Gainward Hollywood@Home SoundXplosion Pack Review - Inside the Music2Go
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Inside, we find a C-Media card powering this unit. In fact, it's a single chip solution by C-Media's CM106-F chip. Most of the action, however, happens in the software side of things.
The surround sound positional audio is handled by C-Media's Xear 3D technology, which is basically a set of software APIs which, in theory, convert 5.1 audio to stereo, and 2 channel audio to 5.1. Two of the technologies featured here are Speaker Shifter and Earphone Plus.
Speaker Shifter is supposed to allow users to virtually drag and position speakers with its GUI tools without actually having to position the speakers around. Does it do the job? Not really, although it does do a better job than other technologies out there. Combine that with a set of 5.1 or 7.1 surround speakers, however, and that then is another story entirely. In this case, Speaker Shifter actually does a pretty good job balancing out speakers to taste, something which was quite welcome with the SoundXplosion headphones. We'll cover this a bit later.
Earphone Plus is something a bit more innovative. By using a pair of 2-channel speakers and open-ear headphones, users can recreate a complete surround sound environment, with the speakers acting as the front speakers and the head set acting ask the back speakers. Not a bad choice for those who absolutely need 3D audio but don't have the speakers or room to spare.
Note: You can find technical specifications on Xear 3D and other related technologies at http://www.cmedia.com.tw/e_tech_01.htm. To wrap it all up, here's a bit from Gainward:
[In] the process of real-time simulation of visual and acoustic elements, powerful HRTF library and EnvironmentFX™ are a must. C-Media patented Xear 3D™ Engine excels all other solutions in that Xear 3D™ Engine supports powerful HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) library and real-time EnvironmentFX™, exhibiting comprehensive and supreme environmental audio effects. When Xear 3D™ Engine is utilized, game players can instantly perceive different sound effect when the setting is changed. No more confusion in directions.
UPDATE (Sept. 16, 2004): For many of you the question is whether the Music2Go does DVD audio. According to Gainward's technicians, although it's not documented anywhere on the site (at least nowhere where I could easily find it), the card supports DVD Audio (as defined here) with the bundled WinDVD 5 software. Also, in regards to Dolby digital, the card only does decoding. The signal of S/PDIF is a digital signal, but you can get 2, 2.1, 4, 8, and 8 channel analog output with the proper digital to analog decoder.
Next: Checking Out the SoundXplosion Headset >>
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