Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card - 70SB035000003
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Sound Card

This card is amazing, much better than the other audigy 2 platinum ex that i had; but has serious issues with the drivers. After installing the card you must use the drives included in the box (prehistoric), then you need to update them using the creative site, otherwise any attempt to install th new driver only will result in conflicts and automatic reboot of the computer. Hope that creative will decide to take more care of the drivers for teh audigy series, since they are maybe the worst drivers ever made for pc (works great on Linux thou).
 
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You simply can't beat this deal ANYWHERE else, got it for Christmas and had it installed within 2 hours, both hardware and software. While a little trickier than your average sound card, it is well worth the time and effort. A perfect addition to my newly built pc and my Logitech THX 7.1 surround sound speaker system. Mine even came with a couple of pretty cool games and mixing software.
 
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I work on computers as a side job. For years I have wanted the Audigy for the front side ports, but thought my Sound Blaster 5.1 was good enough. I use Musicmatch for mp3’s; the Audigy made a world of difference, I can hear sounds that I never heard before. For gaming; I recently started playing SWAT 4. With the Audigy I can hear the enemy’s footsteps as well as my own a lot better. The front ports are great, no more hassle with unplugging your speakers in order to plug your headset in. Just plug your headset and mic in the front and they override your speakers.
 
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It changed my way and perception of musical experience through computer. I have several earphones mid to high ends, but it is only after I bought this product from buy.com, did I reliaze how much potential those earphones really have, all of them. With buy.com price and lightening fast delivery, it is an unbeatable deal. Tried with my old 2.1 Creative I-trigure 3300, it made an instant difference. Imagine with a true 5.1 or 7.1 speaker system, WOW. Thanks for a great product.
 
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I have used these in several computers that I have built. This is a great full featured sound card system for your computer if you want to upgrade from the on-board sound systems on most mother boards. Well worth the investment. I use this in my Home Theater computer and works great.
 
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I recently ordered the Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum from Buy.com and wow, what a deal. Not only was the price great, the shipping & handling was perfect. I received my item within 3 business days as promised. The packing material was a bit excessive, but it ensure a damage-free shipment. I am happy to say the product I ordered is in excellent working condition. I would definitely recommend purchasing from Buy.com to anyone thinking about it. Good job Buy.com! You guys/gals give Newegg.com a run for their money ;) Competition is good, so keep up the great work!
 
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It works well. Many surround sound options. Good sound with no noise. Lots of inputs and outputs, and a front header for easy control. It adds to the looks of my system too.
 
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Its been a good 2 weeks since I've swapped out my old SB Live! 5.1 card and I just have to say that its a day/night comparison. Its great for games and the price was amazing as well. I suggest to get some high quality speakers if you are going to get this card. The added bonus is the Firewire ability this card adds.
 
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I'm an experienced professional computer tech and an amateur recording tech. Both the card and the bay were easy to install, if you can handle a screwdriver and follow a diagram you've got a great head start. I'm extremely impressed with the capabilities it has given me. I can now listen to DVD quality audio and hear it all through my Grado SR60s. If you play bass or guitar, this is an amazing home recording interface. You could easily record vocals as well, though I wouldn't use anything but the 1/4" input for that, which means you couldn't do them simultaneously with guitar. Even still, for a product that is mainly designed for playback, the recording capabilities it gives you are amazing. With any decent DAW you can select from a ton of inputs, with the right cables you could record a miced drum kit. For the price, this item is downright amazing. Couldn't be happier.
 
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This particular product was bought because i needed something that would help with my extrenal musical stuff. Despite the very difficult process of instalation (which it is!!) i think that the work will pay off. The software is pretty easy to use and the sound quality is infinitely better than the integrated Intel sound. Furthermore, buy.com was very quick about getting it to me, which was a great bonus.
 
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I opted to save a little cash and use the free standard shipping. I ordered this product on Friday afternoon and it was here on Monday morning! Apparently Buy.com uses time machines or rockets for delivery.
 
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Great buy. Great Price. Delivered quickly. A lot easier to install than I thought it would be. Sounds great. Remote is not too usefull really. Overall I am very pleased with this product and the service I recieve from Buy.com
 
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I bought this because the surround sound on my computer was messed up. Wouldn't of bought it if it weren't for the $100 rebate. But it installed easily, there's more to it then a regular sound card, but everything only fits in one spot. Directions are clear enough. booted up and everything worked great. The remote control is a nice feature, especially since u can set it up to work with windows media player, power dvd, etc... There are some features i would like creative to add to their software, but over all I am very happy with this card. I run winxp pro and there were no driver issues.
 
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If you choose custom installation on the setup disk, you can choose as little or many features as you want. I only installed the drivers to keep it simple. I only mention that because I see a lot of people complain that it installs too much bloatware. Buy.com got it to me super fast and safe! Good Stuff!
 
