Subjective listening tests Movies, Video& Gaming
We tested the obligatory Lucas Arts films and spent some time using a normal TV tuner watching our favorite shows. Surround sound imaging and directional cues produced were flawless in the StarWars flicks.
We noticed that musical backing tracks sounded extremely real and true to life. In some cases sound sources can gloss over backing music making it sound washed out and just another aspect of the movie.
Gaming
In order to keep the review size down we will leave out the screen shots during this section.
Transformers: War for Cybertron
The designers of this game did some great work on the audio and we thoroughly enjoyed testing this game with the Essence ST Deluxe 7.1 with a bit of volume this game became very immersive drawing you into the action. The weapons sounded excellent with layering and subtle details. The explosions rocked our testing room. The surround sound imaging in this game came through in great style many directional cues can be heard from different angles without mushing or drown out. When battling enemies you can hear enemies behind you, to the sides, all over the environment. Reverb based effects, voices produces some ominous, immersive audio. The ST was left in default mode, although we did boost the subwoofer somewhat during gameplay. What good is an explosion though if it doesn't shake your desk and surprise you?
Sniper: Shadow Warrior
We just started playing this game using the Essence ST Deluxe 7.1 and the game has great audio work. Although more of a sneaker the game can produce some excellent sound effects during heated battles or when you got a dead lock head shot and watch the bullet cam. Then sound of your rifle when in bullet cam modes sounds really good with some volume.
The ST helped pinpoint enemies locations when they were out of visual field such as when behind you. Explosions sounded layered and not just loud booms.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare II
Still a favorite for testing and just for having fun this game produced some excellent sounds when testing this card. Directional cues were spot on, easily showing where the shots originated from. The various weapons all produced unique sounds not just plain bangs. Big loud explosions rocking our test bench, bullets whizzing by your head, this game produced very immersive audio on the Essence ST Deluxe 7.1.
Final Notes on Gaming
We didn't notice any anomalies in the above tested games, but we did have some issues with other games during our burn-in period.
EAX/OpenAL Gaming can be a bit of a mixed bag using this card as a few tested games did not work well with the GX based emulation. Many games worked just fine and sounded excellent but some had missing sounds incorrect effects or placements. While we feel the GX emulation is much better than no effects at all when gaming on Vista and above it still seem that emulation is not quite up to par with true hardware DSP based gaming effects.
