Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 vs. Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum – THG.RU

Introduction

The DMX 6Fire 24/96 and the Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum are cards designed specifically for budding musicians who want to make the most of their PC’s potential without having to pay a fortune. Of course you can always find professional cards of impeccable quality, but, on the average, they cost just about as much as a standard PC system, if not a good deal more. With the DMX 6Fire and the Audigy Platinum, the user has a wide range of possibilities and multimedia capabilities that the more specialized cards don’t offer.

The Audigy Platinum relies on its high versatility and claims to excel in fields such as games, music creation and recording, thanks to its all-purpose DSP. The DMX 6Fire 24/96 focuses much more on recording and music as the hub of the whole sound system. It does not bother with extended MIDI functions, but proves to be a proper card that can record and process 24-bit/96-kHz sound.

Virtually identical in price and target users, the DMX 6Fire 24/96 and the Audigy Platinum try to be attractive in different ways. It remains to be seen which is the best, and for which kind of use.

Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96

The DMX 6Fire 24/96 evolved from the EWX 24/96, and is based on an ICE1712-BBABA revision of an Envy 24 DSP by IC Ensemble. The card we tested is a 1.2C revision, i.e., the final retail version of the card as you will find in stores. Unlike the Creative Labs Audigy, the Envy 24 is a fully 24-bit/ 96-kHz-compatible DSP. It supports 2 x 12 simultaneous digital or analog inputs/ outputs. This means the DSP manages 12 mono inputs and 12 mono outputs. Note that only 10 of the 12 inputs or outputs are 24-bit/ 96 kHz-compatible. The chip includes a 36-bit hardware digital mixer to ensure that none of the 24-bit channels loses in dynamic frequency. The most striking difference with the Audigy is that the Envy 24 is not, strictly speaking, a DSP, but more like the chips on video adapters or the old Aureal Vortex 2s. Note, too, that the DMX 6Fire 24/96 does not have an AC’97 codec.

The Envy 24 has AKM 4524VF, Philips 74HC4316D analog-to-digital (AD) and digital-to-analog (DA) converters, and a Cirrus Logic CS8427-CS chip for managing S/PDIF inputs/ outputs. This and the converters both support sound sampled at 96 kHz without exception, and the card needs no software or hardware Sample Rate Conversion. So you can input 24-bit/ 96-kHz sound in analog or digital form, edit it and play it back in digital or analog with a sample rate ranging from 11 to 96 kHz. In addition, as the card works mainly in digital, any incoming analog signal is converted into PCM 24-bit digital sound first.

The card’s Midi capabilities are minimal since it has no Wave table (sound samples) or Midi management system; it performs only a simple software emulation. Terratec justifies this choice with the argument that the DMX 6Fire 24/96 is designed to be integrated into a complete sound system and does not aspire to the same versatility as the Audigy Platinum. The Terratec card is focused on a more “professional” market, and is more expensive because you need the extra hardware in order to take advantage of its full potential.

The multimedia functions of the DMX 6Fire 24/96 are quite extensive. Its hardware supports 16-voice Direct Sound and handles A3D 1.x standards via DS3D, EAX 1.0 and 2.0. Its 3D engine is a Sensaura. Unlike the EAX, the Sensaura is absolutely not an API. Its technology operates mainly using DS3D and EAX instructions. So there are no games optimized for Sensaura, but any game using DS3D will benefit from it. And don’t try and find a Sensaura-made chip on the card either, everything is in the software. The company develops 3D sound technologies and sells the licenses to sound card manufacturers.

The DMX 6Fire 24/96 can also decode Dolby Digital or DTS sound (software decoding) from a DVD video. It can also be connected to 5.1 speakers without an ad hoc decoder to take advantage of Home Cinema. The card comes with the following: Power DVD 3.0 and Sound Laundry software to process sound from vinyl records; Wavelab Lite 2.0 for recording; and a control panel developed by Terratec.

Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96: Drivers

The DMX 6Fire control panel is divided into 4 main tabs. The first contains the mixing desk and related settings. This includes the volume controls and potentiometers to adjust the gain for each input/ output. There are the settings for CD 1 and 2 inputs, front and back Line Ins, pre-amplified phono and mike inputs, digital inputs and the overall volume and Wave sound control. The potentiometers for gain act directly on the AK4524 converters, and range from 0 to 18 dB, in 0.5 dB increments. Recording options are all grouped into this tab. Note especially the “Input Source” and “Record Source” buttons, which are used to switch easily from one input to another, to decide exactly which input is to be recorded, and from which source. Below the phono and mike mixer is a button to activate or deactivate the RIAA phono filter on the pre-amplifier. Remember that a phono input has the specific feature of integrating a single special filter for sound improvement.

