Audio Reviews

The X-Gamer is a very decent card. Pretty good sound quality. DVD's play okay, games are okay, the only thing that's really great about the card is the sound quality in DOS but not a lot of people have applications in DOS. For the same price, there are many better choices out there currently which have much better sound quality in recording and playback.

Also, the SB Live! cards have problems working on motherboards with VIA southbridge chipsets and many AMD-based motherboards have a VIA southbridge. The IRQ settings get messed up and the only way to get the card working is to upgrade and install the 4-in-1 drivers.

When I first used this soundcard under Win98, it was difficult to install at first, but after downloading the latest driver, it worked fine. I was really impressed with the sound quality of this card and the games packaged with it(especially Unreal Tournament). The sound from playing my DVD movies on my computer is outstanding! This card works great under WINDOWS XP Professional because you do not have to install any drivers for it since XP sets it up automatically and painlessly! Overall, I think this soundcard was a great purchase. Well worth the money spent.

Note: If you are trying to get the Soundblaster Live card to work with a VIA based motherboard or any other non Intel based board, you may need to download the latest driver at soundblaster.com or creative.com to get it to work.

Wire this baby into your stereo, and you'll definitely notice the difference between good sound cards and the bad ones. This card is excellent although it is a little expensive due to the market strength of sound blaster. The included games give this package a little more value. The digital output is great if you have the equipment for it. At maximum volume, I don't even notice distortions (of course you need your speakers to perform too).

I bought these speakers to use on our deck and also to point out at our pool. I am amazed at the sound quality for such a small box. If you are looking for an inexpensive set of speakers to place outdoors then these are a perfect fit. I am going to order a second pair in order to increase my coverage area.

I bought these speakers about 3 months ago to use in my garage and was amazed at the sound quality considering the price. Im currently in the process of building a go cart, and I plan to buy another set of these speakers to mount on each side of the seat. I have alreighty tested them with a Dual 52Wx4 CD Deck and they work perfectly. The CD Deck is going to be mounted into a small armrest/storage compartment on the right hand side of the seat, and run off a 12V motorcycle battery thats connected to the motors alternator.



So, this just shows a couple of the many uses of these speakers. Weather you just want good, affordable sound in your garage, or go to the extreme and have a really cool sound system on a GO CART, these speakers are a great choice.

I bought these speakers for less than $20 and am very impressed with their quality. I put them on our patio and the entire area is filled with great sound (the patio is about 15'x30'). If you are looking for an inexpensive set of speakers for outside, this is your pair.

I bought this amp and I HATE it. This component left BLACK, NON-removable, stained FOOTPRINTS on my once beautiful component table. Endless hassles for menu options that don't make sense, outputs that output for some things and not others (for instance: their "multi-out" will only output cd sound, and if you were to listen to a DVD the sound would cease for no apparent reason). 5 channel stereo should pass analog signal, but it doesn't. So I tried the "tape" outputs, and the FM radio comes out too now (hooray!) but still no DVD sound passes through the analog out. There is no method to their madness. The "hall" effect is horrible, turn it on and then put your head in between the center speaker and right-front to hear this horrid zig-zag featureless chop they call "hall" mode. uggh, I hate this amp.

The reciever is good, however it falls short in two important areas. It fails to include a tone defeat for the treble-bass controls and no loudness function and sounds in the treble region sound compressed, not really clear. For... more the
DENON DRA 685 has these important features + a cleaner mid and treble region while retaining good clear bass. Not that I am a DENON fan but, for this price range for a good 2 channel reciever the sound and features should be better.

I have owned the HK 3470 about a year now. I purchesed the 3470 because it has Pre-out/ Main in connections which allows the use of an equalizer. I mainly use the 3470 to power a large pair of Cerwin Vega S-2 EE Speakers for a friends outside party twice a year. These speakers have 15" woofers, 6 1/2" mids and tweeters. These speakers are made to handle up to 250 watts. The Hk 3470 throws the power to them very well. I play loud dance music and the amp does a great job! Adding the Equalizer really helps to dial in the sound on the Cerwin Vega's.

A very good Stereo amp with decent power.

I was slightly disappointed with these speakers when i first got them. However, after a couple of months the hum that used to be present when no music was being played disappeared. I was also slightly dissapointed with the power of the sub, which should be a little more powerful with its 100 watt power. Overall the speakers sound really great but if your going to spend $[money] i'd advise the klipsch 4.2 or 5.1's which give you a little more bang for your buck.

