Swimming laps with Finis' SwiMP3 player
Few things bore me more than staring at the bottom of a pool while swimming laps. Finis' SwiMP3 player promises to inject music into those otherwise monotonous workouts, and I've taken one for a swim to see how well it works. Read more...
46 comments
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Last by Kulith at 9:43 PM on 09/15/09
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Headphone-oriented sound cards from Asus and Auzentech
Asus and Auzentech recently released the Xonar Essence STX and X-Fi Forte sound cards designed specifically for use with headphones. We've taken them for a spin to see which sounds the best and whether you should consider either over integrated motherboard audio. Read more...
105 comments —
Last by Rompbot at 11:13 PM on 08/25/09 -
Western Digital's WD TV HD Media Player
Could Western Digital's new digital media player be the ideal companion for the company's external hard drives? And does it belong in your entertainment center? Read more...
79 comments —
Last by trish1919 at 8:31 PM on 08/09/09 -
Asus' Xonar DX sound card
Asus burst onto the sound card scene with the Xonar D2X, delivering a card with solid performance and better sound quality than Creative's best. Now Asus is back with an affordable DX derivative. Read on to see how the new Xonar fares. Read more...
132 comments —
Last by baumaxx1 at 9:02 AM on 10/10/09 -
Remixed audio cards in Windows Vista
Windows Vista has largely changed the game for PC audio solutions, and two new sound cards are set to challenge Creative's dominance of the market. Read on as we put Asus' Xonar D2X and Auzentech's X-Fi Prelude through their paces. Read more...
97 comments —
Last by jlreate at 9:45 AM on 04/09/08 -
Apple's iPod and Microsoft's Zune face off
LAUNCHED BACK IN 2001, Apple's iPod has arguably become the most iconic electronic device of the 21st century. With sales of over 100 million units, the iPod has dominated the market for portable audio—and now video—players. What's more, it's... Read more...
133 comments —
Last by Tommyxx516 at 1:35 PM on 11/25/07 -
Abit's iDome DS500 and SW510 speakers
WHEN ABIT WAS ACQUIRED last year, the new owners pruned the company's product line to focus its attention squarely on motherboards. Graphics cards and other ancillary products were cut, but one plucky side project managed to survive. That side... Read more...
63 comments —
Last by FireGryphon at 11:10 PM on 02/25/07 -
Oxygen HD sound cards from Auzentech and Sondigo
CREATIVE HAS ALL BUT OWNED the market for PC audio cards since it introduced the original Sound Blaster way back when. That dominance has only grown over the years, in part because Creative has made some very good sound... Read more...
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Last by phottoshop at 8:17 AM on 10/20/09 -
Exploring EAX with onboard audio
ANALOG DEVICES RECENTLY published a document challenging reviewers not only to benchmark the CPU utilization of integrated audio solutions, but also to explore how well those implementations handle EAX positional 3D audio. According to the document, most... Read more...
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Last by format_C at 4:43 AM on 11/20/06 -
Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty audio card
IT'S RARE THAT a new product completely outclasses its competition, but that's what happened when Creative introduced its X-Fi audio processor—not that there are many real competitors left in the PC audio market, mind you. Still, it's hard... Read more...
91 comments —
Last by Krogoth at 12:56 PM on 03/20/06 -
Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi audio processor
FOR A WHILE THERE, the PC audio market was pretty boring. Creative had bought out Aureal and Sensaura, and seemed content to issue only incremental improvements to its Audigy line of sound cards. VIA challenged Creative's dominance of... Read more...
75 comments —
Last by LTJ at 4:06 PM on 10/16/05 -
Counter-Strike: Source audio performance explored
OVER THE PAST WEEK we've seen a deluge of Counter-Strike: Source performance articles. For the most part, coverage has focused on graphics cards, but there's more to the Counter-Strike: Source performance story than pixel-pushing power. In addition... Read more...
84 comments —
Last by _Shorty at 2:32 PM on 08/29/04 -
Philips' Ultimate Edge sound card
IN WHAT SEEMS LIKE no time at all, VIA's Envy24 audio controller has successfully infiltrated every level of the consumer PC sound card market. The Envy24 isn't a single audio controller per se but an entire family of... Read more...
55 comments —
Last by --k at 10:52 AM on 07/13/04 -
Mad Dog Multimedia's Entertainer 7.1 sound card
Mad Dog Multimedia's Entertainer 7.1 is one of the first discrete sound cards to use VIA's mid-range Envy24HT-S audio controller, and it promises to deliver great sound for audio enthusiasts on a budget. I've put an Entertainer through a... Read more...
47 comments —
Last by master at 4:38 PM on 02/12/04 - More features...