The second tab, called “Surround,” contains management of the speakers connected to the card, as its name implies. There is a choice of 2 satellites, 4 satellites and 5.1 speakers, but not a specific headphone mode, which could definitely be a drawback for night-time players. An HRTF filter dedicated to headphones would be much better than using the default 2 satellite mode. The Surround tab can also be used to deactivate the Sensaura 3D, which is advisable if you want to play a DVD video with a Dolby Digital track.

The third tab has a number of options. You can adjust the frequency of the card’s internal workings, from 8000 to 96000 Hz, and specify the frequency of input digital signals. There is a menu to adjust the size of the DMA buffer, from 1 to 15 milliseconds. The ASIO button is used to set the number of samples per buffer to find the best latency time in Cubase. This setting depends on the sample rate chosen for sound processing. So, with 336 samples per buffer, you get excellent results of 3 milliseconds in 96 kHz or 8 milliseconds in 44.1 kHz. This tab features the options for digital outputs, as well. Also note that you can save several series of settings, which can be useful if you use the card regularly for repetitive tasks.

Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96: The Rack

The DMX 6Fire 24/96 comes with a 51/4 inch internal rack, which gives it an attractive metallic gray color. The design of its golden connectors and two-color potentiometers makes it look very professional. The rack is connected to the card via an internal cable, the same as an IDE layer. Furthermore, no extra power supply is required, unlike the Audigy Platinum rack. When you open the DMX 6Fire 24/96, you will notice that is has very few components; the AKM converters are on the card and not in the rack. This is a rather unimportant detail, given that this is an internal model and will suffer from the same magnetic interference as the other internal components of your PC.

The DMX 6Fire 24/96 rack has several types of connections. On the right is the digital section, containing the Midi IO with S/PDIF coaxial and optical IOs. The middle section has the mike input and headphone output, both with potentiometers to adjust mike gain and headphone volume. Note that the card comes with two jack-to-mini-jack adapters. On the left are the analog inputs/ outputs, i.e., the front Line In, phono input, and front Line Out.

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum

As a leading innovator in multimedia sound cards, Creative had to review its revered Sound Blaster Live! and the others which followed it without being as successful. Creative Labs adjusted its arsenal by developing the Audigy with a powerful and versatile multifunction DSP. It is officially called Audigy, though it is actually nothing more than the 10K2 by E-Mu, the famous music company taken over by Creative Labs. For more details, read our earlier article on the Audigy.

The Audigy Platinum not only has 32-bit processing but also includes an IEEE-1394 port and a new version of the EAX – the EAX Advanced HD. But be warned, the Audigy’s ability to support 24-bit/ 96-kHz sound is very relative. Unlike the DMX 6Fire 24/96, the Audigy Platinum is not a “true” 24/96 and cannot play or record a file of this quality, nor even work on it. Actually, the only task it does in 96 kHz is a linkup with another device via the S/PDIF input. The card and rack components are all supposed to be 24-bit/ 96-kHz-compatible, but, in practice, the card is limited to 16 bits/ 48 kHz. Analog recording and restitution is possible in 24 bits/ 48 kHz, but, in fact, the processor downsamples in 16 bits and then upsamples. The card also has to be used with the sample rate conversion (SRC) software provided in order to work in 44.1 kHz. It’s just a pity that Creative has not given this product an automatic SRC hardware option by using, say, a Cirrus Logic CS8420 chip. And it’s really a pity that the card is not completely 24-bit/ 96-kHz-compatible. But the Audigy can model, process and position several sound sources separately and in real time.

The Audigy Platinum MIDI capabilities are fairly attractive. It uses the SoundFonts system, which can import instruments stored in your PC RAM to be used by the MIdI synthesizer. This makes a considerable number of instruments available if your PC has, say, 256 or 512 MB of RAM. As SoundFonts are customized, they can integrate anything you want in your MIdI, including your own voice. The card is a standard feature with a 4-MB SoundFont and support of 64 instruments. The only drawback with this system, which helps to overcome the constraints of the General MIdI banks, is that you have to remember which are the right SoundFonts if you want to reproduce a piece of sound. Fortunately, Creative has developed a system called Automatic SoundFont Support, which saves and loads the SoundFonts automatically whenever a piece is played. The Audigy has overcome another drawback by allowing all the instruments stored in the RAM to be used, whereas the old SB Live! was confined to 32 MB at a time.

