SoundMAX 2.0, the Next Integrated Audio Standard?

[ArticleRobot]

Current on-board audio solutions are generally regarded as slow, clunky, and poor-featured. Analog Devices is looking to change that with its newly released SoundMAX 2.0, which promises fast, higher-quality, and overall richer on-board audio, for a small price. See how it stacks up.
<br>


http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/reviews/2940/

 

[Max-Qc]

Ok... A 900+ Mhz cpu seems to be required to run this kind of audio card...

Th article said that in office apps, it's ok but if you do use only word and other office apps, are you sure you'll buy this kind of cpu ?

If you do play, you'll have that kind of cpu but it this card sucks a bit in games... And if you can pay for a 1gig cpu, I think you can pay for a Sb Live or another add-on card...

Tell me what do you think...

In my opinion, AC97 is ok for offices, home users ... hardcore gamers or music listeners will buy a add-on card but if you are not one of them, the AC97 is enough...

I have a SB Live

but my parents have only a AC97 with Altec 45.2 and they are happy with it...



------------------
_______________________
RAM = Rarely Adequate Memory =)
http://www.max-qc.com

 

[Cyrix MII]

I have ancient soundcard that will still smoke the soundmax 2.0 in quality and cpu utilization. Perhap they need real hardware intergration not software driven crap like soft 56K modem which rely on the cpu to do most of the work. What we need is full sb 16 compliant, not SB 8bit compatibility, even my PAS16 already has that even so it still disappointing as most software have to be run in 8bit 22Kherz mode because of the lack of SB16 support.

 

[Bratpack74]

This is obviously aimed at the Dell/Gateway customers. I really don't believe that the people who read this site/board would be interested in a sound solution that take cycles (even idle) from the CPU. Granted who would notice a 9fps drop in Q3 when it's running at 159fps? I really don't like integrated solutions when they reduce functionality.
If Intel had crippled the math coprocessor when they put it in the 486 I guarantee people would have screamed about it. If integrating IDE into the motherboard brought the transfer rate down to serial speed it wouldn't have happened. The only way to get widespread acceptance of this integrated audio garbage is to have it function just as well as the standalone solutions.

------------------
This is the end of my post

 

[BobT0T]

This product seems to have all of the draw backs of USB speakers (high cpu util, special speakers, non-standard interface) with none of the benefits. (USB can be used with other devices) And now users will have to deal with 3 different ports (sound card, USB, SoundMAX 2.0) instead of one. And I won't mention BSD, Linux, BeOS drivers for this beast. If I were building a machine today I would stay FAR, FAR away from this beast no matter now good it sounds.