Another Philips Accoustic Edge Review...

[Insane3D]

Here is another review of the latest soundcard from Philips. It's fairly brief but overall it's pretty good...


Review

 

[Insane3D]

^

 

[RagingGuardian]

Anybody knows if I can use a Live Drive with the Acoustic Edge because I'm thinking about getting an Acoustic Edge?

 

[Pariah]

"The bottom line: Forget everything you've heard: this is the finest sound card on the market."

Unless you're running win2k, then you hear silence until drivers are released. Slight ommission on the reviewer's part.

 

[Insane3D]

"Unless you're running win2k, then you hear silence until drivers are released"

I am not sure what you mean Pariah. I am running Win2K SP2 with my AE and it sounds great. It works with games, music, and DVD's perfect. There are supposedly new drivers coming that have more sound tweaking options in them, but for the first release of a brand new card, the drivers work great.

 

[Insane3D]

RagingGuardian:

You can not use the Live Drive with the AE. That is a SB Live option only, the pins needed to connect the LD are not present on this card. I never used mine anyway...it sits in the closet gathering dust.

 

[Pariah]

Really? Phillips site (which incidently really stinks and has little info) makes no mention of win2k support and 3dsoundsurge said they were using beta drivers for win2k testing.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Must resist urge to dump Live...


Mike

 

[CalebTG]

Pariah, that is because 3dsoundsource had the card before it went retail, Phillips was working on drivers for the release still.

 

[Insane3D]

You can do it Mike...resist...must resist....

I couldn't...my 5.1 Platnium is in the closet..LOL

 

[Mikewarrior2]

After christmas... maybe


Mike

 

[Hanpan]

Just wondering what you guys thought about the turtle beach santa cruz.

 

[Insane3D]

I don't have any experience with it personally, but I hear it is also better than the live. I believe it has good connectivity as well. There is a good review here.

 

[Insane3D]

^

 

[Wingznut]

I have a Santa Cruz. I used to have a Live! (imho, the most overrated piece of hardware out there) and a MX300. The Santa Cruz tops both of them.

I am very curious to check out the Phillips offerings.

 

[Insane3D]

Wingznut PEZ:

You should give it a try. My Promedia's sounded a hell of a lot better hooked up to that card than they did with the Live. A slightly more accurate speaker like your BA4800's would surely benefit as well...the sound reproduction is much more accurate with the Tbird DSP. The QMSS algorithms do wonders with DVD's, music, and games....

 

[LXi]

Wingznut PEZ:

I have to say this again, Live!s are not overrated, they're never meant to do what they're not suppose to do.

 

[SpeedGod]

Insane3D: your making me think about dumping my live x-gamer for a Acoustic edge sound card. =)

 

[Insane3D]

Here is another..

Acoustic Edge Review

"Philips believes this card sets itself apart from the SBLive 5.1 and the Santa Cruz because it is the very first card to enable true 5.1 audio from ANY source. That means that even stereo sources will output in 6 discrete channels using Qsound?s patented Multi-Speaker System technology. This technology essentially extracts positional information from a stereo stream, and maps it to a 5.1 or 4.1 setup to produce discrete and distinctive channels of surround sound."

 

[Wingznut]

Lxi, I say that because so many times around here, people ask what sound card they should get. And more often than not, the majority says to get a Live!. Imho, the Live! is probably the fourth best sound card out there, at best.

 

[Techno]

Wow....

Thats reason enough for me to get it and dump my Santa Cruz. I use Acid Pro 2.0 to make music and i'd love to hear it threw my 5.1 system like that...

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Dammit, I think i'm gonna have to get one this week... my live just went out on me . Blessing in disguise? I hope so.


Mike

 

[LXi]

<<I say that because so many times around here, people ask what sound card they should get. And more often than not, the majority says to get a Live!. Imho, the Live! is probably the fourth best sound card out there, at best.>>

You dont realize its strengths do you? The reason why people keep recommending them, is because of their quality, compatibility, and driver support. In those three categories they're second to nobody. It's not just the technology that counts.

Oh btw, you said its fourth best, whose's the third one besides Santa Cruz and Acoustic Edge?

 

[Sengar]

I just picked up a Live! Platinum 5.1 this past week, haven't even used it once (was planning on putting it in my new box), and here I am already second guessing the purchase. I wonder how an AE would go with a new Digitheater DTS speaker system...

I wonder if I have the strength to resist the temptation to find out...

 

[Howard]

LXi: The MX300 (Vortex2)