The Audigy chip makes the Audigy Platinum very well-equipped for games. This not only manages DirectSound 3D, A3D 1.0x, EAX 1.0 and 2.0, but also EAX Advanced HD (High Definition). See the next page to find out more about this new standard. More technically speaking, the card supports up to 32 DS3D voices in hardware, which is quite ample for most games. Of course, 5.1 decoding is not left out, and the Audigy is compatible with Dolby Digital and DTS formats. The actual decoding is done by the processor with an occupancy rate of about 8% (on a Celeron 800 in our case). The management of the six channels is done by the Audigy DSP and a Philips UDA1328T chip. For DVD playback, the Audigy has prime assets in the shape of an infrared remote control and Remote Center software, so you can use your PC as a jukebox or DVD player.

The software bundle is a bit more extensive than that for the DMX 6Fire 24/96: Creative Diagnostic 2 Creative PlayCenter 3.0; Creative Recorder; Remote Center; Creative Task Bar; WaveStudio 4.12; Dolby Digital Music Samples EAX Advanced HD; MiniDisc Center 2.0; Oozic Reactor Vienna SF Studio 2.3; Sound Blaster Audigy Experience; MixMiester 3.03; FireNet 2.0 by Unibrain S.A.’s;

Storm Platinum Edition by Arturia Suite; Steinberg Cubasis VST Creative Edition (including WaveLab Lite and ReCycle Lite); SoundFont Collection by E-Mu; Ulead VideoStudio 4.0 SE Basic; plus a guide for creating music ( “Sound Blaster Audigy – The Definitive Music Creation Guide,” by Paul White).

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum: Drivers

Unlike the DMX 6Fire 24/96 control panel, the Audigy Platinum settings are spread over a number of different modules. The main one is the mixer, accessed via the Audio HQ tool. It contains the mixing desk for the inputs/ outputs, along with the bass, treble and overall volume controls. The balance/ fade button opens a small window for adjusting the Wave sound position in space. The two little red crosses are used to activate the “digital only” mode and +20dB gain on mike input.

In the top window are two tabs – EAX and Speakers. There is a choice of configurations to suit whatever kind of speaker you may have. You can also access another menu where you can activate bass redirection and AC-3 decoding, or adjust the volume of the middle channel, LFE and crossover. In the EAX menu, you can select which environmental effects you want to apply.

The EAX control panel gives access to two effects buses, active simultaneously in Windows. Here you get an idea of the Audigy’s myriad possibilities, though it is frustrating when you are unable to get this interface to interact quickly and easily with the sound effects of the card’s inputs/ outputs, if only to apply one effect to one output and another to a second. However, you can select an array of effects and apply it in real time to the output. This is quite effective and avoids the need to process in the software. The potential of the effects editor is pretty remarkable for a card designed for the general market. You can have reverberation, chorus and several other effects at the same time, as well: Auto Wah; normalizer; distortion; echo; parametric equalizer; flanger; frequency shifter; pitch shifter; ring modulator; vocal morphing.

From the Play Center 3.0 you can access modules such as Time Scaling, which changes the play speed without affecting pitch. The DREAM module provides some sound modifications musicians will not find very useful, but which could still be fun to use. The last module is where you will find the Audio Cleanup manager, for sound from vinyl disks.

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum: The Rack

The Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum comes with a 51/4 inch internal rack, similar to the old Live! Platinum ones. The only significant difference is the addition of an SB1394 port beside the MIdI inputs/ outputs. It needs to be powered through a PC connecter to run it, which is not the case with the DMX 6Fire 24/96. Note that the Audigy rack directly integrates most DACs and ADCs, whereas with Terratec, they are mostly grouped together on the card.

The Audigy Platinum rack has optical and coaxial digital inputs/ outputs, a mike input with volume control, headphone output, an auxiliary RCA analog input, MIdI in/ out ports, an SB1394 port and an infrared port for the remote control.

Note that the Audigy Platinum supports EAX Advanced HP, but, apart from the demos supplied by the manufacturer, there was no game to test how efficient it really was in this respect.

