【 Weak current College 】 professional sound card purchase (2)

3.3, Yamaha Corporation (YAMAHA)
Current popular most low-grade PCI sound card with YAMAHA YMF724/chips, in Ling 3DS724A price is the entry-level product of choice. He is able to simulate A3D sound output, MIDI playback performance good, the instrument timbre quite delicate, restore of real, bass more shocking, especially when playing pop music MIDI music clear-cut, sound and space are all very good, but the penetration is not strong, there is some distortion of digital audio. As audio market cosmopolite, Yamaha Corporation retains the lofty position, but the sound chip fields but not many, actually achieved several products also have a fairly good reputation, but as with the innovation of using your own chip production sound card.
YMF724E chip is Yamaha Corporation's current main sound chip, general concertation plant YMF730Codec chip, he focuses on low-end sound card market. In addition to compatibility with past YMF724E-V Yamaha Chip FM sound mode will also increase the number of complex to 192, 64 generated by hardware wavetable, 128 by famous SYXG50 soft Wavetable (also is Yamaha's product) generate, use 2-6MB sample RAM, the effect is quite good. But he also introduces Yamaha and Stanford University cooperation and development of technology, former AdvancedSoundius-XGWavetableSynthesis of XG tone configuration table (which can be seen as an extension of the GeneralMIDI), designed to enhance the performance of special musical instrument, the effect of technology can enable MIDI even mimic musical instruments. In addition, he also takes the CRL (CentralResearchLaboratories) Sensaura3D audio routing method for DirectSound3D, the principle is similar and A3D, HRTF function with the actual effect is not inferior to A3D1.0. In terms of I/O, YMF724E also supports S/PDIF interface that can be directly output digital audio signal. But the chip in the DOS compatibility aspects of some of the problems, although support SBLink, actual performance remains unstable. However, Yamaha XG sound technology that's all well and good, in a number of authoritative audio evaluation had received a lot of praise. Use YMF724E chip products apart from Yamaha's Waveforce192XG there in Ling (A-Trend) 3DS724A and Kun Ying (Qenius) SoundMaker128XG, he adopts the high rate of a chip.
Yamaha YMF740 chip is our new, improved YMF724E. According to preliminary technical data show that he at least 42 group special audio performance, a total of 676 21 species of drum instruments sound, while also supporting SB-Link and DirectSound and DirectMusic DirectX6.0 of hardware acceleration.
3.4, ESS co., Ltd.
ESS sound card company can say is, the production of community veteran audio chip model many, here are a few of the more popular sections.
Solo-1 (ES1938S) chip is ESS to PCI market transition models, Codec circuit from the inside out, tremolo is 32, support 1MB Wavetable samples storage space, the chip itself SNR is greater than 80dB. Solo-1 compatible previously chip ESS and ESFM function, and supports SBLink interface, DistributedDMA and TransparentDMA technology, better compatibility with legacy DOS game. At the same time and ES1869F (ISA chip), still use developed by SpatializerAudioLaboratories Spatializer3D sound processor and add support for ACAPI, so many laptops are in use. In a production sound card, charm Enterprise (Triplex) of "little red pepper" and Acer (DCS) use this chip S819.
Maestro-1 (ES1948F) chip is based on improvements to Solo-1, general concertation factory ES1918SCodec chip. Maestro-1 with new two channel engine, tremolo number 64 and the speed and quality is greatly improved, while supporting the DLS 1-8 MB. He also built a working frequency for 64-channel waveform 50MHz processor, combined with the patented design, Wavetable samples cache separate channels of sound, such as tone, filter code, vibrato, and echo. In the 3D sound effect, sound effects still use Spatializer3D Maestro-1 processor.
Use Maestro-1 chip sound card, the more typical is charm enterprise "choke with paprika" 64PCI and Shuo TeraSound128PCI of kg.
Maestro-2 (ES1968S) chip, came from Maestro-1 improvement, but the change is large, is the main product of ESS company. Maestro-2 built-in 2-channel engine with 64 tremolo, can use up to 8 MB RAM saving Wavetable samples, the chip itself SNR over 85dB. In addition, he used the DirectSound3D CRL supplied Sensaura3D audio routing method of replacing Maestro-1 Spatializer3D, support up to 4 speaker output. Maestro-2 also supports newer ACAPIv1.1 and APMv2.1 energy management specification, very suitable for laptop. Apply the product mainly Maestro-2 Dimeng Corporation (Diamond) SonicImpactS70 and charm enterprise "choke with paprika" A3DPro.
3.5、CirrusLCrystalSemiconductor companies ogic/
CirrusLogic/CrystalSemiconductor company (CL/CS company) is the leading manufacturer of integrated circuits. CirrusLogic company in logic circuits, display chip and interface control chips (such as PCMCIA) has a proud achievement; and the sound chip CrystalSemiconductor company has strong development strength, product type, can be said that the CL/CS all sound chips are developed by him.
