Philip's 3 Sound Cards

[littletemple]

I was wondering if all three sound cards (rhythmic, seismic, and acoustic edge) use the same chipset. I just need a 2.1 speaker operation but I also want it to sound good. If the AE has a higher end chipset, then i would go with that, but if the rhythmic or seismic has the same chipset but with just 2 or 4 speaker use, then I would get those. The 702model is the rhythmic edge and so is the 703, so why is that when the 702 is 2 channel and the 703 is a 4 channel. So then, how is the 703 different than the seismic edge then?

 

[JayPatel]

much like the creative live series, all three sound cards use the same Thunderbird chipset in essence,

the acoustic edge uses the Thunderbird Avenger chipset while the other 2 use the core Thunderbird chip.

 

[littletemple]

Are there any real sound difference between the chips? So in other words, the seismic edge and rhythmic edge is essentially the same card except one has 4 channel operation as the other 2 channel?

 

[nortexoid]

indeed that is correct.

 

[holdencommodore]

The new Philips Edge Series, Seismic Edge PSC705 (5.1) and Rythmic edge PSC703 (4.1) use the ThunderBird Avenger DSP and replace the Seismic Edge PSC704 (4.1) and Rythmic Edge PSC702 (2.1). The new PSC705 and PSC703 use THE SAME DSP as the Acoustic Edge, so all reviews that you read telling you how wonderful the sound is of the Acoustic Edge apply to both PSC705 and PSC703 models now.

The now replaced PSC704 and PSC702 used the ThnderBird Q3D DSP. That chip has been around since 1998. The main differences in the new Avenger compared to the old Q3D are: Proper driver support for Win XP and 2000, Better QMSS and Q3D algorrithims (for 5.1), Improved control panel with Tone control, more hardware 3D streams, less CPU utilisation, S/PDIF support. This is not all though...

Believe me, the new Edge series are much better than the ones they replace. I used to have a Aztech PCI368DSP based on the Q3D DSP and the difference was very noticeable when I moved up to a Acoustic Edge. The prices for the new models are supposed to be the same as the old models.

Cheers.