Asus Xonar D2X
Much hay has been made of the incredible speed advantages PCI Express
offers over PCI. Beyond GPUs, however, we haven?t found much worthy of
occupying those slots. Asus hopes to change that with its Xonar D2X
card?the first soundcard we?ve reviewed that makes use of the PCI
Express interface. The D2X is basically a PCI-E version of the Xonar D2
(reviewed April 2008). In our review of the Xonar D2 we lamented the
card?s lack of advanced EAX support?EAX 3 and above are proprietary to
X-Fi-chipped soundcards, making those cards the obvious choice for
gamers who want the best audio quality. Or maybe not. With the Xonar
D2X, Asus has done an end run to get a level of advanced EAX support in
the card?but it?s not without controversy. The D2X instructs games that
it has EAX 5, and the card?s drivers then shunt the EAX calls into its
own effects engine. The results are far from perfect. Using EAX
compliance tools, we found that the drivers didn?t support many EAX
functions, such as reverb and filtering. Asus even admits to this. But
the hack at least gives the card access to some functions that were
previously locked up, such as support for additional audio streams in
Battlefield 2?one of the handful of EAX games even available. We?re
more troubled by this card?s PCI Express support. Our D2X simply
wouldn?t work on two different EVGA 680i SLI motherboards, and users
have reported issues with nForce 790i boards as well. Asus tells us the
problems are related to a BIOS issue that is being corrected by board
vendors. Nvidia confirmed that it is working on a BIOS update that
should be out by the time you read this. The D2X worked fine on Intel
P35, AMD 790FX, and MSI nForce 750i boards. The Xonar D2X uses the same
audio codecs and offers the same I/O ports and Dolby Digital Live
support as the D2. The D2X, however, requires a floppy connector for
power. In game frame rates, the PCI Xonar D2 was slightly faster than
the D2X. We surmise this is due to superior drivers for the D2 or the
PCI-to-PCI-E bridge chip on the D2X. Either way, the differences are
minimal, and frankly, frame rates should no longer be the primary
factor in soundcard decisions. Far more important is audio quality and
gaming API support. In these areas, the Xonar D2X does well. The audio
quality, rated at 118dB, is quite good, with no transient audio ghosts.
The Auzentech X-Fi Prelude (reviewed April 2008) edges the D2X in our
24-bit/96KHz audio-file listening test, but honestly, both cards sound
great and far exceed onboard audio. So what would we buy? It depends.
The advanced EAX in the Xonar is flawed, but it sorta works. If you
want a full EAX 5 card, you have to go X-Fi. But that limits you to
PCI, as the PCI-E version of the X-Fi lacks advanced EAX support. That
makes the Xonar D2X the most feature-rich PCI-E card today, and that?s
not a bad place to be?even if the EAX is faked.
Asus Xonar D2
Who?d have thunk it? Long considered a dead zone, soundcards are making
a resurgence. Driven by an outcry for audio that doesn?t sound like a
box of snap, crackle, pop every time you access your USB ports,
manufacturers are releasing new soundcards that surpass the free audio
that comes with your motherboard. This month, we test an Auzentech card
that uses a Creative Labs chip and Asus?s new entry into PC audio. Asus
tries to hide the origins of the Xonar D2, but it?s the same CMedia
Oxygen HD 8788 audio processor (or a slightly tailored one) that?s
featured in several other vendors? soundcards; still, the Xonar D2
features the best implementation of this proc. The Xonar also uses very
good Brown Burr DACs to achieve a 118dB signal-to-noise ratio, which is
slightly lower than the Prelude?s 123dB rating. Most people probably
won?t hear the difference, but we still give the Prelude the edge over
the Xonar card. One editor also felt that the Xonar D2 was a bit too
bright with some jazz tracks. Despite this, both listeners gave the
card high marks. We love the card?s color-coded LEDs, which let you
easily identify the green or red plug. It?s definitely easier than
squinting to find tiny colored stickers. We were also impressed by the
Xonar?s high frame rates in our gaming tests, despite its lack of a
DSP. Keep in mind, this card supports only EAX 2, while Creative has
reached EAX 5. Of course, everything above EAX 2 is proprietary, so
Asus couldn?t support EAX 5 without a lot of reverse engineering or a
license. As you?d expect, game-audio rendering is quite good on the
Xonar, but not as good as the Prelude with its full EAX support. While
the Xonar has an edge in home-theater use due to its real-time Dolby
Digital encoding, the Prelude excels at gaming and general PC use.
