Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Internal Sound Card
The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS with THX certification is the perfect choice for high-impact surround sound up to 7.1. Its 24-bit ADVANCED HD engine delivers stunning 7.1 surround audio in games and movies and supports Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES. There's also the exclusive THX Console for precise speaker calibration. Music lovers will appreciate its compatibility with DVD-Audio at 24-bit/192kHz in stereo and 24-bit/96kHz in 5.1, with 108dB SNR on all channels, Windows Media 9 compliance and CMSS 3D, which up-mixes stereo audio to 7.1. The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS comes with Creative MediaSource 2 for digital audio playback, library creation and management. Musicians will also benefit from its true 24-bit/96kHz recording and low-latency ASIO 2.0 support.
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Internal Sound Card Accessories
 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core Processor, 2.40 GHz, 8M L2 Cache, LGA 775
Western Digital WD3200KSRTL Caviar 320 GB SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive
Logitech Z-5500 THX-Certified 505-Watt 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Speaker System
Creative Labs 70SB057000000 Sound Blaster Audigy SE Card
Memorex 8.5GB 8X Double Layer DVD+R (50pk Spindle)
5.1 Game Console Adapter Convert Rca Plugs To A Single 1/8
Xbox 360 Core Arcade Bundle
Sound Blaster Digital I /o Module
Cables Unlimited 6-Feet HDmi To Dvi-d Cable (PCM-2296-06)
PNY GeForce 9600GT 512MB DDR3 PCIE 2.0 (DVI + DVI + HDTV/S-Video Outputs) VCG96512GXPB
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Internal Sound Card Reviews
Vestiges remain everywhere apparently even after using their special cleaning tool. If you have a problem with this card (e.g. So you cannot upgrade and existing system based on this card with any Creative products. to work with their software. Too bad. The Creative Audigy 2ZS and Platinum 2ZS cards provide a host of features including full support for a variety of speaker configurations trough 7.2, a joystick/MIDI interface, Optical SPD/IF, and an IEEE 1394 Firewire Port.
It simply cannot be completely uninstalled using their own software and the Windows Control Panel. An ideal card for gamers, Home Entertainment, and Home Studio. I am not surprised that Creative no longer produces this fine product - they created a Support nightmare for themselves (e.g. They probably had several incompatible versions of the exact same card all requiring different drivers, etc. adding a new device causing a contention problem on the bus or whatever), the procedures for completely removing the card, it's drivers, and software hooks in the Registry are draconian to the point of multiple boots into "Safe Mode", a Creative Tool which is supposed to remove all Creative reverences, followed by such nonsensical directives like completely blowing away the C:TEMP and C:WINDOWSTEMP directories and then emptying the Recycle bin.
an Audigy 2 is identical to a 2ZS except all the pins for the additional features are missing with the pads soldered off). There is no excuse for this. When nothing else would work, I downloaded some obscure drivers from their site (which wasn't referenced by Support or in the FAQs) and finally it worked just fine. compatible with the 2 and 2ZS. I was three weeks out of warranty and nobody at Creative would help me diagnose the problem. Gone is the Firewire interface, the game/MIDI port, the SPD/IF. I purchased a new replacement card and installed it only to find it had the same problems - so I took the original card to another machine and it installed perfectly without errors. Fortunately, the replacement card was available trough a third party with an extended warranty.
I now believe that somehow, running in the background perhaps, Creative automatically 'upgraded' my drivers which broke the system. Production of this card has been discontinued with no upgrade available. I wasted two weeks with Creative Support and their crazy diagnostic/fix procedures. I was forced to fix these problems myself because I had become so locked into the features on the original card I had no choice. I will avoid Creative Products completely in the future no matter how good their specs and reviews - they apparently violate the most basic rules (at least for Windows/XP) in that their product cannot be completely uninstalled via the Control Panel and leaves countless junk in the Registry - then when something goes wrong they waste days trying to support you (the Support Team is very responsive but overwhelmed).
The biggest complaint here is the methodology used when installing this card for the first time. Unfortunately, none of the newly-released Creative Products are backward-. I had a card which seemingly failed (would no longer record and which failed the Creative Diagnostics) - it played perfectly but wouldn't record. The Creative Software for the Audigy 2ZS is powerful, extensive, and easy to use. But the worst 'feature' is Creative's clueless Support Team.
Don't waste your money. If you want 5.1 to 7.1 sound then you have to use analog plugs on the back. the optical output only does 2.1 sound.
(i don't recommend doing this unless your very skilled with regedit as theres a high risk of something going wrong and you will need to spend hours in the regedit tool in windows). It is great for working with audio editors and studio apps like FL studio as it has great asio support and can handle hundreds of sound streams at 1 time with out skipping and with out putting a heavy load on the cpu. Using it will give you around a 10FPS boost when gaming as it has a very low cpu load (if you have a onboard sound card, the sound processing load is sent to the cpu but with this card, all processing is handled within the card).
PS some people on many different forums have been able to use creative x-fi drivers for this card and enable x-fi sound features. This card does wonders for music.
This is one of the best sound cards you can get for this price. using the eax console, you can make all music really sound 20-30 times better, the advance eq has a feature that will increase the detail of all audio making all music sound much better.
"Bait and switch. When the actual seller responded they indicated a "bulk" item. So what I got was not a retail box but a "baggie" with the card and a driver CD. I would consider another vendor.". The amazon link showed a full retail box with included software.
I was really worrying about setting up BIOS as some one mentioned here before I bought that card.
I found my refurbished Audigy 2 is very easy to install.
It significantly improves the sound quality of my Logitech z 2300.
I found this is enough.
When I installed it, I just disabled the onboard audio through volume control.
I really love Audigy 2.
I bought refurbished Audigy 2 (older version of Audigy 2 zs) from creative's ebay store.
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