Creative have done it again, yet another good soundcard.
Having just replaced my audigy 2 with the audigy 2 zs i was amazed there was differences.
First big difference is the speaker support with the new zs. You really have to get this card just to hear 7.1 surround sound with THX, my god that blows you away.
Sound quality on the zs is awesome you can listen to cds or mp3s and pump the volume way up and it sounds amazing. Games also make really good use of this card, Battle for middle earth one of EA'S new games is one of the best to use the card and the 7.1 speakers, Picture this Eomer with a few warriors on horse back charge some uruks, i actually felt the floor vibrate when they charged, with sounds of battle coming from all directions. Ok so thats one game but thats an example of what this card can do.
7.1 is a bit of trial and error to set up and will take some time, this is due to having to position the speakers and change volume for each one.
One really good feature of the zs was the software, the speaker configuration will even satisfy the audio connoisseur since the software lets you specify cable lengths so it can adjust its sound output accordingly. Now before you think my god no i don't want to go to all that trouble good news you won't have to even just setting the volume for rear,front,centre,left and right speakers means the card will sound brilliant.
Other good software included was the Creative media source, this software is brilliant.
What it can do will blow your mind, not only can you tell it to scan your hard drives for music and store that but it can organize by artist as well, also by album so you can build up a very well organized list of audio. Add to all that the added features of being able to scan each song for tempo and volume to allow you to choose mood specific playlists.
The creative media source can also write cds so you can select songs you like and make a music cd with the click of a few buttons.
Installation of the card is really easy, just find a empty pci slot and put it i, no jumpers no hassle. As usual with sound cards there is a cd connector for audio, The audigy 2 zs has connectors for analog or digital cd sound. Also with the card is a optional joystick connector/midi port which you can also put inside your system. This is a very good feature as most cards do not have the joystick connector anymore. Software installs easily as well and it won't take long before you have the card in and the software ready to use.
System requirements for the card are INTEL P2 ,Celeron 350mhz, AMD K6-450mhz or faster
64 meg of ram, Windows 98SE, ME, Windows 2000 service pack 2, XP and 60 meg of hard drive space.
The Audigy 2 zs supports EAX 4.00, it supports 24 bit sounds, 96khz-192khz.
It supports multi channel sounds in 5.1,6.1 and 7.1.
A lot of games, over 400 according to Creative have support for the sound blaster cards, most of the games i have playe recently have EAX in the options which means it will make use of the Creative sound cards like the audigy 2 zs.
Also on the card is a ieee 1394 port (firewire)
Anyone wanting to record sound will not be disappointed, Creative have included the what you hear with a lot of their cards and this one is no exception so any sound you can hear on the pc you can record easily. The card has a line in and microphone input connectors.
I use my system for games a lot and with the audigy 2 zs i am not disappointed, the sound quality from the card is brilliant, the ability to use 7.1 speakers is good and i am very glad i got this card and the speakers to go with it. I would recommend this card for gaming systems as it really does sound good.
