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Philips’ Ultimate Edge sound card

Geoff Gasior
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Manufacturer Philips
Model Ultimate Edge
Price (MSRP) $69.99
Availability Now

IN WHAT SEEMS LIKE no time at all, VIA’s Envy24 audio controller has successfully infiltrated every level of the consumer PC sound card market. The Envy24 isn’t a single audio controller per se but an entire family of chips targeted at different applications and market segments. At the high end, the Envy24HT can be found in sound cards like M-Audio’s Revolution 7.1. For mid-range markets, the Envy24HT-S is available in cards like Mad Dog Multimedia’s Entertainer 7.1. Not to be left out, motherboards from Chaintech, Albatron, and others offer integrated Envy audio with the Envy24PT.

Although I’ve been impressed with every Envy24 implementation to grace the Benchmarking Sweatshop, there’s no getting around the fact that M-Audio, Mad Dog Multimedia, Chaintech, and Albatron aren’t exactly household names among mainstream consumers. However, Philips is, and they’ve jumped onto the Envy bandwagon with the Ultimate Edge sound card. The Ultimate Edge also marks the arrival of a new addition to the Envy family, the Envy24GT.

Targeted at high-end sound cards, the Envy24GT brings true 24-bit, 96kHz audio to six output channels for only $70. Philips has also stirred in some special sauce of its own, giving the Ultimate Edge a little more spice than your average Envy24. How does the Ultimate Edge perform, and more importantly, how does it sound? Read on to find out.

Card specs
Before we embark on a photo tour around the Ultimate Edge, let’s take a moment to look at how the card’s key specs stack up against the competition.

  Internal precision Hardware channels Output channels Price
Audio chip ADC DAC DirectSound DirectSound 3D
Creative Audigy2 ZS 24-bit/192kHz 24-bit/96kHz 24-bit/192kHz 64 32 7.1 $79
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 24-bit/192kHz 24-bit/96kHz 24-bit/192kHz none none 7.1 $89
Philips Ultimate Edge 24-bit/96kHz 24-bit/192kHz 24-bit/192kHz none none 5.1 $69

Loads of audio card manufacturers claim 24-bit audio support, but if you read between the lines, you’ll find that many implementations aren’t 24-bit throughout. Audio cards are only as good as their weakest link, so the original Audigy’s combination of a 16-bit/48kHz audio controller with a 24-bit/96kHz digital-to-analog converter (DAC) isn’t exactly kosher. Envy24HT-S implementations that combine the 24-bit/192Khz audio chip with VIA’s 16-bit/48kHz VT1616 codec aren’t true 24-bit, either.

Fortunately, the Ultimate Edge’s 24-bit claims are legit. The card’s analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and DACs are both capable of 24-bit audio up to 192kHz, while the Envy24GT audio chip is capable of 24-bit audio at sampling rates up to 96kHz. The Envy24GT can actually do 24/192 output, but only through a digital I/O meant for S/PDIF output.

With fingers crossed and a little fine print, Philips could probably boast that the Ultimate Edge supports 24-bit/192kHz audio. However, the company’s marketing materials and box art take a more conservative approach and stick to a more accurate 24/96. Philips’ honesty is appreciated, but it also highlights that the Ultimate Edge can’t match the 24bit/192KHz output capabilities of the Revolution 7.1, Audigy2 ZS, or Intel’s High Definition Audio.

In addition to being at a slight sampling rate disadvantage, the Ultimate Edge suffers from the same DirectSound hardware channel impotence of other Envy24 implementations. Without DirectSound hardware channels, the Ultimate Edge’s drivers will have to do all the heavy lifting for 3D audio in software, eating up CPU cycles in the process. The Ultimate Edge does support EAX 2.0 and A3D 1.0, though, via software.

