Technical Overview:

Vortex 2 Features

Absolute Multimedia's Outrageous 3D sound uses Aureal’s Vortex 2 SuperQuad reference board (literally) just like Xitel's Storm Platinum, Terratec's XLerate Pro, Videologic's SonicVortex2 and of course Aureal with their own System Integrator board. Diamond and Turtle Beach are the only two to Vortex 2 partners to alter the reference design.

Just like all other Vortex 2 boards Outrageous 3D sound offers these key features:

• 96 DirectSound (i.e., they can all be DirectSound if necessary) streams;
• 76 3D streams* (they can be A3D, DS3D, or A3D 2.0, in the case of A3D 2.0, they are currently split between direct path and reflective sounds (16+60);
• 64 Wavetable voices

The different types of streams can be mixed and matched in various ways, but they always have to add up to a maximum of 96. Note that there are other types of streams (e.g. wavOut) but these are the common ones.

*76 3D streams for DS3D and A3D 1.x are accessible using Aureal’s 2030 and later reference drivers which have enabled 76 3D steams for 2 speaker and headphone modes but not four speaker modes. Absolute Multimedia ships with the 2035 reference drivers and they have not even changed the name of the control panel. Absolute Multimedia's use of the reference design is perfect for all those power gamers who just can’t wait for custom drivers.

• 96dB signal-to-noise ratio over a 20Hz~22kHz range;
• custom crosstalk cancellation circuitry using a biquad crossover filter to optimize left and right sound channels for more effective A3D playback in stereo speakers;
• Sound Blaster Pro DOS support;
• hardware and 256 software wavetable voices using advanced techniques, such as fourth-order interpolation and sweepable filters with resonance;
• effects for delay, room, chamber, hall, cabinet, flange, distortion, and wah-wah on the wavetable;
• support for DLS 1.0;
• a hardware wavetable header;
• a gameport which as well as supporting standard analog/digital joysticks and MPU-401 MIDI I/O, also incorporates DirectX acceleration circuitry that accelerates DirectX gameplay and improves system speed by 10% or more
• four speaker support out of the box;
• hardware support for DS, DS3D, A3D 1.x, A3D 2.0 and planned support for EAX through a future driver upgrade.
• 18 bit DAC
• TOSLINK optical S/PDIF out
• Digital expansion header

If you are looking for digital connectivity and can use a optical connector then the Outrageous 3D sound has has one built in. Most MiniDisc players have an optical connection, some use the COAX input and others actually have both. It's the same for home theater speakers as some use optical, some use COAX and some use both. For example, Cambridge Soundworks uses a coax connector and Videologic uses both so if digital connectivity is important to you be sure and keep this in mind as the best Vortex 2 choice if you need a COAX connector is currently Voyetra Turtle Beach’s Quadzilla or Aureal's upcoming SQ2500 and if you need both, Voyetra Turtle Beach also makes a bracket board with coax and optical I/Os plus the option of the full Home Studio Edition.   For the Outrageous 3D Sound you also have the option of using one of the optical to coax converters on the market but they are pretty expensive (around the same price as a Vortex 2 board) so not really worth it for this purpose in our opinion.

An example of a converter can be found at Midiman and comes with an $80 price tag.

All things being equal, if you need the digital output and can use an optical connector instead of a COAX you are two steps ahead of Diamond which offers the MX25 for $40 and one step ahead of Turtle Beach which goes the bracket board route at no extra cost but takes up more space.

My big issue with the bracket board approach is space. As Mark noted in the Quadzilla review, slots are at a premium in my machine and I hate to give up a slot for the sake of external outputs when all I want to do is play games. However, Turtle Beach had several other reasons for going this route, including upgradability for their Dell buyers and you can read about them in our Quadzilla review. Voyetra Turtle Beach, despite being late to the market has also delivered what they promised.