I bought this system several months ago and I've been using it as my primary home entertainment sound system. It's been fantastic. The bass is completely there (sometimes too much), the speakers are extremely well matched, and they hide inconspicuously enough for my taste. I only have one gripe and that's the voice clarity. Unless I punch the volume up all the way, the little center channel speaker can't seem to give me what I need. The surround effects are marvelous but they tend to blow me away when they come in after a quiet conversation in the movie. I'm thinking of purchasing center with a little more size to change the dynamics of the system, but with the limited power (20 watts) I'm afraid it'll sound just as quiet. BUT, other than that one problem, the system has been great. If you put an attenuator on the lines, the hum disappears and it can handle most anything you want to dish out. DVD is outstanding and my MP3 collection has never sounded sweeter. If this is your price range, get this system because with all the amenities, even the shortcomings will still not touch the entertainment you'll get from this system.

Adding this sound system to my TV set has made an enormous improvement. Volume is more than adequate for my medium sized room. There are three inputs, analog, optical digital, and coaxial digital, each of which can be hooked up to a different device. The remote switches between the analog and digital inputs, while the 2 digital inputs autoswitch depending upon which is active (with optical dominant if both are). My sole complaint is with the limited range of the volume control on the remote, which is inadequate to deal with the differences in level between my components, so I often find myself having to adjust the master volume level, which is inconveniently located on the back of the subwoofer.

For me, it was either an MP3CD player, or a flash based system. Hard drive based systems are nice, but I cannot afford to lose or drop a $250+ unit. This is also a good unit to have if you want to get into a hard drive MP3 player ::eventually:: but want to wait for the technology to advance / prices to drop.

I liked the idea of essentially having a "playlist" of songs on media that I can keep for a while and not have to erase and rewrite all the time. In the long run, managing a small collection of 8mm MP3CDs is less hassle than constantly reloading a flash based player and losing what was there before. Also, those 8mm CDs will play in 99% of computers and full size MP3CD players.

The sound quality is very good. The unit has an electronic skip protection (ESP). However, I have found that even when I am riding my bike it is hard to make it skip. Leave ESP off and your battery will last about 1/3 longer.

The only thing I wish this player did was display ID3 tags, but maybe I am asking for too much in a player this small.

This product is a great "poor man's mp3 player" Giving the perfect balance between price, portability, mp3 storage, and quality. the only problem I have like some other people here have had is battery life. Just like one of the other reviewers here said, my unit drains batteries even if it isn't turned on also. A great product though, if you don't mind using the ac adapter.

my girlfriend gave me a 64mb samsung mp3 player which cost around $70, she told me that i could take it or not, cuz she havent paid for it... so i had this one for about a week and dont even put a song on it ... i just told her to take it back because 64 mbs is nothng .... 20 or 40 extra bucks and i could get a 128 or even a 256 mp3 player... so i started lookin for an mp3 player at amazon (very good service, have bought a lot of things and everything is alway on time and works good!) and i found out that none of the mp3s avialable fit to me, soudenly i remembered i have a sony mavica cd500 which uses 8 cm cd-r media and i looked for an 8 cm cd player who played back mp3s and i found this one, the best!!!

an mp3 cd player for 50 bux is the best deal u can do

i m very pleased with this product, i bought a 5 pack 8cm cd r two days before i got it and burned those cds on musicmatch jukebox plus, i almost got 80 songs on each and the sound is incredible!!!! i pretty much like this shuffle option, it rocks!
i mostly listn to punk rock music, in a 210 mb disc at 128kbps u can get around 80 tracks

its weight?? dont worry u dont even feel it!

i just have to advise two things:

1. the ear-plug covers comes a little bit damaged because of the way its packed, but its not that bad,
2. before purchase this cd player, u most buy a pack of 2 or 4 rechargable batteries and a charger for those, cuz if u use those standar batteries u are lost and will be mad cuz they only last about 4-5 hours, not kiddin!

thank god my brother had some cybershot sony rechargable batteries and gave me a pair and my problem was solved

i think philips should have think about a carrying case or a clip on for it, i usually use the expanium for jogging or walk on mornings and i have to carry it on my short's pockets

I own three of these. I also own three AudioTron (Turtlebeach) units. Sonic Blue missed the mark on several points:
1. You MUST run THEIR software on your server.
2. You MUST log in ( and stay logged in)to the server for their software to work (it SHOULDN'T, but does!).
3. They don't pay any attention to Track Numbers on an album. It allways play in ALPHA order. This will not do!
4. They don't have digital out.
5. They abandoned the product, even though you can still get them (as of 5/1/03) they are NOT supported and will NEVER have an patches.