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1
Who?d have thunk it? Long considered a dead zone, soundcards are making
a resurgence. Driven by an outcry for audio that doesn?t sound like a
box of snap, crackle, pop every time you access your USB ports,
manufacturers are releasing new soundcards that surpass the free audio
that comes with your motherboard. This month, we test an Auzentech card
that uses a Creative Labs chip and Asus?s new entry into PC audio. It
used to be that if you wanted the latest Creative audio chip in your
PC, there was only one way to get it: buy a Sound Blaster soundcard.
That changes with Auzentech?s X-Fi Prelude 7.1 card. The Prelude packs
Creative?s top-end X-Fi DSP along with 64MB of XRAM. Auzentech doesn?t
stop with the vaunted X-Fi; the card also sports higher-spec?d digital
audio converters and includes both SPDIF and optical I/O ports. An
added bonus is the inclusion of a standard AC97 header that allows you
to plug in your case?s front-panel jack. Finally! In a listening test
using 24-bit/96kHz audio samples, two editors compared the Prelude to
Asus?s Xonar D2 and both preferred Auzentech?s card. In gaming, the
X-Fi Prelude represented well. Its scores were in line with a Creative
X-Fi?s, albeit slightly slower. What?s really important, though, is the
Prelude?s full support for all of Creative?s proprietary EAX
technologies.
Creative Xmod
Being audio purists, we typically piss on products that sit in the
midst of an audio stream and manipulate what the artist intended to
create. But when listening to music played through Creative?s X-Fi
soundcards, we?ve increasingly found ourselves turning on the 24-bit
Crystalizer?and liking it! Creative?s 24-bit Crystalizer converts an
incoming audio signal to 24-bit resolution with a sampling rate of
96kHz. This process alone doesn?t improve audio quality?Creative can?t
conjure something out of nothing?but the algorithm employed during this
near-real-time remastering does make the original recording sound
remarkably better: To our ears, instruments and vocals sound more
vibrant, punchier, and more ?live? when the 24-bit Crystalizer is
engaged. But we listen to music on everything from digital music
players to CD players to old-fashioned turntables, and it?s not always
practical to pipe these signals through a PC?s soundcard. So we?re
pleased to report that Creative has transplanted the 24-bit Crystalizer
(along with a few other features) into this stand-alone device, which
it has dubbed the Xmod. So why aren?t we giving the Xmod a Kick Ass
award? If you?re using it with a desktop PC or a laptop, the device
acts as a USB audio device with an external DAC and draws power over a
USB cable. If that PC already has an X-Fi soundcard, the Xmod is
redundant. But our real complaint is that the Xmod requires an AC
adapter when used with anything other than a PC, and Creative expects
you to pay an extra 30 clams for one. We really dig the Xmod, but it
would fry our snarlies to pay 40 percent on top of its base cost to use
it with an iPod or a Zen. We can also do without Creative?s annoying
CMSS-3D Virtual and CMSS-3D Headphone effects. These are designed to
widen the stereo field into surround sound, but when we listened to Al
Green?s ?Let?s Stay Together,? it sounded as though the vocal legend
was being flushed down a toilet. Fortunately, you can easily dial down
or entirely defeat the CMSS-3D algorithms (same goes for the 24-bit
Crystallizer).
Creative Labs X-Fi Xtremegamer Fatal1ty Pro
If you read our original review of the X-Fi way back in November 2005,
you already know about this card. Back then, Creative packaged this
exact same card with a drive bay and remote and charged an impossible
to justify $280 for the X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS soundcard. We ended up
recommending its cheaper sibling, the X-Fi XtremeMusic instead.
Fast-forward a year and a half, ditch the remote and drive bay, and
you?ve got the XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series priced at $130
less than the original. But does the X-Fi age like a fine wine or a
punch-drunk palooka? For Creative, it?s pure vino! Unlike the other two
boards we tested here, the X-Fi continues to use a true DSP with
?10,000 MIPS of power.? We don?t know how true that 10K figure is, but
in our tests, the X-Fi remains the boss, especially when compared to
the CMI8788, which is nothing more than a glorified I/O chip. In FEAR
with graphics options cranked down and audio options cranked up to
emphasize soundcard performance, the X-Fi led by 10 percent across the
board. However, if C-Media ever releases multithreaded audio drivers,
the day of the DSP will likely fade. Of course, a good soundcard isn?t
just about frame rates. In close listening using reference-quality
earphones, two Maximum PC editors favored the X-Fi?s bottom-end push
while listening to a variety of 24-bit audio. We also give the edge in
gaming fidelity to the X-Fi, as the subtle audio cues in games (in
particular, Battlefield 2) stood out with this card. This may be due in
part to the developer-relations money Creative spends to help
developers utilize its technology. Most top games today support
Creative?s OpenAL initiative, which is the only way to get
hardware-accelerated positional audio in Microsoft Vista. Although we
think the X-Fi is the best of the cards tested here for general PC use,
the real-time Dolby Digital encoding of the two other cards and optical
SPDIF make them far better suited for home theater use. We must also
note that the now-defunct XtremeMusic version of this card can still be
found and is a better value. But for gamers, the X-Fi is the best
choice.