Also notice that the Ultimate Edge offers only six output channels. Both the Audigy2 ZS and Revolution 7.1 offer more output channels, though finding a DVD or game that actually takes advantage of those extra channels may be challenging. Unless you’re really, really into positional audio, a 5.1 speaker setup is probably going to be enough.

It’s really no surprise that the Ultimate Edge’s specs aren’t leading the way. The Ultimate Edge is $10 cheaper than the Audigy2 ZS and $20 cheaper than a Revolution 7.1, so expecting feature superiority is probably unrealistic. However, Philips still has a few tricks up its sleeve that neither Creative nor M-Audio can match. More on those in a moment.

 

A peek over the edge
Sound cards usually aren’t much to look at, but let’s have a peek anyway.

The Ultimate Edge looks like, well, a sound card. The card is quite a bit smaller than Creative’s Audigy2, which will no doubt come in handy if you’re planning on squeezing it into a small form factor system. Better that than something with a case window; the Ultimate Edge’s dark brown board isn’t exactly aesthetically pleasing.

There’s no much to see on the Ultimate Edge’s surface, but take note of the card’s internal CD and auxiliary inputs. You won’t get those on the M-Audio Revolution 7.1.

In addition to its internal inputs, the Ultimate Edge also has a wide array of external ports, including analog line and microphone inputs, and analog center/LFE, rear, and front outputs. The card also comes with a coaxial S/PDIF port for digital output.

Taking a closer look at the card reveals VIA’s new Envy24GT audio controller. Targeted at high-end consumer sound cards and media center PCs, the GT is the only desktop-oriented Envy24 without eight-channel output capabilities. Six-channel audio should be more than adequate for the vast majority of users, though.

The Envy24GT supports 24-bit/96kHz audio across all six of its analog output channels, and also across four analog inputs. The chip’s digital I/Os are also 24 bits wide, but they raise the sampling rate to 192kHz.

Philips taps Wolfson’s WM8766 six-channel DAC and WM8776 codec to handle the Ultimate Edge’s analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversions, giving the Ultimate Edge 24-bit audio from inputs to outputs. These Wolfson chips are capable of 24-bit/192kHz audio. However, since the Envy24GT’s analog I/Os only support sampling rates up to 96kHz, the card can’t take advantage of the higher sampling rates offered by the Wolfson components.

 

Drivers and software goodies
As far as hardware goes, the Ultimate Edge doesn’t offer anything particularly unique. However, Philips has incorporated a number of interesting features into the card’s drivers that give the Edge an, er, edge.


Active filters and 3D effects galore

The Ultimate Edge’s most hyped driver feature is a pair of audio frequency response modifiers dubbed QRumble and QSizzle. Foshizzle. Unlike static response modifiers like bass and treble, which blindly apply a fixed change to audio signals regardless of content, QRumble and QSizzle apply dynamic changes to audio based on the nature of the audio signal. Instead of using the same bass and treble settings to modify all audio streams, user-defined QRumble and QSizzle settings are treated as guidelines for how audio output should sound.

QRumble and QSizzle’s adaptive natures should result in a more consistent sound when playing back audio content with varying levels of high and low-end content. It doesn’t seem right to apply the same level of bass boost to a guttural, drum-driven industrial screamer as to a wispy, acoustic-dominated ballad, so adaptive modifiers certainly make sense for those with varied playlists. Philips also claims that QRumble and QSizzle can make compressed audio files sound better by “effectively compensat[ing] for the negative side effects of digital compression in a natural, content-dependent manner.” Intriguing. We’ll see how that pans out in our listening tests.

In addition to QRumble and QSizzle, the Ultimate Edge is packing a handful of other QFeatures to handle virtual 3D audio. First, we have QMMS, which creates virtual 3D audio from 2D audio sources. Rather than simply mirroring front output channels to the rear, QSound approximates the location of incoming sounds and plays them back accordingly. On the other side of the coin, QSurround takes six-channel audio sources and creates a virtual 3D audio experience through normal two-channel stereo speakers. QXpander also virtualizes 3D audio for stereo output, but given how affordable 5.1 speaker setups have become over the years, I have to wonder how useful all this 3D-to-2D audio virtualization is. If you can afford to drop $70 on a sound card, you can surely afford a set of 5.1 speakers.


