Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 Review

Philips Sonic Edge 5.1. uses innovative ideas for surround sound and a low cost speaker enhancement which make this product an excellent choice for those looking for an inexpensive, intermediate sound solution.

Summary

With this product being ranked 3rd in a 4 product line up, I must say that Philips has created an excellent price/performance ratio. Their innovative ideas for surround sound and low cost speaker enhancement make this product an excellent choice for those looking for an inexpensive, intermediate sound solution. I am hoping that in the future Philips will create a sound card APU (audio processing unit) that will actually include Dolby Digital decoding and encoding, even though they do a pretty good job without it.

Introduction

We all know Philips is a leader in consumer electronic devices, but its time to take notice to some of their computer line up as well. Philips manufactures 4 sound card flavors to suit just about everyone. The Dynamic Edge 4.1, basic and inexpensive; the Sonic Edge 5.1 which is the entry level music and game card; the Seismic Edge 5.1 which has the Thunderbird Avenger audio accelerator to free up your CPU for gaming; and finally the Acoustic Edge 5.1, the ultimate sound experience with all the features of the Seismic Edge and adds DVD and digital I/O features. Philips sent us a sample Sonic Edge 5.1 from their computer audio lineup, so let’s take a closer look.

Installation

Installing the sound card was no different from any other sound card. There is one thing to mention with any add on sound card and onboard motherboard audio. You must go into bios and turn off onboard audio to prevent conflicts in your OS. Once the sound card was installed, I popped in the included CD and started the driver installation procedure. For those newbies out there, there is even an installation video to walk you through the entire process. After a quick reboot, you get a tray icon for easy access to Sound Agent 2.

Sound Agent 2:

Sound Agent 2 is an easy customizable way to tune your audio experience by providing an appealing interface with standard and graphical representations of control.

On top is the main volume control; big and easy to find while navigating throughout Sound Agent 2. To the left is the default and help buttons. Be careful with the default button, as it will reset everything to factory defaults. Below are six on-off buttons to control various features: Reverb, QSizzle, QRumble, Normalize, 3DEffects, and EQ. I will discuss what each of these is below.

Next I will discuss the setup button, since this where you want to start out configuring Sound Agent.

To the left you will be able to choose with speaker configuration best matches your computer. To the right you have a few slider adjustments. Preamp basically amplifies the entire input before any individual adjustments are made to the output. Then of course fader, balance, and center are self explanatory. To the far right is a low frequency adjustment for the subwoofer in 5.1 systems. The test button allows you to play a sample through each of your speakers.

The effects tab allows you to change QSizzle, QRumble and QXpander.

Ok, let’s talk a little about what each of these do. QSizzle is a midrange and treble enhancement processor that will liven up mids and highs that are lost during audio compression and also improves sound on lower end speaker systems. QRumble basically does the same as QSizzle, except for the lower frequencies and bass tones. QXpander is a stereo field 3d enhancement to simulate surround sound using only a pair of speakers.

Also on this tab is a visual indicator of what enhancements are actually being used. These include Normalization, QMSS, QSurround, and QXpander. Normalization compensates for variations of volume within an audio source and provides a consistent source of volume coming from the speakers. QMSS is an innovative way to produce 5.1 sound from a 2 channel source. Philips emphasizes how the other "solutions" simply double the front stereo signal to the rear to simulate surround sound. QMSS takes a different approach by analyzing each incoming signal and mathematically calculates approximate locations of where each sound should be in a true surround environment. This results in a full 360 degree wrap around sound experience. QSurround closes the gap between the front and rear speaker when listening to Dolby Digital sound sources such as DVD’s.

I am glad to see that Philips recognizes the fact that many of us don’t want to be limited to preset "jazz" or "rock" modes. They included a 10 band graphic equalizer. It’s pretty much straight forward having the lower frequencies to the left and the higher frequencies to the right.

The mixer tab will allow you to adjust volume levels of the different inputs and outputs on the sound card and includes an advanced tab for microphone boost and S/PDIF capture.

The presets tab