Inside the Montego II

The Aureal reference design for the Vortex2 places all the connectors, including optical SPDIF out (TOSLINK) and dual speaker outputs, on one card. The Montego II Quadzilla requires a daughter board for the rear channel output and the coax digital out. This design takes up and additional slot, which are becoming prime real estate these days. One benefit, however, is that the Montego II can be sold as a front speaker only sound card, for a lower price with the ability to upgrade in the future. The optional coax/optical digital input and output connections found on the Montego II Home Studio also interface through this same connector, replacing the Quadzilla daughter board.

The Montego II with breakout board

Quadzilla, a Bad Horror Film?

As you may have guessed, the Quadzilla nomenclature refers to the four-speaker support. A year ago, four-speaker sound would have been revolutionary; today it is expected. The back plate of the Montego II also includes your basics, a joystick port, line in and microphone in. By using two back plates, the connections are well spread out and make it easier to connect everything together.

External Connectors

Stereo L/R Front Output

Stereo L/R Rear Output (daughter board)

Microphone

Line In

Coaxial SPDIF out (daughter board)

MIDI/Digital Gameport

Internal Connectors

CD-Audio (4-pin MPC style)

Auxilliary (4-pin MPC style)

Modem (4-pin MPC style)

The Specifications:

96 Hardware DirectSound Streams

16 Hardware DirectSound3D Streams (old drivers)

4 speaker output

18-bit DAC

64 Voice Wavetable Synthesis

S/P-DIF Output

True A3D 2.0 Emulation

There is nothing extraordinary about these specifications. Everything is right on par with the other Vortex2 SuperQuad reference boards.