Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook

...You get a pair of creative in ear earphones, as well as some nice creative stickers for your computer showcasing the "24 bit" audio feature of this product. The pack also contains the 7.1 channel lead that is about 15cm long and has 3 connectors. They basically allow any PC sound system (whihc tend to be very good quality and much cheaper than Home systems) to be connected. I have tried it with my 7.1 Creative set and the quality was very ...
...a bit boomy with the creative set and mid range sounds (e.g. Voices) are not as well defined. However, it is a cheap and very listenable solution. I took the test a little further by using the digital optical Input on the Audigy 2 ZS and plugged into my PS3. The 7.1 set sounded even better with a BLuray disc in however my girlfriend could not tell the difference so it might not be as big a gap as expected.

My main use for the card ... more

I have had this product for approximately 6 months. I got if from Ebuyer which meant it was good value (£69.99 with google checkout discount) and the delivery was reasonable from Ebuyer. They tend to be fairly slow in my experience. For example, when super saver is selected the product will arrive 3,4 or 5 working days after it was bought.

Installation is so simple. It is almost plug and play, however, you still need to use the drivers CD provided. It is your choice how much of the software to install. I find that most of it is good but not that useful. The WAVE studio/Editor is good but can only epxort as a WMA with no options for MP3, OGG or other formats. I also find it a bit buggy. I have used it three times and it has frozen twice and all I was doing was viwing the waveform of a piece of music. By the way it is slower than an equivalent stand-alone program like Sony Soundforge which can import the relevent much faster. But Soundforge is very expensive in comparison but it does have many more features and is more stable.

The product itself is absolutely amazing. I was desparate for a PCMCIA card becuase my laptop only has one USB port so it was the only option.

The box (N.B. I think there is now a blister pack version but I have th box version), which is reasonably small, packs a lot into it. You get a pair of creative in ear earphones, as well as some nice creative stickers for your computer showcasing the "24 bit" audio feature of this product. The pack also contains the 7.1 channel lead that is about 15cm long and has 3 connectors. They basically allow any PC sound system (whihc tend to be very good quality and much cheaper than Home systems) to be connected. I have tried it with my 7.1 Creative set and the quality was very good but not quite up to my living room 5.1 system (made by Tannoy and costing £900!). It is comparable, obviosuly the bass is diffferent. It is very deep but a bit boomy with the creative set and mid range sounds (e.g. Voices) are not as well defined. However, it is a cheap and very listenable solution. I took the test a little further by using the digital optical Input on the Audigy 2 ZS and plugged into my PS3. The 7.1 set sounded even better with a BLuray disc in however my girlfriend could not tell the difference so it might not be as big a gap as expected.

My main use for the card is to produce dance music. It is so clear in stereo mode. I love using this card and run it through an external Cambridge audio amplifier to my Tannoy Mercury F1 Customs. this gives a good representation of my tracks and I have heard them played on much bigger systems without feeling embaressed (which is a good thing). I trust that this card gives accurate frequency response across the whole range and I particularly like the SNR of 110. This means that the hum of your computer will not be heard and this card will really surprise those used to internal motherboard soundcards.

Another feature I love is the optical output which is great for connecting high quality recording devices and suing the card on digital amplifiers.

The main drawback is the fact that the card will stick out by about an inch from your laptop which means it will not fit in all bags and carriers when connected. It is also prone to damage due to this. I also dislike the software I find it quite buggy and useless at times. In partciular there is no built in MP3 encoding software, just WMA which is not good if you use an IPOD. On the other hand, the EQ is very good and the different room effects are standard Creative inclusions on their MP3 players and I have always liked them anyway. 

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