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ABIT Dolby Surround Soundsystem


Date
: 12/9/00 – 07:35:32 PM

Author
:

Category
: Sound

Manufactor: ABIT

Price: SP50 Speakers $210

AU10 Soundcard $55

Introduction

In the past, having a soundcard in your computer was a luxury. Most people were satisfied with just the PC speaker to play games like Solitaire or Tankwars. As the years went by, computer users wanted more! Especially when they were seeing all these consoles popping up and featuring fantastic sound effects.

At first most people bought tinny little speakers, which were later replaced with larger tinny speakers. Of course, people always want more, better and faster, so the market grew exponentially, and today a Dolby Surround soundsystem featuring 5 satellite speakers and a subwoofer are nothing out of the ordinary.

ABIT noticed that people were paying a lot of $$$ for a decent and powerful soundsystem, so they started building their own soundcard called the AU10, and speakerset named SP50. Overclockers Online had the great oppurtunity to play with these two products for over a month so we can present you with a very informative review.

We all know that ABIT has made some killer motherboards, but have they succeeded in creating a quality soundsystem that will get the attention of all you hardcore gamers and music lovers? Let’s find out …

Specifications

The soundcard: AU10

- Fortemedia FM801 Sound Chip

- Support 5.1 channel Home Theatre Speaker Output

- A3D, DS3D, Q3D and EAX Compatible

- Soft DVD provide Dolby Digital AC3

- Wavetable Synthesizer: Hardware FM Synthesizer for Adlib and General MIDI compatibility

- Bus Interface: PCI Bus master compliant with PCI v2.2

- Build in power amplifier

- DDMA. Serial IRQ and Proprietary legacy support

- Audio Converters: 18-bit Audio CODEC support

- Sampling Rates: up to 48 KHz

- Games Compatibility: Compatible with all standard Windows games and most DOS games (in Real Mode DOS)

- Sample Rate Converters: Hardware-based sample rate converters support 32KHz, 44.1KHz and 48KHz sampling rate

- Audio Inputs/Outputs: Microphone input, Line input, Line output, Aux input on internal header, CD input on internal header, 1 G9 speaker output, S/PDIF optical output

- IDI Interface: Hardware-based MPU-401 MIDI UART-compatible interface through joystick connector.

- Joystick Interface: provide standard analog/digital joystick support

- Yamaha XG Professional Software Synthesizer included

- Compatibility: Windows 95/98/NT4.0/2000

As the specs show, ABIT has designed a pretty nice soundcard. It has all features a modern soundcard should have, like support for the Dolby Surround 5.1 signal, compatiblilty with A3D, and EAX, so you will be able to enjoy those 3D sound effects in your favorite game. Furthermore, it has a line-in, joystick connector, and all the other stuff you might need.
All the effects I mentioned are supported via software, not hardware. This means that your cpu will have to do all the calculating, but since most of you already have superpowerful overclocked monsters, this should not be a problem.
Another small setback is the fact that this soundcard does not come with the S/PDIF connector you might need if you want to connect your MiniDisc digitally to the soundcard. ABIT claims they will release a daughtercard supporting this feature later on, but if you want to have it now I suggest you wait a little longer before buying the AU10.

With a soundcard like the AU10 you’ll be able to enjoy games, DVD movies, mp3s, just about everything you can imagine :).

The speakerset: SP50

Technical Details:

a. Front panel:

(1) Master volume control

(2) Subwoofer volume control

(3) 5.1/2.0 channels selector

(4) Indicators for power and 2.0/5.1ch

b. Rear Panel:

(1) 2-CH/6-CH input x 4

(2) AC power switch .

(3) 3-pin AC inlet

(4) spring type speaker terminal x 5

(5) Min. DIN (G9) x 1

Specifications:

1. Dimension:

a. Subwoofer: 206(W) x 380(H) x 510(D) mm

b. Satellite speaker: 80(W) x 105(H) x 84(D) mm

c. Center speaker: 165(W) x 90(H) x 125(D) mm

2. Finish:

a. Subwoofer: PVC finished on wooden box

b. Satellite speakers: metal enclosure with stoving enamel

3. Drivers:

a. Subwoofer: paper cone 6.5′ x 1, 8 ohm, magnetic shielding

b. Satellite: 2′ x 4, 4 ohm, magnetic shielding

c. Center: 2.4′ x 5′, magnetic shielding

4. Electrical rating:

a. Continuous power

(1)40W x1 ref. Subwoofer driven only at 100 Hz @ 10% THD

(2)17W x 2 ref. 2 channels driven at 1KKz @ 10% THD.

