Customer Reviews

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer PCI Soundcard (70SB035000013)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This card includes 5 full version games (all prices are amazon.com prices as of 4/8/04)
1. Halo ($43.99)
2. Star Wars : Jedi Academy ($44.99)
3. Splinter Cell ($29.99)
4. Rainbow Six 3 : Ravenshield ($19.99)
5. Tomb Raider : Angel of Darkness ($19.99)

Just the games on amazon cost $158.95!! It also has built in firewire and 7.1 surround sound. Not bad for a card that costs 133.99! Excellent card all around!

This card is amazing. It will destroy any onboard solution there is, except for the handful of motherboards that have audigy already built in. Games sound great on my 5.1's and music also sounds fantastic. There are many settings you can switch around to get the sound you want too, and all are easy to use and self explanitory. There are also simple setup wizards, troubleshooting tools, and speaker tests to make sure you have things set up correctly.

Whoever said you need expensive speakers to enjoy this card is wrong. I'm running some Logitech Z-640's with mine and they only cost 50 bucks or so when Logitech was producing them. The other reviewer who said you need to find drivers to stop the crackling is also mistaken. you don't need to "find" anything. Load up the drivers that come on the install disc, bounce over to creative.com, and run their simple update utility. Yes, if you use older drivers you may experience some issues, but that's why they do driver updates when problems like that occur. I had no problems with any games I play and still updated to the latest audigy drivers. It's no hassle at all.

For those installing this with onboard sound, first uninstall or disable the onboard sound through your motherboards BIOS. Turn your PC on and just start tapping the DEL key. You will then jump into the BIOS. Look around in there for onboard devices or onboard audio and just disable it. The wording may be different but just keep looking around and you'll find it. After you disable it don't forget to click save and exit.

Boot back into windows and then shut down again. Unplug everything and put the card in the lowest PCI slot you can. Close her back up and restart the machine. When you get into windows the "found new device" wizard will pop up and ask you if you want to install drivers. Click on cancel here and don't let it install anything. next just throw in the driver cd and install them. After that's done reboot again, head over creative.com and update the newly installed drivers. All done!

I was going to pick up the regular Audigy 2 for about fifteen to twenty dollars less but when I looked at the bundle that came with this it was impossible to turn down.

I received the games (all full versions as indicated). The training tutorials on the game CDs are pretty good, which was a relief because as expected no manuals for the games.

Picked this up with a T7700 sound system and Far Cry (awesome game) if you have a very solid PC to run it... I am playing it at max settings with my new Geforce 6800 OC and the graphics are simply amazing.

By picking up the sound card, T7700 speakers and Far Cry I also get fifty later to spend on Doom 3 and a fifteen dollar rebate on the T7700 speakers...

Can't beat this deal and the whole package is a very solid deal for high quality sound...

I have had little compatiblity problems with this card on games. Of course I have a top of the line computer from Falcon that is tweeked to perfection. On my other PC with the Audigy 2 I noticed that my 6.1 setting would revert to the primative 2.0 setting in some games, but that is no longer a problem with this card using the 6.1 speaker setting. I have not tried 7.1 yet as I am still raising funds for the Gigaworks speakers(aka robbing banks, bashing the heads of stupid rich people, steeling corperate info, ect.;).
This card does not come with Jedi Academy as the other reviewer said, however. I have been wanting that game and only wish it did! The only complaint I have with this card is that it does little to position sounds properly in some games. I cannot get the speech to come through the center speaker only other sounds but that is the game's fault I think. If you have EAX 3 on a game it will not position sound accurately, you must have an EAX 4 compatible game. Knights of the Old Republic does not position speech through the center channel for instance. My old card(Audigy 2) positioned sound perfectly.

I have the Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 speakers to go along with this sound card. I find that the card defiantly helps in games, especially in first person shooters like Counter Strike, Call of Duty, and Battle field: to distinguish where you are in relation to where everyone else is on the map by not even looking. The surround sound and adds a cool new dimension that most people do not think of; sound. However I think the sound is not superior to other brands; but this could primarily be because of my speakers.

Pros:

-Good quality
Can handle 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 speakers

Cons:

-You need to find drivers that will fix static problems (they occur primarily while playing games).
-Need good and expensive speakers for excellent sound...
but this sound card was specifically designed for speakers like my Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 speakers (whose sound is good, and loud, but not perfect).

A few years ago i bought a sound blaster audigy gamer and a set of creative inspiration 4400 4.1s. I got it and installed it and i was happy. Last month my mom got me the Audigy 2 ZS Gamer. It came with 5 games, 4 of them awesome. (tomb Raider not so good). I plug it in and fireup itunes. WOW. Reviews ive read have said that it is not to big an improvement over the Audigy. It is. Now im getting a new set of speakers to complement it.

Well, I got this card for $50 bucks at ebay, with some canadian guy, however, the card resulted to include everything but the bundled games! but, who cares! Seems like I have 'em all except the Star WArs game. I had the first Audigy, and you can hear a little difference in the sound (Loved my first Live! Sound Card, and then Audigy), but when I saw the real difference was on hardware acceleration, its sound processor seems to be very fast. I have an 8 speaker wireless system from Creative also, I like classic music, oldies, rock, and balads, my music hears great, and my games rock! It's worth every penny, but lucky for me I only paid 50 bucks hahaha. (As a matter of fact, I wouldn't pay over 100 bucks for the card 'cause I had an Audigy :P)