Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook sound card
Manufacturer: Creative Part number: 70SB053000000
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- If you don't mind sacrificing a few convenient features for truly portable design, Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook turns your laptop into a bona fide sound system.
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Where to buy
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CNET editors' review
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook sound card price range: $379.99
- Reviewed by: Nathaniel Wilkins
- Edited by: Rich Brown
- Reviewed on: 12/21/2004
- Released on: 10/01/2004
The good: Portable PC card design is great for laptops; supports Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES 6.1 decoding; 7.1-channel output; 24-bit/192KHz output for two-channel DVD-Audio sources; THX certified.
The bad: Lacks hardware controls; no remote.
The bottom line: If you don't mind sacrificing a few convenient features for truly portable design, Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook turns your laptop into a bona fide sound system.
The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook is downright unobtrusive. Inserted into our laptop's PC Card slot, the card stuck out approximately 1 inch from the computer's side. To preserve its small stature, the card has only three jacks, although two of them serve dual purposes: a minijack headphone output/optical out, a minijack microphone input/optical in, and a proprietary port to which you can connect an included adapter that adds three analog outputs for multimedia speaker sets with up to 7.1-channels. Creative will offer an optional adapter if you want to use the 1/8-inch minijack optical jacks with a digital receiver or other hardware that requires the more familiar, square Toslink optical connection.
The Audigy 2 ZS Notebook has neither the hardware controls nor the vast selection of configuration interfaces of the USB Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX, so you don't get as many options for fine-tuning. Given the convenience of simply slapping this small card into your notebook's PC Card slot, however, you won't mind the slimmer feature set. You can use the Creative software mixer, your laptop's hardware volume control, or your multimedia speaker system's controls to make any necessary adjustments. The only real downer is the absence of a remote control.
Setting up the Audigy 2 ZS Notebook is a snap in Windows XP. You simply insert the sound card into the laptop, cancel out of the "Windows new hardware found" wizard, load the included CD-ROM into your PC's drive, follow a few prompts, then reboot to complete installation. Although Creative supplies a well-conceived quick-setup poster, the full user guide is included only as a file on the CD-ROM.
The Audigy 2 ZS Notebook supports the same sound-processing technologies that vaulted the company's flagship Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro desktop PC sound card into prominence. In addition to decoding Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel DVD signals, the Audigy 2 ZS Notebook also supports the 6.1-channel Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES standards for an enveloping experience with multichannel multimedia speaker sets. Like other members of the Audigy 2 family, the Audigy 2 ZS Notebook supports Creative's EAX Advanced HD and Microsoft's DirectSound 3D standards, which the vast majority of games use to deliver 3D audio. Creative's CMSS 3D Audio Technology does a decent job simulating surround sound through headphones, should you forgo the multichannel multimedia speaker set in favor of a totally mobile setup. In addition to configuration utilities, the software suite includes a Creative audio player and a basic Creative recording miniapp.
To test the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook, we connected Logitech's X-530 multimedia speaker set and used the included THX setup console software to calibrate the speaker levels. When we fired up Unreal Tournament 2004, the sound was crisp and clear. Although the experience was also good when we played the game while wearing Altec Lansing's AHS-602 two-way headset, the surround-sound speaker set made it easier to track the locations of enemies, which is not a huge surprise. The massive dinosaur's destructive rampage in the Jurassic Park DVD's "Tyrannosaurus rex" scene came across as suitably scary. When we used the included software to play Fleetwood Mac's Rumors DVD-Audio disc, the sound was exceptionally detailed.
According to Creative, the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook requires a PC with a 1.2GHz or faster processor. If your system doesn't have adequate PCMCIA bandwidth, you can switch the sound card into a lower performance mode, but that wasn't necessary with our 1.5GHz Dell Inspiron 600m. Power consumption is always an issue when testing notebook accessories. Using our test laptop's stock battery, we played a DVD for approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes before the juice drained, demonstrating no appreciable difference in battery life between using the card and not.
