Creative Gigaworks S750 - Audio quality: Movies and games

Multimedia - Published on Wednesday, 04 February 2004 23:38 Written by Mårten Johansson

The first one out is a movie test to see how the Gigaworks S750 manages in a home theater environment.

	Star Wars I - The Phantom Menace
	A DVD-movie which you probably know of, where the sound effects are massive. A perfect test for your home theater equipment.
Media type:	DVD-Movie
Audio format:	Dolby® Digital 5.1 EX™

If you play back a DVD-movie with a lot of effects, like the one I chose (Star Wars - The Phantom Menace), you get to feel it too. With the word feel, I do of course mean one of the opening scenes in the movie where the ships are heading towards the planet, or the great battle scene where they drive around with huge vehicles. Set the cut frequency to 80 Hz and increase the volume of the bass a bit more. Remember not to have any porcelain laying around or any other sensitive stuff close by, because I can guarantee that it will shake your entire living room. It is just like as if you stood next to the troops while they march past you.
 

	Saving Private Ryan
	Steven Spielberg's discussed war drama in a DVD edition with double DVD discs full with bonus material and DTS audio.
Media type:	DVD-Movie
Audio format:	Dolby® Digital 5.1 EX™ and DTS

The sixth of July, 1944, Ohama Beach, also known as the D-Day. The boats slowly approach the beach and I always by instinct look behind me because of the sound of the water and distant grenade explosions circulates my position in the room's center. A complete silence when the main character jumps down under the water, followed by chaos when the bullets begin to fly around the running soldiers. Firm ground under the feet and they rush away to stay alive, at the same time as the sound from the subwoofer makes it move around the floor when the grenades hit the ground. I switch to the built-in speaker in the TV for a moment and can't understand that it is the same movie. Once again it's proved, the sound makes half the film. 

	Soldiers of Fortune II
	A PC game with a lot of effects and is especially good to test the surround sound.
Media type:	PC game
Audio format:	EAX® Advanced HD™ 3.0

Then it's time to look at what this package can offer to those who mainly play games on their PC. Many people might believe that you can not use and utilize 7.1 sound in games, but it is completely possible and to my surprise it actually gives a major enhancement to the game experience. The engine it self in this is the EAX Advanced HD which can deliver realistic, what I chose to call environment effects. This of course assume that you have a sound card that support this, for example Audigy 2 ZS.

When it comes to settings for this type of application there are no direct values so you have to configure it from game to game. A bit adjustment is needed though, a bit depending on how demanding you are too. I can tell you to not increase the volume of the bass too much because then you definitely have to change your underwear when an enemy jumps out of the corner and shoots at you in Soldiers of Fortune 2. It is not without being a bit afraid of the dark playing in the night I can tell you, and it is completely because of that the sound is around you all the time and at anytime someone can attack you from behind and you hear that before you see it in this game. This is a feeling that you hardly get from a couple of headphones.

	Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
	A PC game especially equipped to test the new EAX 4.0 with sound from and in several environments simultaneously.
Media type:	PC game
Audio format:	EAX® Advanced HD™ 4.0

When it comes to Jedi Academy I have included this game because it has got support for the new EAX® 4.0 where you can mix effects from and in several environments at the same time. For example it can be yourself shooting your gun in a barrel which echoes while another guy stands in the water and shoots at you a bit away. The sound card and the speakers are able to reproduce both, "exactly" as in the reality, something that adds a lot of great feelings to the game if I may say so.You can read more about it in this article.

In the end I just have to say that the bass is not to play with, an enormous pressure no matter what application. You often get a feeling of a bolting stage-coach from the time where cowboys rode on the prairie, which you can't stop all the times. You who have an apartment and a grumpy landlord, mind that with power comes responsibility :-D.