[Animal]

Both the Audigy and Audigy 2 support 24bit playback, but only the Audigy 2 supports 24 bit recording. The Audigy still unly supports 16 bit recording.

I upgraded from a Live! to an Audigy under XP and can notice a definite difference in quality. A few points to consider:

1. Both the Live! and Audigy series of cards can be problematic with VIA chipsets and a real hassle to get working properly.

2. The Audigy series of cards are all the same, just different software bundles with them. The platinum series comes with a breakout box, but the card itself is identical to an OEM version.

3. The Audigy has a built in firewire port. That's a great feature for many people, almost like getting 2 cards in 1. If you don't currently have firewire support on your PC, this could be a great feature.

There's a tonne of decent cards on the market, all with slightly different features. Creative cards are the defacto if you will, and most games are designed with that in mind, so if your interested in compatibility with current and future games, Audigy is the way to go.