Creative has always tried to offer something special on its top-of-the-range audio cards and the Audigy 2 Platinum EX is no different.

This time the company has decided to ditch the Live Bay breakout box and go for an external-only unit. The box now connects directly to the main PCI card via a 4ft extension cable.

There is still an extra daughter card but this time it's for the Midi/joystick connector, so if you don't need it you don't have to install it.

The box itself is pretty similar to the old Creative Extigy USB unit. It looks impressive thanks to its black and silver finish, but it does have a plastic feel to it.

As you would expect from a 24-bit card the sound quality is excellent so it's not surprising that it boasts a THX certificate.

The Audigy 2 chip has some extra horse power so the card can handle 6.1 onboard decoding for Dolby Digital EX, as well as 5.1 Dolby Digital and Creative's EAX format for gamers.

For musicians the Audigy 2 chip means the card can now handle 16 effects sent to its four effects processors.

However, if you're recording at 24-bit resolution and send the audio to one of the effects processors it is downsampled to 16-bit for processing and then upsampled again so you won't be using a true 24-bit signal path.

As ever, Creative has gone overboard on the software goodies. As well as some great games, the most interesting titles on offer are Steinberg's Cubasis VST 4.0 Creative Edition for music makers and Ulead Videostudio SE DV for those more interested in movie creation.

You also get Native Instruments Traktor CE, Fruity Loops Pro 3.5 CE, and Soldier of Fortune II.

With so much packed into this card and box combination, it's difficult to see where Creative can go next.

Contact: Creative 01189 344 322
http://uk.europe.creative.com

Specifications:

• Audigy 2 processor
• 24-bit 96KHz analogue playback/recording
• 192KHz digital playback
• 2.1-6.1 audio output
• Stereo phono in
• Optical digital, coaxial, Midi in & out
• 2 x Firewire
• Joystick daughter card
• Dolby Digital and EX
• THX certified Cubasis VST 4.0 CE
• 1yr warranty