The thing that they DID get right is that the unit has it's own 10 watt amplifier (if you choose to use it). And the the analog audio quality is much better than that of the AudioTron. (But the AudioTron has digital out).

At current prices...these are worth the price. At the retail price...they died horribly. But realize that the price is low because the product died a horrible death and is not supported.

If you do get one - just remember to have your Ripping software create an M3U playlist for each album. Then you have the unit play in album order.

I have four of these being served by JReceiver on a FreeBSD 5.0 box. Two are on a CAT5-wired network while two are using Netgear XE102 powerline/ethernet bridges. My only complaint is the display size; it's too small. It would have been nice to also output the display to video. I rip all of my CDs to a big disk on the FreeBSD box. These are also exported using Samba so all the Windows boxes can use it as well. I think the Rio Receiver is a great product for the money.

I have had a rio receiver for a few months now and could not be more pleased. I can't remember the last time my old carousel cd player has been powered up.
My setup: I have my receiver connected to my home stereo through the rca jacks. I stream my mp3's to my rio through a dlink wireless router (713p I think) and have a wireless to ethernet bridge from SMC on my rio. This configuration works great and I do not have any problem with drop outs.

I have ripped all of my cd's to my computer, and used a program to generate playlists. This is one of my only gripes about the receiver: if you want to play albums with the correct track order, you need to use playlists, as selecting music by the album will play the songs in alphabetical order. It doesn't bother me because I have the playlists. The only other thing that I would complain about is the tiny display. You either have to learn the menus if you want to use the remote, or just select the music on the receiver itself so you are close enough to see what you are doing.

Some very cool things about this receiver: there are a number of open source free programs out there for it! There are some programs that let you listen to shoutcast internet radio streams, and they work very well if you have a broadband connection. There are other programs that let you choose your music through a web server, however I feel that takes away from what the receiver is meant to do: let you choose your music at your stereo, not your computer.

These units can be found easily for under a hundred dollars right now, and when you compare that to the price of the audiotron, the streamium, the slimp3, or any similar product there is no reason not to go with this!

I am in a YearBook Class and we use these digi cams. They are exclusively new. I like how they take pictures. At first, it was hard taking pictures, because I am new to the Digi cam world, and I have used good ol' film cameras for my entire life. Anyway, it was really hard at first, because I took several bad pictures, but finally I found out how to delete them. I would say that this inspired me to save up for a digi cam myself. The only drawback is the price, because my teacher said it cost $600, but then again, she bought it elsewhere.

I originally had an S50 until it was stolen, so after much new research I replaced it with the S60. The focusing is much improved over my original S50. Although friends who also had the same camera never seemed to have focusing problems. The navigation buttons on the back of the camera have been improved. It is definately lighter than the S50, which is a bonus for those carrying the camera hiking or climbing. And, its start up time is good if you need to capture a picture really quick. So far it has handled all sorts of lighting conditions very well, and the color definition has been excellent with very little (if any) purple tinting. This is a very feature rich camera, if you like gadgets. However, it is also easy to use when set to fully automatic. The photo software it comes with is much improved, and is an acceptable choice if you don't have the money to buy something like Photoshop. I like the rugged, solid feel of the camera overall.

What I don't like about it is the slidable lens cover. I keep bumping it when it is open because of the way I like to hold the camera. The cover extends almost to the right hand side of the camera. If you bump it during picture taking, it shuts down the camera and you don't get your picture. This has happened to me maybe a half a dozen times. I have to consciously force myself to hold the camera as to not disturb the cover when it is open. Maybe in the future canon can move it back from the edge a bit, or reduce the sensitivity of the mechanism that shuts the camera down. Last, this camera isn't design for use in the shirt pocket. If you are looking for a pocket camera this one is a bit big.

I was looking for a digital camera that has many features as SLR does, yet want it small enough that it's convinient for me to carry it anywhere to do a lot of photographs. I got S60 and so far I'm satisfied with it.

The camera produced sharp images and good color balance. And the camera gets ready fast enough to shoot after we turn it on.

