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Mark Muschett and Mikael Hagén put Philips' Acoustic Edge to the test

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Philips Acoustic Edge

Mark Muschett and Mikael Hagén - Last updated January 31, 2001

acousticedge.jpg (6884 bytes) 

Important Info:

Sound chip By : Philips

Price : SRP $99

API Support :  DirectSound, DS3D, EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0 and A3D 1.0 (by translating to DS3D calls, works with most but not all titles)

Minimum System Requirements:

  • One available PCI 2.1-compliant slot
  • Genuine Intel, Pentium class 133Mhz or faster processor
  • Intel or 100% compatible motherboard chip set
  • 16MB system RAM CD-ROM for driver installation

Reviewers PC:

Mark
- Win98
- Celeron 333a o/c 416
- 128MB PC100 ram
- Creative TNT
- Creative Voodoo Blaster 12 M
- 6.1  and 13 GIG EIDE HD
- For four speaker testing purpose I hooked the card up to Videologic's Sirocco Crossfire speaker system using the analog inputs as well as MidiLand S4-7100. For 6-speaker testing I used the MidiLand S4-7100 and the Abit SP-50. For two speaker testing purposes I used the same speaker systems but only connecting to the front channels as well as the Diamond Audio Technology HPM-4100 and for headphones testing I used a set of Sennheiser HD525s.  Digital output was tested with the MidiLand ADS-2000 as well as the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT2500 and Creative DTT3500.

Mikael
- Win98SE/Windows 2000
- Duron 750
- 256MB PC100 ram
- GeForce DDR
- 6.4 GB Quantum SE
- For four speaker testing purpose I hooked the card up to Videologic's Sirocco Crossfire speaker system using the analog inputs and later in testing I used Videologic's Digi Theatre speaker system for 6-speaker testing. For two speaker testing purposes I used the VideoLogic Sirocco Pro as well as the same speaker systems but only connecting to the front channels and for headphones testing I used a set of Sennheiser HD5570

Features:

Music:

  • Creates 5.1 distinct surround sound channels
  • Revolutionizes the music listening experience

Movies:

  • 5.1 channel surround from any A/V source
  • Dolby Digital, QMSS and QSurround DVD playback to 2, 4, or 5.1 speakers*
    *Requires compatible soft-DVD player

Games:

  • 2, 4, and 5.1 speaker 3D for every game
  • Transforms game play into a home theatre experience

Technical Specifications:

Audio Accelerator/Digital Signal Processor:

  • PHILIPS ThunderBird Avenger ™ DSP for extreme hardware acceleration Codec
  • AC97 CODEC Bus Interface: PCI 2.1 bus master

Industry Specifications:

  • Exceeds PC98 & PC99 audio requirements
  • SNR > 92dB typical

Digital Acceleration:

  • 96 streams of 3D audio acceleration including positional reverb
  • 256 streams of DirectSound acceleration and digital mixing
  • Full-duplex, 48khz digital recording and playback
  • 64 hardware sample rate conversion channels up to 48khz
  • Wavetable and FM Synthesis
  • DirectInput devices

Comprehensive Connectivity:

  • 5.1 (6 channel) channel analog output
  • Digital S/PDIF output (stereo, AC3 or DTS signal)
  • Digital S/PDIF input
  • MIDI in/Midi out/dual game port
  • Additional external inputs: Line in, Mic in
  • Additional internal inputs: CD in, Aux in, TAD in, S/PDIF in
  • Special effects can be applied to any audio input including conversion of stereo to quadraphonic or 5.1 output, QXpander, 2D-to-3D remapping and reverb

Music Synthesis:

  • Up to 576 total wavetable synthesis voices
  • Reverb and chorus
  • 64 channel hardware CD quality (16 bit, 44.1khz) wavetable synthesizer with 5.9MB sample set
  • Hardware FM Synthesizer (real mode DOS)
  • 512 voice professional quality soft-synth with XG and GM compatibility

Digital Signal Processor Algorithms:

  • QSound3DInteractive ™ positional 3D for 2 speakers, 4 speakers or 5.1 speakers
  • QSound Multi Speaker System ™ for quadraphonic or 5.1 channel output of stereo music, video and games
  • QSound Environmental Modeling for EAX ™ and DirectSound3D ™ games
  • QXpander ™ and “2D to 3D remapping” for 3D enhancement of stereo playback
  • QSurround ™ virtual 5.1 playback of DVDs using 2 speakers*
    * Requires compatible soft-DVD player


Review Index:

Introduction:

ThunderbirdPhilips has been one of the major forces in consumer electronic for years but have never been that major in the PC market where it’s mostly been speakers using the USB connection that made Philips famous. Last fall all this changed when Philips officially announced three new sound cards.  The cards are all now shipping and are going by the names of Rhythmic Edge (stereo output), Seismic Edge (quad output) and Acoustic Edge (upto 6 channel output).    Philips got a running start into the PC sound card market by taking over VLSI, the company who in partnership with QSound developed the Thunderbird 128.  This chip seemed to have loads of potential but was hampered by poor market penetration and driver support.    The card we are going to take a very detailed look at in this review is the top of the line ($99) Acoustic Edge.  

Technical Overview --->

 

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