The requisite equalizer

That’s it for the spicy stuff, but we’re by no means finished with the Ultimate Edge’s drivers. Alongside all those fancy active filters and 3D effects is a standard equalizer, a mixer, a speaker configuration tool, and support for all the presets you can dream up. The drivers also support virtual environments to simulate auditoriums, halls, and the like, if you’re into that sort of thing.


A handy mixer


Speaker setup options


Presets galore!
 

Our testing methods
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.

  System
Processor Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz
Front-side bus HT 16-bit/800MHz downstream
HT 16-bit/800MHz upstream
Motherboard Abit KV8-MAX3
North bridge VIA K8T800
South bridge VIA VT8237
Chipset driver Hyperion 4.51
Memory size 512MB (1 DIMM)
Memory type Corsair XMS3500 PC3000 DDR SDRAM
Graphics ATI Radeon 9800 XT
Graphics driver CATALYST 4.6
Storage

Western Digital Raptor WD360GD

Operating System Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 1 and DirectX 9.0b

We used the following versions of our test applications:

The test systems’ Windows desktop was set at 1024×768 in 32-bit color at a 75Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. All of the 3D gaming tests used the high detail image quality settings.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

 

CPU utilization
Before getting into our RightMark 3D Sound results, I should mention that the 64-buffer results aren’t always 64-buffer results. RightMark 3D Sound shows the Ultimate Edge as supporting a maximum of 63 buffers for DirectSound 2D, 3D Hardware, and 3D Hardware + EAX tests. The Audigy2 ZS only shows 62 buffers for those tests, but the Revolution 7.1 gives no argument with 64 buffers. Since we’re only talking about a difference of one or two buffers, I’ve graphed the Audigy2 ZS’s 62 buffer numbers and the Ultimate Edge’s 63 buffer scores as 64-buffer results.

All three cards support 64 and 128 buffers in the DirectSound 3D Software test, so those scores are unaffected.

The Revolution 7.1 and Ultimate Edge get owned by the Audigy2 ZS in RightMark 3D Sound’s CPU utilization tests, but that result is expected given the Audigy2’s hardware DirectSound channels. The Ultimate Edge at least manages lower CPU utilization than the Revolution 7.1, but considering how much the Philips trails the Audigy2 ZS, that’s a small consolation at best.

 

Game performance

The Ultimate Edge’s less-than-frugal consumption of CPU cycles with 3D audio has an impact on more than just CPU utilization. 3DMark03’s 3D audio test shows the Audigy2 ZS with a distinct advantage over the Ultimate Edge, while the Revolution 7.1 languishes well off the pace.

In a slightly more real-world gaming application, the Ultimate Edge continues to show weakness against the Audigy2 ZS. Frankly, it’s a little shocking that a sound card can have such a big impact on in-game frame-rates.

 

Audio quality
For RightMark’s audio quality tests, I used a Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 and an extra-short audio cable for recording. Analog output ports were used on all systems. To keep things simple, I’ve translated RightMark’s word-based quality scale to numbers. Higher scores reflect better audio quality, and the scale tops out at 6, which corresponds to an “Excellent” rating.

RightMark Audio Analyzer tests were conducted at 16 bits and 44.1kHz to emulate common CD-quality audio.

The Ultimate Edge doesn’t look so hot in RMAA’s audio quality tests, which is a little disappointing. Yes, the Philips is the least expensive of the three cards, but its low frequency response and intermodulation distortion scores are particularly glaring when compared with the Revolution 7.1 and Audigy2 ZS. Let’s take a closer look at what’s behind the RMAA scores.

