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Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS: Opinions?

J

jgbishop

Senior member
I'm looking at upgrading my sound card (it's now the oldest component I have), and I was looking at the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. But, from the reviews I see at Amazon, it doesn't look like a very reliable card (Audigy 2 ZS at Amazon.com).

What do people here think about them? Are there any stories of terror like the one guy at Amazon?
 
I have it, have had no problems except when my comp goes to standby mode, and i resume, i get a crackling noise with any type of noise/music/sound... I think its my speakers, but who knows... Overall I highly recommend this sound card.
 
what is your primary use for the card, gaming or music? i am a quasi-audiophile at heart so it is very unlikely for me to buy any creative offering at the moment; their cards are fair to poor when it comes to music. you can do much better for same $$$. if its for gaming, go for it (only if you are a heavy EAX gamer tho, which i am not)
 
I have had one since last November or so and have not had any trouble with it. Has worked fine. Sounds nice too.
 
I'm mostly going to use it for gaming, but I do listen to my MP3's fairly often. I am not an audiophile by any means, so as long as I can hear my music I'm happy. 😀
 
I have not had any major problems with this card. The small problems I had I think are WindowsXP fault.
 
notice i havnt said anything about having problems. just cuz civic is trouble free it doesnt mean you could recommend it over bmw if they are priced similarly (in this case, av-710 or emu-0404 vs audigy). with that said, i concur audigy would suit your needs better. you dont really need exceptional acoustic properties for games, but lower cpu utilization and better EAX implemntation would be quite handy.
 
Online reviews should be taken with a grain of salt unless there is a huge number of negative ones clearly not written by the same guy. I have had mine for a while and actually notice a lot less problems than the live OEM I had before.
 
It's THE gaming card to get. Everything else on the market (except the Soundstorm audio on Nforce boards) uses way too much CPU to be a good choice for gaming. If you plan on doing NO gaming, you can do better as far as pure, unadulterated sound quality goes (ex.- soundcards based off Via's EnvyHT chipset). The Audigy2 cards still sound great, if maybe a little too alive and artificial. If you're using onboard sound or any of a number of older cards, you'll find the difference in sound quality to be very apparent.
 
while i agree audigy is THE card for gaming,
a little too alive and artificial
Click to expand...
thats something i couldnt agree with
you should try some EMU cards if you havnt already. then you will come to realize how unclean, harsh, lifeless audigys sound in comparison.
 
This topic kinda suprised me. I assumed that the top SB card would be best for everything. Im looking into putting a new comp togather and was planning on a SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro. I plan on using this comp for a ton of music related stuff, but not really gaming. Running a guitar into it (through a POD or mic'd) for recording, and listening to music are the top priorities for me. What kind of sound card would you suggest? I liked the fact that the Platinum Pro has that external hub, and the remote seemed kinda neat. But this thread seems to make me think something else would work better for me.
 
Originally posted by: VanillaH
while i agree audigy is THE card for gaming,
a little too alive and artificial
Click to expand...
thats something i could agree with
you should try some EMU cards if you havnt already. then you will come to realize how unclean, harsh, lifeless audigys sound in comparison.
Click to expand...

 
Your speakers are 2.1, you already have SB Live, I wouldn't get Audigy 2 ZS. I think you need 5.1 speakers for EAX gaming, otherwise you wouldn't hear the difference. I have both SB Live! and SB Audigy 2 ZS. I like the sound of SB Live! better than SB Audigy 2 ZS. I only got the Audigy because I needed the 5.1. I would the spend the money on an additional 512MB stick or something else.
 
You still get better gaming sound effects e.g. echoes with a 2.1 setup under EAX 3/4 (permitted the game has EAX 3/4 support) with a Audigy 2 ZS over the Live and CPU utilization is also lower among other benefits.
 
Well...

Jgbishop's main preference is gaming and secondary, MP3 listening. That being said, the Audigy line would probably suit his/her needs better than that of what M-Audio currently offers.


OT: I OTOH prefer music/sound quality over gaming (see sig).
 
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