Features:
- Advanced positional audio
- Full 32-bit, 48 kHz audio signal processing
- 3-D sound with true quad output
- Dolby Digital for PC home theater
- High-quality MP3 playback and ripping
Description:
It's amazing how much a new sound card can add to a multimedia PC, especially if the computer is already tricked out with a nice video card and some thumping speakers. The MX400 can add life to your games and music CDs with its crisp output and robust 3-D audio support. It isn't necessarily the best sound card on the block, but it's an exceptional value for the money. This card is obviously aimed at gamers and computer users with DVD drives looking to set up a relatively cheap home-theater system. Gamers will love the card because of its hardware support for popular 3-D audio APIs like DirectSound3D, EAX 1.0 and 2.0, and A3D 1.0. Although there's no hardware support for versions of A3D above 1.0, the card does provide acceleration for the emerging I3DL2 standard, which more games in the future should support. Computer users with DVD-ROM drives will like the card's S/PDIF output jack (a rare luxury for a sound card in this price range), which can send Dolby Digital signals to their home theater system. For those of you without expensive Dolby Digital decoders and multiple speakers, the included SoftDVD software can convert the six-speaker Dolby Digital signal to play on two speakers, emulating some of the surround effects in the process. There are two standard output jacks on the back of the card (for front and rear speakers), along with line-in and microphone jacks for recording audio. We connected our four-speaker setup to the card and played games famous for their 3-D audio support. With titles like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 we were able to locate our enemies and dodge fire more easily due to the convincing surround-sound audio. We only wish the configuration software were more robust, as there's no way to adjust the front and rear channel output levels. Minor faults (and lack of A3D 2.0 and 3.0 support) aside, this is one of the better sound cards for users with four- or five-speaker setups. Those of you who use two speakers or headphones will likely be better off with a sound card with complete A3D support, as that audio standard is best at creating superb positional audio from two speakers. --T. Byrl Baker Pros:
- Supports many 3-D and surround sound formats
- S/PDIF output jack
- True quadraphonic output
Cons:
- No hardware support for versions of A3D beyond 1.0
- Configuration software has limited functions
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