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum: EAX Advanced HD

To distinguish it from the competition and offer a new range of sound sensations, Creative had to perfect its development onward from the EAX 1.0 and 2.0. The features of what was known as the EAX 3.0 were well-known for some time, though the name, “EAX Advanced High Definition” was found to give them shape in the Audigy. The chip can manage up to four environments simultaneously, all of them on 32 channels. One of the improvements here is the ability to manage sources with different sample rates and top the lot off with a sound tape encoded in Dolby Digital for, for instance, the sound background.

Below are the new features provided by this standard and supported by Audigy cards alone:

• Multi Environment: In EAX 1.0 and 2.0, the environment effect depended on a given geometrical zone. But now each sound can have its own separate and independent effect. The Audigy can manage and mix four different environments, giving a real gain in lifelike results. Suppose you are standing still in a room; the sound of gunfire will be affected by the size of this room and the nature of its walls and floor, whereas the sound of gunfire coming from the next room, say a corridor, will be affected by the nature of that one.
• Environment Morphing: Environment Morphing is one of the most significant developments in the EAX Advanced HD, and was formerly known as Dynamic Morphing. In the EAX 2.0, each environment was assigned a given place in a set and there was no “in between” or mixing when changing from one environment to another, say, from indoors to out. But with Dynamic Morphing, environments can merge in some places or one will dominate in others as the person moves around.
• Environment Panning: This is a complement to Environment Morphing as it is used to add an environment giving the impression of a place about to come, such as a cellar or tunnel.
• Environment Reflection: With this effect, sounds are not only transmitted by the source, but also redirected by the environment. Primary reflections and reverberations are controlled the way the Aureal A3D 2.0 did it some years ago.
• Environment Filtering: Less explicit than the effects described above, Environment Filtering integrates a series of data to hone and control the differences in tone between environments.

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum: SB1394 Port

One of the big innovative features in the new Creative labs cards is the addition of an IEEE 1394 port (alias FireWire) managed by Audigy. Named SB1394 by the manufacturer, it is a FireWire port such as that you might find on a dedicated card. It is used to connect any device of this type, such as a burner, hard drive or DV camera. Creative Labs also plans to adapt the SB1394 to future devices, such as the Jukebox or an external burner. But the SB1394 does not stop there. It also has network capacities as amazing as they are attractive. You can link several PCs fitted with Audigy cards, via a cable supplied on option. The network can also be made up of Audigy cards and dedicated cards like Adaptec or Lucent, no problem. Management is handled by the FireNet software supplied with the card. So, you’ll have a network that supports TCP/IP and IPX at a theoretical transfer rate of 400 Mbs.

Creative says it has paid great attention to ensuring compatibility with most IEEE1394 devices. We tried it with a Sony camcorder, the DVRP100, a QPS Que! Fire 16X burner and a QPS Que! Drive 20-GB hard drive based on Western Digital mechanics. We transferred files to test the Audigy processor’s ability to process data from the FireWire port. With a dedicated FireWire card using the Lucent FW323-04 processor, a 100-MB copy to disk took 15 seconds. With the Audigy card, the same operation took 22 seconds. So don’t expect maximum output from FireWire on the Creative system. However, sound occupancy on the card does not seem to hamper output since the time only increased to 24 seconds when playing music from a digital source and with a Concert Hall effect.

Test Configuration And Methods

Both cards were tested in the same environment and with the same measuring equipment. The speakers we used were Altec Lansing 621 and 641. Test software was as follows: Audio Winbench; Pinguin Audio Meter; Right Mark Audio Analyzer 3.1; Spectra Labs SAS; American MCGee’s Alice; Quake III Arena; Half Life; MDK2.

Converter Quality: Benchmarks

We did a series of tests using Right Mark Audio Analyzer 3.1 and Pinguin Audio Meter software, and then a series of tests recording from analog to digital with subjective listening in order to assess the quality of conversion. Note that the Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 has a head-start in two respects: you can use the external input/ output of the rack, whereas the Audigy Platinum has no analog RCA output on the rack and you have to use the back mini-jack output; we also did recording tests in 24 bits/ 96 kHz on the DMX 6Fire 24/96, something you can’t do on the Audigy. The following results are therefore those of 16 bits/ 44.1 kHz, to give a valid comparison. The results obtained with the Audigy Platinum may differ slightly from those of our earlier Platinum eX tests. This is because the test platform was not the same as before and because the Right Mark Audio has since been upgraded.