(3)10W x 5 + 35 x 1 ref. All channels driven at 10% THD.

b. Channel separation: >60dB ref. 1KHz

c. Signal to Noise ratio: Subwoofer :>70dB @ 1W/A-wtd, Satellite:>70dB @ 1W/A-wtd.

d. Frequency response: Satellite 200Hz ~ 20KHz, Center 100Hz ~20KHz,

Subwoofer 30Hz ~ 300Hz

e. THD: <1% for all channels

f. Power supply : 230V/50Hz, 120V/60Hz, 100V/50~60Hz

You might have noticed this, but that subwoofer is one big mofo! With dimensions of 206(W) x 380(H) x 510(D) mm you will need a lot of place to accomodate this giant woofer. It is even bigger then some midi towers!

The woofer is built with decent material, and has a wooden design on it so it fits very nice into your livingroom if you decided to use it there. With a nice 40W output you will be able to feel the bass in your chair when you fire a rocket in Q3 or when your car crashes against a wall in Grandprix 3.

ABIT includes 5 satelites in this kit. Four small eggshaped ones intented to deliver the front-right, front-left, rear-right and rear-left sound. The centersound is generated by a bigger satelite which is much wider then the four other satelites.
The satelite's job is to deliver all the the high toned soundwaves as well as possible to you. The center speaker is intended to output the voices of the actors in movies and stuff.

Installation

Installing the soundcard is a piece of cake. Just locate a free PCI slot, plug the card in and install the drivers. Setting up the speakers is another matter, and will most likely take longer than the sound card. The speakers, wires, and stands just keep on coming. After I unpacked the whole lot, I was surrounded by pieces. Thank god there was a very good manual supplied in the box so installation of the SP50 shouldn’t be a problem.

I started by setting all the speakers on the place I wanted them to be. >From there on I started wiring the entire setup. ABIT ships the SP50 with enough cables to set the speakers everywhere you want! The wires for the front channel speakers are 6m long, and the wires for the rear channel speakers are 10m. The center speaker only has a 4m long wire but this should do just fine since it
will be near the woofer all the time.

The wires are connected to the woofer via a bare wire end, so you can easily cut them to the length you want. ABIT sent me a kit with white wires, but they ensured me that the retail box will have black wires. They just ship white cables with the review kits so clumsy reviewers like myself wouldn’t fall over them.

All the speakers are connected to the subwoofer, and the subwoofer is connected to the soundcard. To connect the woofer to the card, a G9 speaker connection is included. The wire ends with 6 RCA cables that each have a spot on the woofer. There are about 10 cables that need to be connected to the woofer, but ABIT did a great job on labeling all the cables and the inputs on the woofer.

ABIT included a nice gadget into this system: they added a remote control to it! The remote is 100% compatible with the WinDVD software they have in there also, so you can use the system as a DVD player without having to run to the pc all the time to put it on pause or to turn up the volume. Unfortunately, the remote does not work with any other software, but since you won’t be using it for much else anyway, ‘fah-get about it!’.

Included Software

WinDVD

ABIT includes WinDVD 2000 (remember it works with the remote) so you can enjoy your favorite DVD on the computer (if you have a DVD player that is). This version is exactly the same as the retail one, but ABIT had it altered a bit so it would be compatible with their remote control.

ABIT Control Panel

Another nifty program they include in this package, is the ABIT Control Panel. This tool lets you change all settings like stereo effects, mixer settings, 3D sound effects, and lots more. It also lets you test your setup to make sure everything is working perfectly.

Other Software

Next to the above software, ABIT also included Fortmedia’s EZ Audio and the Yamaha XGPlayer. These tools are midi players (the EZ Audio also supports wav files and CD playback), but I think most of us use WinAmp or the cdplayer that comes with Windows. Midi freaks will use other more professional software. But still, it’s nice to see they included it.

