Terratec Aureon 5.1 Sky/7.1 Space - heads up...

[lini]

(This is a kind of mini-review - well actually a growing one...

)

These seem to be ok: Both Terratec Aureon 5.1 Sky and 7.1 Space soundcards are based on the VIA/ICE Envy24HT, have a reasonable amount of connectors including optical S/P-DIF in and out, achieve very good results in audio measurements and like their very similar predecessor DMX 6Fire (LT) - based on Envy24 - support non-resampling 44.1kHz/16bit-output (thus not having Microsoft-certified drivers - but a very nice mixer/settings control panel, instead...

). Sound seems fairly good, too. Prices over here are 129/149 Euro - not cheap, but probably worth it. Drawback for musicians/dos gamers: No game/midi port!

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: The third new Aureon card - 5.1 Fun - is much cheaper, but I haven't bothered with it, yet, because it seems to be of the disappointing AC97 kind. I've still got to make sure of that, though...

Addendum:

Some more in-depth: Both Envy24HT-based Aureon boards are very similar in layout and parts apart from yet another totally rear line out on the 7.1 Space. External i/o consists of: mic in, line in, line out front, line out surround, line out center/lfe, optical digital in and optical digital out. Internal i without o is: cd digital in (electrical, two-pin), aux in, cd in, cd2 in.

And the naughty bits:

VIA/ICE Envy24HT (soundchip)
Xilinx XC9536XL (some cpld/fpga-like thingy - I wonder what it controls...)
Sigmatel Stac9744T (stereo AC97 2.1 codec)
Wolfson WM8770IFT (8/2 channel (dac/adc) codec)
Cirrus Logic CS8415A (S/P-DIF receiver, 7:1 input mux)

Detailed specs can be obtained by Google-ing!

 

[aeberbach]

Hmm, interesting. I went out of my way to buy a Sixpack+ card, and it was worth finding - generally I think Terratec is pretty good. I wish Terratec would get their distribution in the USA happening, even M-Audio have cards on the shelves at CompUSA these days.

 

[grinch]

i'm waiting for my new m-audio dio 2496 to arrive from musiciansfriend. i'm really excited about the idea of having a card with only digital/optical in and out and rca out. none of the other useless stuff that i'll never use.. anyway, these cards sound like they may be a big rival for the m-audio's revolution.

 

[lini]

aeberbach: Mhm, yes, the Sixpack+ was quite alright. I looked up my notes from the last soundcard comparision - in the listening tests my rating for the Sixpack+ was the same as for the Audigy (1) for both line-out and headphone sound with redbook playback. The DMX 6fire sounded even better to me, though, followed by the Hercules GameTeater XP and the Philips Acoustic Edge...

grinch: I haven't tried the Revolution, yet, but I guess you're right... I think, I've seen an electrical S/P-DIF-out on the Revolution, though. So it might be better suited for people who want to connect an external dac. On the other hand, the optical out on the Aureons should avoid grounding issues...

I'm still trying to find out more about the two Envy24HT-based Aureon cards, by the way. I already identified several 4580 opamps and a TL072. There's also a nice little relay on the card for switching the front-output from unamped line to amped headphone according to the control panel setting. I have yet to find out the specs for the headphone amp section, though... And I'm still not quite sure what the Sigmatel-Codec is used for - I'd guess, it takes care of the internal inputs, but that's pure specualtion derived from the placing on the board...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: Did I already mention, that the control panel supports S/P-DIF copyright bit manipulation? That feature might come handy for minidisc/dat/cd-recorders that won't copy, if the copyright bit is set...

 

[grinch]

yes, the revolution has coaxial output but i was looking for a professional quality card without all the extra crap that i'll never use (eax, a3d, mic inputs, outputs, etc.). i'm going for simplicity and i just want a high-quality digital out so that i can use it with my dac and i'll be all set.

my dmx 6fire definitely sounds pretty good, but pair it with my pdac and the difference is incredible. it's also slightly noisey (from the rca ouputs in the front), especially at higher volumes. this may just be my setup and power supply though. my box is definitely crammed full with all kinds of drives and fans, so that could be causing the noise.

thanks for the updates lini, there are some really interesting things you've brought up.

 

[lan]

Well I have Revolution 7.1 and the Audiophile 24/96. It's a pretty good card. It's analogue outs are quite a bit better than the AP24/96's but I think it's digital out is a little bit worst. I'm using the AP24/96 with my ART DI/O and Revo for multichannel uses (movies).