User reviews
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Echo Indigo IO is way more better than this card
by audiomaniac on July 8, 2005
Pros: Direct 5.1 Surround connection ability.
Cons: Sound quality far inferior to Echo Indigo IO
Summary: I basically listen with a headphone from my Laptop. I use a Grado SR325i and though not quite satisfied, I was happy with my Creative ZS >> Until I ...
Summary: I basically listen with a headphone from my Laptop. I use a Grado SR325i and though not quite satisfied, I was happy with my Creative ZS >> Until I heard the Echo Indigo from my friend.
The difference is not subtle at all. Its in fact so much pronounced that even a half deff guy could say the difference. With Echo Indigo, you get pristine clarity in the higher frequencies (crystal clear treble), accurate and eye-blinking Bass and most importantly, a much greater depth to the music. I was literally astounded with the difference, never thought that the laptop could sound so good..
This could possibly be because the Echo Indigo has a built in DSP processor along with an extremely superior quality Headphone Amp that really exemplifies and spatially separates the vocals from the guitars from the drums etc. On the creative, the sound is just flat and really muddy when compared to the Echo Indigo IO.
All said, the Echo Indigo is more expensive than Creative, but I still strongly and wholeheartedly recommend it over Creative ZS.
As for me, I received my Echo Indigo IO a week back and my Creative ZS Notebook is up for sale on EBay
8 out of 12 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great Product
by dswish926 on April 4, 2005
Pros: Finally - great audio for a laptop
Cons: None that I can see
Summary: This is a great product for gamers and movie / music lovers. This transforms a good set of speakers into movie theater quality speakers. In gaming, you can hear and feel ...
Summary: This is a great product for gamers and movie / music lovers. This transforms a good set of speakers into movie theater quality speakers. In gaming, you can hear and feel everyone around you. The surround sound in movies is awesome and music audio is enhanced with many software features. It's amazing that such a small device can do so much. A recent update allows you to switch between external speakers and your laptop's internal speakers w/o removing the card.
6 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Exactly what you need if your laptop's sound card stinks.
by andaroo38 on September 17, 2006
Pros: Great sound quality for a PC card, optical in and out, full suite of Creative software
Cons: Kinda pricey; Creative drivers stink; physically rather flimsy; bandwidth limitations with PC card format
Summary: This was exactly what I needed as someone who was sick of the ****** sound quality on my laptop (run of the mill RealTek 16-bit sound card) but also got the ...
Summary: This was exactly what I needed as someone who was sick of the ****** sound quality on my laptop (run of the mill RealTek 16-bit sound card) but also got the versatility and power of an Audigy 2 card. Music sounds pretty phenomenal on low-to-mid-range headphones (Grado SR-60, Sennheiser PX-200). Does the job for 5.1 surround for DVDs and video games. Optical SPDIF out for 5.1 surround isn't real digital 5.1, however it hasn't really affected my enjoyment of the card.
Optical SPDIF out doesn't work for DVD audio, although that's not a huge issue for me. Analog or coax digital out is cumbersome with the card attached directly to your computer. If you have a cheap computer like mine (Averatec 6210) the PC card bandwidth won't be enough to enjoy all the features of the sound card, but this is only a problem if you need THX setup, bit-perfect output, advanced atmospheric effects, etc. I'm guessing this wouldn't be the choice for someone who wants a fully-functioning sound card for professional performance, but that's not me.
Really this was exactly what I was looking for and more. I've had it for almost a year now and it's working flawlessly - no glitches, hiccups or any problems. The sound quality is as good as I expected. I just wish the kX Project or someone else could come up with a better driver than the Creative one, which needlessly eats up memory and doesn't allow for any customization.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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DA BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by kechou on April 26, 2006
Pros: very light, portable, easy to install good quality
Cons: none yet, seems good so far
Summary: GREAT product,used on CUBASE . i used the maudio firewire solo, to record on my desktop and it is definetly comparable. when i used the creative and recorded my guitar ...
