Creative today announced the first ever PCMCIA Sound Blaster®, the PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy® 2 ZS Notebook. The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook simply plugs into any notebook computer’s PCMCIA slot and provides an amazing audio experience. It enables users to listen to PC games on a notebook in 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound and play back their MP3 music on their notebook with a dramatic improvement in audio quality. By plugging the PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS notebook into their notebook PC, users can now have the same quality audio experience that was previously only available on a desktop PC with a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI card. The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook will be unveiled for the first time at the World Cyber Games 2004, Oct. 7-10 in San Francisco, with interactive, hands-on demonstrations for attendees.
“The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS notebook is an essential audio upgrade for every notebook PC user that listens to MP3 music on their notebook, plays games or watches movies. It provides a superior audio quality experience to the poor quality audio that comes standard with every notebook PC. It makes for a fantastic listening experience whether the notebook user is using headphones or external speakers; the improvement in the sound quality is awesome,” said Mala Sharma, director of product marketing for Creative Labs, Inc.
Pro-Gaming Performance of a PCI card in a PCMCIA solution
The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook is the first PCMCIA card to enable hardware-accelerated EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD and 3D positional audio for games. Support for EAX provides a level of dramatic realism, in addition to audio quality and clarity in over 400 games that has never been experienced before on a notebook. Gamers can also experience virtual surround sound over stereo headphones with patented Creative Multi-Speaker Surround™ (CMSS) 3D support. At home, the Speaker Docking Cable allows for quick and easy connection to a home multi-channel speaker system such as the Creative GigaWorks S750.
Play Back MP3s in 24-bit ADVANCED HD Quality
The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook supports highest quality playback of 24-bit/192kHz content (including Advanced Resolution DVD-Audio). Notebook PC users no longer need to tolerate the noise floor created by inferior integrated audio. The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook dramatically improves MP3 music by delivering outstanding audio clarity of 104dB SNR. The product includes EAX music tools, such as Audio Clean Up™ to easily correct scratches and pops in poorly recorded music, Smart Volume Management™ that automatically normalizes the volume level across multiple songs, a graphic equalizer, bass boost and more. The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook comes bundled with Creative’s new Smart Recorder software for easy and automated recording of audio sources (Internet radio, vinyl records, cassette, MiniDisc) directly to MP3 format. This software incorporates a track-splitting feature that detects silences between tracks and automatically splits the recording into separate songs. Creative’s MediaSource™ software is included as well, making it easy to organize, rip and enhance a digital music collection.
Home Theater Quality Movie Playback
The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook makes DVD movies watched on a notebook sound as good as in a movie theater. Users can enjoy THX-certified, 24-bit, ADVANCED HD audio quality during DVD viewing, with support for both DTS-ES and Dolby® Digital EX decoding. Amazing CMSS 3D technology provides captivating virtual surround sound for DVD movies for a full cinematic audio experience over headphones or a true home theater experience over a multi-channel speaker system.
Studio-Quality Recording
The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook transforms a notebook PC into a home recording studio. High-quality inputs enable up to 24-bit/96kHz recording. Low latency ASIO 2.0 drivers are included for optimal performance with music creation applications.
Pricing and Availability
The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook will be available at www.us.creative.com and at major computer retailers this month for an estimated street price of US$129.99. Pre-orders are available at www.buy.com beginning October 11. For more information about the PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook, visit www.soundblaster.com.