Razer Barracuda AC-1
As we said with the Auzentech, we?re impressed when companies go above
and beyond reference designs for products. Razer?s Barracuda AC-1 is
such a product. Though it uses the same C-Media Oxygen HD chip as the
X-Meridian, you wouldn?t think the two cards were related. The AC-1
gives you a proprietary DVI-like connector that you can directly
connect to the Razer?s HP-1 headset (or your standard speakers using
the included dongle). And like the X-Meridian, the AC-1 features dual
optical ports, but this card is definitely intended for gaming. And
that?s where it gets interesting. The CMI8788 isn?t a DSP, like the
X-Fi, it?s more of a super I/O chip that passes data from the PCI bus
to the various components on the AC-1 at a very efficient clip. Most of
the filtering for 3D effects, including Dolby and other
processor-intensive chores, is done on the computer?s CPU. In FEAR, for
example, the X-Fi?s DSP gives it about a 10 percent frame-rate
advantage over the other cards in analog mode. (Dolby Digital encoding
adds even more overhead to the Razer card, but the X-Fi is incapable of
real-time DD5.1 encoding.) We?ve been wondering if our stance against
host-based audio was outdated in the age of multicore CPUs, but a 10
percent hit is still painful?it?s like dropping the CPU down a rung or
two. Of course, the DSP doesn?t always work against the AC-1. In
3DMark03, which uses simpler audio routines, the AC-1 performs the same
as or better than the X-Fi. Performance could also improve if the
drivers for the AC-1 were multithreaded. In gaming fidelity, the AC-1
fared well in our tests, with one exception. In Battlefield 2, we
noticed dropouts in audio. The same happened with the X-Meridian, so we
suspect it?s a problem with the chipset or its drivers that is induced
by the tremendous amount of audio BF2 throws at you. Where does that
leave the AC-1? At $200, it?s pretty expensive. In fact, the AC-1 costs
more than the X-Fi with its fancy schmancy (and so far useless) onboard
X-RAM. It doesn?t help that the AC-1 lacks OpenAL support and sounds
inferior to the Creative card in many of the games we tested.
Auzentech Auzen X-Meridian 7.1
Soundcards, like videocards, tend to have cookie-cutter designs;
products that use the same chipsets look virtually the same. That
wasn?t the approach Auzentech took when it put down the traces for its
Auzen X-Meridian 7.1 card. Auzentech says it carefully crafted a custom
PCB and added components to get the best possible audio from the card,
which is based on C-Media?s top-shelf CMI8788 Oxygen HD ?audio
processor.? We believe it, too. The board?s traces, layout, and
components are vastly different than those of the Razer AC-1 soundcard,
which also uses the CMI 8788 Oxygen HD chip. Optical SPDIF lovers will
appreciate separate input and output ports, and we particularly dig the
industry-standard front-panel header. Unlike Creative?s cards, which
force you to build a custom harness for front audio jacks, the
Auzentech card allows you to just plug your case?s audio connector into
the card and voilଠyour front headphone jacks work. But the unique
feature of the card is its upgradeable operational amplifiers. Op-amps
can have great sway over the flavor and timbre of the analog sound that
pumps out of your card. This board comes with a stock set of AUK S4580P
op-amps, which can be popped out and replaced with different ones.
Sound good? Mostly. While we appreciate many of the loving touches
taken with the card, we did hear slight distortion during our close
listening tests using 24-bit material and Etymotic Research ER-4
earbuds. The transience occurred only when listening at very high
levels, and for the most part, our subjective taste tests found the
X-Meridian to be the equal of the Razer AC-1, which claims a 117dB
signal-to-noise ratio. That?s a bit better than the 115dB SNR of the
X-Meridian card. SNR isn?t everything, though. We actually found
Creative?s X-Fi card to have more low-end response. The X-Meridian?s
biggest weakness, however, is in gaming. Using the latest drivers from
Auzentech, the card consistently performed more slowly than the other
two cards we reviewed. While the frame-rate hit isn?t fatal, we would
look to the other products for gaming needs. The X-Meridian 7.1 is
probably best left to home media center work. With its real-time Dolby
Digital encoding capability, dual optical ports, and upgradeable
op-amps, the card?s real forte is home theater.
