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SoundStorm 2: SoundStorm Strikes Back?
An anonymous reader writes "Phoronix, a popular Linux-based hardware review site, has posted their beliefs on what they feel is the returning of NVIDIA's SoundStorm Technology. Even though sites have said SoundStorm is dead, Phoronix continues to believe otherwise about this long-discussed situation. They contend NVIDIA is currently working on a new generation of APUs for its upcoming Chipsets and they feel one of the audio technologies may be SoundStorm! The article can be read here, but it looks like only time will reveal if new audio features are being brought fourth in the new Chipsets."
"While we have chosen to not include the SoundStorm APU in our current nForce4 MCP, we look forward to including our audio technology in future NVIDIA products."
That's hardly dead, especially when that article if from nearly a year ago. A year is a huge timespan in computing.
It's a "certification", a label that attest that the hardware follow certain specs and offer certain features (number and type of I/O connections, for example).
SeqBox
Well here's a tip you're not going to find a good amplifier+speakers for 69$...
;-)
Suck it up, spend the 500$-1000$ for a home setup and move on.
You don't have to be an audiophile with 3000$ speakers just to get some decent quality sound. I bought a Sony amplifier+receiver which with proper gauge cabling [forget what gauge] for 900$ I can listen to my music and actually like it
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
X Mystique, Dolby Digital Live-encoding PCI sound card.
I have three of them. They rock. Best hardware I've purchased in years, since they let me junk shitty Asus boards (AFAIK Asus is the only company that ever fully implemented soundstorm to begin with) for Gigabyte and Soltek hardware that I'm much more comfortable with.
Here's a good summary of my experiences with the first card I got.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
That wasn't a soundstorm-capable chip. Soundstorm mixes everything into 5.1 Dolby Digital when given a digital path to a 5.1 Dolby decoder. AFAIK Asus is the only company that included it on their boards (or more precisely, the only company that included it and actually added the digital out needed for it to work). Everyone else just shipped CMedia or Realtek AC97 crap.
If you're happy with AC97, good for you, but Soundstorm was a whole different experience, since it actually creates LFE and rear surround (well, in games anyway; for music I think it just echos the front speakers) from PCM sources. Anyone who has had a home theater setup connected to their computer has probably tried the "Dolby Pro Logic II" setting (also available on some Intel Motherboards, I think), which does sort-of create surround, but surround that's limited to primarily the center channel and front speakers. DPLII barely touches the surrounds and never fires your sub, making it rather less impressive.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Sicne he linked to Newegg (a great company BTW) I did a quick Froogle and found it cheaper. Notably, Buy.com has it for ~$87 with free shipping.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I believe what he meant was that the card manufacturer was cheap and used one physical input for both mic and one of the speaker channels.
Linux is not Windows
The Abit NF-7S v2.0 is NForce2 based and has the soundstorm Chipset (with the Digital out too.)
I own one.
Do not read this
The Audigy 4 has recently been surpased by the X-Fi. It's an entirely new architecture, both hardware and software.
Creative's EAX has been doing positional 3D audio with occlusion and reverberation for quite a while now. The Aureal was nice, sure, but Creative has had, and has, tech that accomplishes the same thing.