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Creative Audigy 2 Notebook
How cool is this little
card?!!! One of the primary complaints about the sound on laptops was
quite frankly, it sucks! Not any more with this baby that slots nice and
neatly into your PCMCIA slot on your notebook.
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Rated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): |
104dB |
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Supported output resolutions: |
Up to 96KHz/24-bit 7.1 and 192KHz/24-bit stereo. |
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Playback: |
24-bit digital-to-analog conversion of digital sources at
96KHz to analog 7.1 speaker output, 192KHz for Stereo DVD-A. |
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Recording: |
Via stereo analog inputs at 96KHz/24-bit. |
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S/PDIF Support: |
Resolutions up to 96KHz/24-bit quality at selectable
sampling rate of 44.1, 48, or 96 kHz (SPDIF output is not
available during playback of protected digital audio
contents authored with Microsoft DRM (Digital Rights
Management) technology.) |
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Outputs: |
Wiring harness with three 1/8-inch connectors for 7.1
output, and combo headphone/S/PDIF output jack. |
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Input: |
Combo line/microphone input. |
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Supported audio APIs/drivers |
DirectSound, DirectSound3D, WDM (Wave), ASIO 2.0, and
SoundFont. |
One
of the first things that should be noted is the ease of use for this
little puppy, just bang it into your laptop, chuck in the CD and away
you go. The difference in audio quality just has to be heard to be
believed. Whether it is recording or output the Audigy 2 simply will not
let you down.
The
output on this card and assorted cabling will support full 5.1 or 7.1
surround sound for those who must have nothing but the best in audio
when playing their movies on the go. Despite the fact that you’d also
have to lug around the right speaker setup to fully enjoy it all. For
those of you mere mortals who have only headphones when on the go, the
card also supports a fantastic virtual surround sound feature that will
have you ducking for cover with every explosion.
One
of the things I liked, as a person who does a lot of audio recording was
the Audio Clean Up that is perfect for cleaning up problems when you
convert to mp3 format. There is a whole suite of goodness just waiting
for you to play with to get the best out of your experience with the
hardware. There is also an mp3 ripper bundled on this jam packed disc.
The
card is bundled with headphones (earbuds), docking cables, and software.
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PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook Audio Card
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Speaker Docking Cable
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Clear Carrying Case
Creative Earphones
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Quick Start leaflet
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Creative DVD-Audio Sampler Disc
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Sounds Best on Sound Blaster CD
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Installation and Applications CD containing:
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Drivers for Windows® XP & 2000
- Creative Software Suite
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User's Guide
REQUIREMENTS
Minimum System Requirements
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Intel® Pentium® III, Mobile Pentium® III, Pentium M, Celeron - 1.2
GHz, or equivalent AMD® processor, or faster
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Intel, AMD or 100% compatible motherboard chipset
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Microsoft® Windows® XP (SP2) or 2000 (SP4)
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256MB RAM
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600MB of free hard disk space
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Available Type II CardBus slot (PCMCIA slot)
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CD-ROM/CD-RW or DVD-ROM drive required for software installation
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Headphones or external speakers (Audio will not play through
built-in notebook speakers)
Recommended System for DVD Movies, DVD-Audio and Games
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512MB RAM
- DVD
player software for DVD Movie playback
- 6x
DVD-ROM drive or later for DVD Movie and DVD-Audio™ playback
- 3D
Graphics Accelerator with 32MB or better for 3D gaming
Note: Other applications may have higher system requirements or may
require a microphone
Whilst that info was ripped right from the Creative site for you tech
geeks out there, I can say unashamedly that this card has the goods and
at a great price point as well. There are other beefier rigs out there
that are a pain to set up and will set you back a pretty penny but this
setup has all the goods and then some.
Kindly enough the good folks at Creative have said that I can give this
bad boy away after reviewing it so head to the competition area unless
it’s waayyy too late for that. |