 

Frequency response

The Ultimate Edge’s frequency response looks good to start, but takes an early dive at higher frequencies.

Noise level

Dynamic range

While the Audigy2 ZS and Revolution 7.1 stay close in the noise level and dynamic range tests, the Ultimate Edge is off on its own.

Total harmonic distortion
Total harmonic distortion happens when a recording picks up unwanted noise as it’s played back through a sound card.

The Ultimate Edge picks up more unwanted noise than the Audigy2 and Revo across the entire spectrum.

Intermodulation distortion
Intermodulation distortion happens when a sound card can’t accurately reproduce two sounds at the exact same time.

The Edge’s intermodulation distortion is also much higher than the others.

Stereo Crosstalk

The Ultimate Edge doesn’t fare well in RMAA’s stereo crosstalk test, either. Overall, the Ultimate Edge scores lower than the Audigy2 ZS and Revolution 7.1 across the entire RMAA test suite. However, what scores well in RMAA doesn’t necessarily sound good to one’s ears.

 

Subjective music listening tests
RightMark Audio Analyzer is a great way to measure audio quality objectively, but it doesn’t say much about how pleasing the Ultimate Edge’s output is to the ears. That’s where our music listening tests come in. These tests are subjective, but they should give us a better idea of how the Ultimate Edge actually sounds.

Since differences in in-game audio quality between these three cards were difficult to detect, our listening tests were confined to music playback using WAV rips of off-the-shelf CDs. Because CD audio quality is only 16-bit/44.1kHz, our tests are designed to evaluate overall audio clarity rather than the 24-bit audio capabilities of each card. A sound card’s component quality, drivers, and board layout can influence its performance more than the absolute precision limits of its audio chip.

All music playback tests were conducted with a set of Logitech Z680 5.1-channel speakers with volume levels for the cards normalized to within a decibel and software equalizers, effects, and environments—including QRumble and QSizzle—turned off. To help with testing, I lured a couple of my friends over with a case of beer. Miraculously, sobriety was maintained throughout the listening tests.

During this round of listening tests, subjects listened to the Audigy2 ZS, Revolution 7.1, and Ultimate Edge play back five different audio tracks. The subjects were unaware of which audio card they were listening to at any given time, and the order of cards was randomized for each song. Our impressions of how the Ultimate Edge’s playback compared with the Audigy2 ZS and Revolution 7.1 are below.

Tomoyasu Hotei – Battle Without Honor or Humanity
From the Kill Bill Volume 1 soundtrack, Battle Without Honor or Humanity features a hard-hitting drum loop and screaming horn section.

The Ultimate Edge sounded good in Battle Without Honor or Humanity and had much better separation for background sounds than the Audigy2 ZS, which sounded a little mashed together. When compared with the Revolution 7.1, the Ultimate Edge had the slightest of echoes, which may be a good thing or a bad one, depending on your tastes. Our test subjects were split on whether the Ultimate Edge or Revo sounded better for this track. Both offered superior instrumental clarity to the Audigy2 ZS.

U2 – Beautiful Day
No one does pop rock better than U2, and Beautiful Day is a perfect example.

Bono’s vocals flourish on the Audigy2 ZS, but background instrumentation sounded clearer on the Revolution 7.1 and Ultimate Edge. Again, our test subjects were split on which sounded better; one again preferred the Revo’s clean output, while the other favored the Ultimate Edge’s “bigger” and slightly echoed sound.

The Tea Party – Winter Solstice
US audiences may be unfamiliar with The Tea Party. Just picture Jim Morrison singing for Led Zeppelin and you’re on the right track. Winter Solstice is our requisite acoustic track, with guitars, bongo drums, and even a little knocking on wood.

Winter Solstice‘s acoustic guitars sound great on the Ultimate Edge—better than both the Audigy2 ZS and Revolution 7.1. However, the Revo boasted better background instrument separation, especially with more subtle sounds. Once again, our listening subjects were split on sound card they preferred. One continued his love-fest with the Revolution, while the other stayed true to the Ultimate Edge.

