How is the Phillips Acoustic Edge for gaming?

[DavidHood]

I currently have an old Sblive and it is getting on my nerves with my A7V. I am wondering if I should go ahead and ditch it for the Acoustic Edge.

 

[Wingznut]

Vortex2, Santa Cruz, Accoustic Edge are all better than the SBLive for gaming.

I've owned a SBLive!, MX300, and now a Santa Cruz. Imho, the SBLive pales in comparison to the other cards, especially the Santa Cruz.

 

[Hanpan]

I too love my santa cruz. Definatly better than sb live. And a lot less of a pain to install

 

[soljahz]

I have own all those sound cards and accoustic edge is the best at this moment for games, mp3s, and dvd is not that bad even tho i don't have a center speaker for it. Santa cruz was nice, just that i had driver probs with it. Vortex was my favorite for gaming just that its not supported no more. My first sound card the sb live value, after i had tried all the other cards i was like what have i been missing out, the sb live just isn't that great with 3d surround gaming.

 

[Dug]

I replaced my sb live with the Acoustic Edge. Much, much better sound. Every thing sounds great, from music to games. The SB Live always sounded a little tinny(sp) to me, like the sound was coming from a coke can. I always attributed it to my speakers. Well I was wrong. Everything sounds nice and full along with great base. The positional sounds are great, too.

 

[holdencommodore]

Philips sure got a good chip when they bought VLSI Technology. They got the ThunderBird Avenger and ThunderBird Q3D (I have a Aztech PCI 368DSP s/c with this chip).
Even though the Avenger chip was designed a good few years ago, it is now the best.

 

[Soccerman]

hmm.. right now the hopes for the soundcard industry live in one company.. Philips! I don't think Creative's gonna be able to sue them up to their ears any time soon..

if I get a soundcard, I'm hoping that it won't be a step backward from my Vortex 2 card in terms of the 3D audio capabilities (A3D 2/3 equivalent I'm talking). not only that but onboard Dolby digital decoding (none of this software stuff) would be nice (for both DVD's and GAMES, it's embedded in A3D 3.0), seeing as we should have had it last year.. then Creative had to go and blow up that hope...

it's weird, now I have 2 pieces of technology from companies that do not exist.. Voodoo 3, which performs admirably if you ask me (which is why I bought it, it's a great quality component) and my Vortex 2 Superquad Digital (also a high quality component of my computer).

I'm starting to wonder if I could sell this computer at some sort of sale for rare computer parts?? after all, I have a somewhat rare PCI hardware modem as well.. perhaps add a dash of K6-3+, if only I had a motherboard to support it (I'm looking at this K6-3+ right now.. cursed ASUS!).

 

[Techno]

None of you Mofo's know a f*cking thing about Sound Quality... My SBLive is the .... oh .... wait....i'm sorry..... i thought i was "someone" else for a second....

Anyways... I have both the Santa Cruz in 1 of my computers and an Acoustic Edge in my other one. Both are great cards. There are way better then SBlive. I bought the Acoustic Edge just from what i saw in a few reviews (along w/ people on anandtech) and i love both of them!!!

 

[Wingznut]

Soccerman, don't sell Turtle Beach short. The Santa Cruz is an excellent sound card.

 

[Noriaki]

wow you guys...where is the usual AT Forums mob mentality?

SBLive! is the best becuase creative is the biggest company and they said it's the best! They are a big company, they must be right because they have more money than everyone else!

Uh yeah anyhow...never heard a Santa Cruz...but a friend of mine has the Accoustic Edge, and I friggin love it! Gaming, Mp3s, DVDs...quality and features...AWESOME card! I want one...it's the next thing I'm buying for my system.

 

[Wingznut]

One of these days I'm going to get an AE, just so I can compare it to my Santa Cruz.

 

[tboo]

I tried out an AE to see if would replace my SBLive Platinum 5.1, but I really didnt notice any difference between the 2. I did notice on some games with the AE the background noises in games were WAY too loud(Messiah, Star Trek Armada). I didnt impress me enough to replace my SBLive with it.

 

[RGN]

Only if you use Win98/me. If you use Win2K, your in for a suprise.

 

[Beowulf]

I have to get an AE to test it.Though I think my Santa Cruz is perfectly fine compared to my old vortex2 and the sb live 5.1 I used for a week or so.

 

[kylef]

RGN: That is specifically NOT what I heard about the AcousticEdge drivers for Win2k. Most people I've talked to have said their Win2k drivers are perhaps the best ones yet written for Win2k. They fit the WDM model almost to a letter. I know you may have had a bad experience with the card, but are you sure that others had the same problem you have had?

It certainly can't take much to do better than LiveWare under Win2k... Yuk!

