Home | Forums | Deals | Cool Case Gallery |Archive | Reviews | Articles | Guides | Links | VH Gear | Contests | Downloads | Contact
 



  OCZ Reaper HPC PC2-8500 4GB Memory Kit Review  
 
 
  NesteQ ECS5001 500w Modular PSU Review  
 
 
  ECS A780GM-A Black Series Motherboard Review  
 
 
  Tuniq Miniplant 950w Power Supply Review  
 
 
  OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4GB USB Flash Drive Review  
 
 
  Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock Review  
 
 
  GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3P Motherboard Review  
 
 
  LapWorks Attaché Laptop Stand Review  
 
 
  A-DATA PD17, PD18, and PD19 Mini USB Flash Drives Review  
 
 
  ASUS 9800 GTX 512MB Graphics Card Review  
 
 

Get prices for...

 
 
Top Products

Motherboards
Intel | Abit
Gigabyte | Asus
Epox | Iwill
MSI | Shuttle
Tyan | Soyo
ECS | ASRock

Processors
AMD | Intel
Compaq

Cases
Antec | Lian-Li
Thermaltake
SilverStone
Coolermaster
ATX | BTX

Graphic Cards
ATI | nVidia

Memory
DDR | DDR2
Corsair | Crucial
OCZ | Patriot

Sound Cards
Creative Labs
Turtle Beach

Hard Drives
Seagate | Hitachi
Western Digital | Maxtor

Monitors
Viewsonic | Dell
Samsung | Apple

CD & DVD Burners
Plextor | Lite On
Sony | LG



 
 

 
Best viewed @ 1024 x 768 and higher

NAS Products

Razer AC-1 Barracuda 7.1 Sound Card Review
Date Published:
01-03-2007
Written By:
Millsy
Edited By:
Diceman
Provided By:
Razer Products
Where to Buy:
Razer Store
Discuss Article:
VH Forum link
Pages: 1 2 3

 
 
 
 
 




Razer AC-1 Barracuda 7.1 Sound Card

Introduction:


Razers AC-1

The Barracuda


   Before you read any further, you should read my review of the partner to the AC-1, the Razer HP-1 Barracuda Headphones. It gets much more in depth than I’m going to get here. For the basics however, all you really need to know is that they are extremely nice headphones, with the one flaw is the lack of bass using my Audigy 2.

   As I mentioned in that headphone review, the market for sound cards has been much like the market for operating systems in the last 20 years. There is the one main option that 80% of the population uses, then there is a half dozen other options that no one actually thinks about.

First Impressions:


The box

The back

The Who?


Razer has obviously put a lot of work into trying to make sure they don’t fall into that 2nd group. That starts with the box, though I have to ask, does anyone in North America know who any of the people they feature? I actually am really starting to dislike the “famous gamer syndrome” that is popping up everywhere, but I guess someone figures it sells product.


Closer look

More features

Open

Inside it comes with the sound card itself, a driver CD, a Quick start guide, and an HD-DAI adapter.


For gamers by gamers

The goods!

Quick guide + card

The connectors are where it differs from every other sound card out there. Instead of the normal “Front, Rear, Center, Sub” etc etc connectors, there are only 3. SPDIF in and out (read: Optical in and out), and the unique HD-DAI connector that looks suspiciously like a DVI port.  (It comes with a warning, NOT to plug in a monitor, they have only just used the same connector, it is NOT meant for video at all). The adapter that plugs into the HD-DAI port allows you to use the AC-1 with the same speakers or headphones you've always had. Right up to 7.1 surround sound speakers, it also includes a microphone in jack, just make sure you don't lose it!

Anyway, before I get more into it, I will assault you with the obligatory statistics.

Stats:

  • Razer Enhanced Sonic Perception™ (ESP) enhances positional audio in gaming to allow competitive gamers to take advantage of the expanded dynamic soundstage in-game

  • Dolby® Pro-Logic IIx surround processor splits stereo audio into 7.1 channel surround sound

  • Dolby® Headphone technology conveys 5.1 surround or 3D gaming sounds over stereo headphones

  • Independent Dolby® Digital Live (AC-3) 5.1 real-time encoding bit-stream to facilitate connection with CE AV receiver

  • Dolby® Virtual Speaker solution brings amazing virtual surround sound fields via general two speakers

  • DTS® Interactive Real-time 5.1 encoder that takes any 2 or more channels and encodes it into DTS bit stream

  • DTS® NeoPC An upmixing matrix that turns any 2 channel audio into 7.1 surround sound

  • Supports 7.1 CH digital audio playback for WinXP 64, WinXP ,Win2000 (Microsoft® DirectX V.9.0 above is required) and most industrial standards of PC 3D sound for gaming, including EAX™ 1.0&2.0, A3D™ 1.0, and DirectSound™

  • PCI 2.2 interface (Burst Modes and Bus Mastering)

  • 4 synchronous I2S input/output pairs

  • Integrated 192k/24-bit S/PDIF receiver/transmitter Multi-channel AC-link (supports up to 2 AC97 codecs)

  • S/PDIF IN supports digital loop back path for transforming between optical and RCA connection

  • Serial bus to communicate with micro control unit (MCU)lMPU-401 MIDI UART port support

  • All I2S I/O pairs support 32-bit high-definition PCM data transfer and adjustable sample rate up to 192KHz

<< Back to VH FrontPage | Testing >>

 


Got News? Send 'em in!

.








 Acoustic PC - Quiet Computer Fans
 Noctua Fan - Optimized Quiet Computer Fans
 Electronic Components from Made in China
 Data Recovery
 External VGA to USB Signal Grabber
 Data Recovery Software
 Raid Recovery
 Data Recovery Software
 Data Recovery
 Computer Forensics
 RAID Data Recovery
 Computer forensic
 Shopbot Canada
 Data Recovery
 MjM Data Recovery Ltd
 Data Recovery
 Data Recovery
 Data Recovery
 Data Recovery
 IPDRA.org
 
 
 
 

Copyright © 1999 - 2008 Virtual-Hideout LLC.
All other trademarks and copyrights on this site are property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.