Today's Audio Cards: Pro Sound At Low Prices - M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Reviewer's Manual

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R E V I E W E R ' S G U I D E
Today's Audio Cards:
Pro Sound at Low Prices
Two-channel stereo just doesn't cut it anymore as users
demand high-quality surround sound for their DVD
enabled computers
C
audio has come a long way. Just a few years ago, PC and Mac
OMPUTER
users settled for a pair of tinny, low-fidelity, battery-powered speakers
driven by a mediocre sound card that generated a lot of background noise.
How that has changed! As savvy consumers have become accustomed to
low-cost, high-performance, easy-to-use surround-sound DVD home theater sys-
tems, they are placing similar demands on computer audio—just as they did with
computer video. The Revolution 7.1 answers these demands by delivering profes-
sional-quality, high-definition audio signals to as many as eight speakers.
As video technology advanced, sound lagged. Now, major vendors are continually
introducing new technologies that support multi-channel surround sound and pro-
mote media as a key purpose for the computer:
•
Apple Computer: "Digital Hub"
•
Intel: "The center of your digital world"
• Microsoft: Windows Media Center Edition
In addition, "power gaming" demands the ultimate in both video and audio. Most
movies are now released to DVD with at least six audio channels (Dolby Digital
5.1), and, in some cases, with DTS ES 6.1, or Dolby Digital EX 6.1 (which Dolby
and THX recommend playing on a 7.1 system). Two new music formats, SACD
(Super Audio CD) and DVD-audio are likely to become increasingly important.
Yesterday's audio cards simply can't keep up; they're mired in hopelessly obsolete
1990s technology.
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