By now, I am sure you have seen the specs of the A3D 2.0 card, so I am going to give you a run down of just the most important basic features:

A3D 2.0 Positional audio
A3D 2.0 Wavetracing with up to 64 reflections
8/16 bit Record and playback with up to 48 kHz (mono/stereo)
Up to 320 Wavetable voices

Compatible with: A3D 1.0, A3D 2.0, Microsoft Directsound / 3D, soundblaster pro emulation, and soon EAX with new drivers.

Those are just a few of the basic features, I didn't want to get too technical because, well, I didn't want to bore you to death.

Now onto the sound quality. Please remember sound quality can be a subjective matter, and everybody's ears are different. To test the sound quality, I listened to a number of items including; some mp3s, Half-life, and drakan (for A3D sound) and lastly, an audio CD. The speakers I used for testing were the Benwin BW2000 flat panel speakers.

First, lets start with the MP3's. The MP3 player I used was Winamp 2.5c, my favorite MP3 player. I played one 128 KBps (near CD quality), and one 64KBps MP3. Sound was clear, and crisp without any noticeable flaws, just as I expected it to be. The audio CD was the same story, clear, crisp sound without any noticeable hiss or major static problems. All in all, the sound quality was as good as anything I have heard, even the mighty Sound Blaster Live!

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