Take a loseless source like a CD, and play it on typical PC speakers and you often lack both high and low frequency extension and even have a weak midrange.

As Thomas said the 24-bit Crystalizer is not sonically accurate. In fact it compresses the dynamic range of the signal it processes (much like you will find in receivers that can compress DD5.1 and DTS tracks) , amps everything by roughly 3dB@50% and then artificially spikes what it detects as a transient peak and any other algorithms creative has programmed. Now on speakers that were not very musical to begin with the crystalizer will let you hear some details you didnt notice before. Yes they will be distorted from the original signal, but the fact that you can hear those details at all is subjectively considered an improvement.

When I was using my Z5500 5.1 set , I used crystalizer pretty much all the time because it seemed like the sound had more impact (more thump, more ting). On my new B&W DM600 S3 speakers it sounded horribly unnatural and as much as I wanted to leave crystalizer on I simply couldnt because it sounded so bad. On the new speakers I could already hear all the details I was missing in the z5500 so the crystalized signal was perminantly turned off. If you use PC speakers I would still recommend you play with with the crystalizer to see what you prefer even on loseless sources. Setting the crystalizer to ON and @0% will still compress the dynamic range but it will not insert the artificial frequency spikes.


Thomas: where do you get your DVD-Audio discs, I'm having a hard time find any selection locally. On the internet its hard to get details on the loseless audio's bit/Khz rate.

1) What level is your audio knowledge?
Scale of 1-10: probably around 8.5
2) How interested are you in learning more about audio?
Very.... very, very
3) Are there any specific products you would like to see reviewed or compared?
High to very high fidelity 2.0 sound cards. M-Audio cards or anything Envy 24, X-Fi vs Audigy 2 reviews, mobile audio, etc.
4) Are you interest in the pros/cons of 2.0,2.1,4.1,5.1,7.1, or all? speakers setups?
Not really
5) Are you more interested in powerful high fidelity systems or small, easy to setup systems with sound quality as a second concern?
Fidelity first
6) Are you interested how much quality a new sound card will bring you?
Yes - very
7) what do you use your PC audio for? (please list in order of heaviest use)
flac playback, movies, games - in that order
8) What is your current sound card and speaker set?
Audigy 2ZS + CS DTT2500 (don't use these speakers much anymore - I usually listen through AKG k240s that I hope to replace with some AKG k701 via Live! Drive.) I'd like to get some really nice new soundcards as well and a headphone amp.

Also in the proces of building an HTPC so I've been reviewing lots of sound related products lately. I've been stumped here as to which direction I want to go.

Do'h, should have checked back here sooner I'm actually not a purchaser of DVD-Audio to be honest. It just so happened that the Fellowship of the Ring complete score included a DVD-A. Beyond that I've essentially the sample CDs which Creative included with their DVD-A supporting Soundcards. The best suggestion would probably be to stick the DVD-A into Google or other search engine. This site may be of some use?
http://store.acousticsounds.com/dvdaudio.cfm

1) What level is your audio knowledge?Scale of 1-10: probably around 7
2) How interested are you in learning more about audio?Very
3) Are there any specific products you would like to see reviewed or compared? Compare High/Very High End to medium/low end for perspective.
4) Are you interest in the pros/cons of 2.0,2.1,4.1,5.1,7.1, or all? speakers setups? Just the important or major points of interest.
5) Are you more interested in powerful high fidelity systems or small, easy to setup systems with sound quality as a second concern?
Fidelity first
6) Are you interested how much quality a new sound card will bring you?Yes as a comparison to popular/common on-brd sound cards.(RelTek, AC97 etc.)
7) what do you use your PC audio for? (please list in order of heaviest use)music, movies, games - in that order
8) What is your current sound card and speaker set?
On-board SB Live! 24bit, Creative p7800 7.1

Can you also discuss some of the bells and whistles that come with the sound cards, example the EAX console, built-in filters, basically how to get the most out of the set-up?

Great idea, can't wait. Thanks.

well the article is done.

I'm going back and making revisions to cover some of the feedback ive gotten from this thread.

Audio appears to still be a pretty nitch market. Most games, even new ones are not supporting beyond EAX 3.0

I can only hope that EAX HD and OpenAL will promote developers to make more use of advanced audio effects. As far as games go I have yet to see a single title use 24/96 sound samples as opposed to the standard 16/44. X-Fi is still a premuim card and we will likely not see a wide use of its capabilities until it becomes the de facto standard much like the audigy 2 has been for a few years now.

Uggh, I can't even imagine when they'd make the switch to 24/96. If I recall right even Doom 3 (Which had *great* sound - not much else though ) was compressed to Ogg files for memory savings. Seems developers are content enough with average quality sound (A lot of effects are 16/22) & would rather have all RAM & CPU used for graphics & (now) physics. Understandable enough, look at how many people think MP3 is the best format ever & sounds just like the CD.
Guy that I used to work with me said when he was at school he's sell CDs to classmates - not 1 of them complained about the CDs, despite being encoded from 64-128Kbps sources. Hell, I can't really stand listening to anything beneath 192Kbps

1) What level is your audio knowledge? Well, I DIY amps & speakers, play music, mod my CD player, find that a Creative card is not high-end(Not for processing power, but sound quality), etc. BUT, I haven't listened to every $1000+ amps out there.
2) How interested are you in learning more about audio? A lot, to see if there's a real -good- soundcard out there!
3) Are there any specific products you would like to see reviewed or compared? http://www.auzentech.com/
4) Are you interest in the pros/cons of 2.0,2.1,4.1,5.1,7.1, or all? speakers setups? Somewhat, I'd like to know if you really feel like you're in an other place or not (Worth having more than a 2.1 or not?)
5) Are you more interested in powerful high fidelity systems or small, easy to setup systems with sound quality as a second concern? Powerful hi-fi? Joking?
6) Are you interested how much quality a new sound card will bring you? Yes
7) what do you use your PC audio for? (please list in order of heaviest use) Music, to know when I get e-mails
8) What is your current sound card and speaker set? Ensoniq AudioPCI ES1371, sound system(Vintage h/k amp with 3-way speakers - DIY speakers and subwoofer coming!)

