More About the SQ3500

So What is Dolby Digital then?

One thing many consumers don't know is that having the Dolby Digital logo on a product doesn't guarantee that it's the same 5.1 sound you hear in theaters. In fact, manufacturers can technically display the Dolby Digital logo on their products with simple mono sound! I talked with William Barnes, Encoding Services Manager at Dolby Laboratories the next day about the subject and he explained to me that Dolby asks all its licensees to clearly state which form of Dolby Digital it supports, but they have a hard time enforcing it as there are literally thousands of products which claim Dolby Digital support.

Of course, all home theater receivers that claim Dolby Digital support are true 5.1 solutions, unfortunately this isn't the case with PC sound, and the SQ3500 sound card in particular. The SQ3500 is a 4.1 solution, with a phantom center channel. This means that the two front speakers will perform the function of a traditional center channel speaker (outputting the dialogue present in the movie) in addition to playing the soundtrack and sound effects. Since the amount of space around your computer system is significantly smaller than a typical home theater setup or movie theater, the dialogue will still sound accurate in 4.1 sound and I assume Aureal feels the market isn't ready for a true 5.1 setup.

Other SQ3500 features and what about A3D 3.0?

Besides 4.1 Dolby Digital decoding, the SQ3500 also decodes MP3's! Those of you with slower systems will certainly appreciate this, in fact, even my system hitches up while listening to MP3's and opening new programs at the same time. We were also told that the Vortex Player could support encoding and ripping functions in the future, another cool feature.

On the A3D 3.0 subject, we were told that one of its new key features is geometry-based reverb. A3D 3.0 reverb effects can be chosen from Aureal's given presets or can be custom made. Another added feature is volumetric sound. Any gamer who's experienced A3D firsthand already knows how accurate it is at representing an audio sources' given position, and with volumetric sound sources sound should have added depth, more accurately representing the sound in a given area.

Digital sound and hearing

Every person is unique. Some people have big heads. Others have small heads. Not to mention the different shapes and sizes of ears. With this in mind, A3D 3.0 features downloadable HRTF sets, providing custom-tailored sound for its owner. Aureal is taking data from a UC Davis study to determine which ear sizes are most common, but if you don't like the default setting, simply choose another.

Prominent games mentioned with A3D 3.0 support were Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. While the official press release from Activision concerning Quake III hasn't been released, Aureal assured us that all the technical work is done and they're waiting for id to approve the official press release. While we weren't given able to hear A3D 3.0 during the show, we're really looking forward to hearing it in our office sometime soon. The SQ3500 Turbo will ship in the January/February timeframe at an MSRP of $199.