Bandwidth Test

DMX 6Fire 24/96

Audigy Platinum

The frequency response curve of the card indicates whether it reproduces all the frequencies of the sound spectrum equally well. The test measured from 20 Hz to 20 KHz, the standard accepted range of human hearing. The graphs speak for themselves and require no further explanation. The DMX 6Fire 24/96 curve (-0.02; +0.08) shows that the card is the best of its kind and pretty close to professional cards. The Audigy Platinum (-5.90; +0.87), on the other hand, is not as commendable. It fluctuates quite a bit and its stability is not exactly faultless.

Noise Level and Interference

DMX 6Fire 24/96

Audigy Platinum

The second test dealt with the level of noise and interference, especially measuring the background noise of the card and indicating the sensitivity of the card to various forms of interference that arise near computers: power supplies, transformers or monitor screens. Here again the DMX 6Fire 24/96 beats the Audigy Platinum, with respective results of 89.7 dB versus 85 dB (A-Weighted).

Dynamic Range

DMX 6Fire 24/96

Audigy Platinum

In addition to the preceding test, the dynamic range test estimates the level of noise generated in the presence of a sound signal, in this case a sine wave (1Khz at -60dB) at the card input. This test gives a true idea of the card’s dynamics during a recording. Yet again the DMX 6Fire 24/96 wins, with a slight lead at +82.8 dB against +81.9 dB.

THD

DMX 6Fire 24/96

Audigy Platinum

In the next test, we measured the total harmonic distortion, or THD. This is an examination of the audio fidelity of the card where one notes the appearance of harmonics when a simple but strong sinus wave (-3dB) is sent into the card. Yes, you’ve already guessed, the DMX 6Fire 24/96 beats its rival with a splendid 0.001% against 0.004% for the Audigy Platinum, though this figure is also very good.

Diaphony

Finally, we examined the intermodulation, or diaphony. This test measures the separation between the card’s left and right audio channels – in other words, the highest sound level at which one can hear on one channel before beginning to hear on the other one as well. This test is of particular interest in a multi-channel environment. Our cards reached the finish line in the same order, though they were pretty much neck and neck: 83.4 dB for the DMX 6Fire 24/96 and 82.2 dB for the Audigy Platinum.

Converter Quality: Subjective Tests

To complete our assessment of the two cards’ recording capacity, we did a range of recording tests, which gave the following results:

Digital to Digital

The tests of recordings from a digital source to the coaxial S/PDIF input on each card were done from a Pioneer DV-343 DVD player with a digital output. The same cable was used in both tests. Overall, the cards provided much higher quality than the multimedia cards we usually test. The DMX 6Fire 24/96 has a slight lead, in that it can record directly in 96 kHz. Its fidelity is flawless and no crude loss can be heard. The 44.1-kHz tests showed the Audigy behaving pretty well, with better bass than treble and very satisfactory overall quality.

Analog to Digital

This tests the most common usage situation with this kind of card. We connected the Pioneer player to the analog input on each rack via the RCA outputs in order to see how the analog-to-digital converters worked. Here the AKM AK524 chips on the DMX 6Fire 24/96 performed better, with regard to sound fidelity and reproduction. Whether you play the master on the player or the recording on the PC, no difference can be heard. It was almost the same with the Audigy Platinum, but with a slight loss of sound dynamism and presence. Regarding the frequency range, we cannot make the same remarks as for the previous test. The DMX 6Fire 24/96 does not prioritize between bass and treble and no particular color can be heard. The Audigy Platinum reproduces the bass very well, but the treble sometimes lacks precision in playback. The Terratec card will thus please sound lovers in search of neutrality, even though it does not reach the perfection of more professional systems. The amplified mike inputs are also very different on each card. Our first Audigy tests have already shown their mediocrity. The Terratec is better, but still not adequate for professional recording.

Vinyl Disk Recording Test

Yet again, the Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 has the lead on its rival. Its rack has a pre-amplified input dedicated to vinyl disk players. On the Audigy, you have to use the rack’s mike input or the card’s mini-jack input. All you have to do on the DMX 6Fire 24/96 is plug the player’s RCA wire in to hear the sound and make recordings. As we already explained, it has a button on the control panel to activate or deactivate the RIAA phono filter on the pre-amplifier.

So, if only for reception, the DMX 6Fire 24/96 is better off than the Audigy. Their software is also unequal in that the Sound Laundry is way ahead, feature-wise, than the Creative Lab Audio Cleanup module. You can modify two parameters for processing clicks and scratches, and two parameters for noise reduction. You can also directly modify bass, treble and recording volume levels, all monitored in real time. The result is obviously in favor of the DMX 6Fire 24/96, both in terms of ergonomics and processing quality and precision.

