Creative Labs Audigy II ZS Announced!! (7.1 AUDIO)

OC-Master · Aug 20, 2003

Here it is, 7.1 Channel DTS-ES EAX 4.0 Sound Card from creative labs. FEAST YOUR EYES!!!

http://japan.creative.com/products/technology/audigy2zs/images/a2_fam01.jpg

http://japan.creative.com/products/technology/audigy2zs/welcome.asp

The difference between the ZS series and the original is:

7.1 Audio Channels
Dolby Digital EX decoding
DTS ES decoding
Remapped Sound engine (EAX 4.0)

The DSP it self is revision 1.1 of the Audigy2 and from what I've been told has been speeded up from the 200MHz orginal frequency to 250MHz while remaining passive cooling.

Audigy2's DSP had 4000MIPs for performance while the Audigy2 ZS has 5000MIPs for performance. NOT TOO SHABBY

OC-Master

grunjee · Aug 20, 2003

Nice... wonder when it'll come to North America? Too lazy right now to follow the links.

madcow235 · Aug 20, 2003

Now when dvds come with 7.1 sound tracks i will be impressed but until then its rather unimpressive

TheGr8s1 · Aug 20, 2003

I want this puppy. How much and where can I get this thing?

emericanchaos · Aug 23, 2003

LOL. love watching creative squirm when they lose their monopoly on the market to m-audio and soundstorm.

"we need 7.1 surround THAT's why we're losing ground!". good call guys. it's not because your products have squelching issues, drivers are terrible and your products hog CPU power all day. nooo not that.

"we need to increase the DSP frequency from 200 to 250. everyone we sell to knows how much that will improve our cards performance. lets sell them the idea that they need more power."

sound cards don't need more speed they need more quality. they need higher bit strength's. i don't care if your DSP runs at 900Mhz if it's 16 bit it will sound like poo. quality is the key. more marketing BS from none other then creative.

Namagomi · Aug 27, 2003

All those with 7.1 speaker systems, please raise your hands.

Yodums · Aug 27, 2003

Re: Re: Creative Labs Audigy II ZS Announced!! (7.1 AUDIO)

Namagomi said:
All those with 7.1 speaker systems, please raise your hands.

Exactly. What kind of difference will we see if we can't even utilize the 7.1 system? It will be no different from the Audigy 2.

HotKoala · Aug 31, 2003

Re: Re: Creative Labs Audigy II ZS Announced!! (7.1 AUDIO)

Namagomi said:
All those with 7.1 speaker systems, please raise your hands.

Spend a couple grand per speaker, amp, and equaliser then buy a $200 soundcard? Heh.

SpaceyWilly · Sep 1, 2003

Re: Re: Re: Creative Labs Audigy II ZS Announced!! (7.1 AUDIO)

HotKoala said:
Spend a couple grand per speaker, amp, and equaliser then buy a $200 soundcard? Heh.

Yeah and then use all that for what? Listening to the same sounds you get with 6.1 only with 1 speaker doubling another? Yeah thats worth it... I guess this is useful for people who already have a 7.1 Home Theatre set-up and are looking for a way to hook up their comp. Or people who just want to spend a ton of money for the ability to say "I HAVE AN AUDIGY 2 ZS W00000T!!!"

Subaru · Sep 2, 2003

I have to say wow, but just have to ask myself, "do I have a 7.1 setup? Nope"
I would still stick with the platinum 2 for now and maybe a year later.

seamadan000 · Sep 3, 2003

even more problematic than the fact that virtually no one has a 7.1 system is the fact that there are no surround formats that support 7 discreet channels. So essentially you take a step back to pro-logic days, as the hardware/software must take educated guesses as to what sound should come out of at least one and more likely two speakers. In reality 5.1 is all you need, as Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 are the only two widely used discreet channel surround sound options, and the number of discreet channels that are getting dedicated sound information is realyy what increase sound quality and immersion.

TidyBowl · Sep 8, 2003

Yeah i would have to agree 5.1 is probably all anyone really needs for the time being. 6.1 sounds really nice and adding the center back channel has some nice ambience but sitting 18 inches from the monitor sort of kills your sound field anyway. and lets face it how many games support DTS ES 6.1, dolby digital EX, THX II, NEO 6, or Logic7 for that matter.

Creative would be off applying its energies to better drivers and improved hardware that takes the burden off the CPU. Creative seems to be relying on software more and more to get these cards working. (There's a rason why we hate soft modems too.)

anyway my 2 cents

T

emericanchaos · Sep 8, 2003

i just love how they're revising brand new products because of the lost ground.

mtnbikerjerry · Sep 13, 2003

I will stick with my audgiy 1 untill it is truely necessary to upgrade. It is insane to have to go through this cycle with sound cards now. It is bad enough with CPU's and Graphics cards? Who wants our hard earned cash for minimal performance upgrades.

When is it enough? How would I utilize my existing Klipsh Pro Media 5.1 setup with a 7.1 card? Would I want to? NO.

Most people are quiet happy with a 5.1 setup unless you must have top end and use it with your existing living room sound system. "Home Audio Enthusiast"

PCphreak · Sep 22, 2003

7.1 ....yawn.....

I have an Audigy. The only reason why I chose it over an m•audio card is because of EAX support.

Will I ever buy Creative again? No.

What little gaming I do, with what little EAX enabled game titles I own- just WASN'T WORTH THE AUDIGY/VIA NIGHTMARE I ENDURED WITH WINDOWS XP. The problem didn't stop with only the drivers...noooo.....it was even terrible software like PlayCenter. It took Creative months after release before this all was fixed.

Now that everything appears fixed, it does pretty nice.

But my next endevour will probably use an m•audio card, because my plans are to use the system with home theatre.

-PC

idioteQnology · Sep 23, 2003

i love my maudio revolution

it sounds so clean

dropadrop · Sep 23, 2003

Creative would have to perform miracles to get me to buy another one of their cards. Their custermer service is crap, and I had to get third party drivers and patches to get it to work the way I wanted. Despite the fact that creative promised to give the features I needed, they finally decided to brand it as a new product and sell it with a diferant name.

******** if you ask me...

emericanchaos · Sep 23, 2003

dropadrop said:
Creative would have to perform miracles to get me to buy another one of their cards. Their custermer service is crap, and I had to get third party drivers and patches to get it to work the way I wanted. Despite the fact that creative promised to give the features I needed, they finally decided to brand it as a new product and sell it with a diferant name.

******** if you ask me...

which is exactly what i mean by acting like a monopoly.

Penguin4x4 · Sep 23, 2003

Re: Re: Creative Labs Audigy II ZS Announced!! (7.1 AUDIO)

Namagomi said:
All those with 7.1 speaker systems, please raise your hands.

Creative is also releasing a new 7.1 speaker set,

Creative Labs Audigy II ZS Announced!! (7.1 AUDIO)

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