The Week in Review: January 14-20, 2002

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Drivers and bugs

• Soundcard & Speakers tweak guide
  3DSpotlight has updated their extensive (14 pages long) soundcard and speakers guide. It now covers SB Live! and Audigy series, Videologic SonicFury, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Philips PSC 70x range, Hercules Game Theater XP & Hercules Fortissimo 2. You will also find generic Windows configuration tips as well as speaker placement advice.

• Nomad and Jukebox drivers
  Creative Labs Asian site offers NOMAD II and NOMAD Jukebox Driver Installer.

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• Colonies will feature EAX
  GameArena has conducted an interview with Ward De Langhe, I.A Kilpenlainen, and Daniel Churcher of Acidstorm Entertainment about their upcoming FPS Colonies. The game uses the Torque (TRIBES 2) engine so it may not come as a surprise they plan to add EAX to the game. Here's what they had to say when it comes to the aural aspects of the game:

  GameArena: Do you have your own studio, where sounds are recorded?

  I.A Kilpelainen: Yes, Acidstorm currently has a studio(at my place) which we use. It is a 50 sq. meter studio with all the modern “candy” in it. The studio is a mixture of both modern and classical outlook and gear. I have this new gear there, such as recorders with massive capacity, synths with enormous polyphony, and even working stations created specifically for sound engineering. Along with that I have some real vintage stuff, such as a 3 pair of legendary 70’s analog Moogs (Memory, Prodigy, Minimoog), Roland TB303, Juno, Yamaha DX7 etc. Acoustically, we have one piano, electronic bass and electric guitar.

  With such equipment, I can create some natural sounding compositions, or create some never before heard sounds by running them through my Kyma System, or create kickass breakbeats without ripping out my hair with tricky MIDI preparations.

  GameArena: Is there going to be support for high quality sound and EAX?

  I.A Kilpelainen : I’ve been actually planning to add EAX to game, so that people who are having more advanced sound cards could choose EAX support. And yes support for high quality sound will be in the game.

  GameArena: What type of sound format will you be using?

  Ward De Langhe: We plan on using the ogg vorbis format. It’s a free sound format that should be as good as mp3.

  I.A Kilpelainen: Because of .mp3 formats expensive price we had to search another as good format as mp3. After a small search of competitive audio alternatives, we decided go to ogg vorbis format because of its format quality & flexibility.

  GameArena: Can players make use of sound input devices and software? Such as Roger Wilco?

  Ward De Langhe: If all gooses well, chatting ingame will be possible. For now the engine doesn't support things like this... but we are working on it.

  I.A Kilpelainen: Not yet, but we’ll wait & see what we can do about it in the future.

  Daniel Churcher: I specifically created the models with facial features such as a mouth so that, later in development, real time communication may be implemented easily, and be effective.

• How to get 3D sound in the MOH Demo
  As you may be aware, 3D sound in the stock Medal of Honor demo does not work, perhaps because of space saving optimization (missing files) for the demo. Regardless, forum member Juanlo has posted a solution that you can try if you have any other 3D audio game on your system that uses the Miles Sound System. For details check out this post in the forum.

• jHexen 1.0 Beta 2
  The second beta of jHexen has now been released. The game/port supports DS3D with EAX and A3D 3.0.

• Operation Flashpoint Patch
  A new patch (v1.42) for Operation Flashpoint is now available on the official site. You can find the list of the changes in the readme file posted on the site

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 vs. Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum
  Tom's Hardware has now posted the English version of the Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 vs. Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum comparison. They found the Audigy to be clearly the better card for gaming while the DMX 6Fire being the clear choice if recording is top priority. Beyond gaming they also note the Audigy is the more well featured with its SB1394 port, real-time effects DSP of virtually professional quality and its infrared remote control.

  One interesting bit in the review new to me is that the DMX 6Fire lacks a headphone output mode despite the use of Sensaura as its 3D sound engine. Patric Jonsson let us know that you can select headphone mode using Sensaura's Player 3D and in the media applet in Windows control would work but this review unfortunately didn't try that. One bit in the review I find rather odd is the frequency response curve of the Audigy, it's far worse than my results using the same application and I've never seen such unstable frequency response on any soundcard. Thanks to Kuen Foo for the pointer.

