| |  | Electronics Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Internal Sound Card |  | | | | | | | | | | Rating:  - Great sound but drivers and applications are a nightmare/buggy
I would not recommend unless you are a hardcore computer professional who knows how to workaround this fix.
They got a great sound card, but the application was written by third grade s/w team.It is so buggy.
When you install this applications, please choose Analog as default, as otherwise you won't hear sound from the speakers.
Most of the time volume control will not show up on the taskbar. It took me a couple days to fix the s/w and drivers. Creative support is a joke.
I had a Turtle beach Santa Cruz and I never had a single issue so far. It was only supporting 5.1 but otherwise setup was so easy. Definitely would have rated higher except for the s/w applications. Otherwise, the sound is awesome.
Rating:  - If pre-installed in a Dell system the default setting is analog; some work is needed to enable digital; must purchase cable
I am in the process of setting up my kick-ass Dell XPS Gen 5 system, which I configured with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS.I also ordered the Logitech Z-5500 500 watt 5.1 digital surround speakers (very kick-ass).
As others have mentioned in their reviews, the sound card does not come with the digital coax or digital optical cable; you must purchase this separately.Not a huge deal until you find out that a standard Toslink to Toslink digital optical cable won't work.The digital output on the sound card is a standard din connector/mini-plug.A standard digital coaxial cable won't work with the sound card either.You need a "converter" that can convert the digital coax cable connector or Toslink digital optical cable connector to the sound card's din connector.
In my case, the Logitech speakers have a control pod that has a Toslink connector for the optical cable, but I'm having a difficult time finding what I need on the Internet.Both the Creative and Logitech Websites aren't very clear on this.Since Dell installed the sound card for me, I don't have the manual so I don't know if the manual is a little more clear on this.The cables are out there; you have to search for them.
If you're going to use a coaxial cable, I've learned that you can use an RCA to 1/8" miniplug that the coax cable can connect to and then you can plug this into the sound card.
This sound card would have received a 5-star rating, but it's disturbing to me that Creative doesn't have the standard Toslink or coax connection directly on the sound card.
Another thing about this sound card: the default is typically analog, NOT digital.If this sound card came preinstalled in a system (mine is a Dell), the default is analog.I'm guessing it's this way right out of the box.Many of the reviews state how simple it was to set up using the Creative software.You have to change a setting on the sound card itself to enable the digital audio.
Just because you use digital speakers with your Audigy 2 ZS doesn't mean that you are automatically listening to digital output.
Also, if you're using Logitech's Z-5500 speakers, then you have to let Logitech's built-in decoding take care of everything.You have to actually configure the sound card to work with these speakers.
I'm still working with Dell on finding the proper cable and then we're going to work out the sound card settings as well as the software configuration so that I'm getting true digital sound.I'll update my review once that is complete.
Basically, this is a great sound card.Just make sure you read up on this; search google or yahoo and read some forums.This isn't something you can use straight out of the box if you want true digital and 5.1 surround sound.
Rating:  - Warning - missing adapter cable inhibits connection to 5.1
Creative have sold these Audigy 2 kits with digital 5.1 speaker compatibilty plastered all over the package BUT YOU REQUIRE A "MINIPLUG / DIN (sold seperately)" ADAPTER CABLE THAT NOBODY HAS ! Including the Amazon and creative online / Telephone shops !!
This cable is detailed in the product literature but unavailable at any shop or even at creative shops online or by phone. It should really be included in the package to avoid customer like me ending up frustrated and angry after paying premium money for what looks like a great system but then unable to connect it to a CREATIVE Desktop 5.1 DTT2500 Digital theatre (Cambridge Soundworks).
If you check out the internet you will see a HUGE number of forums and bloggs crying over this very issue.
I will post a perfomance review when (hopefully) I finally manage to hook up my kit and listen to the sounds.....
UNACCEPTABLE from a reputed supplier like Creative.
Rating:  - audigy 2 zs
this is a real good sound card, improves sound quality from your onboard card. improves bass. put yourself in various surroundings, with eax environments. awesome card.
Rating: - So far so good
I'd just like to say that I was immediately impressed with the sound quality after I clicked on My Computer right after installing it. The stereo separation seems better than my old SB PCI 128. I purchased this soundcard for music production and for it's MIDI capabilities. You don't see MIDI specs in most soundcard ads or reviews anymore and this was very worrying to me. With the use of Soundfonts I'm unlimited in terms of instrument sounds. The critics didn't lie about the bugs and quirks though and the bloat. I now have to wait on my mixer to load in order to change the volume. That used to be almost instantaneous with my previous soundcards. Sometimes it gives off an extremely loud popping, squealing noise though its only for a fraction of a second at a time. When it happens you feel really weird after. If it went on for any longer I feel that it could cause hearing damage and/or damage to your audio system. I'm not sure whether that's the infamous "Squeal of death". Here and there, there are bugs in the soundfont bank manager. Even so, none of these issues have prevented me from making and listening to excellent sounding MIDI music via soundfonts. Soon after installing the card my system rebooted almost randomly while playing a MIDI file. My system doesn't usually do that. Also sometimes some other wierd things happen that didn't happen before. I am very happy with my purchase. I love the feature to add realtime reverb to the mic input and the realtime audio clean-up. That helped me out while watching TV on a noisy channel. I felt a little disappopinted when I discovered that you could listen to any MIDI file using any SoundFont with the Synth-Font program. I guess it felt like the card lost some of it's exclusivity. Another spoiler was that while waiting for my Audigy 2 ZS, Creative announced the X-Fi series. They talked about how much better it was than the Audigy series. That was a tough one. I had consolation in the fact that at my level its going to take my quite a while to harness all the power of the Audigy 2 ZS so the X-Fi would have probably been a waste on me. Plus the Audigy 2 ZS is cheaper.
| | < Previous | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | Next > |
| | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | 
2004-2007 Copyright © , All right reserved.
the website powered by web hosting. |
|
|