Philips amBX Gaming Peripherals
We?ll try anything that immerses us more deeply in a game. We dig
hardware that breaks down the barriers between a fantasy universe and
our everyday real world. But we had to suppress a giggle when Philips
first demonstrated its amBX system of colored lights, whirring fans,
and vibrating wrist pads. Maybe it?s a cultural thing. European men of
all ages run around the beaches at Cannes wearing bathing suits that
would get an American male laughed at. Go to Amsterdam and you can
smoke hallucinogenic herbs at most any coffee shop without raising an
eyebrow. Come to think of it, Amsterdam is just 66 miles from Philips?
headquarters in Eindhoven. Hmm. Could that explain how this bizarre
concept got off the drawing board, into a factory, and onto retailers?
shelves without someone asking, ?Why?? Yes, we?re kidding, but bizarre
might be too timid a word to describe the amBX (it?s pronounced
am-bee-ex, by the way). The wrist rumbler?think force-feedback for your
wrists?wasn?t ready for prime time, but Philips did manage to ship us
an amBX-equipped 2.1-channel speaker system, a pair of desk fans, a
control unit with a built-in ?wall-washer? light, and the software to
go with it. We eagerly plugged the entire shootin? match into our
Nvidia test bed, and much hilarity ensued. The amBX concept reminds us
of the lava lamp of the 1970s, except this light show isn?t necessarily
random. Clusters of LEDs mounted in the wall-washer unit, atop stereo
speakers, and in columnar enclosures without speakers glow, flash,
pulse, and sparkle to add context to what?s happening on the screen.
The small, variable-speed fans?capable of spinning at up to
5,000rpm?blow air at you in a similar fashion. Philips takes pains to
emphasize that games need not be amBX-enabled for a gamer to enjoy amBX
effects, but the experience is clearly, well, it would be a stretch to
say better, so we?ll just say different, when playing amBX-aware games.
Philips sent us one of the only games currently supported: the
old-school?and piss-poor?THQ adventure game Broken Sword: The Angel of
Death. It didn?t take long for the effects to make their appearance; in
fact, by the time the title character made his ghastly debut, the fans
had spun up and blown our notes off the workbench. Wow! Wasn?t that
exciting! We had the same reaction to the lights. We placed the
wall-washer unit behind our 23-inch ViewSonic monitor but quickly
discovered that without a white wall onto which it could project its
three independent sets of multicolored lights, you couldn?t even tell
it was on. We were only mildly more impressed after we stuck a panel of
white cardboard behind it. The LEDs in the speakers, meanwhile, glow
and flash with varying intensities of only one color at a time (red,
green, blue, white, and so on). These lights don?t require a vertical
surface to bounce off, but they didn?t project enough light to change
the environment unless the room was almost completely dark. The
self-powered speakers in which Philips has integrated amBX aren?t
bad?the satellites deliver crisp highs and satisfying mids?but they?re
nowhere near the realm of the best from Klipsch, M-Audio, or even
Logitech. But we have a real problem with the subwoofer; not so much
with the way it sounds but rather with the way it?s constructed: The
speaker cone faces up to form a perfect bowl in which to spill your
refreshing beverage. Even if you?re a neat freak and never drop
anything in there, dust will inevitably filter through the metal grill
to rest on the cone and inexorably color its sound. You?ll need only
one cable to plug the entire system into your PC?s USB port, but you?ll
have to wrangle seven more into the control unit to get everything
working. You can purchase amBX systems in a variety of configurations:
There?s a $200 ?starter kit? that includes the wall-washer control unit
and two lights, sans speakers; a $300 ?pro-gamer kit? that includes the
wall washer, a subwoofer, and two satellite speakers with integrated
lights; and a $100 ?extension kit? that adds the wrist rumbler and two
fans. If you want to
go all out, Philips offers the $400 ?premium kit? that includes
everything?this is what we reviewed, minus the wrist tickler. Philips
has clearly sunk a great deal of time and effort into the amBX, and
we?re not talking just about marketing hype: The company has been
working on the idea since 2000. It has developed a sophisticated user
interface that can be used to create custom effects sequences; there
are plugins for Windows Media Player, so you can use the system while
listening to music or watching movies; and the company is actively
courting developers to support the technology in new games. Gas Powered
Games? upcoming RTS epic Supreme Commander will be one of the first.
Maybe we would have enjoyed Philips? amBX peripherals more if we?d been
in an altered state of consciousness during testing. All cynicism
aside, we do think there?s the kernel of a good idea here, so we?ll
keep an eye on this technology as it progresses. We?ll let you know if
it gets any better; for now, it?s pretty damned hokey.
