Dolby vs. Dolby: Digital Sound Cards Head to Head
We test two new sound cards that deliver six-channel, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound to your PC.Joel Strauch, special to PCWorld.com
To turn your PC into the ultimate audio system, you'll need not only a killer speaker set but also a capable sound card. We compared Creative's Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 card to Philips's Acoustic Edge. Both new cards offer superb Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, but the Platinum 5.1 package wins for ease of connectivity, while the Acoustic Edge does a better job of producing 5.1 sound from stereo sources.
Sound It Out
A Dolby Digital 5.1 sound card can reproduce sound through six separate channels: front left, front right, center, rear right, rear left, and a subwoofer for deep bass. (The subwoofer, as the low-frequency channel, is represented by the .1 in the 5.1 name). Regardless of what sound card you may choose, note that your card and speakers must have matching digital connections, and that sometimes the Dolby Digital encoding is handled differently by various manufacturers. If you plan to buy a card from one vendor and speakers from another, check with the vendors to be sure that their products can make sweet music together.
The $199 Platinum 5.1, powered by the EMU10K1 audio processor that comes standard in all Sound Blaster Live cards, includes a Live Drive component, an accessory that occupies a drive bay in your PC and allows you to connect a variety of analog and digital audio sources to the front of your PC instead of the rear. The component supplies connectors for MIDI instruments such as keyboards, auxiliary devices such as CD players and tape decks, and optical devices such as MiniDisc players, as well as headphones and a microphone. Installing the Live Drive requires a few extra steps, but if you're looking for the ultimate in audio connection capabilities, you'll be hard pressed to find better.
The Platinum 5.1 also features a remote control that allows you to control software DVD players and other media players. In addition, you get a great software bundle that includes full versions of the games Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, MDK2, and Thief II, along with a variety of multimedia applications.
At half the cost, the $99 Philips Acoustic Edge, built around the ThunderBird Avenger sound chip, offers fewer connectivity options and doesn't include any games, but it does ship with standard media applications for MP3 ripping and for audio and video playback.
But what really counts is the sound from these cards. Their four-channel playback of MP3 files, CD music, and game soundtracks came through clearly and crisply, with no distortion. Both cards also emulated Surround Sound in two-speaker setups, with modest success in each case. A better alternative, however, is to hook up additional speakers instead. These cards are designed for use with six speakers; they pump audio through six separate sound channels, and using them with just two speakers is like putting a Harley engine on a Razor scooter.
We were also impressed by the performance of both cards when they played Dolby Digital 5.1 sound files, namely clips from Dolby's Web site that provide the same type (but not the same quality) of sound you'd hear in a Dolby Digital-equipped movie theater. To achieve the effect, the cards pipe sound to the center channel, the four satellites, and the subwoofer. However, distinguishing between the cards in this mode was difficult.
Six sound channels can be as important in a small office or den as they are in a movie theater. Both cards offer support for EAX (environmental reverberation effects that help assign location to sounds), and games that use that feature really shine. We especially noticed the difference while playing Thief: The Dark Project, in which the sounds our character's footsteps made varied greatly depending on the room size and floor type. In Unreal Tournament, when we fired rockets, the sound started at the rear right and then zoomed to the front left--a very nice effect.
In addition, Creative asserts that the Platinum 5.1 will produce Surround Sound from stereo or even mono files; Philips states that the Acoustic Edge can produce 5.1-channel emulation only from stereo files. Nevertheless, we have to hand the emulation award to Philips. While not as sharp as true 5.1-channel sound, the emulated effect created by the Acoustic Edge algorithms delivers more distinct sound layers from the various speakers than does the effect produced by the Platinum 5.1. For example, a Dolby Digital clip of a falcon's cry normally swings across the speakers from left front to rear right in true 5.1-channel mode. When generating two-speaker output, the Philips card did a nicer job of reproducing the effect.
In short, if you need a card chockablock with audio inputs, grab the Platinum 5.1 with its Live Drive. You'll be able to connect components, instruments, and digital speakers easily from the front of your system. But if you're looking for a lower-cost, 5.1-channel option that provides excellent Surround Sound playback of stereo files, the Acoustic Edge gets the edge.