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The Week in
Review: January 28 - February 3, 2002
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 510D Review
In our latest feature we take a detailed hands on look at a retail MegaWorks 510D, the new
$400 5.1 version of Cambridge SoundWorks new multimedia speaker flagship line. This system
appears poised to put Cambridge SoundWorks back into the forefront of the multimedia
performance market, matching or surpassing the performance of systems such as the
VideoLogic Sirocco Crossfire and Klipsch ProMedia 4.1! In this review we have lots of test
results including direct subjective and objective comparisons to the Crossfire as well as
objective comparisons to systems such as the ProMedia 4.1 and Monsoon MM2000! For all the details
check out the review
Polk AMR-130 Review
Polk Audio is targeting the growing 5.1 sound card market with a moderately priced
($169.95) 5.1 speaker system, this time putting the emphasis on gaming and DVD
performance, but of course not ignoring the musicality of the system. That system is
called the AMR-130 and will be the subject of this initial review. In the review we will
directly compare the AMR-130 to several systems in the same price range. Those are the
S4-7100 as well as three systems that have hardware Dolby Digital decoders, the DTT2500,
DTT3500 from Creative/Cambridge SoundWorks and the TSS1 from Yamaha. For all the details check
out this initial review.
Last
week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
Vortex Control Panel update v1.90 released
A new (v1.90) release of the Vortex
Control Panel for Windows XP has been released. It supports Vortex 1, Vortex 2 and
Vortex Advantage based soundcards.
- PlayCenter 2 v2.52 Upgrade for Nomad Users
Creative
Labs Asian site offers an upgrade for Nomad users that are using PlayCenter 2 (v2.00
to v2.52). The upgrade will update it to v2.52.17 so not directly a major update. The
update also include Nomad drivers.
New games, demos, patches and bugsCreative's EAX Gaming site updated
Creative Labs
recently updated its EAX gaming section. The games currently featured are Soldier of
Fortune II, Hitman II, Dungeon Siege, Mafia, Hidden and Dangerous II, Serious Sam: The
Second Encounter, Myth III, Duke Nukem Forever, Paris Dakar Rally, Aqua Nox, Red Faction
and Ever Quest. You can also still find the complete list of all EAX games
(includes both upcoming and already released games).
- Dirt Track Racing Australia Demo
A demo of Dirt
Track Racing Australia is available from Avault. It's supposed to support A3D 1.0 and
DS3D with EAX. Not sure about the Australian edition but in the very similar Dirt Track
Racing Sprint Cars 3D sound fails to work on the Live according to several reviews. The
only review that mentioned 3D sound without complaints when it comes to Sprint Cars is
Avault, perhaps they used a Vortex2 card in which case it may just be the DS3D with EAX
code that's broken. Could of course also be a Live driver problem.
- JDoom 1.12 Patch
A new patch for jDoom has been
released. JDoom supports OpenGL, D3D and most importantly 3D sounds and reverb effects
with DirectSound3D and EAX 2.0 or A3D 3.0.
Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones
and MP3 players.
- Extigy
T-Break has done a the first review of Creative Labs
recently released Extigy that I've seen. They found it to perform very well, about the
same as the Audigy. The Extigy is basically an external soundcard that is connected to
your USB port. It can also functions as standalone Dolby Digital decoder. As the review
states it lacks some of the EAX HD features for games that the Audigy feature but still
support EAX 2.0 and 3D sound. I know Creative Labs says the performance will not be able
to match the Audigy but T-Break didn't have any issues when playing games like Thief.
- Audiotrack MAYA Soundcard
Neoseeker has done a review of
Audiotrak's Maya Soundcards. The review is about the Maya and Maya 44 not the more
expensive Maya 7.1. All these cards are more optimized for creating/recording music than
gaming which means you will find plenty of in/out, high quality DACs and drivers with low
latency rather than featuring 3D sound and reverb algorithms. Th
It's not clear to me what chip it use and if it includes some 3D sound or stereo expansion
technology that will allow you to take advantage of the 7.1 outputs beyond 5.1 output for
games. Checking the website it's clear the focus is on playing DVD movies using the
bundled PowerDVD 3.0. The review is overall positive.