Testing

System Setup

- ABIT SA6R Motherboard

- Celeron 733

- 128MB PC133 RAM

- 20GB Western Digital 7200rpm UDMA100 IDE harddrive

- Geforce 2 MX

- ABIT AU10 Soundcard

- DLink Ethernet Card

- ABIT SP50 Speakers

How does one test a soundsystem? I wondered about this a bit and then I decided I would test it just like you guys would use it: by using it as a normal user. So I played games on it, watched DVD movies, listened to mp3z, you know, the normal hard labor work of a reviewer. Lets see how the sound system stood up to our tests …

Games

Of course games are a big part of our lives, and games would be one of the reasons why you would buy a decent speaker set like the SP50. Therefore, I selected two of the coolest games available right now and listened to how the soundcard and the speakers performed on this level.

Quake 3: Arena

Q3:Arena is great game and it has some pretty nice sound effects. Especially the exploding sound of a rocket that is targeted at your worst enemy’s butt, which makes you feel good. The explosions sound great thanks to the powerful subwoofer. You can feel the bass going through your body, which adds another dimension to this already great game.

Crimson Skies

Another game I have been playing a lot lately is Microsoft’s Crimson Skies. This instant action flight simulator is a lot of fun and also has some great sound effects. The engines of the airplanes really fill the room when you turn up the volume of the SP50 and the AU10 manages to make everything sound very nice.

Music

Since broadband is becoming widely available, most people don’t mind downloading some of these mp3s they find on the net. I got some of my favorite music cd’s and tried them on the ABIT merchandise …

The system was great with rock songs. The speakers made the gitars sound very ‘real’. The sound is very crisp! Bryan Adams, Metallica, Guano Apes, all of them sounded just the way it should onf a good sound system.

Next genre that I was about to test: slows. These aren’t really my favorites, but what needs to be done needs to be done (or whatever they say). The sound was again very good and the voice of Celine Dion was very clear(note by Adam: maybe that’s not such as good thing).

Last but not least was dance music. I played some high-bass songs to see if the SP50 would be able to keep up pace with the basses these songs produce. Sometimes the speakers were not able to keep up, and we had a bit of resonance going on here. The woofer kept on going great and produced some high quality bass, but the speakers were a bit underpowered so there was some cracking. Sometimes there also were some sort of metallic sound. I think this is because the speakers are made out of metal and that metal is scrambling the sound a bit.

Movies

Because ABIT aims at DVD owners with this soundsystem. I thought it would be good to test how well their speakers perform in some of the most popular movies available on DVD.

The Matrix

This is one of the best movies ever made! Great special effects, cool story, fabulous sound effects and a lot of heartpounding action.

Both the AU10 soundcard and the SP50 speakersset were delivering top notch performance while I was watching this outstanding movie. One of my favorite scenes is where Neo and Trinity walk through the hall where those soldiers show up and they start the huge shooting scene. Thanks to ABIT it feels like you are actually inside the movie. It really sounded like bullets were flying through my room!

Scream 3

For the second movie test, I tried out my favorite horror flick: Scream 3. This is a great movie to test the high tones of the speakers since a lot of people ‘scream’ in this piece of art. The ABIT system was able to get me nailed to my chair, which is very positive cause we all know that if we mute the sound a movie is a tenth as scary. Again ABIT delivers very good performance.

Conclusion

ABIT’s first attempt to design a soundsystem is a success. There are some minor drawbacks to the speakerset like the metallic sound you get in songs with a lot of bass, but this should not inhibit you from buying this great product. The woofer delivers a very powerful bass and the satelites also perform top notch. The AU10 has become a very good gaming soundcard and will do just fine when watching a DVD from time to time. The real computer musician should look for something else with more options like digital out and digital in and other professional add-ons. But ABIT designed these two products to be used for gaming and watching movies and that’s what their good at. Way to go ABIT, these products are a definite winner!

UPDATE:
ABIT just told me that they include the woofer is now connected to the soundcard with A G9 connector on both side, so also on the woofer side :). This means you’ll get even better quality sound, so it is a good thing!

Good

- The SP50 and AU10 deliver great gaming and movie expierence

- The price is right

- Great extra features like the remote control and the special WinDVD software

Bad

- EAX, A3D, … is not hardware supported so the cpu has to do the calculating

- Sometimes you some sort of metallic sound