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The Week in
Review: April 14-20, 2003
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Last week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
New
games, demos, patches and bugs
Delta Force - Black Hawk Down Patch
Owner's of Delta Force - Black Hawk Down now have the option to download the 10.2 MB v.1.2
patch as an alternative to the auto-update feature built into the game. The patch
is available from Novalogic. Delta Force - Black Hawk Down is the first confirmed
example of a PC game using its own 3D audio engine to directly access the output channels
of sound cards as opposed to using DirectSound3D.
Reviews
of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.
- Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 650
Extreme Tech has posted a review of Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 650. They found them
to perform very well, better than the original MegaWorks but did note you really need the
Audigy 2 to take advantage of the rear center channel. Thanks to John Bugailiskis for the
pointer.
- Trust Portable MP3 player
BurnOutPC has posted a review of Trust Portable MP3 player. It's an inexpensive,
small flash based MP3 player that features several EQ presets but no LCD display and only
16MB built in memory. According to the review it's not very impressive receiving a score
of only 6.5 out of 10.
- Creating a Touch Screen MP3 Music Jukebox
The Tech Zone takes a look at TouchTone Audio System, a program specifically designed to
transform your PC and MP3 collection into a modern, high-tech jukebox. Using the TouchTone
Audio System, they'll show you how to make your own touch screen MP3 juke box in 5 easy
steps. Check
it out here.
Other sound news
- New 2003 Receivers From Marantz Features SRS
Labs' Circle Surround II
SRS Labs has announced that its premier multichannel audio technology, Circle Surround
II(TM) (CS II), is featured in new A/V receiver models from leading home theater supplier
Marantz America. Marantz features the CS II decoder in its new 2003 line of A/V receivers,
including model numbers SR4300, 5300, 6300, 7300, 7300ose, SR9300 and the soon to be
released SR8300 model. CS II allows home theater listeners to experience up to 6.1
channels of audio from all of their older source material, including television broadcasts
in mono or stereo, any music CD or VHS tape, as well as other matrix encoded or CS encoded
source material. You can find more details in the press release.
- VIA Interview
HardOCP has conducted an interview with Richard Brown, VIA's Director of International Marketing.
Here's the only audio related question.
Q: When will Eden/EPIA and VIA's Southbridges gain the use of
the Envy24/Envy24HT 24-bit Audio controller?
Richard Brown: The aim of our audio strategy is to provide the most
comprehensive and highest performance range of solutions for all segments of the market.
For integrated audio, we have started to aggressively promote our VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC
solution which, when combined with the VT8235 South Bridge or new Envy24PT onboard
controller, delivers very high quality 5.1 surround sound on a standard motherboard.
We also have an EPIA reference design that integrates the Envy24PT
and a very high-end AKM Codec that offers 7.1 audio performance equal to that of CE
devices, while motherboard vendors like Albatron, Chaintech, and AOpen have integrated the
Envy24PT and VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC Audio into their latest motherboard offerings. In
addition, VIA has also entered into a partnership with Sensaura and we will be offering
their technology integrated into our new Stylus audio driver very shortly to further
enhance the gaming capabilities of VIA Vinyl Audio. With all these developments taking
place, we currently have no plans to integrate our Envy24/Envy24HT into the South Bridge
of our chipsets.
- ASUS Standardizes on Analog Devices' SoundMAX
Analog Devices has announced that ASUSTeK Computer has selected its SoundMAX® Digital
Audio System (SoundMAX) as its new standard PC audio solution. Available with PCs and
motherboards from major PC OEM and motherboard manufacturers, SoundMAX is now shipping
with 25 new ASUS desktop and notebook motherboards. With today's launch of its spring 2003
motherboards, ASUS becomes the first motherboard manufacturer to ship SoundMAX 4 XL, on
two of its featured products: the ASUS P4C800 and ASUS P4P800. Offering intelligent jack
sensing for connecting audio peripherals and a new user interface for managing system
performance. You can find more details in the full press release.
- Perception Digital Launches Digital Recordable
Car Jukebox
Perception Digital has announced that they launched their Car Jukebox and it's now
available at Fry's Electronics. You can find some details in
the press release.
For more news from last week check out our news archive.
Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurgeReviews 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.
As always if you have any ideas for products we should review or features we should do,
please let us know.
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