Philips MMS305
HardcoreWare. has posted a review of the
Philips MMS305/A 3.500 4.1 Flat Panel System. This is a $150 4.1 system, where the
most eye catching features are the use of flat panels, the wireless remote control and the
ability to tweak treble and bass. One thing I have to disagree with that has nothing to do
with the speakers is their comment that "the verdict's really still out on the
merits of 3D sound. Support is uneven, incomplete, and sometimes doesn't add all that much
to your gaming experience". It's unclear just what they are basing that
statement on. While I don't disagree that some games that "should" support 3D
sound don't, there are still hundreds of games that have 3D sound support, with most
working very well based on our direct sampling, reader feedback, and reading reviews. I
will also go as far as to say that with most I have tested the inclusion of 3D sound makes
a significant difference to the game experience. Now, with that out of the way, the review
of the speakers is overall positive where they find them to be a good mainstream option
worthy of the asking price. Minor complaints include wanting a more detailed setup manual.
- VideoLogic Sirocco Crossfire
Hardware Avenue has posted an overall very positive review of the VideoLogic Sirocco
Crossfire 4.1 speaker system. The review includes some brief hand's on comparisons to
the Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000 and the Klipsch ProMedia 4.1. Thanks to Daniel Motlis for
the pointer.
- Altec Lansing 4100
TemplinTech has done a review of Altec Lansing's $200
4-speaker system 4100 which uses 2 micro-drivers/satellite. Not sure if the use of
microdriver is mostly to get the futuristic look or if Altec Lansing also consider them to
offer great performance for the price. Based on this review from TemplinTech I would guess
the former since they found it to be lacking when it comes to midbass performance. The
review is still overall quite positive especially when it comes to gaming and DVD movies.
They also note the subwoofer is much better than what was present with the ATP3 systems.
Still they didn't think it was able to match the identically priced Z-560 system from
Logitech.
- RCA Lyra 2 Portable MP3 Player
Neoseeker has done a
review of RCA Lyra 2 Portable MP3 Player. It's a portable flash based MP3 player
featuring a FM tuner, external flash reader and an customizable equalizer. The Neoseeker
found it to work well but question if it's really worth the $250 price tag.
Other sound news Creative Labs Audigy and speakers
available from HP
Creative Technology has announced that its award-winning audio solutions are now offered
as build-to-order options with HP Pavilion home PCs from Hewlett-Packard Company. The
products available are the Sound Blaster® Audigy, the Creative Inspire(TM) 5.1 5300
speakers and the Cambridge SoundWorks® SW320. You can find more details in the press release
- Creative Implements SB1394 Certification Program
Creative Technology has announced its SB1394(TM) Certification Program, designed to ensure
seamless operation of IEEE-1394 devices with Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy sound card
family. The Creative SB1394 Certification Program was
developed to give consumers not only the assurance of compatibility and trouble-free
installation, but also performance between Creative SB1394 and other 1394-equipped systems
and devices. Products that are Creative SB1394 Certified may carry a special logo on
packaging, for easy identification by consumers. You can find more details in the press release
- Spatializer VirtualSurround VBX Introduced
Spatializer Audio Laboratories has announced the availability of Spatializer
VirtualSurround VBX(TM), the Company's new and more affordable virtual surround sound
software targeted at low-cost DVD players. The press release says the main reason it's
cheaper is it optimized for 2-channel sound and it only receives and processes a two
channel, rather than 5.1 channel stream. Makes me wonder if it's anything more than stereo
expansion but perhaps it take advantage of the surround channels in Dolby Surround encoded
content. You can read the
full press release for more details.
- Harman International Industries Reports Q2
Results
Harman International has reported financial results for the second quarter and first six
months ended December 31, 2001. Net sales for the second quarter totaled $467.4 million, a
7 percent increase compared to net sales of $438.2 million in the same period last year.
The Company reported pretax income of $24.8 million before recording an $8.3 million legal
reserve. Net income for the quarter before the reserve was $17.6. You can find more details in the press
release including the lawsuit entitled Bose Corporation v. JBL Incorporated.
- PoGo! Products Launches Flash Memory MP3 Recorder
PoGo! Products has launched its RipFlash(TM) Recordable MP3 Player. The RipFlash is a
first-of-its-kind flash memory based combination MP3 player, MP3 recorder, and voice
recording device which actually encodes analog audio using its internal microphone or from
any audio source through the Line-In connector, into MP3 audio without the need for a
desktop PC. It features 128MB of memory and a SRP of $198. More details are available in the press release
- Anarchy @ STL
We'll, sort of! It's actually a new unique and interesting range of plugin effects from
STL, collectively known as 'AnarchyEffects'. These include Corkscrew, Spectral Autopan,
Harmonic Adder, Length Separator and Convoluter. These are available individually, or as a
5 pack. More information, screenshots and a demo are available at STL's website - www.software-technology.com.
- Music4Games Gets the Job Done
Music4Games has issued
a press release stating what great resource it is for the computer and videogame music
industry.
For more news from last week check out our news archive.
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.
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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