CS4280 chip is CL/CS company earlier PCI products, General collocation with factory produces CS4297Codec chip. CS4280 has 64 tremolo, supports up to 2MB sample storage space. In addition he built-in SRS surround effects, and adopted the PC97 AC97 ', ' and PC98 ' recognition and meet PC99 ' on zoom level before. In addition, CS4280 also supports MPU-401, FM synthesis, adjust the volume by hardware and APM power management, very suitable for use in portable computers. [fenye]
CS4614 chip is CL/CS companies relatively new product, general use 4297A Codec. CS4614A-CM built-in 255MI/s construction, support 64 SLIMDDSP tremolo and may use up to 4 MB RAM Wavetable samples, but also saved on hardware acceleration NetMeetingAEC, 90dB SNR is greater than the chip itself. As with the ESS of Maestro-2, he also supports ACAPI and APMv1.2 energy management, and more complete DMA compatibility features that support the DOS environment. In the DSP sound effects. CS4614A-CM use CirrusLogic and CrystalClearStreamProcessor core circuit, with the accompanying software to A3D results calculus. As a result of using BusMastering technology, with less CPU usage, to ensure the system's overall speed. Sound card with CS4614 chips mainly Foundation (Aopen) AudioPhantomAW500, actually use the effect is still very good.
3.6, Trident company
The company is currently focussing on PCI sound chip is 4DWave series. 4DWave-DX chip has 64 hardware complex, support the highest 6MB Wavetable sample size, and ESS company Maestro-1, can single channel sound for special handling. 3D surround, use the latest development of QSound 3D effects, support the HRTF sounds energy density (IID: InterauralIntensityDensity) and sound delay variance (ITD: InternauralTimeDifference) calculus, Doppler effect mode with delay and A3D available software simulation. The chip itself SNR 90dB at, is currently more than competitive products. Latest 4DWave-NX DX chip is to be improved on the basis of, and support s/PDIF output and Creative EAX, EAX however estimates only in 3D surround, and environmental sound may be due to insufficient processing speed and was unable to do. Now use the chip products has rapidly increased, such as the Czech Board of SonicWaveAD, occupying a small cheap market share.
3.7, ForteMedia company
Currently, ForteMedia company in the area of the sound card PCI sound chip is FM801, support PCIv2.2 (66MHz bus frequency, 64bit bandwidth), BusMaster control features and high-quality music synthesis, to be able to work under DOS environment, SBPro compatible, supports 64 tremolo and maximum 5 MB of wavetable sample size, supports S/PDIF output and integrated QSound3D surround effects, theory SNR over 85dB. using FM801 audio product and not a lot, more typical isLing company FM801A.
3.8, OAK company
OAK company currently mainly PCI audio chip is OTI-610, also called Audio3D, General collocation with factory OTI-608Codec chip. OTI-610 itself compatible A3D, SBPro in DOS mode and WSS supported, but the compatibility is not very strong. The chip itself has 32 tremolo, if system computing capacity allows to produce with soft wave 128 tremolo (Pentium200 can produce 64 in tremolo), maximum 4 MB per Wavetable samples, DSP core with 36MI/s computing capacity. Recently, OAK company OTI-610 Foundation launched a new product, OTI-612 but they sound very little product.
3.9, comprehensive comparison
In understanding the basic properties of the chip, the selection of the sound card is based on the chip to understand their basic efficiency, acoustics, from the most advanced is innovative EMU10K1, although SoundBlasterLive! series sound card in physical performance test performance is not satisfactory, but the sound effect is currently the highest level, combined with 4.1 or 5.1 surround playback system that is fever-level players to enjoy high. Secondly, it should be noted that the use AS company Vortex-2 and Vortex-1 chip sound card, the physical properties with good performance, but also sound and surround effect is very good, it is sufficient for most players. As regards the use of Yamaha YMF-724 and Trident4DWave chip products, and in some respects insufficient capacity still slightly. If the sound card requirements is not very high, then select use CL/CS orESS chip products can get the maximum benefits.
Of course, the sound quality also ultimately depends on many other factors, such as Codec chip, PCB Board of resistance and capacitance circuit board PCB quality, wiring design and driver efficiency, etc. So for a sound card using the same chip, it is recommended that you choose a brand good that one may money on expensive, but the quality and performance, more secure.
4. sound card installation and retrofittingr>Computer sound card is not a function of grades, in order to make the computer audio emit wonderful sound, avoid noise interference, according to the selected sound card situation specific treatment.
First of all to consider the installation of several settings for your sound card, make sure that the sound card in the slot away from the video card, to avoid the video card of high-frequency interference; at the same time, the use of external playback device, signal output must be selected LINEOUT (signal output) port instead of select SPEAKEROUT (speaker output) port, you can bypass your sound card's power amplifier section, in order to achieve the best sound. Secondly to sound shield, sound card digital signal processing part will not be subject to interference, susceptible to interference of mainly analog signal processing circuits, available right cut thin copper sheet, size is cassette cover these chips and peripheral components, and grounded. And for most grades of sound card, its output is stereo headphone jack, shield and exposure results are unsatisfactory, the socket can be removed or abandoned the chassis backplane to the appropriate location in the mouth, and fixed a pair of gilded Lotus socket, dual-core screened cable is connected to the sound card's output. On the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM audio line, change to a double-shielded line. A few aspects of conversion, audio sound effects will be further improved.