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Posted by Thomas
McGuire on December 17, 2001
Manufacturer: Creative
Labs Product: Sound
Blaster Audigy Player
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For
testing out playback of stereo/CDs & some other digital
audio formats I used some of the following – the MIDI,
SoundFont & Dolby Digital (AC-3) samples on the Audigy
CD, the following CD albums – Beautiful Garbage,
Independence Day, A.I., Starship Troopers, The Mummy &
The Mummy Returns. I also used several various MP3s from
Games I have installed & others I downloaded.
The
quality of CDs was great, although not necessarily any
better than the Game Theater XP which I used previous to it.
One area which was improved is the playback of MP3s as
compared with other Soundcards I’ve used (I’ll ignore
the essentially useless Hardware MP3 Decoding feature on
CS4630 DSP based Soundcards), particularly those with some
audio artefacts in them, which the Audio Clean-Up
feature of PlayCenter 3 managed to greatly reduce, although
with good quality MP3s the difference wasn’t so noticeable
at all. Thanks to the built-in AC-3 decoding in the
Audigy drivers it was also possible to playback AC-3 encoded
files using PlayCenter 3 as well, with the sample on the
Audigy CD giving a good example of the more interactive
experience they can offer. Similarly the MIDI &
SoundFont sample sets on the Audigy CD were also enjoyable.
The
24-Bit DAC (Digital to Analog Converter)
on the Audigy provided a nice clean sound in all the
material I tried out, & in combination with PlayCenter 3
offered a large variety of Audio formats to playback. Using
the CMSS option in PlayCenter 3 it was also possible
to get greater than 4 Speaker output with regular stereo
sources, which on most other Soundcards (bar QMSS using
Philips PSC 70x Soundcards & some others) will only
output to the Front & Rear Speakers, not Center.
The
SoundBlaster Audigy supports AC-3 decoding in the
Drivers, much like the Live! 5.1 Before it. This decoding
occurs via the CPU & not on the Audigy DSP itself
however. Surround Mixer contains the option(s) to
configure this feature.
By
simply Unticking the option, you will be able to disable
AC-3 decoding support. Also worth noting (In 5.1 Speaker
mode) are the Bass Redirection & Crossover
Frequency settings which can be used to further optimize
the Audio, allowing you to have Bass level frequencies to be
sent to the Subwoofer once they are below are certain
threshold (As determined by the Crossover Frequency).
This will no doubt be useful for those whose 5.1 Speaker
system features poor (Or no) Bass management or you simply
just wish to have a stronger Bass output from your Subwoofer
without adjusting its volume.
That
said, is it really all that useful with Software DVD
Decoders, especially when the more popular ones now support
DTS & 6 Channel decoding? Hard to say. On one hand the
Software Decoders with DTS decoding will no doubt provide a
better listening experience due to their higher bitrate, but
then again they also cost a lot more to buy (As noted in our
TerraTec SiXPack 5.1 Review, to add DTS support to the
bundled WinDVD 3.0 MultiChannel would cost $20 extra). So
for those DVD enthusiasts on a budget the Audigy offers a
fairly compelling option, purchasing an Audio output limited
Software DVD Decoder which only need support S/PDIF
Output mode & using the Audigy to do 2, 4 or 5.1
decoding of the AC-3 track on the DVD (For the Audigy to
decode AC-3 tracks on DVDs the Software DVD Decoder must be
set to S/PDIF Output & AC-3 decoding enabled
in Surround Mixer). Those with external AC-3/DTS Decoders of
course would still be best of using that for AC-3 Decoding
(For performance reasons more than anything else, unless
it’s a poor Decoder).
Given
the AC-3 decoding ability in the Drivers, PlayCenter 3 that
comes bundled with the Audigy also supports playback of AC-3
encoded tracks. Of some increasing popularity (Especially
with the release of the Xbox) is that of Dolby Digital
(AC-3) Soundtracks in Games, as such it’s highly likely to
soon be a common feature of PC Games as well, which the
Audigy will be able to handle with ease.
When it
comes to actual playback of AC-3 audio sources & DVDs
using a Software DVD Decoder with the Audigy, it was just as
good as other Soundcards at my disposal positioning wise, as
one could expect. Similarly using the AC-3 decoding in the
Drivers worked well with such content as well, although not
as nice as that offered in the latest versions of Power DVD
or WinDVD (Which both support DTS decoding). Regular
AC-3/DTS pass-through worked just fine as expected as well,
with the DTT2500 decoder lighting up to confirm AC-3 being
decoded by it.
But
what about Dolby Digital Encoding as seen on Xbox &
nForce? Well, what about it I say, don’t let the terms get
to you. Audio quality won’t be any better with it (In a
way it should be degraded as AC-3 encoding involves compressing
the Audio stream) & given the Audigy already features true
6 Channel analog output similarly reduces the need for this.
On a related note for those who are considering the nForce
for the AC-3 encoding capability should consider other than
that what more does it offer over the Audigy, or other
Soundcards for that matter. At the time of writing the
nForce Drivers didn’t even support EAX!
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