Customer Reviews

Creative Labs PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook ( 70SB053000012 )

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This sound card is alright. I would recommend NOT buying this soundcard if your laptop is not high end, or is slow, low ram, or constantly using up a lot of CPU speed. I have the Gateway Tablet PC, and at first I had a lot of problems with this card, but after about 2 hours of configuring it, and my computer, it now runs with no problems in high end games. I also have a lot of experience with computers though. If you are going to be playing high end games then I would recommend getting this, if you are only going to be playing music, find an alternative.

This sound card is awesome. No more clicking, poping, or anything from my speakers. They put out a great deal of power, and great set of utilities that help choose sound stages, equalizers, THX settings, speaker settings, etc. It also comes with your green,black, and tan cable splitter to use 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, and also 7.1 speakers. I have the Logitech Z-560 4.1 THX certified speakers, and they are awesome. Plus, you get a cool little sticker.

Con: because the great deal of power comming from this card, it generates a lot of extra heat, before my laptop didn't get too hot, but since adding the sound card, it gets noticeably hotter. But don't get me wrong, this card is amazing.

This is my second card, the first was stepped on by a youngster. I have a very high end laptop, but the sound is terrible. Using this card and decent pair of headphones does the trick. Good quality and easily installs. I think creative did a good job with this product.

This card is incredible! I tested it on my old laptop and the sound was unbelievable. Problem: I changed my laptop and it now comes with a ExpressCard slot as opposed to a PCI slot; can't fit the card anymore! I'm screwed ... Please Creative, when are you releasing the ExpressCard version of this product??

Great sound, fantastic features.I am using it with DVD playback on my Laptop. Eexcellent product.

It is really a state-of-art SC, but it couldn't fit into the slit of my new DELL computer, so I had to turn it back. A friend of mine has the same one and is more than happy with it, but a piece of advice; before you buy it, make sure that it's compatible with the latest generation of your laptops!!!

This card clears the sound right up on my new logitech z-2300's. Easy enough to install, and the audio software is easy to operate.

"200 times better quality sound" sounds too good to be true, but there was a very noticeable difference as soon as I plugged it in and installed the software. You can hook up your surround sound speakers with the included cable, you can hook up your TV/Game System/Anything to the 'Line In' port with a component to 3.5mm adapter, which you can get for about 5 dollars, and you can hook headphones up to the line out.

The included software allows you to do just about anything with your sound- Recording it, Ripping CD's, playing music, and you can test/adjust individual speakers, and you can even turn on advanced effects that make it sound like you're listening while in a large stadium or a garage (or about 50 other choices). The CMSS 3D options in the EAX console are the best. You can change it to "virtual surround sound" as most MP3s are only stereo. It's an amazing step-up in sound quality.

Creative's volume control is in the toolbar at the bottom, and if you want to switch from line-in to pc audio, just adjust the dials! No unplugging necessary! And of course, if you plug in headphones it will switch to them automatically.

If you are also looking for Surround sound Speakers with this, I recommend the Logitech X-530. They sound amazing and can be found for ~40 dollars.Logitech X-530 70-Watt 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System - NEW White Box

BOTTOM LINE:
With a little searching you can find this for as low as 60 dollars, maybe even cheaper, and since you can hook-up anything that outputs sound to it, and play it in perfect quality surround sound, it's an all inclusive solution

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I am no expert on soundcards for laptops, and there are many good high quality ones out there. What attracted me to the Audigy 2 was that it was THX certified and offered surround sound. This is not to say that anything not THX certified is bad, but, being a non-expert, I thought this was a safe choice to make.

I'm glad to say that I am extremely pleased with the soundcard - even with the most basic of speakers you can immediately hear the improvement. The great thing is that you can take two sets of computer speakers (or active speakers if you are a hi-fi person) and have one set acting as front speakers and the other as rear speakers and you have a surround sound system (if you don't mind the wires and the need for two power points!). The sound card has an optical input, an optical output, and three minijack connections (one for a subwoofer, one for front speakers, and one for rear ones).

I would recommend (as with most products) downloading the latest software from the Creative website. The latest version can play flac files, which is perfect for me (flac is a lossless compression format like MP3, but unlike MP3 there is no loss of quality). The software also comes with tools such as a graphic equaliser, THX setup (so you can control the volume of each speaker independently based on the angles and distances they are placed), and the standard player and organiser. There are many, but two of the best features that I have found are the ability to cross-fade between tracks, which gets rid of annoying gaps between music tracks that can sometimes occur, and the ability to slow music down but keeping the pitch at the same level. Why the second? I'm learning to play guitar, and it is a superb tool for slowing down those fast solos or awkward rhythm sections for you to play along to.

The only problem I've experienced is that I notice the software can be a bit processor intensive, and my firewall has taking a dislike to it when I try opening web browsers when the player is running. Well, the firewall just needed an additional rule to accept the software, and you can stop unecessary processes, such as the one to continuously monitor folders for new music - you can add music manually.

All in all a great addition to have, especially if you enjoy using your laptop for music or films.

This is a nice card, I own an Alienware MJ-12m and I needed better sound. No problems at all with this card, just pluged it in, installed software, reboot and all done, working like a charm. Sound is very clear, rich bass even with headphones/earphones; games sound awesome... :D