Tori Amos – Playboy Mommy
I have a thing for Tori Amos’ piano-driven songs and seductive delivery, so I couldn’t resist sneaking a little Playboy Mommy into the listening test.

Tori Amos’ vocals shine on the Audigy2 ZS, but again, seemingly at the expense of background instrumentation. The Revolution 7.1 and Ultimate Edge had a much more balanced sound, albeit one whose vocals didn’t sound quite as crisp. Once again, one of our test subjects tipped the Ultimate Edge as the most pleasing to his ears, citing a subtle echo that made the track sound like a live performance. Our other test subject, who up until this point preferred the Revolution’s output, favored the Audigy2 ZS for this vocal-dominated track.

Tricky – Dear God
Tricky’s cover of a Sarah McLaughlin cover almost defies description. It’s creepy, that’s for sure. The track’s lead female vocal is stalked by a gruff, haunting whisper, giving listeners two vocal tracks to follow along with the instrumentals.

The Audigy2 ZS’s vocal proficiency is well-suited to Dear God, but the song’s complexity also favors the Revolution 7.1. The Ultimate Edge comes out somewhere in between. Its instrumentals, particularly the bass, hit a lot harder than the Audigy2 ZS. However, the vocal component isn’t as clearly differentiated as the Revo’s output. Given the track’s strong vocal component, one of our test subjects couldn’t decide if he preferred the Revo or Audigy2. The other, true to form, preferred the Ultimate Edge’s middle ground.

Were our listening tests not blind, I’d have suspected that we had a Philips fanboy on our hands. However, with a randomized playback order and no knowledge of which sound card was being played at any given time, it’s clear that one’s ears can prefer one sound over another.

 

Subjective QRumble/QSizzle’s MP3 impact
Curious to see if QRumble and QSizzle could make compressed audio sound more true to the original, I threw together a quick listening test that compared MP3 playback quality with and without QRumble/QSound to an uncompressed WAV original. The MP3s were compressed with a constant bitrate of 128kbps and played back with Windows Media Player 9.

Both listeners immediately picked up on QRumble/QSizzle’s impact on MP3 playback. With QRumble/QSizzle enabled at fairly conservative default levels, MP3s definitely have more punch. With Battle Without Honor or Humanity one subject confessed that “the horns almost made me crap my pants.”

Unfortunately, for all the body that QRumble and QSizzle added to MP3 playback, it didn’t make our 128kbps MP3s sound more like the original WAV files. The QRumble/QSizzle-enhanced MP3s sounded bigger and louder, but they couldn’t help the MP3s recover the subtleties and little sounds lost in the compression process. These more subtle sounds were immediately more apparent in the original WAVs.

Subjective in-game 3D audio
While I had my test subjects around, I sat them in front of an Unreal Tournament 2004 demo and had them evaluate the quality of the Ultimate Edge’s positional audio with the game’s 3D Hardware and 3D EAX audio settings. Because in-game audio isn’t usually of particularly high quality, the aim of this test was to examine the accuracy of the Ultimate Edge’s 3D audio positioning.

My test subjects agreed that EAX offered superior 3D audio to Unreal Tournament 2004’s more pedestrian 3D Hardware setting. Better still, neither could find any fault with the Ultimate Edge’s positional audio other than the fact that it didn’t sound “quite as real” as the Audigy2 ZS. The test subjects felt that the positional component of the Audigy2 ZS’s EAX audio in particular was tighter than the Ultimate Edge’s, which was more comparable to the Revolution 7.1.

Curious to see how the Ultimate Edge handled some other games, I fired up Far Cry and Battlefield Vietnam and did a little more extensive testing on my own. Oh, the things I subject myself to as a hardware reviewer!

