Testing The Revolution, Test Bed | M-Audio Revolution 7.1 specification

R E V I E W E R ’ S G U I D E

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T H E R E V O L U - T I O N 7 . 1 I S A G R E A T

C H O I C E F O R G A M E R S A N D D V D O R M U S I C E N T H U S I -

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Testing The Revolution 7.1

There’s only one way to check out the features of any audio card, and that’s to install it, load a CD, and listen to the music.

“Oh, baby, let the music play”

—The Doobie Brothers

WHEN you work with the Revolution 7.1, it’s important to remember that you’ll be examining two separate products—the hardware and the driver software—that work together as one. Several applications ship with the sound card; they are beyond the scope of this reviewer’s guide.

In this portion of the Revolution 7.1 Reviewer’s Guide, we’ll cover the following:

Test bed considerations

Hardware set-up

Software installation

Listening tests

The Test Bed

The best test of a sound card is to listen to it—just the way a gamer, or music or DVD enthusiast would use it. You’ll need the following equipment for testing your Revolution 7.1:

Computer

You can use a Macintosh or a PC as long as it has a free PCI slot and meets the minimum system requirements. For a PC, Windows Me, 2000, or XP are required. For a Macintosh, Mac OS 9.2.2 or later is required (OS X 10.2.3 or later is recom- mended).Speakers