VideoLogic SIROCCO Crossfire (1/5)
The
perfect gaming experience consists of three vital ingredients: A fast
computer to give you sky-high framerates, a large monitor with a crystal
clear picture, and spectacular sound with some good bass to really immerse
you in the game and kick you around. Why is it then that so many serious
gamers will make do with sub-par sound, using dinky little desktop
speakers - these cubes of sonic anguish - preferring instead to invest
their money into a slightly faster CPU or graphics card to make the game
run just that little bit smoother?
In my opinion, good 3D sound is just as vital to a game's atmosphere as
fast graphics. Take, for example, classic games like System Shock 2, No
One Lives Forever or HalfLife. Playing these highly atmospheric and
heavily sound-dependent games on blaring $10 speakers is tantamount to
sacrilege! And yes, gaming is a religion :-) Of
course, a good sound system has its price. If you're going to be serious
about your sound, then a 3D soundcard with a good surround speaker set and
a subwoofer should be your minimum setup, otherwise you might as well
stick with the $10 "squeakers". A 3D soundcard will cost you
somewere between $50 to $80 dollars, while the speakers will set you back
another $80 - but of course, you can always spend more :-). The investment
is definitely going to pay off, though. There is just no way to describe
the creepy sensation you get as you hear something groan and move behind
you in a room you were sure was empty... This is going to do more for your
gaming experience than adding another 10-20 fps or 100MHz more cpu power,
and last longer, too. In
this report I would like to introduce Videologic's Sirocco Crossfire
speaker/amplifier set. (The reason I prefer to call it an
"introduction" is that it's impossible to put sound into words
or rate it on a scale like graphics cards.) The system consists of 4
satellite speakers, a subwoofer, and an external amplifier. While you can
use the Crossfire with any soundcard, it would make little sense to hook
it up to a mono or stereo card. What you'll want to take full advantage of
the 4 channels the Crossfire provides is a card with a front and a rear
output, like the Creative SB Live!, the Guillemot Fortissimo, Videologic
Sonic Fury, to name just a few. Of course, any other multi-channel
soundcard will do too. Now let's take a closer look at the components: |
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Copyright: 28.04.2001 -
RIVA
Station 2001 - Lars Weinand Tanslation by Ben "Iggy" Kraft URL of this Article: www.rivastation.com/crossfire_e.htm - If you want to link to it, please use this URL! :-) |
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