The Week in Review: January 13-19, 2003

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Last week's sound news

Drivers and bugs

• SoundBlaster Live and Audigy Tweak Guide Updated
  TechSpot has updated the Live and Audigy tweak guide section of its soundcard tweaking guide and also added a completely new section for the Audigy 2 card.

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• Unreal 2 Gold
  Infogrames has announced that Unreal II: The Awakening, Legend Entertainment's single-player sequel to Epic's Unreal has gone gold. It will be available in North American stores the first week of February. I would guess it will feature 3D sound and EAX Advanced just like Unreal Tournament 2003. For more details on the game you can check out the official site.

• Freedom Force Patch
  A new patch (v1.2) for Freedom force has been released. You can grab it from FilePlanet or GameHelper.

• Skywalker Sound Interview
  Music4Games has published a Q&A with Skywalker Sound about their entry into videogames. Here's an excerpt:

  Doing the sound design for Star Wars Bounty Hunter was a very exciting challenge for us at Skywalker Sound, and since it's a Star Wars game we knew we would be working with the fantastic Star Wars sound effects library as well as creating new sounds."

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• Audigy 2 vs nForce 2
  The FiringSquad posted a comparison of the Audigy 2 and the nForce 2. Both got an editor choice award and the same score (93%).

• Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Sound Card Review
  Xbit-Labs has posted a fairly detailed review of Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Sound Card. They conclude that "The Audigy2 sound card is definitely the "best of the year 2002" in the consumer market sector". Thanks to Kuen Foo for the pointer.

• Soundcard Round-up
  Tech-Report has posted a soundcard round-up featuring Hercules Muse LT, Muse 5.1 DVD, GameSurround Fortissimo III and DigiFire 7.1, Creative Labs Audigy, Terratec's DMX 6Fire 24/96 and the integrated audio in VIA's VT8235 south bridge (ALC650 codec). The Terratec's DMX 6fire 24/96 and Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1 shared the Editors Choice award, where the right choice depends on how much you are prepared to spend

• Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 Reviews
  PC Advisor short review of the Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 from the February issue is now available online. PC Advisor found it even more impressive than the original MegaWorks, which until now they thought was the best desktop 5.1-channel speakers.

  A second more detailed review of the Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 can be found on Digit-Life. It's clearly more mixed than PC Advisor's review. Perhaps most surprisingly is that they unlike PC Advisor found the original to have some advantages to the new system when it comes to sound quality. Not any major difference but they found the original to offer a bit higher frequency response and more balanced and melodic subwoofer performance. This is not my initial impression of the 550 THX system but I have yet to listen to the 510D and 550 side by side as Digit-Life did.

  Thanks to Michael Michaelidis and Alex for the pointers.

• Altec Lansing ATP3 2.1 Speaker System Review
  A new review of Altec Lansing $80 ATP3 2.1 Speaker System has been posted on RadiativeNZ. The review is very positive but only includes comparison to the an aging Cambridge SoundWorks 4.1 system (I would he refers to the FPS1000).

• Slim Devices SliMP3 Music Player Review
  3DAI has posted a short and very positive review of Slim Devices $250 SliMP3 Music Player, which uses your home network to access the music stored on your PC.

• jazPiper Ubit 128MB MP3 Player Review
  BlargOC has posted a positive review of jazPiper Ubit 128MB MP3 Player.

• Samsung's Yepp YP-90S MP3 Player
  Tech-Report has posted a very positive review of Samsung's tiny solid state MP3/WMA player the Yepp YP-90S.

• iRock BLiNG CD/FM/MP3 Player Video Review
  3DGameMan has posted a video review of iRock BLiNG CD/FM/MP3 Player.

• iRock! 530 Portable MP3 Player Review
  ViperLair has posted a very positive review of iRock! $129 530 Portable MP3 Player. It's a flash based MP3 player which feature 128MB built in memory, SmartMedia Card expansion slot, 3 equalizer presets and bass boost.

• Samsung SM348 48X/24X/16X CDRW-DVD Review
  PC Stats has done a review of Samsung SM348 48X/24X/16X CDRW-DVD Combo drive. They found it to offer very good performance considering the price (a bit above $100).

• Samsung SM-332 DVD/CD-R Combo Drive Review
  TweakNews has posted a positive review of Samsung SM-332 DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive.

• Samsung SM-348 Combo Drive Review
  Monkey Review has done a mixed review (3.5 out of 5) of Samsung SM-348 Combo Drive.

• Media Player Round-up
  PC Mag has posted a Media Player round-up which features Media Jukebox 8.0, MusicMatch Jukebox 7.5, QuickTime 6, RealOne Player 2.0, Winamp3 and Windows Media Player 9. The RealOne got the Editor choice award overall but if you only are interested in creating and playing music they gave the edge to the MusicMatch jukebox. 

Other sound news

• Pure DigiTheatre Platinum Home Cinema Speaker System Price Reduction
  PURE Digital is making its DigiTheatre Platinum speaker system available to more retailers, and at the same time dropping the price to £399.99 (inc. VAT). The DigiTheatre Platinum digital home cinema audio system is a 5.1 surround sound speaker system which decodes Dolby Digital, Pro Logic and DTS soundtracks. You can find more details in the press release.

• Zenith Expands Family of DVD Players
  Zenith Electronics Corporation has launched an expanded line of DVD players with the introduction of seven new DVD players, DVD changers, and DVD/VCR combination models at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show.

  The popularly priced new products -- all featuring progressive scanning -- combine with currently available models to offer consumers nearly a dozen ways to participate in the rapidly growing DVD market, from entry-level single-disc players to sophisticated changers offering the latest audio options, like DVD-Audio and SACD. You can find more details in the press release.

  In a separate announcement Zenith unveiled DVD players in eight compact home theater systems that include surround sound speakers and receivers. For details check out the press release.

• Creative Launches Ultra Fast USB 2.0 Version Of Nomad Jukebox Zen
  Creative has announced a USB 2.0 version of its highly popular NOMAD® Jukebox Zen digital audio player. The NOMAD Jukebox Zen with USB 2.0 is now shipping at an estimated street price of only US$399.99. You can find more details in the press release.

• Audio Network Wins European Seal of Excellence 2003’ award
  The award winning music and sound company Audio Network starts the New Year with ‘The European Seal of Excellence 2003’ award.

  The European Seal of Excellence is an annual award from the European multimedia forum distinguishing European multimedia companies with applications, services or technologies that are genuinely outstanding and world class. Richard Field of the East of England Multimedia Alliance says “Audio Network has made a major contribution to providing high quality original music and sound content for the multimedia industry”. You can find more details in the full press release.

Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurge

• Reviews that we are currently working on:
  Updated Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury and GameTheaterXP reviews
  Hercules Fortissimo II
  Terratec DMX Xfire 1024
  CMedia CM8738 Reference Review
  Full Audigy Review
  Full Philips MMS305 Review
  
• There are several other hardware reviews in the pipeline including, but not limited to the following:
  Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE
  Terratec m3po
  DigMedia MusicStore
  Philips Seismic Edge
  Lots of other stuff on the go in including several guides and major site revisions that we will soon be releasing more details on.
  

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