• NVIDIA's nForce
  HotHardware have finally completed their first look at NVIDIA's nForce chipset (420D). When it comes to audio they include some screenshots of the audio settings available and concludes the sound quality rivals the Audigy and GameTheaterXP. Having said that they note the feature set of the Audigy and GameTheaterXP may be more compelling for enthusiasts or audiophiles though.

• Phillips Seismic Edge 5.1
  Tweak 3D has posted a very short and positive review of Phillips Seismic Edge 5.1. They mostly refer to their Acoustic Edge review which is very similar except for the bundle and SPDIF input.

• Soyo K7V Dragon Plus Motherboard
  Hardware-Unlimited has done a review of Soyo K7V Dragon Plus Motherboard. As many other motherboards it features Cmedia's CMI-8738 chipset but goes one step beyond the usual by bundling a riser card that according to the review features "two optical, two stereo plug and two RCA digital ports". The official site only mentions SPDIF output functionality but the review includes screenshots where you can select between two SPDIF inputs. Anyway the review only briefly cover the audio parts but includes several screenshots of the settings and say he found it to be as good as the Live 5.1.

• Hercules XPS510 5.1 Speakers
  T-Break has posted a review of Hercules XPS510 5.1 Speakers. It's sub $100 5.1 system that competes with Creative Labs Inspire 5300. The review mostly compare it to Creative Labs older DTT2200 and found the Hercules system to be clearly better. When it comes to the lack of speaker stands it's worth noting Creative no longer bundle speaker stands with their speaker units either. When it comes to the connectivity complain with the GameTheaterXP is the answer simply to buy an inexpensive dual RCA to stereo mini-jack unless you already own one.

• Creative Inspire 5700
  PennstarSystems has done a review of Creative Labs Dolby Digital/DTS system, Inspire 5700. The review is rather mixed with plenty of complaints about being mismatched and offering low quality for the price. Overall I find it quite negative despite the overall score of 85%. I have a more positive impression of the system but it's of course not delivering the audio quality of a $300 system without a Dolby Digital/DTS decoder. When it comes to some of the more technical complaints in the review I think the Inspire 5700 is not much different than other system in this price range. One error in the review is they state that the DTT3500 included DTS decoding, that's not the case.

• Kinyo Re-655U
  SL Central has done a review of Kinyo R-655U. It's a $200 5.1 system which bundles WinDVD and an audio box that is connected to the USB. The external box means you don't need a soundcard. It's mostly useful for playing DVD movies using the bundled WinDVD but you can also use it for playback of music. It's from what I understand not very useful for gaming since it features no support for 3D sound.

  The review is rather negative but the complaints seems more like complaints it's not a great HomeTheater system rather than that it's a poor buy for the price.

• Klipsch Promedia 4.1
  SourceMagazine has posted a short and very positive review of Klipsch Promedia 4.1. It's the same review that appeared in the January 2002 issue of Computer Source Magazine.

• Rio Riot First Look
  Designtechnica has posted a brief first look at SonicBlue's new Rio Riot MP3 player. It features 20GB of storage, FM Tuner, backlit LCD and Rechargeable Lithium Ion battery.

• ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV
  Gamer's Depot has posted an overall very positive review of ATI's All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV. This is of course ATI's latest TV/DVD/video editing focused video card. The one problem GD ran into was the TV On Demand feature. In terms of gaming performance it was slightly behind the Radeon 8500, so still pretty good. One bit unfortunately not explicitly tested in the review is the S/PDIF out functionality of the card for AC3 and perhaps DTS output.

• HomeTheater PC Project @ Designtechnica
  Designtechnica has posted the first part of their HomeTheater PC Project. In this first part they pick the parts which includes a $1400 PC from Dell with a DVD-RW Drive, ATI's $399 ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon and Logitech's $99 Cordless Freedom Keyboard and mouse.

