The challenger to Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live
Written: Jun 17 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Price, sound quality
Cons: not as many connectivity options as the Sound Blaster Live
|
|
|
| stevelarrison's Full Review: Rio Diamond Monster Sound MX300 |
Introduced in 1998, shortly after Creative Labs launched the Sound Blaster Live, the Diamond Monster MX300 Soundcard is still one of the best sound cards available today. (Even better than the MX400 from Diamond for most applications, but more on that later). Basically, the decision between the Sound Blaster Live (Value) and the MX300 comes down to a choice between realism of sound effects in gains (MX300) versus superior capability for connections to outside sources, and music handling ability (Creative Labs SoundBlaster).
Tell me more about the card
The MX300 runs an Aureal Vortex-2 sound chip to create realistic 3d sound effects that enhance the enjoyability of any game. It supports sound output for front and rear speakers, joystick/midi, microphone in, and analog line input. Internal inputs include CD Audio, auxilliary devices (FM Cards, TV Tuners, ... ), modem, and a daughter card (MX-25) that allows digital output capability. For those more technically inclined, the formal spec is:
96 DMA Channels
92 DirectSound Channels
76 DirectSound3D Channels
76 A3D Channels
16 A3D 2.0 Direct Path + 60 Reflection Channels
64 Hardware Wavetable voices
256 Software Wavetable voices
26-point Sample Rate Conversion
Wall Occlusions via A3D 2.0
Wall Reflections via A3D 2.0
Realtime Doppler shift
How does it compare to the SoundBlaster Live?
The Diamond MX300 does sound better in video games than the Sound Blaster Live. The reason why is simple, the technology behind A3D is more complex then Creative Labs environmental Audio. These more realistic 3d sound effects come at a price though, frames per second. Because The A3D standard transfers calculations to the CPU that are handled by the soundcard under CL's Environmental Audio, you will actually get worse performance with a MX300 than a SoundBlaster Live.(Note, the difference in performance is not large, but should be noted.)
In all honesty, you won't be disappointed by either this card, or the Sound Blaster Live. The SBLive and cards built around the Aureal chipset offer truly incredible performance. In my opinion, the MX300 is actually preferrable to its' successor from Diamond, the MX400. (Aureal stopped selling their chipset to others when they started making their own sound cards. Diamond has switched to the Canyon 3D chipset for the MX400, and even though the MX400 supports 5:1 format, in my opinion, the MX300 is still a better card because of the superior sound quality of the Aureal chipset.)
Summary
The introduction of the MX400 has caused the price of the MX300 to drop even further. I bought one of these when they first came out for $99. You can now get them for $40. Although a SoundBlaster Live fits my needs better, and resides in my primary machine, I still have no problem recommending this card to anyone that doesn't need the extra connectivity that the Soundblaster Live offers. It offers incredibly realistic sound effects for a good price. It is unfortunate that Diamond can no longer offer Aureal products. It would also be nice if digital output didn't require use of a daughter card. The chipset used in this card supports it natively, and other manufacturers offer an integrated solution based around the same chipset.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
stevelarrison
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Steve Larrison
Location: Scottsdale, Az. USA
Reviews written: 171
Trusted by: 198 members
About Me:
Beer, the answer to, and the cause of all life's problems.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.