Stefan Mileschin

Creative had launched a slew of audio products based on its quad-core Recon 3D audio processor including the latest Z series.

However, it had not launched any budget offerings other than its old Audigy and Live! series. ASUS had captured the lower budget market with their Xonar DX and DG offerings which were better performers while their higher end STX and ST competed with Creative's older Recon 3D and current Z series.

To buff up their lower end sound card offerings, Creative launched 3 budget oriented soundcards –Soundblaster Audigy RX, Soundblaster Audigy FX and Soundblaster Omni Surround 5.1.

While the SB Audigy RX and FX are both PCI-E sound cards the Omni is a USB powered sound card.

The Creative Soundblaster Omni on review here doesn't skimp much on features or connectivity. While it lacks the quad core Recon 3D chip it still offers Crystal voice and Scout features that are present on their higher end cards. In addition, it doesn't skimp on connectivity options and offers 5.1 outputs, digital SPDIF output, 2 channel RCA output and headphone out in addition to a mic input. It includes a volume control and dual microphones built into the DAC.

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