Filter
Top Products
REVIEWER’S GUIDE
25
4. Audition a song from a CD or high-quality stereo WMA or MP3 file using
a media player such as iTunes or Windows Media Player.
5. Open the Revolution Control Panel and turn on Circle Surround II’s “Mu-
sic” mode in the “Surround Sound” pane.
6. Listen to the same song again. While any music will benefit from Circle
Surround II’s enhancement, music recorded with better channel separation
provides a better surround experience. Try the “Recommended for CSII”
tracks listed in the “Music Listening Samples” section.
7. Switch to the Revolution Control Panel’s Output Mixer and note the meters
representing additional surround channels. If you don’t see additional chan-
nels in the mixer, the source music may be mono and require you to set Cir-
cle Surround II to the “Mono” setting. Many Internet Radio broadcasts are
mono.
Note the immersive surround mix. On live albums, you can hear crowd noise in the
rear speakers, instrument and vocal separation, and great sense of “being there.”
The beauty of this feature is that it works with your entire CD, MP3, and WMA
collection.
8. Hook up an external MP3 player, DAT, MiniDisc, XM Radio, Satellite Re-
ceiver, or other external music/audio source to Revolution’s “Line In” jack.
9. Open the Revolution 7.1 Control Panel and with Circle Surround still en-
abled, check the “Enable Monitoring” or “Monitor Input on Output”
checkbox in the Surround Sound pane. Leave the Control Panel open or
minimize it without quitting or closing the Control Panel.
10. For stereo music, you should leave CSII in “Music” mode. For audio that is
Dolby Pro Logic or Circle Surround II encoded—such as many TV broad-
casts—set CSII to “Cinema” mode.
You can perform real-time stereo-to-surround sound conversion of any external
audio source and breathe new life into audio coming from your satellite TV re-
ceiver, digital or satellite radio, hard disk MP3 player, or other source. Now any
audio source can be played back in surround up to 7.1, thanks to the Revolution
7.1 and Circle Surround II. This is an extremely useful and powerful feature in a
home theater environment.
Test 9: Laboratory Audio Testing
Listening is the true test of any sound card. Yet for the engineers among us,
some prefer to see objective “laboratory tests” that corroborate what the ear
hears. This document’s technical and audio performance specifications (see
charts on pages 8 and 25) list some of the card’s audio performance specifica-
tions with competing cards. The results speak for themselves.
Audio testing with standard equipment (such as Audio Precision), especially at
higher audio qualities—such as 24-bit/96kHz and 24-bit/192kHz—confirms the