Though I took many pictures with it and reviewed the images many times, I found out that the battery is long-lasting.

I also like the software that puts the picture in folders titled by the date automatically. So I can choose not to print date on the pictures.

However, sometimes it's quite hard to slide open your camera when your hand is sweaty. And also almost every single time I take the camera out of my pocket, I slide open the battery door. Yet, they are not a big deal to me.

I recentley purchased this reciever and do not like it. Every time I'm watching a movie in surround the reciever overloads when the volume is at around 40. I can't enjoy the true surround sound at a good level.

I have owned one of these now for about a year now. I think it produces excellent sound. I have it hooked up to six Klipsch speakers and it has unbeatable sound!

I believe it's a good buy and performs well, but the owner's manual could be more informative & give better explanations to assist the layman in the hookup & setup phase.

I am still trying to test and get the proper sound settings for my speakers (Polk RM6600 & PSW250 sub). Still confused about a couple of settings and can't find the answers in the manual.

The receiver definitely gets warm and needs good ventilation. This makes me wonder if I can leave it in my glass-front stereo cabinet.

The on-screen setup menu is great and allows for easier programming. But, if the owner's manual was better written and provided more information, I would probably have given this a 5 Star rating...

If anyone knows of a site where I can find hookup drawings and better information on the various functions of this receiver, please let me know. The JVC website has limited information.

I just bought the GE 3-5375 Recorder. I'm using a MC-60 microcassette as recommended on the back of the box. Well the GE 3-5375 Recorder destroyed my microcassette along with some precious recordings on it because the recorder wheels are spinning counter-clockwise while microcassettes are normally designed to spin clockwise. I had to buy a brand new MC-60 microcassette, and my recordings are lost in oblivion. Since when are tape recorders spinning counter-clockwise? They could at least have the common decency to warn us. At first I though technologies may have changed while I was sleeping in a cave. But if you look closely at page 8 of the user manual, in the illustration aside the third paragraph titled "Quit Slacking", you clearly see that the arrow around the pencil is pointing in the clockwise direction. Clearly there is something wrong with this recorder. So I figure that engineers behind this cheap toy are dumb monkeys. Stay away from this GE 3-5375 Recorder, it's a complete piece of trash.

This microcassette recorder is very practical and good for the price. It has a number of features which I am pleased with. The "Voice activated recorder" option, works well and saves on tape and battery power. The "one touch record" is handy, so you don't press the play button by accident, and miss recording, or end up playing a pre-recorded tape (which often happened with my old model recorder) and this was distracting during lectures. The "dual tape speed" allows extended recording, up to 3 hours with a 90 minute tape, which is convenient. The quality of both recording speeds is good, and is sensitive enough to detect normal conversations a few metres away. It also contains headphone and microphone jacks, and the provided clip-on microphone works well. This microcassette recorder tapes telephone conversations easily, using the "Fone-call recorder" attachment (sold separately at many electronic shops), and the quality of this recording is good. It also has "normal" and "fast" playback options.

This microcassette recorder does not have a tape counter, which would have been nice, but I think the other options make up for this. It also does not have "auto-reverse", but obviously this is expected for the price. It also does not have "auto stop", a feature which I actually did not want because of the loud click, which is distracting during lectures and is not good for covert recording. Overall, nice microcassette recorder, versatile and at a good price.

I got this General Electric cordless sound recorder for Christmas 2003. This is a great product, It's got great features, and also I got a six-pack of cassette tapes by Sony. They're cassettes that I can record for only ninety minutes on both sides A and B on every audio cassette. It costs less than 30 bucks and I like this product. It's a lean, mean, sound recording machine!!!

When I first put this card in I was impressed with the sound quality. If your buying this for music or just to plug it into your stereo, it does a good job. If you wish to install and play games go elsewhere. It likes to lock up on most games.

Hey, i bought this just for the optical out, and wanted to see if it would skip the tracks for me (since it is optical) on my minidisk dubbing deck. Well, i just put the thing on record and the music sounds great on my home theatre system...unbelieveable for bootlegged mp3s. But sadly, the optical out will not space out the tracks, so when recording to mini disk, it will make all the MP3s one large track. On the other hand...this is one good sounding card to plug up to a home audio system---i just cant stand computer speakers.

later

I had a hercules game theater, but it had trouble passing AC3 and did not pass DTS at all. I got this sound card and find it to be great. No more annoying pops, and it passes the DTS signal using PowerDVD