The Week in Review: March 17-23, 2003

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Last week's sound news

Drivers and bugs

• Vortex Control Panel Windows XP Patches
  Quantex Zone now offers a Vortex Control Panel Windows XP Patch for Aureal's Vortex 1, Vortex Advantages and Vortex 2 based cards. Here's a description taken from Quantex Zone:

  After over a year of having non-functional features for Aureal Vortex sound cards in Windows XP, I have been contacted by an owner who has been able to patch the driver to override version detection, allowing the native Aureal control panel to function in Windows XP as it did in Windows 2000. You will now be able to have full real-time Equalizer and MIDI control support.

• Creative Prodikeys Driver Update
  Creative has released a drive update (v1.15) for its Prodikeys.

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• America's Army Operations Update
  A new version (1.6) of America's Army Operations has been released. Audio related changes includes New ricochet sounds, New footstep sounds for concrete and carpet, Sound radius adjusted for various sound effects, including weapon fire, grenades, objectives, and player voices and Sounds no longer audible from extended distances.

• New Doomsday Engine
  A new version (v.1.7.8) of the Doomsday engine has been released.

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2
  TechSpot has posted an overall very positive review of the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2.

• M-Audio Revolution 7.1 PC Surround SoundCard
  TweakNews has posted a very positive review of M-Audio Revolution 7.1 PC Surround SoundCard

• ProMedia SWS Subwoofer
  Gamer's Depot has posted a review of Klipsch $150 ProMedia SWS Subwoofer. Gamer's depot was very impressed with the SWS Subwoofer, they found it to be even more impressive than the one included with the Klipsch ProMedia 5.1. Gamer's depot also tried the daisy-chain feature (that is combine several subwoofer for more powerful bass) using 3 SWS Subwoofers.

• GMX D-5.1 Speaker System
  Gamer's Depot has done a a review of Klipsch new GMX D-5.1 Speaker System. They were impressed with the subwoofer but had complaints about the control pod and more importantly the satellites which they say have a "very unnatural “ringyness” to them in the lower midrange tones". They also found the sound stage to be lacking. While the review is overall positive (4 drips out of 6) they consider Logitech's Z-680 to be a clearly better system which they say can be found for as low as $250. Worth noting that while the Z-680 may be available for as low as $250, the SRP is $400, that is $100 above GMX D-5.1. Actual price is of course what matters though.

• Logitech Z-680
  Gamer's Click has posted a short and very positive review of Logitech Z-680 Speaker System.

• InnoAX Q-Cute 128 MP3 Player
  Sound Card Central has done a very positive review of InnoAX $160 flash based Q-Cute 128 MP3 Player. Features includes Mobile phone hand-free connector, High quality recording function including mobile phone conversation and 5 Bands mode EQ system.

• Plextor PX-504A DVD+R/RW
  CDRLabs has posted a very positive (score: 9 out of 10) review of Plextor PX-504A DVD+R/RW Drive, which supports 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW writing speeds.

• Plextor PX-504A DVD+RW
  GamePC has posted a mixed review review of Plextor PX-504A DVD+RW Drive.

• Samsung SM-348B DVD/CDRW Combo
  Neoseeker has posted an overall positive (score 88%) review of Samsung SM-348B DVD/CDRW Combo Drive. It combines 16X DVD read capability with 48X/24X/48X CD-RW speeds and is available for about $80 online.

Other sound news

• Power Struggle Forced Aureal Walkout
  "Power Struggle Forced Aureal Walkout" is the title of an article posted on Extreme Tech about Aureal's demise. Here's an interesting bit:

  Kokinakis essentially vanished from the public eye for several years, quietly working as a consultant. Toni Schneider, Aureal's vice president of advanced audio products, now runs Oddpost, a Webmail service paid for by customers, not ads. General counsel Brendan O'Flaherty joined broadband chip company Massana.

  Kokinakis said the walkout, which was never explained publicly, simply came down to a fight between shareholders and management. "We had exhausted our funds," he said. "Management hoped to sell to avoid bankruptcy, while the shareholders thought we should hold out for a better deal. So we left."

  Thanks to Rusk Reeder for the pointer.

• TerraTec Aureon 5.1 Fun Games at a Super Price
  TerraTec has announced the Aureon 5.1 Fun Games which is available for 99,99 euros (German price). Besides the brand new TerraTec 5.1. Aureon 5.1 Fun sound card, the bundle features Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell™ (full version), Gun Metal™ (full version), Warcraft III™ (full version) and a TerraTec headset. You can find more details in the press release.

• VideoLogic SonicXplosion DVD Price Drop
  PURE Digital announces that it has reduced the price of its VideoLogic SonicXplosion DVD sound card by £20 to just £59.99 (UK RRP, inc. VAT). You can find more details about this card in the press release.

• QSound Labs Launches microQ at CTIA Wireless 2003
  QSound Labs has announced the launch of microQ(TM), an audio software engine for the mobile and handheld device markets. The launch is taking place at CTIA Wireless 2003, being held at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans from March 17th to 19th

  microQ is a compact and highly efficient software audio engine providing functions such as polyphonic ringtones, video game sounds, music playback, digital effects and recording for portable applications including Internet appliances, hand-held and mobile devices. The new product is based on QSound's well-established PC soft-audio engine, which is currently being used in critically acclaimed soundcards from Philips Consumer Electronics. You can find more details in the full press release.

• Terratec Introduce New Speaker Systems @ CEBIT
  Terratec has introduced several new speaker systems at CeBIT. The new speaker systems are HomeArena Stereo Speaker System, HomeArena 2.1, HomeArena TXR 335 and HomeArena TXR 665.

  The HomeArena Stereo speakers are a two-way system with 3 RMS watts per channel and frequency response ranging from 60 Hz to 30 kHz. You can find more details in the press release.

  The HomeArena 2.1 Speaker System adds a subwoofer that reach down to 30 Hz and is powered with 10 Watts RMS. You can find more details in the press release.

  The HomeArena TXR 335 is a bit more powerful 2.1 system featuring 5" subwoofer´and total power of 35 Watts RMS. You can find more details in the press release.

  The HomeArena TXR 665 is a 5.1 speaker system also featuring a 5" subwoofer and total power of 65 Watts RMS. You can find more details in the press release.

• SonicBlue Files for Bankruptcy
  SonicBlue is filing for reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws and plans to sell off the Rio unit and its ReplayTV digital video recorder unit to D&M Holdings (6735.T) of Japan for $40 million. Sonicblue also agreed to sell its GoVideo unit, which makes DVD players and other devices, to Opta Systems LLC. You can find more details in this Reuters Story or this CNET News.com report

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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