Overall, the Ultimate Edge sounded good with 3D audio and EAX 2.0. 3D audio was particularly apparent in Battlefield Vietnam, perhaps because I always seemed to be running away from helicopters and explosions, leaving plenty of fodder for the rear channels. Still, after swapping in an Audigy2 ZS, I couldn’t help but feel a little more immersed, even with EAX 2.0 (the Audigy2 ZS also supports EAX 3.0 and 4.0). For whatever reason, the positional audio on the Audigy2 ZS sounded more natural than the Ultimate Edge, at least to my ears. However, don’t take that as a knock against the Ultimate Edge, which sounded good, just not great.

 

Conclusions
With 24-bit/96kHz audio across six output channels, the Philips Ultimate Edge looks like a pretty compelling value at $70, and that’s just the suggested price. Expect street prices to dip below that level as online retailers jockey for position, potentially making the Ultimate Edge and even more compelling value for those looking for a true 24-bit sound card.

However, there’s more to audio than 24-bitness, and the Ultimate Edge isn’t always as sharp as its competition. For starters, the Audigy2 ZS offers far superior gaming performance, slightly more natural-sounding positional audio with EAX 2.0, and additional support for EAX 3.0 and 4.0. The Ultimate Edge is certainly capable of producing decent positional audio, but I wouldn’t recommend the card over an Audigy2 ZS if you’re primarily a gamer. To Philips’ credit, the Ultimate Edge’s 3D audio virtualization is a neat trick to apply to older games suck with two-dimensional audio, but with most new titles supporting 3D audio out of the box, the benefit of virtualization for games is questionable. Still, the Ultimate Edge does offer better gaming performance than the Revolution 7.1.

If you’re into positional audio but not necessarily games, the Ultimate Edge’s support for only 5.1 output channels may also be a detriment. Personally, it doesn’t bother me, but if you already have a 7.1-channel system, the Ultimate Edge isn’t going to feed all your speakers like an Audigy2 ZS or Revolution 7.1 can.

While the Ultimate Edge’s output channels and positional audio performance are easy evaluate objectively, ranking the card’s output quality is a little more difficult. With objective RightMark Audio Analyzer tests, the card’s performance falls behind both the Audigy2 and Revolution 7.1. However, the results of our listening tests weren’t nearly as conclusive. Our subjects agreed that the card produced balanced output that didn’t shortchange background instruments in favor of foreground vocals like the Audigy2 ZS. However, our listening subjects were split on whether the Ultimate Edge sounded better or worse than the Revolution 7.1. One thought the Revo offered slightly better clarity, while the other preferred how the Ultimate Edge’s faint echo gave the card a live, performance-like feel. In any case, the Ultimate Edge sounds more like the Revolution 7.1 than the Audigy2. That’s a good thing if you prefer well-balanced audio.

Finally, we have QRumble and QSizzle. In theory, I like the idea of adaptive rather than static filters, especially since Winamp’s random playback feature has jumped from Nine Inch Nails to Simon and Garfunkel on more than one occasion. However, don’t expect MP3s suddenly to sound like uncompressed audio. QRumble and QSizzle definitely give MP3 audio more pop and punch, but they do little to recapture subtleties lost in the compression process.

In my view, the Ultimate Edge occupies a sort of middle ground between the Audigy2 ZS’s spectacular gaming performance but vocal-biased music playback and the Revolution’s lackluster gaming performance but well-balanced music playback. If you’re all about gaming, skip over the Ultimate Edge and hook yourself up with higher frame rates and more extensive EAX support with an Audigy2 ZS. However, if gaming isn’t a priority, you’d do well to consider Philips’ Ultimate Edge. The Edge is a better gamer than the Revolution 7.1 without inheriting the Audigy2 ZS’s vocal-centric playback baggage. For general music playback on desktop PCs, media-centric home theater systems, and even a little light gaming every now and then, the Ultimate Edge is a well-rounded performer with an affordable price tag. Sounds good to me.