• Panasonic DVD-LA95
  CNET has done a review of Panasonic DVD-LA95. It's a portable DVD player using a 9" LCD display which features support for DVD-Audio and MP3 CDs. CNET found it to work very well with the only major complaint being the price (SRP $1300 but can be found for $800 online)

• Samsung SD-616 16X DVD-ROM
  OnePC has done a short and overall very positive (9.5/10) review of Samsung SD-616 16X DVD-ROM Drive. The drive includes PowerDVD but the review fails to mention what version and see no mention of price either.

• Akasa Pax Mate Acoustic Absorbent Mat
  ViperLair.com has posted a review of the Akasa Pax Mate Acoustic Absorbent Mat, material that is of course used to reduced the irritating noise that comes from the PC. They found that it did not result in increased heat build-up and worked fairly well for noise reduction, particularly for lower pitched noises. For details check out the review.

• QSurround Headphone Technology Featured in Wireless Headphones
  QSound Labs has announced that their new QSurround Headphone® technology has been incorporated into the new wireless headphone product by RECOTON (mentioned below). The Acoustic Research® branded AW791 headphones received the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovations 2002 award last week for their exciting wireless surround sound experience.

  QSurround Headphone allows the user to enjoy the full benefit of Dolby® Digital audio on a DVD soundtrack. QSound claims standard headphone technology is inadequate for multi-channel audio content because it fails to reproduce the staging and imaging. Not sure if this standard headphone technology refers to standard stereo playback or other virtual surround solutions for headphones. You can find more details in the press release

• AR Brings Dolby Surround to Wireless Headphones
  Acoustic Research has announced that they will later this month ship the first 900MHz Wireless Surround Sound Headphones with Dolby® Digital technology.

  AR's Wireless Surround Sound Headphones (Model AW791) combine a Dolby® Digital processor and surround sound headphone technology for personal movie enjoyment. With a signal-to-noise ratio of over 70dB and over 35dB stereo separation, the 900MHz Wireless Surround Sound Headphones offer ultra-quiet performance that is critical for experiencing the subtle elements in any movie soundtrack or surround audio recording. You can find more details in the press release

• SoundMax SPX Audio Integrated Into Game Development Engine
  Analog Devices has announced a collaboration with Intrinsic Graphics to integrate its SoundMAX SPX advanced audio rendering technology into the Intrinsic Alchemy game development platform. The product will allow developers to concurrently create both graphics and high-quality "Animated Audio" - realistic sound effects that change in real-time in direct response to a game player's input.

  Scheduled for release in March, Intrinsic Alchemy 2.0 will be officially announced at the Game Developer Conference (March 19 - 22, 2002, San Jose, CA) and will significantly enhance its strengths as a platform for the creation of games on Sony PlayStation®2, Microsoft® Xbox(tm), Nintendo Gamecube(tm) and PC. You can find more details in the press release.

• Consumer Electronics Show 2002 (CES) Report
  TargetPC has done a 10 page report about the Consumer Electronics Show 2002 (CES). The info on the products is very brief in most cases with a notable exception of Benwin's flatpanel speakers. In addition to the short bits of info you will find pictures of several products including Altec Lansing's speakers announced during the show.

  A shorter CES 2002 report can be found on The TechZone. Just like TargetPC report the most interesting are the images of the products on display.

• ESS DVD Chips Will Support Super Audio
  ESS Technology has announced that it has obtained a license from Philips to incorporate the new Super Audio CD (SACD) format into ESS chips. ESS intends to add SACD capability to its Vibratto DVD single-chip solution family. ESS plans to introduce SACD enabled chips in the second quarter of 2002. Super Audio CD is a new generation audio storage and reproduction technology developed jointly by Philips and Sony Corporation. You can find more details in the press release

• ProMedia DD-5.1 Decoder from Klipsch
  Klipsch is now offering a new Dolby Digital / DTS decoder called the ProMedia DD-5.1 as an alternative to the Audio Tornado unit they have been offering for some time. Unlike the Audio Tornado, this new unit has both Dolby Digital and DTS decoding capabilities and sells for $170 (instead of $100 for the Audio Tornado). For details check out this product page. Thanks to Darwin Udarbe for the pointer.

• 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.
  

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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