Winter Audio Reference: On-Board, Consumer, and Pro Solutions
by Derek Wilson on February 3, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
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Audio Quality: Qualitative Analysis
For our qualitative audio analysis, we would like to stress again that listening to analog outputs on PC audio cards is a very subjective and difficult task. Digital should be used where possible, but the majority of people still run analog. And so the quality of analog output is still of the utmost importance.
-- 16-bit/44.1kHz/2-Channel Test: The Mangroves Live at Tir na Nog
This recording was done using a DigiDesign ProTools LE Digi 002 setup on a G5 at a local bar in Raleigh. Though the 1 room + 2 vox + 5 instrument mic setup (for a three piece indi/rock band) left a little to be desired, and the mix down was less than stellar, this gig makes an excellent test track. On the Gina3G and Intel solutions, it's easy to separate the noise and the music, but on the Audigy 2, the audience sounded a little smashed into the band. This problem wasn't as bad on the Audigy 4, but the crowd noise on the other cards seemed a little less muddy and thick. It's likely that any 44.1kHz audio source with a lot of high end will produce a muddled low end on Audigy cards because of the poor IMD at high frequencies. Just because we can't hear the high fequencies that are interfering doesn't mean that we can't hear the product of their interferance.
-- 24-bit/96kHz/6-Channel Test: Creative Labs Demo DVD-Audio
It was hard to decide on what media to choose, so we just pulled a track that we liked from the Creative sample disk. We went with Mannheim Steamroller - Leonardo from their American Gramaphone album. The track fits their normal eclectic style and mixes intricate rhythms with walking melodies. The synth harpsichord on drums is quite interesting. We used PowerDVD to play back the DVD-Audio on all 4 cards, and didn't have any problems. The voicing was clear all around, and try as we might, we couldn't discern one card from another. If we really cranked the volume to painful levels, we could hear some noise on the Intel solution. Unfortunately, there is no way to play DVD-Audio out over a digital connection to a receiver. This makes the analog signal quality of the card of the highest importance if DVD-Audio listening is going to be performed on the PC.
-- DVD-Video Tests: The Matrix / Dream Theatre Live at Budokan
We wanted to test a movie and a live audio performance with our DVD test. The Matrix is always fun to watch, so we just couldn't help popping that one in. And who's better live than Dream Theater? OK, so that may be totally subjective, but they at least create a lot of sound, and being a drummer, it's hard not to want to sit and listen to Mike Portnoy for multiple hours. Both The Matrix and Dream Theater Live at Budokan took full advantage of our 5.1 surround system, though we preferred listening to Dream Theatre using the higher quality headphones in stereo while watching. And so, we listened both ways on each card just to cover the bases.
And what do you know, but we just couldn't find favor with any of these cards. Each did as good of a job as the last playing back these higher quality audio streams.
The only discernable differences in our listening tests came in at 16-bit/44.1kHz on the Audigy series of cards. Tying it back to RMAA, we can point to the poor IMD performance. On a design level, some sites point out that this problem could stem from the fact that the creative DSP is locked at 16-bit/48kHz, and 44.1 is not an even multiple of 48 (as 96 and 192 are). This odd multiple resampling could be causing the issues, but that seems likely only if the DSP were enabled (some EAX/EQ/filtering turned on). In our RMAA tests and during playback, we made sure to disable these features, so this shouldn't have been a factor.
It is possible to have your favorite media player upsample your 44.1kHz media up to 48kHz, which would cause less problems than forcing a native 48kHz device to operate at 44.1kHz. Check the help files for resampling options.
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EddNog - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
ProviaFan, take a look at the Paradigm stuff, or if you've got decent multichannel power, I also feel that Magnepan's smaller speakers give good sound for the money (MMGs for example). I'm not sure if a Magnepan setup is in your budget (definitely worth the money if you can afford it, though, and comparably cheaper than many other audiophile HT solutions), but Paradigm's midrange (i.e. not Reference series) stuff should be pretty affordable. It's probably no cheaper than Magnepan to outfit your HT with Paradigm Reference, though.Of course there's plenty of other options out there. On the more affordable end, perhaps try some Cambridge Newton Series sats/bookshelves in conjunction with a Velodyne sub.