Summary: GREAT product,used on CUBASE . i used the maudio firewire solo, to record on my desktop and it is definetly comparable. when i used the creative and recorded my guitar using cubase i only had a latency of 50ms, and when i used 'direct monitoring' i couldnt even hear the lag. so i was able to record very well. i think its a GREAT PRODUCT
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Simply Amazing!!!!!
by Mark_19317 on January 21, 2006
Pros: Easy install. Easy speaker set up. Advanced Speaker Control. Lots of easy to use software included.
Cons: (NONE) I Could Find At The Time Of This Review!!!!
Summary: I have a set of Logiteck X-530's that I use with my laptop. I didn't like the fact that you couldn't adjust the speakers manually. The X-530'...
Summary: I have a set of Logiteck X-530's that I use with my laptop. I didn't like the fact that you couldn't adjust the speakers manually. The X-530's sounded ok buy themselves. However the Audigy2 ZS PCMI sound card changed all that. Hands down this is the best sounding laptop I have ever heared period. I have had two different speaker systems set up with my laptop (HP dv1000) an entertainment laptop. So I play DVD's a lot the improvement is stunning. I was geting some strange sounding bass at times like the subwoofer was not up to the task at hand. I also noticed that the center speaker was not providing the dialogue as it sould. Also the highs were not as crisp as I would have liked. As stated earlyer all that has changed. Now I enjoy all the music and DVD's I want and so much more. Simply the Audigy2 ZS lives up to it's promise of high quality sound. The highs are definite and crisp. The bass improvement is what impressed me the most. The bass went from being distorted at times to always being on time with no distortion. I highly recommend the Audigy2 ZS Notebook Sound Card. If you buy it take the time to read the documentation included on the setup disk before you install the sound card. I did this and it really helped me understand the sound card. I was aware of the things required to setup the sound like I wanted it. I read the other reviews. Some of them sounded a little harsh. You will get the sound you want from this card if you use all the software provided. The graphic equalizer that is included will give you the playback experience you desire. Compairing a highend sound card to the Audigy2 ZS is at best unfair. It would be like compairing a BMW to a Ford Focus, oranges and apples and the like. In conclusion if you are thinking of buying the Audigy2 ZS do it. You will not regret it PERIOD!!!
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Could you NOT give me the Blue Screen of Death?
by jessicajean on August 8, 2005
Pros: Easy to install
Cons: Corrupts files, erased firewire drive, doesn't work
Summary: So, I installed this bad boy, and yes, it was totally easy. I was terribly excited. So, I plugged in my firewire drive to grab some sfx, and BOOM! Blue ...
Summary: So, I installed this bad boy, and yes, it was totally easy. I was terribly excited. So, I plugged in my firewire drive to grab some sfx, and BOOM! Blue Screen of Death. When I rebooted, my entire firewire drive was corrupted. I couldn't reformat the darn thing until I uninstalled EVERYTHING from creative labs.
So, I emailed creative labs, hoping my specific model of computer had special problems they knew how to fix. Instead, they told me uninstall and reinstall. I did. 3 times.
I am not a happy camper. Not only did I waste countless of hours and my emotional stability while spitting out obsenities at my computer, but I also lost my entire archival system. (Which, I understand, is partly my fault, cause HDs are not long term storage. But still...)
Me and Sound Blaster? We are SO not friends right now!2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Outstanding!
by Quonset on July 8, 2005
Pros: Dramatically better sound quality than internal notebook sound card
Cons: none for normal usage
Summary: We recently purchased the Soundblaster 2 ZS Notebook for my new Dell laptop. I use my laptop for home and business use, and enjoy listening to music while working. The ...
Summary: We recently purchased the Soundblaster 2 ZS Notebook for my new Dell laptop. I use my laptop for home and business use, and enjoy listening to music while working. The Dell internal sound was muted and disappointing compared to what I was used to from my Soundblaster card in my previous desktop. While I expected impressive sound from the ZS Notebook, I am thoroughly delighted by how spectacular it really is. Music is now crisp and clear, and my little external speakers now sound expensive and large. As a normal user simply desiring a premium listening experience, I am really impressed! Unless you are *extremely* picky or have atypical, unusual requirements, you will not be disappointed with this sound card.
