Creative Audigy 2 NX

It’s rare to see a notebook with decent audio capabilities. Beefy sound means more power and heat output for little gain, as most laptop users are business folk who have little use for the high-quality 5.1 capabilities of superior audio chips.

It’s rare to see a notebook with decent audio capabilities. Beefy sound means more power and heat output for little gain, as most laptop users are business folk who have little use for the high-quality 5.1 capabilities of superior audio chips.

That said, like all markets, there’s a niche to be served. For the Audigy 2 NX, that niche is the mobile users after a proper aural experience. While the NX worked fine with your normal desktop PC, this little sound-card-in-a-box would see most use next to a laptop.

The capabilities of the NX were similar to other Audigy 2 cards. It supported all the Dolby and DTS functions of the Audigy 2 range, along with EAX, SoundFonts and CMSS. Around the edges of the unit were various connectors for audio in and out, with the ‘front’ sporting an IR receiver for the included remote. On top were some buttons and lights for power, mute and CMSS. The gadget interfaced with the PC via USB.

Surprisingly, the NX was not powered by the port, instead it relied on an external two-piece adaptor. This made the NX just that little less portable. So, while the unit was small, the extra gear you’d be carting around negated the advantage of its size. One would also assume you’d be lugging a speaker (and subwoofer) as well, as the whole point of the NX was outputting audio from your laptop to a decent set of speakers.

Of course, none of this would be a problem if you’re using the NX with your PC, and if this was the target audience, there wouldn’t be a problem. This wasn’t the fault so much of the product, but with everything it needed to work fully.

As with all of Creative’s sound products, the quality of the sound couldn’t be faulted, with the NX producing crisp audio no matter what we threw at it. Our only concern was how exactly the target market would respond when they considered what’s involved in making full use of the Audigy 2 NX.