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INTRODUCTION
You might spend $200, $300, or even $400 on a great set of speakers for
your PC, but if you don't have a quality sound-card that supports all
the levels of sound and surround sound features that make great sound
worthwhile. Although many motherboards support on-board sound, these solutions
more often than not do not support 5.1 surround sound or any of the advanced
sound effects and features that many of the top games feature.
 The
Philips PSC724 Ultimate Edge Sound Card is a very affordable audio card
solution that features true 6-channel enhanced high definition audio,
a 24-bit audio control center, automatic playback optimization, and full
32-bit processing to enhance the 24-bit sources.
key features / specs
The features of the unit:
- Intelligent Media Processing
Automatically optimizes every sound stream based on format, speaker
configuration and user preferences.
- Sound Agent 2 HD control center
Award-winning and ultra-modern graphical user interface.
- 24-bit signal processing for ALL sources
DSP effects and discrete stereo to multichannel conversion for all external
media sources, e.g.,TV tuners, MP3 players—ANY input automatically
upgraded to HD quality!
- Pro-grade 24-bit hardware converters
True 24-bit audio controller and codecs for bit-per-bit accurate High
Definition audio quality providing 106 dB SNR.
- High Definition DSP Audio Engine
Full 32-bit floating point digital signal processing with advanced audio
effects and sonic enhancements.
The features turn your mundane sound system into a
performance rig ... you use the right tools, you get the right experience.
installation
Installing the card was a completely uneventful experience
(that's a good thing). You simply pop the card into a free PCI slot, turn
on the system, and throw in the CD-ROM with the driver on it and let it
install. After a system reboot, the sound card works as advertised.
Performance
Undoubtedly, the PSC724's best application is with a 5.1
surround sound system. For those of you that want to hear ALL the sound
effects they way they were intended from the top games you shell out money
for, then you have to consider getting a quality audio card product. The
card provides a rich and clear DSP environment and has the ability to
do data conversion while obtaining a 106dB SNR, and also an industry-first
full 32-bit floating point digital signal processing for its entire feature
set.
 I
played two games in depth with the card - WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne,
and Doom 3. For those of you that know about Doom 3, its a game that offers
as much with the ears than it does with the eyes ... meaning they put
meticulous time into the sound effects into the game in order to make
the scary ambiance that was necessary for the right feel for the game.
Having upgraded from the on-board audio, there was a noticeable difference
in the richness of the sounds I heard in the game. WarCraft III had some
slight differences that I noticed, the biggest being a sound flaw being
corrected when some units where created (before they didn't make a sound,
now they do).
Listening to MP3s honestly didn't offer much of a difference,
but the noticeable difference with this card certainly came in any 5.1
surround sound environment, and using the latest top game on the market
(Doom 3).
Overall Impressions
Today's PCs are entering into a new era of use - not just
"the computer" that we use to browse the net, write our documents,
and play our games, but a device that we use to control our entire homes
and home entertainment system. If you have a computer hooked up to your
big screen television, and the surround sound speakers are hooked up to
the computer, then why on Earth would you use a cheap sound card solution?
Simple - you wouldn't!
The practicality of the Philips PSC724 Ultimate Edge sound
card is very high, and the performance was absolutely outstanding in a
5.1 surround sound environment and gaming. The control panel that comes
with the driver set is particularly impressive, and the QMSSS5.1 technology
behind the QSound program allows users to get 6 Channel Surround Sound
from any source material. There's a lot behind this technology, and in
the 2 full weeks of testing the card, we still had not mastered the entire
product.
The performance of the PSC724 Ultimate Edge sound card is
impressive, and the value of the card which is priced competitively at
$69.99 gets high marks. The coolness factor of the card gets good marks,
as anyone who considers themselves an audiophile would know the difference
this card provides. The usefulness gets a mid-grade mark, as there are
many people out there that the card wouldn't benefit - those that don't
play games and don't use their PCs as a DVD station. Overall, this is
a solid product, and a fantastic choices for PC upgraders to look at when
considering an audio card solution.
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10 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
90%
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9 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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8 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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9.0 / 10 |
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