Today we are taking a look at the b-Enspirer Sound card from bgears. This is their latest sound offering featuring the Oxygen HD PCI audio processor, and promises "theater quality" sound. Currently in the sound card market, it is dominated by mainly onboard sound, and secondly the Creative cards. Later in the review we will compare the Enspirer to both of these.
First Impression
The bgears b-Enspirer comes packed in an attractive looking box that lists its main features and functions on its exterior. The rear of the package focuses on the special features of the unit. It has a smooth glossy coating, and held up perfectly in shipping.
Upon opening the box you see the accessories and manuals on top, and the card is well packed underneath. Included is the card, CD with Drivers (there are updated ones on their website, along with Beta Vista Drivers), the manual, limited warranty, and an optical cable. The optical cable is a nice addition, and is easily worth $10-$15.
Features:
* DTS® Interactive - a real-time 5.1 channel encoder that takes 2 or more channels and encodes them into a DTS bit stream
* DTS® NeoPC - an up-mix matrix that turns any 2 channel audio into 7.1 channel surround sound
* Dolby® Digital Live(AC-3) real time 5.1 channel encoding bit-stream to facilitate the connection with CE AV receiver
* Dolby® Pro-Logic IIx surround processor, spreading stereo audio into 7.1 channel surround sound
* Renowned Dolby® Headphone technology, conveying 5.1 surround and 3D gaming audio over stereo headphones
* The latest Dolby® Virtual Speaker solution, creating amazing virtual surround sound from a generic two-speaker configuration
* C-Media FlexBass™ - configurable LFE channel crossover frequency(from 50 to 250Hz)
* C-Media Magic Voice™, a popular feature for disguising voice in online chatting
* C-Media Xear3D™ 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter technology
* C-Media's unique Karaoke functions: Microphone Echo, Key-shifting
* Individual 10-band EQ for each channel
* 27 global reverberation environments
* Play 3D demo program
* Supports most industrial standards of 3D sound for PC gaming, including EAX™ 1.0&2.0, A3D™ 1.0 and DirectSound™
* Supports 7.1 CH digital audio playback for WinXP, 2K, ME, 98SE(Microsoft® DirectX V.9.0 and above is required.)