-Ed
Jigga - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
#26 is right on the mark--need ALC850 and Envy24 reviews STAT!ProviaFan - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
Response to the audiophile that just posted: Yes, good cable is important, but good cable can be made at home for not terribly large amounts of money... Anything that costs hundreds of dollars per foot is not necessarily bad, but is nonetheless a terrible waste of money, because _there is no difference_. If you hear a difference between a $4 cable and a $40 cable, there probably is a difference. If you hear a difference between a $40 cable and a $4000 cable, it's in your head.With that said, I'd like to know of what to look for in a _good_ 5.1 monitor speaker setup (not consumer gaming quality, but not break-the-bank "audiophile" monitors based advertised with endless pseudoscience), as I might be in the market for something like that. :)
Oh, and if Derek has any extra spare time (yeah, sure ;), I would be interested to see where something like the M-Audio Delta 1010LT sits between the consumer cards and the other pro cards that he mentioned in one of his latest posts (MOTU, Digidesign, etc.).
vaystrem - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
Other than Ed I think I'm the only audiophile to post on this and this is my comment regarding your multichannel setup.You used professional monitors for the 2 channel listening, fine Sony isn't great but its ok.
And you used a consumer level speakers, Logitech, for your multichannel experience.
You could hear differences on 2 channel... but not multi channel. What has changed most significantly is... your speakers. As you state, speakers are what introduce the highest levels of distortion.
You can believe me, or not, but on my setup I can hear differences between CD players (Arcam 73t, Cary 308, Creek CD50, Roksan Kandy mkIII, Rega Planet 2000, Cambridge Audio Azur 640c for the curious), cabling and amplifiers.
You need to have better quality speakers for evaulating multichannel. I'm not arguing the speakers are even the most important component, I'm a source first kind of person. But I think that having better evaluatory tools would be helpful.
You absolutely have the right idea of having a 'reference'. Do not change it often. This is something Anandtech has always been good at with your other reviews. You use the same hardware/software tests over a longer period of time than other sites to ensure 'long term comparability'.
Including a subjective element to the tests would be interesting. Some sites to look at.
www.audioasylum.com Post a request on recommended testing methodologies and it might be helpful.
www.uhfmag.com (comparative reviews panel of listeners generally non blind)
www.hifichoice.co.uk (active use of blind listening panels here)
www.stereophile.com www.sixmoons.com
www.soundstage.com (does lots of measurements good comparisons)
Those might be useful.
Also, using some high quality headphones, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Grado might be useful as well.
CSMR - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
There is a general ignorance the basics of what audio systems are composed of. A receiver has a completely different purpose to a PC audio card (Griffin powerwave excluded). You need three things: an analog line-level signal (from a DAC), amplification, and speakers. (Exception: digitally-controlled class D amplification.) A $200 receiver will not have as good dacs as those in for instance the EMU 1212m. A receiver is often a DAC and an amplifier. Sound cards generally do not contain amplification.dev0lution - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
I second that. While it's nice to know how the audio solutions stack up in testing, some real world advice & comparisons would be a lot more helpful. For example, using the Intel/Realtek onboard solution with quality optical cables straight to a Dolby Digital receiver with home theater speakers versus using an Audigy card to a set of mid-high end 5.1 computer speakers.Zak - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
I use SPDIF outputs to hook up my computers to external equipment, a receiver and set of "real" speakers. IMHO a $200 receiver sounds superior to any PC audio card. I get real DolbyDigital and DTS decoding, low CPU overhead. Maybe I miss some of the audio effects in games but I always thought that Creative EAX is way overhyped anyway and most of the time I'd have it turned off because the sound was just plain weird. I think as more games have support for Dolby 5.1 and better EAX will become less relevant.Zak
CSMR - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
The review's title should be: audio for gaming. Apart from gaming you have very many audio cards: E-MU, Ego Systems, Edirol, RME, M-Audio, etc.. For audio playback and recording these are the cards to consider; for gaming the reviewed cards are the ones to consider. (Not that they are bad: the Audigy 4 Pro is a good audio card, but around the level of the emu 0404, which costs less.)Slaimus - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
Including older cards is a great idea as many people are looking for an upgrade. Something I would like to see included personally:- classic SoundBlaster Live using the kX driver and swapped outputs.
- DFI's Karajan audio module with ALC850 compared to the standard implementation
- SoundBlaster Live 24-bit with the Wolfson DAC
DerekWilson - Thursday, February 3, 2005 - link
#37, bbomb, Good suggestion ...Title changed :-)
I'll add an updated to the conclusion as well that ties together what we were trying to do with the article and explains the point a little better ... I do applogize for the confusion on all this.
For the future, here are some chipsets and cards we want to include in the future:
envy24 boards (maudio and terratec)
realtek alc850 onboard
analog devices onboard
nvidia nf2 soundstorm
pro:
lynx (l22)
emu
digidesign (mbox or digi 002 rack + protools)
motu
rme
It does look like there's a lot of demand for older Turtle Beach and Creative cards, so we'll try to take a look at those as well for reference.