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Today’s Audio Cards:

Pro Sound at Low Prices

Two-channel stereo just doesn’t cut it anymore as users demand high-quality surround sound for their DVD enabled computers

COMPUTER audio has come a long way. Just a few years ago, PC and Mac users settled for a pair of tinny, low-fidelity, battery-powered speakers driven by a mediocre sound card that generated a lot of background noise. How that has changed! As savvy consumers have become accustomed to

low-cost, high-performance, easy-to-use surround-sound DVD home theater sys- tems, they are placing similar demands on computer audio—just as they did with computer video. The Revolution 7.1 answers these demands by delivering profes- sional-quality, high-definition audio signals to as many as eight speakers.

As video technology advanced, sound lagged. Now, major vendors are continually introducing new technologies that support multi-channel surround sound and pro- mote media as a key purpose for the computer:

•Apple Computer: “Digital Hub”

•Intel: “The center of your digital world”

•Microsoft: Windows Media Center Edition

In addition, “power gaming” demands the ultimate in both video and audio. Most movies are now released to DVD with at least six audio channels (Dolby Digital 5.1), and, in some cases, with DTS ES 6.1, or Dolby Digital EX 6.1 (which Dolby and THX recommend playing on a 7.1 system). Two new music formats, SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-audio are likely to become increasingly important. Yesterday’s audio cards simply can’t keep up; they’re mired in hopelessly obsolete 1990s technology.