Recording 24 bit audio files through this card has also produced dramatically improved results for us as well!2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Not to listen to music!
Pros: I found this card works well if you'd like to play game...
Cons: Not much improvement in sound quality, particularly when you listen to music. I also tried ECHO INDIGO PLAYBACK CARD with GRADO-80 headphones. The sound quality is simply astounding! In sum, if you are planning to purchase Creative Sound Blaster Audigy
4 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Nice for laptop owners
by ibtizi on September 8, 2006
Pros: Sounds, ease of set up, price
Cons: Have to adjust the settings to get the perfect sound
Summary: I bought this based upon reviews. I got a deal through Circut City, $60 in rebates. Cost my 40 bucks! Can't beat this for what it does to my ...
Summary: I bought this based upon reviews. I got a deal through Circut City, $60 in rebates. Cost my 40 bucks! Can't beat this for what it does to my poor laptop sound system. I have it paired with Klipsch 2.1 THX speakers and the sound is awesome...even my wife likes it!
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Perfect choice for mini entertainment system
by rajgene on September 7, 2006
Pros: Quality of sound, surround , cheap price tag
Cons: software interface
Summary: I have dual core acer notebook, and the product fits into it amazingly. i have a creative inspire 5.1 and the speakers show gr8 depth in 24bit sound. apt ...
Summary: I have dual core acer notebook, and the product fits into it amazingly. i have a creative inspire 5.1 and the speakers show gr8 depth in 24bit sound. apt for watching DVDs and recent games, i enjoyed 'prey' and quake 4.
software sometimes makes u goto sleep, but tweaking the options for a week, will lead to the best surround experience for ur room
highly recommended for the notebook gamers, who are at thirst for frags.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Creative
- Part number: 70SB053000000
- Description: The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook opens a new era of possibilities for the notebook user. It delivers features previously only available to PC users but now available to notebook users (even those that are highly mobile). This is achieved by combining ultra-high quality audio with advanced, hardware-accelerated features all in a tiny PCMCIA format card! For instance it delivers THX certified 24-bit ADVANCED HD audio quality playback with incredible 104dB SNR, allowing the highest resolution audio playback with support for DVD-Audio at up to 24-bit/192kHz and Windows Media 9: 24-bit multi-channel audio format. The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook also provides encompassing 7.1 surround sound for Dolby Digital EX as well as DTS-ES supported DVD movies; any DirectSound3D games and CMSS 3D virtualized 7.1 stereo music. Gamers will love the hardware accelerated EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD that not only brings games to life, but delivers maximum performance! Musicians will also enjoy true 24-bit recording and low latency ASIO support for the ultimate audio recording platform. Notebook audio just got very, very interesting!
General
- Device Type Sound card
- Enclosure Type Plug-in module
- Interface Type PC Card
Processor / Memory
- Signal Processor Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Audio Output
- Sound Output Mode 7.1 channel surround
- DAC Data Width 24-bit
- Sample Rate 192 KHz (max)
- Signal-To-Noise Ratio 104 dB
- Response Bandwidth 10 - 46000 Hz
- Max Speakers Qty 8
- Compliant Standards THX, EAX 4.0, ASIO 2.0, EAX ADVANCED HD, Dolby Digital EX, Digital Theater Systems Extended Surround (DTS-ES)
Expansion / Connectivity
- Interfaces 1 x Audio - Line-in/microphone - Mini-phone 3.5 mm / TOSLINK, 1 x Audio - SPDIF output/headphones - Mini-phone 3.5 mm / TOSLINK
- Compatible Slots 1 x PC Card - Type II
Software / System Requirements
- OS Required Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4
- Min Processor Type 1.2 GHz
- System Requirements Details Celeron - RAM 256 MB - HD 600 MB
Manufacturer info
- Creative
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Creative products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://us.creative.com
- Address:
1901 McCarthy Blvd. Milpitas, CA 95035, Milpitas, CA 95035 - Phone: 800-998-1000
