Creative PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook Sound Card

List Price: $176.60 Discount Price: $279.99

Features:

• Music - Dramatically improve your digital music listening experience
• Movies - Enjoy amazing surround sound with headphones and 5.1 or 7.1 speakers
• Games - Hear sound effects so real, you'll feel like you're actually in the game
• Recordings - Create studio-quality, low-latency recordings with high-fidelity inputs

Accessories:

ButtKicker BK-GR Gamer

Customer Reviews:

Great for some things, only so-so for others [Posted on 2006-09-18]
The analog output was always a little noisy when my laptop was charging.

Creative also fixes their digital outputs so that they only output at one word length and sample rate, (in the case of this card 24-bit, 96 Khz) and I could never for the life of me get them to sync properly with other digital equipment.

Great specs, sounds great but crashes computer when ... [Posted on 2007-05-20]
Would give it a higher rating but crashes the Dell Latitude (Win XP) when you stop the device (as recommended) and remove the card! Bought it to use the laptop for Software Defined Radio, where the higher bandwidth would be very useful and a stereo sound in is required (most laptops have mono-in). If you don't try to stop or remove the card then everything works really well. Quite a bit of the software that comes with is pretty badly implemented - sucks up processor power. Hopefully the crash issue will be fixed.

It always worked for me [Posted on 2007-06-09]
I like the simplicity of this card and the great sound it has. I have been told that it does not work in all computers and you would have to test it. In mine it did but in a friend's compaq laptop with very similar carachteristics as mine it did not work. So watch out and make sure you can return it. For the ones that work, you are in for a great experience with many different audio options.

Not for you if you have Vista OS [Posted on 2007-10-17]
This card is handcuffed by Vista OS. Few of its cool features work with Vista OS. The Creative web site says it's compatible but in the fine print describes the "Vista" known problems. From the Creative web site:

"Drivers updated from the web will comply with UAA standards. However, due to Microsoft's new Windows Vista(tm) architecture, some features may be lost. Please refer to the Web Release Notes (WRN) found with the new driver downloads for details. In addition, the Creative Speaker Settings will not automatically synchronize with Windows Vista(tm) Speaker Settings."

"Known issues(with the Vista download):
Applications from the original Sound Blaster Audigy CD will not work with this download. Users are advised to use Audio Console included in this download to change speaker configurations.
This driver does not support the following:
--Decoding of Dolby® Digital and DTS(tm) signals
--DVD-Audio
--DirectSound®-based EAX games
--Gameports
--6.1 speaker mode.
--SPDIF passthrough is supported on Vista 32-bit only."

"Known Incompatibilities:
There have been reported compatibility problems with PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook and the PCMCIA controllers listed below...
--ENE Tech CB1411
--Ricoh R5C476(II)
--Ricoh R5C475(II)
--TI PCI-1520"

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

I don't record without it...an immediate upgrade to your audio [Posted on 2008-11-10]
If you want recordings free of hum and buzz and with little hiss, this will do the trick. I have used this card for voiceover recordings for over two years and have never been disappointed. Good clean signal going in and out--no matter if I use cheap mics or expensive ones. Believe me, I can really tell the difference when I am forced to use most laptops' built-in audio.

Works well with Adobe Audition 3 in WinXP SP2...although configuration with Audition can sometimes be a pain.

Click here for more details and discount information...