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  Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS review

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Final Thoughts

At this point the obvious question remains, where does the new Audigy 2 ZS stand currently?
If you are an Audigy 2 owner (original), you shouldn’t be worrying about upgrading, that card should still be considered current, not to mention that not much has changed in the ZS, unless 7.1 output and DTS-ES decoding are extremely important to you. That said, if you own an Audigy 1, it certainly would be a worthwhile upgrade if you are looking to improve audio quality in your PC, not only the hardware is more capable but the software is better. As before, resampling remains an issue, as it does with most other soundcards though, while it’s still possible to play 24-Bit/96/192kHz audio without resampling.

Audio quality coming out of the ZS is excellent and marks really high in my book. It basically beats any other soundcard I’ve tested before, perhaps with M-Audio’s Revolution 7.1 being the only exception for music playback quality, while for gaming you won’t find a better alternative than the Audigy 2 ZS.

Other than that, DVD audio decoding features are exceptional and perhaps the lack of a DVD video decoder in the software bundle could be noted for an otherwise exceptional package.

Pros

  • 7.1 positioning through DirectSound 3D

  • Excellent decoding support (DTS-ES & Dolby Digital Surround EX)

  • Improved Software

  • Complete EAX support

  • Low CPU utilization

  • DVD-Audio support

Cons

  • Effects engine & 44.1kHz sources resampled to 48kHz (Still)

  • Some Driver bugs, OpenAL oddness

  • 24-Bit/96kHz playback/recording support ambiguity (Still)

 



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