Audigy 2 ZS for Notebooks breif review

[Hayd 0]

Finally got hold of the new audigy2 for notebooks . I've been testing it all day so here's a quick review of my findings so far.

 

What you get :

 

PCMCIA card ( the only sound card to my knowedge that is ! )

Speaker docking cable

crappy creative earphones

Applications / drivers disks

 

Inputs: mic ,line and optical spdif

 

Outputs: optical spdif , headphones , 4 stereo channels ( Front l/r , Rear l/r , Side l/r ,center , sub )

 

Bit of blurb from the website :

 

The Sound Blaster® Audigy™ 2 ZS Notebook is the world's first THX® certified PCMCIA sound card for high quality multi-channel audio on the notebook. Designed to offer a comprehensive solution for mobile gaming, digital entertainment and music creation, it packs desktop power into a standard PCMCIA notebook expansion slot, delivering 7.1 surround output with 24-bit/96kHz resolution. It supports EAX® ADVANCED HD™ 4.0 for gaming, Dolby® Digital EX and DTS-ES for movies, 192kHz DVD-Audio playback, plus ASIO® 2.0 and SoundFonts for audio creation and mobile DJs. With Optical Digital I/O, Stereo Analogue in and 4 stereo analogue outputs, its compact design and tremendous power make this the ultimate audio solution for notebooks.

 

* PCMCIA format THX certified 7.1 surround sound card with SNR up to 104dB.

* 24-bit/96kHz audio resolution in 7.1 surround with stereo DVD-Audio playback at 24-bit/192kHz

* Hardware-accelerated EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 for real-time interactive gaming environments

* Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES movie soundtrack decoding.

* Low latency Asio 2.0 drivers with direct monitoring for mobile music creation and DJ applications.

* Flexible connectivity, Line/Mic/Optical In and Line Out/Headphone out plus speaker docking cable for 4 additional stereo outs for up to 5.1 or 7.1 connectivity.

 

 

My god spec that actually mentions DJ's !!

Anyway , hooked it up to the laptop , installed without any problems. I did then update the drivers from the website ( new drivers all ready ! )

 

Configured Mixmeister to use the Asio drivers then connected up to my mixer and a pair of Mackie smr450s.

 

Output is at Line Level 0db ( same as a cd player ) so volume was no problem unlike the mp3+ usb I had before.

 

First thing to strike me was the clarity in the treble , much crisper than the mp3+ , Bass also seems much punchier . Fading between cd and laptop I could tell little difference in quality when playing the same song.

I ran a playlist for 3 hours with no audio glitches or sound problems at all .

 

So basically for the money I don't think you can go wrong , £ 91 incl delivery for 24 bit sound and excellent connectivity.

 

 

Pros :

 

good value , connectivity ( 4 stereo outputs ) , PCMCIA ( frees up usb ) , excellent sound quality .

 

Cons:

 

Min spec is quite high you need minimum 1.2ghz processor , 256 mb ram , 600mb of free hard disk and windows XP SP2 ( win2000 sp4 also supported ). I'm not sure how well the connection between the docking cable and the Pcmcia card will stand up to the riggers of mobile Djing, quite solid but not sure if it's DJ proof.

 

Anyway that's my verdict thus far. I'm not the best reviewer in the world so anyone else feel free to add your comments or questions.

 

You can also check out the official site:

 

Soundblaster notebook

 

Oh well on for the big test tomorrow...New Years eve !!

 

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Results of new year big test:

 

6hrs of non-stop music , absolutely glitch free , no lock ups or flaws at all. In fact 2 punters came up to me and commented that it was the clearest sounding disco they had ever been to !

 

What more can I say , worth every penny.

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Edited January 1, 2005 by Hayd