Terratec DMX Xfire 1024

Creative Labs' Live! range of cards has been getting all the attention in the sound card market. And it's with good reason. The Live! is a fantastic product with a huge range of features. This is hardly surprising as it's really a re-engineered version of the semi-professional APS card produced by EMU Systems, which is owned by Creative.

However, both TerraTec and VideoLogic have eyes on the Creative throne and are spoiling for a fight with two new cards (check out the VideoLogic SonicFury Review on vnunet). Both have a powerful onboard Digital Signal Processor (DSP) and feature A3D and EAX support for 3D sound in games. Both also have digital outs and an 8MB soundset for music.

Installation of the TerraTec DMX XFIRE 1024 was straightforward. The PC recognised the card first time and installed the drivers and software. The card uses two IRQs: one listed under game device in the Control panel and the other listed under PCI audio accelerator.

To test out the card in analog surround mode we loaded up PowerDVD, the software DVD player, and set it to quad-speaker mode. The TerraTec performed reasonably well, but there was notable ghosting as the cardtried to recreate the centre channel in software. This manifests itself as very quiet dialogue in certain parts of movies. Nevertheless, the card also has an optical output that can be used for Dolby Digital, assuming you have an external decoder.

The overall sound quality from the card's analog outputs is superb, producing crisp and clear audio with good stereo imaging. We also tried the card's onboard synth using the supplied Emagic's Logic Fun software. The General Midi (GM) sounds were very good with no obvious changes in timbre between multisampled sounds like pianos. The Xfire also supports Downloadable Soundfonts (DLS), so you can get new sounds from the net.

There's very little to separate the Terratec from its peers in terms of performance and it really comes down to what you have in mind for the sound card. At the end of the day we feel the TerraTec is a good option, especially if you've already got a surround-sound decoder.

CONTACT SCV London
020 7923 1892

(Original text appeared in a head-to-head review featuring the TerraTec DMX Xfire 1024 and the VideoLogic SonicFury

See also:

Strike the right chord on the web

Got the soundcard and the teeshirt but need some groovy samples and lyrics? Our guide to resources for musicians on the internet can get you rocking.  21 Nov 2000

VideoLogic SonicFury

A soundcard with a good selection of audio features for playing games and DVDs, and one that eases the load on your computer's processor.  08 Oct 2000

Terratec M3PO

A regular audio CD hi-fi separate that can also play your MP3 files straight off a normal data CD.  08 Oct 2000

Creative Soundblaster Live! Platinum

Quite simply the best sound product ever to come onto the market. And considering just how much you get in the box, it comes for a bargain price.  01 Feb 2000

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