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Audigy @ ALive! » Audigy Forum Audigy Review Last updated on Dec 31, 2001 Surround Sound Dolby Digital Decoding Creative introduced Dolby Digital decoding late in the evolution of the Live! when competitors started selling 6-channel sound cards to support the 6-channel surround decoding of software DVD players like PowerDVD and WinDVD. It was not until the 3rd generation that the Live! 5.1 had Dolby Digital decoding. Its great that this feature is retained in the Audigy. Benefits The Audigy includes Dolby Digital decoding as a standard feature, making it a cost-effective DVD playback solution when paired with a 5.1 multimedia speaker that accepts the 6-channel output from the Audigy, and a software DVD player that supports S/PDIF passthrough. With the introduction of the Dolby Digital API, games can also use the decoding feature to play 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks together with 3D positioned sound effects at the same time. (This will also work with the Live! 5.1.) In time, when most users have Audigy or Live! 5.1 cards that can decode Dolby Digital internally, game developers will be more inclined to support this feature. S/PDIF Passthrough Like all Live! cards, the Audigy supports the S/PDIF passthrough mode found on software DVD players. This will allow you to pass the Dolby Digital or DTS tracks that are read directly from DVDs to an external surround decoder like a home theater receiver or a 5.1 multimedia speaker system with built-in decoders. The mixer provides a settings panel that toggles the built-in Dolby Digital/AC-3 decoding. When turned on, the S/PDIF passthrough output from the player will be captured and decoded by the drivers using the CPU. When off, the S/PDIF passthrough works as usual, passing the audio to the digital outputs. Bass Redirection The bass redirection feature is a good feature for users with less than optimal sound systems which do not perform bass management like the MidiLand S4 7100. When enabled, the Live! will send low bass from the main 5 speakers to the subwoofer output of the Audigy. If this is not set, the bass goes to the tiny satellite speakers which can't reproduce the bass - a huge waste! Better designed speaker systems (ie. most 5.1 multimedia speaker systems) automatically take the full-range information from the 5 main speakers and sends them to the subwoofer, so bass redirection is not important. The Crossover Frequency slider gives a very fine control of the the highest frequency where the bass will be sent to the subwoofer output. This can range from 10 Hz to 200 Hz. The frequencies above the setting will be sent to the main speakers. Cost Savings With built-in Dolby Digital decoding, you can purchase a cheaper version of a software DVD player that does not do decoding, but just sends the undecoded surround sound to the Audigy using the S/PDIF passthrough. Just like their consumer hardware counterparts, these "decoder-less" software DVD players will be cheaper because there is no need to pay Dolby or DTS a licensing fee for each copy of the decoder included with the software. Verdict Nothing much is changed from the Live! 5.1, but its good that the surround sound features are still there and finally working well in Windows 2000. The completist in me would also want DTS decoding but it may not be significantly different from Dolby Digital unless you have your PC hooked up to an expensive home theater system with an ass-kickin' subwoofer to get the difference out. Maybe for the 2nd generation Audigy, Creative?

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