Introduction

Canyon3D In Retail

A few weeks ago Firingsquad brought you the world's first preview of an ESS Canyon 3D powered sound card. Today we bring you TerraTec's interpretation of the Canyon 3D, the TerraTec SoundSystem DMX. We have become familiar with the terms: reference design and reference drivers. The first Canyon3D board Firingsquad took a look at was a reference design. TerraTec chose to go their own way and create their own Canyon 3D board, using a "bigger" chip -- more on this later.

For most of you, the name TerraTec will be unrecognized and it may sound like a construction company or something -- that is unless you are a professional digital musician. TerraTec is based in Germany and has been making sound cards and personal computer digital interfaces for quite sometime now. Their product catalog is full of equipment that would belong in a recording studio. Okay, I admit it I may not need to be able to output digital audio in every standard known to man and woman, but to be able to do it is enough. :)

Because of this literally rich heritage, most of TerraTec's products have been quite expensive. The SoundSystem DMX is truly one of their first attempts to reach the consumer market, with a professional quality board. The DMX retails for $199 dollars US. This includes a healthy software bundle and a digital I/O card with coaxial and optical input and outputs. Is all this worth it? Keep on reading.