Shuttle SN25P Sound Quality

Pinkeyes

Pinkeyes

Pinkeyes

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My other thread about expansion spawned this question...

How good is the sound on a SN25P ?

The guy in that thread wasn't very impressed. Although his exact words were...

sound in games is a bit...megh
Click to expand...

I was planning on adding an Audigy until I found out the unit doesn't have a PCI slot. So how good is onboard sound ?

I play a bit of music (through expternal music AMP and speakers), and games (through Medusa 5.1 headphones).

I am building a HTPC later, so this shuttle will not be to watch DVDs....
 
Sounds like something I would say :p

The two main problems I have are thus:
1) If I want to play music through all of my speakers (5.1) I have to use a function which maps the rear to the front (stereo expander - built into the via drivers). This is all well and good for music, but if you play games with this option on you cant get surround sound.... as the rears are mapped to the front. If you are like me and play music and games a lot... this can be annoying.

2) Quality of surround sound... Now this is an onboard solution so its never going to be as good as seperate cards - but I was disappointed with the surround sound. In CSS etc its hard to actually work out where people are - I can tell if they are left or right, but not which direction they are most likely in.... yet when messing with my mates setup it is a lot easier to position players that cannot be seen.
Also in racing games it doesnt seem to have the same hmmmmm crispness.

Dont get me wrong - the onboard sound isnt terrible... I just had hoped that shuttle would have worked out that they are providing a small machine with a pci-e which there are (or at least at sn25p release) no sound card options.... would have been nice for them to wack a higher quality sound solution onboard.

So er yeah.... not great - not terrible
 
Thanks for responding again.

I am seriously concerned. Like I said, I have a wierd sound setup as it is...

Out from PC, into Medusa Amplifier thing for headphones. Pass front speakers from Medusa amp into a hifi amplifier and onto some little baby mission speakers.

Music sounds more than acceptable, as do dramatic RTS games with a muic score (like Battle for Middle Earth for example). The turn off External sound and put on headphones for First PErson Shooters.

But a very important part for me in FPS's like CS:S is I *need* to know if someone is behind me... that was why I bought 5.1 headphones.

Getting worried now if this Shuttle is what I need... :( :confused:
 
But isnt that because you are always running away from trouble? Your mind is probably so used to it, no doubt you hear that when you are walking around in the real world ;p
 
On board not as bad as older shuttle onboards

I just recently purchased an SN25P and previously in my last shuttle (SB75G2) I had a Creative Live! card in the PCI slot. Now as mentioned, I don't have that luxury anymore with my new SN25P so I was a bit worried how the SN25P onboards will be after the shocking onboard audio from my last shuttle system.

First impressions were ok, through speakers it’s fine for me. The only problem I find is with my headphones (Sennheisers) the audio is real tiny and I would up the bass on control panel, if it had one! Yes there’s a Q-Sound area that has an equalizer but I am unable to interact with it to change its settings, both with the CD version that came with the shuttle and the latest software from the VIA website. Any tips on this SN25P owners?

Cheers
 
Well I got my SN25P yesterday - and when trying the sound with oblivion, it stuttered and wasn't all that good.

Put on the latest drivers - enabled the 3d immerse thing in the Audio Deck, slapped the sound through a nice bass-y Rotel amp, and also tried with my Medusa 5.1 Headphones.

I have to say, I was utterly impressed with the sound quality - thought the sounds in Oblivion were much better than with my 5.1 Audigy in my old Pc.

Chuffed to bits now - just thought I would share :D
 
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