoding built-in, with optical, coax, and analog inputs, plus 505 Watts RMS output (1000W peak! Take that Kiplish). Did I mention that they are also THX multimedia certified? Just icing on the cake.

Do yourself a favor and skip on the Extigy if you can. USB 1.1 has a relatively narrow bandwidth and USB (even Firewire) relies too heavily on the main processor for data transfers. Though Extigy is an interesting product and worth some merits, wait for the next generation of high-end external computer sound cards (or get the Z-680 now!).

I bought my Sound Blaster Extigy because of the price, but the USB features since I ran out of PCI slot. I was surprised that Sound Blaster Extigy is EXTREMELY easy to install. Just turn the sound card on and plug the USB cable to the computer and install the driver. I did it without any problem.

Another cool feature of extigy is, the card is external so I don't have to crawl to the back of my computer and try to switch the jacks. I use The Logitech 4.1 THX speakers and The speakers produce the most awesome 3D sound when I watch Jurasic Park III, it seems like the dinasours were in the living room.

Creative Labs unfortunately has bad reputation of having the slowest customer service. I wish they will improve it in the future, since they are no.1 sound card company.

Overall, I recommend this external sound card. The price is right and the quality is very nice.

Don't let the ads or products specs fool you. This sound card does not live up to what it promises. USB bandwith does not allow the Extigy to live up to the Creative standard of its other product lines. While you gain ease of installation and a remote, you lose all software, EAX HD (it claims to support it, but in fact does not) and other features. This product hogs CPU usage because it requires the computer to do most of the processing due to USB limitations. When your computer is doing many things at once, audio quality suffers. It claims to support S/PDIF in but in fact only supports it as a standalone. Any digital signal passed to the Extigy is converted to analog before being transferred to the computer resulting in a significant loss of quality and the impossibility of actual digital recording. I am completely disatisfied with every aspect of this product and am subsequently returning it.

I originally bought this extigy for my desktop cause it's a sony and I can't upgrade it internally. Here are my thoughts:
Pros: Simple and Easy installation
Theatre quality sound effect
Reduce noise normally overlooked by its competitions
Multiple connectivity (also work with PS2 and DVD players)
Great Virtual Surround Sound even with 4.1 system
Remote control
Affordable Price
One plug connection when using 510d or 550thx (Cambridge
Soudwork) speaker systems
Cons: USB 1.0 is a bit slow and may slow down computer system
from time to time. (Hopefully creative comes out with a
USB 2.0 or Firewire version of Extigy soon.)
Overall, I am very pleased with this product mainly for it's simple installation process as well as the quality sound it makes. I have both Altec 641 as well as Cambridge 510d speaker systems. On the 510d...man...they are a perfect match, producing flawless sounds. Don't get me wrong, cause even with the Altec 641 (4.1 system) you can hear every single rain drops when watching a DVD, just as if you were under the rain. Don't take my word for it. You have to experience it to believe it!
I hope you get to enjoy this as much as I do. And hope my review is helpful to you as well!!! Have a nice day !^_^!

Very easy to install, many options and input/outputs. Great bundle of software. If you have an MD recorder, its an excellent way to record digitally via the optical cable out. Great for use with MP3's due to the various sound modes. Software included allows you to RIP tracks from your CD's and convert to MP3. Just that alone makes this a smart buy.