What you get

Below is a list of what you will find inside the retail package should you choose to purchase any of the products reviewed here. Please note that depending on where you are in the world, the box contents may slightly differ. Treat what you read below only as a guideline, and for further information, please always read the contents list printed on the products' packing in your respective country of purchase.

Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 speakers

• 5 satellite speakers with individual desktop stands

• Additional monitor stand for center speaker

• Wood subwoofer

• Ergonomic designed wired master volume control with power switch

• Three 6 ft / 2m cables for each center satellite

• Two 16 ft / 5m cables for each surround satellite

• Power supply adapter

• Quick start guide  

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum

• Sound Blaster Audigy PCI card, Joystick bracket and cables

• Sound Blaster Audigy  Drive (with infra-red receiver)

• Remote Control unit and batteries

• Digital CD Audio cable

• Mini MIDI DIN to Standard MIDI DIN adaptor cables

• SB1394 Digital Video cable

• Quick Start Leaflet & Online User's Guide

• Drivers for Windows 98SE, 2000 and Millennium Edition

• Creative Software Pack including:

  • Sound Blaster Audigy Quick Start

  • Sound Blaster Audigy Experience

  • Creative Surround Mixer

  • Creative PlayCenter

  • Creative Oozic Reactor

  • Creative Vienna SoundFont Studio

  • SoundFont sample banks

  • EAX ADVANCED HD Gold Mine Demonstration

  • Sample Dolby Digital (AC-3) 5.1 content

  • Creative Recorder

  • Creative Remote Center

  • Creative MiniDisc Center

  • Creative WaveStudio

  • Creative Diagnostic

  • Creative TaskBar

  • Audio HQ

Product specifications

So far we have dwelled over product looks, the Sound Blaster Audigy line-up and what you get. Now would be an appropriate time for us to venture in and take a closer look at both the Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum and Inspire 5.1 5300 specifications.

Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 speakers

• Satellite power: 6 watts RMS per satellite (5 satellites)

• Subwoofer power: 18 watts RMS

• Frequency response: 47-20kHz

• SNR: 75dB

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum

• 32-bit Professional Quality Effects Engine

Creative's Audigy™ patented effects processor
Support for real-time digital effects like reverb, chorus, normalizer, pitch shifter, or distortion across any audio source
Capable of processing, mixing, and positioning audio streams using up to 131 available hardware channels
Full 33-bit digital mixer maintains all sound mixing in the digital domain, eliminating noise from the signal
Customizable Plug-In Effects Architecture allows new audio effects to be downloaded from the Web via CreativeWare

• High Definition Audio Quality

Playback of 64 audio channels, each with its own independent sample rate
24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 48kHz sample rate
24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 48kHz to analog 5.1 speaker output
16-bit recording with sampling rates of 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, and 48kHz
Supports Sony® / Philips® Digital Interface (SPDIF) format input signal of up to 24-bit/96kHz quality SPDIF output up to 24-bit resolution at selectable sampling rate of 44.1, 48, or 96kHz
Low latency multi-track recording with ASIO™ support

• EAX®, ADVANCED HD™, Advanced Audio and 3D Audio Technology

Hardware acceleration of EAX ADVANCED HD for games
User-selectable EAX ADVANCED HD music presets, pre-configurable DSP modes simulating various acoustic environments
Advanced time-scaling
Audio Cleanup
Upgradeable 3D audio architecture for future improvements
Dolby® Digital audio decoding to 5.1 speaker channels in both analog and digital modes
Optimized, user-selectable settings for two, four, or six speakers, headphones, and external A/V amplifiers
Creative Multi Speaker Surround™ (CMSS) technology places any monaural or stereo source in a 360° audio space

• SB1394 Connectivity

High speed connection to IEEE® 1394 enabled devices with up to 400Mbps transfer rate
Hot-plug support for ease of connecting or disconnecting external devices
Interconnection of up to 63 devices for peer-to-peer communication
SB1394 Certification Program thoroughly tests and certifies participating vendors' 1394-enabled devices with Sound Blaster Audigy for optimal performance and ease of use

• Realistic Wave-Table Synthesis

Creative's Audigy music synthesis engine
64-voice hardware polyphony with E-mu® Systems, Inc.'s patented 8-point interpolation technology that reduces distortion to inaudible levels
Uses SoundFont® technology for user-definable wave-table sample sets
Unlimited sample size can be loaded into host memory for professional music reproduction (limited to available system memory size)
Scalable PCI wave-table synthesis architecture with multi-timbre capability
48 MIDI channels with 128 GM & GS compatible instruments and 10 drum kits

• MIDI Interface / Joystick Port

Support for analog and digital or DirectInput™ game devices
Support for two simultaneous MIDI devices with Sound Blaster Audigy drive (upgrade option)

• Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum On-Board Connectors

Analog / Digital Out (Analog Center & Subwoofer / 6-channel SPDIF Output)
Line in
Microphone in
Line level out (Front) / Headphone out
Line level out (Rear)
SB1394 port
Telephone Answering Device in
Analog CD Audio in
Digital CD Audio in
Expansion header to an external 15-pin MIDI / Joystick port
Internal SB1394 header to Sound Blaster Audigy drive
Expansion header to the Sound Blaster Audigy drive

• Internal Audigy Drive

Front Panel Connectors PCM SPDIF In and Out (RCA/Coaxial Jack)
Headphone Out (1/4" Stereo Jack with Volume Control)
Line In 2 (1/4" Stereo Jack, shared with Microphone In 2)
Microphone In 2 (1/4" Jack with Gain control)
MIDI In (mini DIN)
MIDI Out (mini DIN)
SB1394 port
Infra-red Receiver
Optical SPDIF In and Out
Stereo Auxiliary In (2 x RCA/Coaxial Jack)

• Works with the Following Standards

Windows® 98, 98SE, NT® 4.0, 2000, XP, and Me
Sound Blaster MIDI and General MIDI
Plug and Play
Sound Blaster PCI
EAX ADVANCED HD
EAX
Microsoft® DirectSound®, DirectSound3D™, and derivatives
PCI 2.1 compliant
AC '97 compliant
Dolby® Digital
ASIO™

• Sound Blaster Audigy Audio Performance

Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) = 100 dB
Crosstalk (Left/Right and vice versa) = -100 dB
Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (A-Weighted) = 0.004 %
Frequency Response at -3 dBr = <10 Hz to 22 kHz

Specifications are based on digital-to-analog audio playback (e.g. CDDA, WAV, MP3, Dolby Digital)
 

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