ASIO and Latency Time

With both cards, the Celeron 800 on our test PC rose from 9 to 14% CPU occupancy by reducing latency time from 50ms to 4ms, a negligible amount for such a system. The cards propose an incredibly low rate of latency in each settings module. Remember that such short times are obtained by reducing the number of samples per buffer, with the effect of increasing the amount of resources required. The advantage of the DMX 6Fire 24/96 demonstrates this principle explicitly in its adjustments system because the latency times are not chosen, as such, but obtained by setting the number of samples per buffer. With a PC such as we used, a latency time of 7 to10ms is a very good compromise if you are working in 48 kHz. Below this, the system resources are inadequate for optimal operation. Furthermore, musicians know that once the latency time is set, you only need to shift the tracks by so much to get the right synchronization.

On the Audigy Platinum we noted that, in ASIO mode, sampling frequency blocks at 48 kHz, whereas MME drivers offered a choice of 11, 22, 44.1 and 48 kHz. This is why Creative provides a Sample Rate Conversion program, to change from 44.1 to 48 kHz and vice versa. While the DACs on the card give a 24-bit resolution, the card downmixes to 16 bits, which is a pity, even if the end quality is considerably better in straight 16 bits because there is less loss. As for the DMX 6Fire 24/96, it handles processing directly in the desired resolution, whether it is 16 bits/ 48 kHz or 24 bits/ 96 kHz. No SRC is required.

Of course, this superiority in the DMX 6Fire 24/96 can only be ascertained in Cubase if your card has effects DSP. The Envy 24 is not one of these, and only a few effects like predefined chorus or reverberation can be applied. This high-power DSP is directly integrated into the Audigy and can give effects in real time. So, while the Terratec card is technically better than the Creative Labs one, the Audigy wins hands-down in versatility. It requires no extra investment.

Using The Cards For Games

DirectSound 3D Static and Streaming

The following tests show the processor occupancy rate needed for both cards when playing games. The first Audigy test showed that it behaved well, so now let’s see how the DMX 6Fire did.

Quake III Arena

Half Life

MDK 2

The results obtained with Audio WinBench and in the games are very eloquent and show that the Audigy Platinum and its DSP are quite capable of impeccable 3D sound hardware processing. The DMX 6Fire 24/96 is less so, given that all the DS3D voices are processed in the software.

The Audigy Platinum also has the undeniable lead in quality. The tests we did with these games (or in Alice, Operation Flashpoint or Alien Vs Predator) give a definite advantage to the Creative Labs card. No sound is missing or patchy as it is sometimes with the Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96. Note that the Audigy Platinum supports EAX Advanced HP, but, apart from the demos supplied by the manufacturer, there was no game to test how efficient it really was in this respect.

Conclusion

So what ought to have been a duel turned out to not really be one, at all. The DMX 6Fire 24/96 and the Audigy Platinum are both 24-bit cards with an internal rack, but each has a completely different approach, different functions and a different target market.

We observed that in the music field, especially with regard to inputs/ outputs, the DMX 6Fire 24/96 is way ahead of its rival, which is not a “true” 24-bit/ 96-kHz card. But, when it comes to games, the Audigy takes the lead. However, it would be a mistake to stop your evaluation at these two areas where direct comparisons can be made.

The DMX 6Fire 24/96 is a card dedicated to recording, and it does this impeccably. The Audigy Platinum does not offer such a specialized choice and is much more versatile. Don’t forget its SB1394 port, real-time effects DSP of virtually professional quality, its infrared remote control and its host of possibilities for games.

So, the user whose sole desire is a high-performance card for digital recording and for working in 24 bits/ 96 kHz should choose the DMX 6Fire 24/96, without forgetting that, for music creation and effects, it will need the extra investment of a dedicated card. And the user who is a bit less exacting about sound fidelity and neutrality but wants a lot of choice without having to invest too much money will have no trouble in opting for the Audigy Platinum. It’s just a shame that Creative Labs did not go all the way to 24 bits/ 96 kHz, as this certainly would have drawn in more musicians.

In the United States, there is another good card, like the Terratec, but without the rack, called the M-Audio Delta 410. It is sold for a similar price and integrates more or less the same components, notably the IC Ensemble Envy 24.