You probably mean the external Audigy Drive that came with the Audigy Platinum eX?

I have wondered what they look like inside. Could just be an Audigy Drive with very little added on at the rear. It came with a fairly simple looking Extension Card for the external cable. (http://www.karbosguide.com/books/videosound/images/990.JPG)

The first generation Audigy Drives were Live Drive IR's with new faceplates; the PCB is the same with some extra internal headers left off. Audigy 2's had new Drives with different cable pinouts.

This confused me as well. I think this is correct:

Audigy 2 ZS - Card alone
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum – Card with I/O Drive and remote control
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro - Card with External I/O Hub and remote control

firage wrote:

You probably mean the external Audigy Drive that came with the Audigy Platinum eX? […]
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You probably mean the external Audigy Drive that came with the Audigy Platinum eX?

I have wondered what they look like inside. Could just be an Audigy Drive with very little added on at the rear. It came with a fairly simple looking Extension Card for the external cable. (http://www.karbosguide.com/books/videosound/images/990.JPG)

The first generation Audigy Drives were Live Drive IR's with new faceplates; the PCB is the same with some extra internal headers left off. Audigy 2's had new Drives with different cable pinouts.

Yep, that's it for sure. I may just cut my losses and try and sell it on eBay,
I take it it's useless without the interface card.

Yes, it's a unique interface for the Platinum Pro.

You can sell it on or keep it and get the associated card (which is pretty awesome). Ultimately, it's your choice which way to go.

I would bet there is very possibly a regular Audigy Drive inside that external casing, because I have one of these black faceplates and they're interchangeable. The screws appear to be in the right spots, too. Regardless, it'll definitely be easier to find an Audigy Drive bundled with its internal cable than try to source the cable by itself.

Apparently having this box outside of the computer improves sound quality. That's why it's the premium "pro" product. I'd like to know if there's actually a basis to this.

Depends if the internal box has all around shielding and how effective noise suppression on the analog lines and power rails is (although this should be roughly equal between the two boxes).

Well, almost all current professional audio interfaces are external for that precise reason, so there should be some truth to it.

Professional audio interfaces are external mostly because they need a lot of room for inputs and outputs, and/or compatibility with laptop computers is a big selling point. People's fear of EMI is a minor factor.

USB is typically still feeding external boxes dirty power, which is probably the biggest issue next to ground loops.

firage wrote:

Professional audio interfaces are external mostly because they need a lot of room for inputs and outputs, and/or compatibility with laptop computers is a big selling point. People's fear of EMI is a minor factor.

Dunno, there are internal sound interfaces available with either truly massive breakout cables/boxes or expansion "cards" that simply take up another slot and that add more in/outputs, yet people generally seem to prefer external interfaces even in a studio with lots of immovable audio gear.

The large channel counts are limited to digital I/O only, as far as I know, which means they require separate analog units. For example, RME only offers four analog input or output channels per PCIe card, so four cards (if they even support stacking that many) to match one half-rack interface. They couldn't put preamps on those cards either.

Since racks of external gear are the rule in a professional setting, internal interfaces are understandably pretty niche. This is regardless of any noise inside the machine that couldn't be isolated out.

Just taking the interface outside of the PC isn't enough to fix problems of low quality design. The $149.99 list price E-MU 1212M PCI achieved cleaner line quality a decade ago than all of the external pro-sumer crap out today.

firage wrote:

Regardless, it'll definitely be easier to find an Audigy Drive bundled with its internal cable than try to source the cable by itself.

Doesn't it use just a regular 40-pin flat cable like the ones for IDE?.. I've replaced quite a while with the usual IDE cables and everything was OK.

Good to know it works - for some reason, there are warnings and reports of mixed success with IDE cables. Shouldn't be a problem as the header pinouts match 1-for-1 at both ends, as long the IDE cable has all the pins available (nothing blocked). I guess the key thing is to get the orientation right the first time with this one. 😀

ATA/66+ cables do something funky with pin 34, so probably avoid those. Also, stick with a single connector or the master, as slave connectors might not connect pin 28.

firage wrote:

Good to know it works - for some reason, there are warnings and reports of mixed success with IDE cables.

You will almost definitely want to use a 40-conductor cable, not a 80-conductor cable like is found in newer IDE cables. The 80 conductor cables have every other conductor tied to ground, which ends up meaning (in most cables) that some "ground" pins are tied to other "ground" pins, which might not be actually "ground" pins to the Audigy box, thereby screwing things up. That, and ensuring the right polarity as you said.

RJDog wrote:

You will almost definitely want to use a 40-conductor cable

I currently have 2 X-FI SB0460 cards that are hooked up to "drives" using 40 conductor cables without issues .

One of them is hooked up to a an X-FI drive and the the other an Audigy 2 ZS drive . The pinout for the AD_EXT connector is the same for these (the Audigy 2 ZS drive has an additional firewire header that remains unused with an X-FI card).
See this thread also :
Correct I/O Breakout Drive box for SoundBlaster Audigy2ZS Platinums?

I am pretty sure the original SB Live and first generation Audigy (before version 2) have interchangeable "drives", but I have never tried one myself (with a drive).

Good luck .