Creative Labs PCMCIA Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS Notebook

Rating:
Summary: ROCK ON YOU CRAZY NOTEBOOK!
Review: I just installed this last night, and the installation was super easy, and the sound quality is incredible for a notebook with Rhapsody and DVD (Bourne Supremacy was the maiden voyage). No more tin can sounding built in speakers. You can also record with it for people who are looking to do that, a big plus. I have it hooked up with Logitech z-5500 speakers, and the sound rivals my home stereo set up, which is no slouch either. Will be checking out the DVD-Audio and game sounds next! Run, don't walk to buy this if you have a notebook. I can't believe it took them this long to do this, but since it works for up to 7.1 sound, it should last a while.

Rating:
Summary: Some clicking noise - otherwise ok
Review: I was looking forward to this card for a long time - the only thing left on my list is a PCMCIA video card. The installation was easy but took very long - about 20 min - I installed only 2 components and drivers.

When the card started, everytime I changed the soundtrack it made a "clicking" noise on the left earphone. While trying various ways to shut it off - I found that it went away when I set the CMSS setting to "CMSS2". On "CMSS" it was worse - the 'clicking' sound came on both ears everytime I changed track. When set to "Off" the sound came on left ear.

Another issue for some might be - the laptop's volume buttons stopped working.

One more problem - and this is might not be due to the card - I got a blue screen for the first time in 9 months of heavy use. If it happens again in the next week or so the card is going back. I have an IBM T40 with 1 GB/40GB and use Windows XP Pro.

However, I am looking forward to keep this card - it does sound better than my system's soundcard.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was really excited about this card until I finally tried it out. I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 notebook and when I run the card in high-perfomance mode, I always get a pop\click in the right channel everytime I play a sound file. Does anyone have the same problem? I'm on my second card now and it still has the same problem, even when I use it on a different laptop like an IBM Thinkpad T30.

In the end, try the card out. It works fine for me in standard mode, especially because it does sound better than my on-board sound chip. However, its really annoying that I can't use it to its full potential in high performance mode.

Rating:
Summary: audigy 2 tour continues
Review: seems everywhere you turn, great things are said about audigy 2 sound cards. it doesn't get this much hype without some substance, it's a high quality sound card.

some words of wisdom:
1. if your notebook is high end, check its sound card, it could already be pretty good, in which case, after the switch you won't notice too much difference.
2. use external speakers to connect to the audigy for the best sound, and those external speakers better be big and powerful, quarter size speakers won't show off the audigy.
3. don't use notebook built-in speakers, teh audigy has no control over how those sound.
4. make sure your OS is using the audigy drivers.

I recommend this if you use your notebook for gaming and dvd movies. at home, you need good speakers to hear the full effect, on the road you need a good headset. go to whosave.com to see deals and maybe other alternatives.