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Couldn't pass on this rebate deal. I've wanted this card for a while. It was easy to install. Just make sure to restart the PC everytime it asks. I've had some issues with popping noise (when HD LED lights up), but I moved to a different PCI slot, uninstalled and cleaned the Creative drivers, updated my ASUS A7n8x-e Deluxe BIOS, reinstalled driver CD and downloaded/installed new drivers. I hear pops sometimes when using the CMSS 3D, but it could just be the low-quality compressed audio. Doesn't do Dolby Digital 5.1 Live encoding, so if you use digital output to a receiver, you will only get 2 channel stereo except when playing DVDs with a SPDIF pass-thru. Remote works, but has a slight lag. Remote only works with the Creative Mediasource player. It's supposed to work with other programs, but I've had no luck except Winamp, which I found a creative remote plug-in for. I did a quick multitrack recording test, and it works ASIO with a 4ms latency (it can do 2ms, but I had problems...probably a bottleneck elsewhere in the PC) The THX settings are great, but it doesn't always keep my speaker distance/angle/dB settings. Has great selections on IOs, but beware of the surround analog outs. It requires a very special cable that has 3 and 4 pole 1/8" jacks. You can buy a cable from Creative that allows you to hook up speaker-by-speaker connections to a per channel input on your stereo. I couldn't really use my Yamaha digital system in surround with this card (except for DVDs) so I found a Creative Inspire P7800 7.1 system for less than 100 bucks. (the P7800 comes with the necessary 3-4 1/8" cable). I still love the card, though. Email me if you have questions. puppycheese[at]gmail[dot]com.
 
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Absolutely great deal. I love the I/O front panel, it makes it easy to hook up mic, headphone without messing with back panel of PC. The only problem is the software, they installed a lot of s/w running in memory. It's taking resource.
 
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Product works as advertised. The only problem is when using the mic on the front panel (Line 2 / Mic 2 input on windows' audio recording control)...Everytime I start an application that uses audio, the mic settings default back to mic 1. Then, I have to manually select mic2 as the mic source. This is annoying, but it does not make the product unusable.
 
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I can't beleive what I did before getting this card. Everything works geat and was delivered to my house in 2 days...Very fast... Card works like it should...Again another Great deal from Buy.com With the rebate I got, I got a Great card at a fantastic price.
 
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I read a lot of bad reviews about this card, particularly on Win XP. It took me: 5 minutes to uninstall the integrated sound card (SoundMax), reboot the machine, disable it in the BIOS, 20-30 minutes to install the software from the CD, turn off the machine, another 20 minutes to install the new card, reboot the machine again and it was ready to go. Converted several of my audio tapes to WMA, came out crystal clear. * No Problems Whatsoever * I've Win XP Pro,Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz,Asus P4P800 Deluxe MB,512 DDR RAM.
 
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When it comes to sound cards, creative is the best. I always browsed this product but due to very high price never ever thought to buy it. But thanx to buy.com and creative rebate, i managed to buy it. Great sound card with lot of options. If u have at least 5.1 speakers or more then u can enjoy several features of it. I am happy with this purchase.
 
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I just installed this SC and it is amazing ! There are no problems with the drivers. If you choose to install drivers only, there are no s*** programs to deal with. Great sound great everything! The only bad thing is that the Platinum drive headphone output sounds worse than the line out on the back of the card. Not only a little bit , but quite considerably worse. So , the drive is actually useless for me, except for the fact that it looks awesome!
 
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The card is a great card. It utilizes the same board as the Audigy 2 ZS and the Gamer Edition. The remote control is very handy and the inputs on the front are wonderful. Can't go wrong with this card. I have the card paired with my new Logitech Z5500 Digitals and some slightly older Altec Lansing 5.1 System. Both sound very clean and crisp.
 
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I already own one of these jewels but at this price I had to get another for my other PC. Plus this one has the External front I/O Panel. Fantastic!!
 
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I bought this sound card for my old PC 3 years ago and another for my current box. It's still one of the best sound cards on the market despite the presence of the X-Fi series. The Audigy 2 ZS Platinum even ships with FireWire ports on the card's bracket and internal breakout box: how's that for value? My audio subsystem consists of this sound board and Klipsch's excellent ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speaker set. Updating the drivers can be tricky; just make sure you use Creative Auto Update option (it does work). Creative is also planning to support this card under Windows Vista so your investment will be protected in the future.
 
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I bought this sound card as it was being offered at a great price. The card is wonderful, it really brings all audio through your PC to life.
 
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I'd have to say this is the best sound card I've ever owned. However if you have never had a card that ships with so much software you might get overwhelmed as far as what is used for what. I have mine paired up with Logitech Z5500 speakers which are digital but setting the soundcard up and getting the proper cables to take full advantage can be confusing for beginers.
 
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