Testing

To test the Barracuda AC-1 I’ll be using it in direct comparison with the Creative X-Fi FatalTWO-ONEty board reviewed here. I’ll also compare it to on-board sound which I’m sure many of you use.

First thing that could be a problem is that as EAX is a Creative idea, the Barracuda won’t support the latest version. EAX makes audio sound like its coming from the room that you are in. For example, say you were shooting in an auditorium, it would add extra echo, or if you were playing in a padded cell it would dampen the sound slightly. EAX (now in its 5th version) is supported by a huge number of games and allows for truly immersive gameplay.

EAX has been released for everyone, but only up to version 2. Subsequent version are now noted as ‘HD’ and produce much better atmospheric sound. The X-Fi supports the latest version with is 5 HD. The Barracuda simply can’t.

Another disadvantage is that the X-Fi has on board RAM which offloads sound data to the card, rather than fill up your system RAM (granted supported games only, but BF 2142 is one of them). The Creative FatalONEty X-Fi Xtreme Gamer has both EAX 5.0 and 64mb of XRAM. Not to mention it retails for slightly less than the Barracuda.

The Barracuda will have to shine to beat the well established Creative X-Fi and brand name.

The drivers are a little confusing to begin with, as everything is poorly marked and its more the case of clicking stuff to see what it does to the sound. Most of the time, you’ll enable an option and it’ll sound great, then the music track changes and it sounds worse. Finding the right options takes a while but you’ll get there in the end.

Once you’ve installed the drivers, the Windows audio panel doesn’t really help much. Razer disable the usual bass modification settings, and instead you have to use the ones in the Razer control panel.

There aren’t any clearly laid out ‘Enhance Bass’ or even a bass knob to change. Instead, you have to use the cards built in EQ which when on causes volume drop-outs when the bass kicks in. Its fine on externally amplified speakers or a headset, as you can set the AC-1 volume to mid. If you have unpowered headphones then you are in for varied volume music, and a fairly low max volume. The card will be fine where there is no bass played, and then play the first note at max volume, then the volume dips until the bass stops and then the volume returns to the original level which results in disjointed playback.

When using the Barracuda headset with the card the effect was less noticeable but it was still there at high volumes. I would advice against using this card with normal headphones, unless you play at lower volumes.

Speaking of the Barracuda headset, courtesy of some rumble-pack type extras to the ear cups, the subwoofer actually shakes the headset rather than play sound. This is a great idea, and works for the most part, but when listening to music with repetitive bass, you end up with a slight lag where the motors have to get started and so the rumble is a few microseconds behind the actual bass note. In game, the lag is less pronounced as often the bass is a one time thing (i.e. explosion).

After a while, the rumble feature is too much, and I found myself turning it off by changing the bass cutoff point in the Barracuda drivers which means that you hear the bass rather than feel it. Sometimes, the rumble in on constantly (if, say, you are in a vehicle) and gets irritating. Your best bet is to set it to low so the effect is less pronounced.

Much like EAX, the Razer control panel allows you to choose an environment that you want your audio to sound like its being played in. There are a lot to choose from, and they included ‘Padded Cell’, ‘Drugged’ and ‘hanger’ (the non-capitalisation is intended). These are all pretty pointless from a gaming point of view but can make some music sound better.

After being a little disappointed with the bass and volume, I moved onto gaming tests.

When using the AC-1 at ultra high level in Battlefield 2142, the card sounded good, but not a patch on the cheaper X-Fi. It’s far better than on-board but it’s a step down from Creative. The lack of EAX was quite obvious after playing with the X-Fi for a while. Shooting in a corridor sounded the same and shooting in the blinding snow. The Crystallizer on the X-Fi really makes a difference when you compare it to the AC-1 as the sounds aren’t as sharp and sound a little muffled.

ESP is a fairly interesting feature of the card. I didn’t really notice a great deal of difference between when it was on and vice versa. When at max however, there would be random clips of distant sounds played, especially noticeable in Battlefield 2142. Often your own footsteps are amplified making you paranoid as to where the enemy is rather being able to pinpoint them.

Counterstrike: Source didn’t exhibit the distance sound clipping, but there was still the amplification of your own footsteps. ESP seems to just amplify sounds, and bring distant sounds closer. While I found this eerie and paranoia inducing to begin with, you learn to use this to your advantage, but the learning curve is annoying as you are constantly on the look out for the enemy which usually turns out to be your own footsteps.

Other games such as Command and Conquer 3 and Zero Hour saw no real improvement with the card installed as directional sounds are less important. In fact audio as a whole is less important, unlike FPS where it can give you an advantage.

The AC-1’s ability to upmix stereo headphones to surround sound isn’t fantastic, and it sounds like the audio is coming from further away, but there is a small amount of directional information added. It’s an improvement over stereo, but obviously physically having 7 speakers is better.

The main advantage of this surround sound upmixing isn’t gaming, but movies. When playing a movie with the AC-1 working, surround sound was noticeable and I felt more involved in the movie.

With the other options in the control panel such as Dolby and DTS enhancements changed the sound so it was different, but not necessarily better. I found the options to be a little pointless, but at least they are there for someone who would use them.

I did a little test to prove that the EMI ‘shield’ is pointless. Using the card with or without the ‘shield’ made no difference to sound, no matter how loud or quiet. Even when there was a ‘high powered graphics card’ next to it (as the box says they produce the most EMI). At best, this EMI ‘shield’ adds a little extra colour to your PC.

The drivers are surprisingly light-weight in comparison to Creative’s. They use less CPU and less RAM (uses 16mb) which is also nice to see. Unlike Creative, Razer don’t install 4 separate programs to run the sound card, and neither do you have to choose ‘gaming mode’ to fully use the card in a game.

If you are using an older PC, like my 3.2ghz P4 with 1gb of DDR400, then the X-Fi is essential in Battlefield 2142. The 64mb of XRAM actually gives me smoother frame-rates and better sound quality as it takes the load off the system RAM. The Barracuda couldn’t do this, so I had to drop the sound quality and graphics to get playable FPS. On a more powerful computer, this is a null point.

Unfortunately, Creative also has the edge in compatibility. There are currently no drivers for Vista for the Barracuda, while there are for X-Fi. Granted gamers have yet to migrate to Microsoft's latest offering but not to have the ability to is a poor show.