Kyle

 

[DavidHood]

Ok I will prob get one but when you use this card for gaming, do u enable hardware acceleration for the sound or do u just let the chip inside do its thing. I am just use to using the EAX and dirertsound acceleration with the Sblive.

 

[dougjnn]

I'd love to hear more about the AccousticEdge under Win2K.

I've been piecing together that there are relatively new drivers that fix the old problems, but that the old problems were bad. (But aren't anymore.)

Is that the state of play?

Since I'm gonna be running Win2k most of the time, including virtually always when listening to MP3's or CD's with the system abuilding, this is crucial to me.

If Win2k is a go, the AccousticEdge is a go for me. I keep hearing about its sound quality.

 

[StrangeRanger]

dougjnn, i've got the AE running w2k and love it. at first there were minor issues, but after the driver update it has been excellent for all my games, CD's and audio editing (DAT recordings of live shows -> to CD). i can't say anything about mp3's, can't stand 'em, don't use 'em. and FYI, i spoke with tech support about their live update for the drivers. they admit that yes it's a crappy way to do it, but for speed's sake they did it that way. and that yes, in the near future you WILL be able to dl and keep the drivers w/out doing the stupid online update.
j

 

[dougjnn]

StrangeRanger --

Thanks, good info. There's no reason to assume that the AccousticEdge can't do fine by MP3's, is there? I assume that should be no sweat, so long as it can work well under Win2k, and works well with the games that are out there.

Any thoughts on what 4 channel (w/subwoofer) speaker system to go with it? For my small computer office I'm cheap re: speakers. I have a big high end surround sound system with B&W's, Velodyne, Bryston amp & sub, Yamaha surround DSP, etc.

I just want something inexpensive, not too high powered but good subwoofer sound in a small 8x7 home computer office (door's always open). Don't want to spend more than $150, more like $120 or 100 sounds nice. I was leaning towards the Cambridge FPS 2000 (which seems to sound better than some of their 5.1 jobs) @ $120. But some guys on this tread pointed me to the Altec ACS56 as in the same ballpark (actually a bit cheaper), but a bit better subwoofer and mellower sound.

Any thoughts?

 

[Maverick]

I love my Acoustic Edge. I just got it based on reviews and Anandtech users thoughts. Great card, I'd recommend it to anyone over a Live. I had a Live! value and I noticed that the bass would cut out every now and then. Thought it was my speakers, but it turned out to be my card.
The AE has the best positional audio in my opinion.

As far as 4.1 speaker systems, my advice is to get the BA4800's. They're a bit older (they don't have digital connections) but they work really well with the AE and the sound incredible. Their quality surpases both the FPS2000 and the Altec Lansings. Great for games, and really good for music too. You should be able to pick them up for under $150 at CompUSA or Best Buy. Good luck.

 

[Wingznut]

I second the BA-4800 suggestion. Outstanding speakers.

 

[mylam]

I'd love to hear more about the AccousticEdge under Win2K.

 

[dougjnn]

Well, I've ordered the BA-4800s.

But I'm going back the other way on the sound card issue.

I'm about to decide which sound card I get for my abuilding system, a live x-gamer (I want the games) or a Phillips Acoustic Edge. I was convinced to go Phillips, but then I read a review which got me thinking about the complexities in gaming, what with patches and what they come out for.

I gather the Accoustic edge is gonna sound better probably playing CD's or MP3's, or DVD's (maybe). But I also gather from a VERY long and detailed review which I read recently, that the Acoustic Edge has some more game compatibility problems than the Live cards do.

Not because of the quality of the card, but just because of who the games direct their support efforts at. It all seemed remarkably complicated. Especially it seems that patches to 3D sound problems with released games are gonna be a lot easier to get with the Live series.

What's your experience? Have you had your Phillips card long.

 

[CresenS]

Well , gotta say i was VERY deceived by the accoustic edge , after all the reviews i read about it , i bought it : i first installed it and i could get almost no sound out of it , i tried it in my roomate's compy and you guys know what ? his hp-pavillon's onbaord sound was waaaaaaaaaaaay better than the AE , i thought the card was damaged i sent it back to get a new one , same problem , tiny little sound coming out of it , i updated the drivers , did everything but the sound is still to little to believe for a 100$ card , may be ai got 2 damaged cards , i don't know but now i think i'm done with that sh!t... :disgust:

 

[BowDown]

Most likely you aren't using amplified speakers... If your HP had an AMP built onto it the it could power the speakers, other than that I don't see what the prb is.

I'm going to have to stick with my SBLive Platinum mainly because it's got the Live Drive, and I use it for headphones and plugging my bass/guitar into my computer.