I would pay just about anything for a soundcard made by:
Lexicon
or
Boothroyd/Stewart Meridian
or
Krell
or
Mark Levinson
or
Classe
or
Theta Digital
or
Denon

While we're at it, gimme a graphics card by Runco or Faroudja

There are EXCELLENT USB codecs made by Texas Instruments(Burr Brown), which provide the DACs for a lot of companies (From low-end to high-end).

They are just 16/48 but computers then sound better than high-end CDPs once you use them. (You can connect an external DAC if you aren't happy with the internal one)

By the way Audiotrak and Terratec seem to make a few good things.

1) Very high
2) Always like learning about new things, adds to the experience
3) I think all audio products are important, irrelivant of their costs.
4) It's always good to have a full view of the range as some setups are more suitable than others for home use
5) I have an interest in all setups because not everyone can afford high-end
6) Of course quality is everything, as well as features for money.
7) Music, Audio Editing, Video Editing, Movies, General "nick-nack" Use, Games
8) Apollo Dolby Digital 5.1, connected to Goodmans GDVD101R DVD 5.1 system via Audio Phono on the AV2 (Pro logic on line-out output from sound card)

All I can say is give everything a chance because more expensive doesn't actually mean best.

1) What level is your audio knowledge?Fair, but needs to be impeccable
2) How interested are you in learning more about audio?Extremely, considering im supposed to be a musician and will be running a college studio v.soon
3) Are there any specific products you would like to see reviewed or compared? breakout boxes vs hardwiring to rack mounted units (specific and unspecific to PC) vs diy electronics adaptors/convertors etc..
4) Are you interest in the pros/cons of 2.0,2.1,4.1,5.1,7.1, or all? speakers setups?Yes, speakers vs monitors vs ext. amp powered cabs
5) Are you more interested in powerful high fidelity systems or small, easy to setup systems with sound quality as a second concern?power hifi vs cheapness vs versatility
6) Are you interested how much quality a new sound card will bring you?would i have bothered replying to this otherwise?!?;>
7) what do you use your PC audio for? (please list in order of heaviest use)sound Recording/ editing and general music creating, dukebox, games, divx
8) What is your current sound card and speaker set? sb live! 5.1 w/LIVE drive II connected to a Sansui 200 W RMS amp powering a pair of ARC 101 actives and a pair of JAMO`s w/sub.(although no 5.1 surround!) Soon to be implemented once i have finished the units will be some high quality homemade EQ, Expander, Compressor,noise gate and 32 channel mixer. The only thing letting me down now is the state of my PC; AMD `thunderbird`@2100MHz on a VIAK133 chipset mobo with 768 SDRAM, although it has 2HD`s, a 4g to run winxp and a 30g to run music software, plus a 200g seagate in a USB2.0 icybox for storeage. The up side is that my main PC can do the crunching whilst i have a 1000MHz AMD with 200g seagate that can be recorded onto via outboard units (only 12 band EQ and compressor/noise gate up and running at mo)! I also have a 2000MHz laptop to run as the sequencer/sound library and controller to the keyboard. All this stuff has been aquired on the cheap over time, i`m not rich!(although this stuff doesnt cost that much anymore!)

1)What level is your audio knowledge?
I cannot swim whilst chewing gum. So....medium? lol

2) How interested are you in learning more about audio?
I'd like to know just enough to not get taken, but still be fun at parties.

3) Are there any specific products you would like to see reviewed or compared?
Yes, the "best bang for your buck" kind of stuff. Maybe even what's older and available used for a good price?

4) Are you interest in the pros/cons of 2.0,2.1,4.1,5.1,7.1, or all? speakers setups?
Yes, but need to have the differences explained in simple terms, so a mouth-breather like me can understand.

5) Are you more interested in powerful high fidelity systems or small, easy to setup systems with sound quality as a second concern?
I have found incredible sounding gear for home audio that wasn't particularly expensive, and I'm not out to impress anybody.

6) Are you interested how much quality a new sound card will bring you?
Well, the card is kind of the key, right? Then probably speakers are next important. Then maybe wires?

7) What do you use your PC audio for? (please list in order of heaviest use)
Videos, DVD's, and now I'm using my PC as a "library". So now data back-up has become quite the concern. Might be doing some kind of RAID thing soon, so I can sleep better at night. Florida has some interesting lightening storms in the summer months. Thunder in broad daylight!

8) What is your current sound card and speaker set?
I was just given an Audigy SE by a friend that took pity on me! And using a Logitech set-up that's a hand me down. No idea what the model is, but it's two lil' small guys and a sub. It's actually pretty good. But I'm newly interested in audio for PC. And not sure about connecting the PC to my home stereo just yet. It's alright as-is....

But it's NOTHING compared to my home stereo system. That's something I've been expanding and upgrading for nearly 20 years!

Klipsch KG 4.5's as mains, lil' KG .5's for rears, matching series Klipsch center, Optimus powered 10" sub, Onkyo TX-SR727 receiver, and two big 'ol Sony changers. A 400 disc DVD, 200 disc CD.

So even though I have no trouble cranking the home system up loud enough to hear at the other end of the house where the PC is, my neighbors don't dig it.