Anyone have the PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS yet?

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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
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Just wondering if anyone had this yet. It is apparently for sale and in stock at a few places, although Newegg is about the most expensive place selling it currently.
(EDIT: Not sure if this is the right category...it is a PCMCIA card anyway)
 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
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Boo. :( No one, eh? I'm most likely ordering it tomorrow.... I mainly wanted to do SPDIF passthrough to a DTS receiver anyway, although I do play games and this card looks like it could be nice for those times I plug it into my Z-680s.
 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
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Yeah, I've looked at it. But, it costs more and it has no SPDIF output.

Originally posted by: LoudTIGER
if you do not need eax, i would highly recommend the echo indigo.
Click to expand...

 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
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I ended up ordering it from mwave.com. They had some promotional $10 discount if you signed up with them today, so it made the cost $100.84. I opted for fast shipping so I am paying $113.02 total for it.
 
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SelArom

Senior member
Sep 28, 2004
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www.djselarom.com
does this card support asio? iow is it good for writing/mixing music? post your experience with this thing please!

also, are there any sound cards that utilize the minipci (or whatever it's called) standard so I can put it in the laptop and not use up my pcmcia card? I mainly want a card with good drivers, i don't need i/o since I mostly do sequencing. any thoughts any one? thanks!
 
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GnomeCop

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2002
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Do not get this card unless you understand that the damn thing gets VERY hot. Much hotter than most every pcmcia card should get. If you already have a hot running system, this card will not help in that respect. Make sure you have some reasonable cooling going on with it.
 
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LoudTIGER

Member
Jul 29, 2003
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a mini pci slot card wouldnt really work, it's at the bottom of the laptop. how are you going to plug in your headphones?
 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
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My NC6000 doesn't get that hot anyway, it just has a 1.7GHz Pentium M in it, and seems to have some decent fans installed. I'll see if I notice any extra heat though. :)

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
Do not get this card unless you understand that the damn thing gets VERY hot. Much hotter than most every pcmcia card should get. If you already have a hot running system, this card will not help in that respect. Make sure you have some reasonable cooling going on with it.
Click to expand...

 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
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I finally got this card... (about $110 including shipping and all).

It doesn't get that hot so far, and it has been nice to use my laptop to play DVDs and output the sound to my stereo receiver and all. However, Creative drivers are still a bit buggy, and I've gotten the only bluescreens I've ever seen since I installed it. NEVER accidentally pop the card out before first stopping it via the system tray icon.

Also, they don't give you an SPDIF cable, so you will need an optical one w/the mini connector on one end to connect it (I had one already).
 
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OsirisWarsmith

Junior Member
Dec 14, 2004
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I have a Dell Inspirion 9100 laptop and a home cinema receiver from Yamaha. Do anyone know if this PCMCIA card will deliver digital 5.1 sound to my system? I have got a couple of SPDIF cables, but they have the standard connectors. Can I still use this?

Thanks
O
 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
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Yeah, it outputs fine. IT has an SPDIF passthrough option that will just send the raw data to your receiver.

It only has an optical plug, so I went to radio shack and got a mini adapter for the optical cable I already had so I could plug it in. Cost me like $2.80 for the adapter.

Originally posted by: OsirisWarsmith
I have a Dell Inspirion 9100 laptop and a home cinema receiver from Yamaha. Do anyone know if this PCMCIA card will deliver digital 5.1 sound to my system? I have got a couple of SPDIF cables, but they have the standard connectors. Can I still use this?

Thanks
O
Click to expand...

 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
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Just Windows 2000 and XP, unfortunately.

You'll need something like the Maudio Sonica Theatre (an external USB device) if you want something kinda sorta similar (well, it does spdif out anyway).

Originally posted by: ProCoolingKevin
Does this card support Powerbooks or iBooks?
-Kevin
Click to expand...

 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
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What is a 600x? Mine is a a Compaq NC6000. I'd imagine as long as the PCMCIA slots aren't like right on top of the CPU (maybe too much heat then), that it would be ok.
 
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bastula

Golden Member
Aug 31, 2000
1,165
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76
If you just want SPDIF out or optical out, you could just buy a USB to toslink/SPDIF adapter and use that to output to your reciever. I got one that goes to toslink that came with my MiniDisc years ago and that works great even on my PowerBook to send optical audio. I am sure you could get one for 30 bucks - probably even cheaper off eBay.
 
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imported_Krypto

Senior member
Aug 31, 2004
781
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From looking at the pics of the card, it has to ports and a usb looking thing on the front, how are you suppose to hook a 7.1 speaker setup to that?
 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
0
0
It is only going to work if there is something to encode it into a raw AC3 stream. There are a number of cards such as this, but I like not having something sitting outside of my computer. The only real options for something like what you say now are Maudio's Sonica Theatre, etc. Plus I get ASIO2 support and a lot of other things w/this card.

Originally posted by: bastula
If you just want SPDIF out or optical out, you could just buy a USB to toslink/SPDIF adapter and use that to output to your reciever. I got one that goes to toslink that came with my MiniDisc years ago and that works great even on my PowerBook to send optical audio. I am sure you could get one for 30 bucks - probably even cheaper off eBay.
Click to expand...

 
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Hikari

Senior member
Jan 8, 2002
530
0
0
The headphone port doubles as an optical out (toslink)... I just use that to plug into my external receiver to do up to 7.1

The middle plug has an adapter that has outputs to analog that can do 5.1 and 7.1 too I think.
Originally posted by: Krypto
From looking at the pics of the card, it has to ports and a usb looking thing on the front, how are you suppose to hook a 7.1 speaker setup to that?
Click to expand...

 
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bastula

Golden Member
Aug 31, 2000
1,165
0
76
Originally posted by: Hikari
It is only going to work if there is something to encode it into a raw AC3 stream. There are a number of cards such as this, but I like not having something sitting outside of my computer. The only real options for something like what you say now are Maudio's Sonica Theatre, etc. Plus I get ASIO2 support and a lot of other things w/this card.

Originally posted by: bastula
If you just want SPDIF out or optical out, you could just buy a USB to toslink/SPDIF adapter and use that to output to your reciever. I got one that goes to toslink that came with my MiniDisc years ago and that works great even on my PowerBook to send optical audio. I am sure you could get one for 30 bucks - probably even cheaper off eBay.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


You are right, you can only get AC3 if your source is AC3. In my mind I was just thinking of outputting from a DVD player, which most of them usually output to a SPDIF/optical connection. Even Mplayer Classic does it now and I have had good success with it. If your source has to be upmixed, then yes you need something like an Audigy or a Soundstorm.
 
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