Product Description

Diamond's Xtreme Sound improves your computer's audio while freeing up valuable computer system resources. Install it and you'll experience high level, theater quality sound while watching videos, listening to music, and playing games all in true 7.1 channel surround sound. This is an essential upgrade for anyone interested in better home audio for TV, audio, movies or games. It also includes Audacity, a multi-track recording/editing studio. You can Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or with new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats, such as WAV and MP3. Editing is simple with the Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete tools. Use unlimited Undo and Redo to go back any number of steps, while you edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks. Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool. Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises from your recordings. Level meters help monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording. You can dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings. Internal inputs for CD and Aux Audio Coaxial SPDIF in/out Audacity features - 16bit/48KHz playback; 6-channel audio output; 10 band Equalizer with presets; Easy connection to home audio equipment; Special effects including concert hall and more Inputs - Mic and stereo line in Outputs - L/R front and rear channels, center/subwoofer Operating Systems - Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center System Requirements - 850 MHZ CPU; PCI slot; 128MB RAM; 20MB hard disk space; CD-ROM drive; Amplified Speakers, amplifier w/Speakers or headphones

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9529 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Diamond
• Model: XS71DDL
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds

Features

• 24bit/96khz playback
• 8 channel audio output
• Easy connection to home audio equipment
• Dolby Digital Live
• 50 Free MP3 downloads from emusic

From the manufacturer
Diamond's XtremeSound 7.1 Sound Card with Dolby Digital Live helps you take gaming, music, movies and more one step further with 7.1 Dobly Digital Live! Dolby Digital Live converts any audio signal into a Dolby Digital bitstream for transport and playback through a home theater system. Diamond Xtreme Sound allows the user to experience high level, theater quality sound while watching videos, listening to music, and playing games all in true 7.1 channel surround sound. Get 100 free MP3 downloads from emusic.com. Dolby EX and DTS formats for 6.1/7.1 channel DVD playback at 24bit/96khz;8k/16bit recording; 7.1 virtual speaker shifter providing surround sound for CDs and MP3s, PCI 2/2 interface with bus mastering and burst modes. System requirements include 850mhz CPU, available PCI slot, 128MB of RAM, a CD-ROM drive, amplified speakers, and Windows 2000 or later.

Customer Reviews

an ood peice of card...
It works fairly well in all games, yet seems to work better in replicating music from the old DOS games(with the right software) than it does in new games. It is on par with Sound blaster X-fi series, yet is not better. It does play midi sound better in the old "days of yore" type games like Ultima and Quest for glory(an added feature accidentally come accross) if you want it for this purpoes, I suggest the 2.1 stereo only verison. For new games I see no real difference except the digital interface(SPDF) yet even so, the actual quality is the same(without the creative labs "Crystalizer" B.S.) If you have a creative X-fi don't bother, this is not a sufficiant upgrade, if you have a built-in mobo, DO bother as it is less prone to static(though it seems to a lot in some applyications). C-media staitic is common in these C-media products yet as it is a separate card the processors on board can focus on sound so it is less of a problem than the crapola mobo buildin.(and don't let anyone tell you different!) four stars for style but only three for stability it sometimes "flakes out" in digital mode and on a logitech speaker decoder will say "NO Digital Data" but that could also be the decoder's fault.
one more thing, very important! the first time I installed this card and booted up(PCI slot #4) it didn't detect it. I placed it in #3 and it was a bit fuzzy. Considering I had NO problems with stablitiy in my creative card's installation(also PCI#4) this card is at fault, not my mobo(Asus K8V Deluxe). A good brand and a good chipset!

Great Sound on Optical Output
I bought this audio card so that my PC (Microsoft XP operating system) that I'm using as a media center has an optical output for my stereo. I followed the installation directions (install disk included) and had no problem installing the card. I connected the optical output to my stereo and I confess that the sound quality brought a bit of a tear to my eye - It was that good!

CD's that I had previously ripped to the computer (high quality setting) sounded better than from my CD player. I could tell that the surround was working on the CD's.

There is a separate install for WinDVD for this card - I already had WinDVD installed on my machine. I played a DVD and it sounded great too!

There are other (somewhat cheaper) versions of audio cards with optical audio out. But read the reviews like I did - Some of them have installation issues. And I don't think the cheaper versions output computer generated surround tracks in the optical audio output. The price was quite reasonable for what I got.

The card has jacks for analog 7.1 audio - but I'm not using that.

Now a word about why I wanted optical audio output:
I'm an electronic engineer. Computers are electrically very noisy for analog signals. All that digital processing, switching power supplies, and questionable analog signal grounding create a lot of audio noise on the computer ground and analog audio outputs. By using an optical output from the computer to my stereo I eliminate these noise sources from the audio path. And it works! Before using analog outputs from the computer to my stereo, I didn't so much notice "noise" as I noticed an apparent lack of dynamic range in music. The noise tends to fill in the quiet spots in the audio. Also, going to 24 bit sound helps dynamic range quite a lot!

It's a great sound card for hooking into a stereo and listening to music if you have optical inputs on your stereo. And, if you don't have optical inputs on your stereo - It's time to step into the 21st century!

Chazzz

No pass thru DD 5.1
I made a serious mistake when buying this product, my own fault. Although it does exactly what it says it does, know that it does not pass through a DD 5.1 signal to any external amplifier. DD Live does a fine job with stereo material, but it has no LFE when feeding it a 5.1 source if you use this, its best to feed it nothing but stereo files. Its great for its various formats, but if I had read all the reviews, I woulda purchased something else.