I currently using Toshiba Satellite 3000 notebook, thinking to get a USB sound card to enjoy better sound from my notebook.

In singapore only : Extingy and M-Audio Theatre are available.

Should I get the Sonica Theatre 7.1 USB?

Did Sonica Theatre 7.1 USB support Dolby Digital hardware decoding?

Anywhere, Extigy only have 5.1 output but come with hardware decoding for Dolby Digital, which means u can used it as standalone decoder.

Thus, check your need and buy according to your requirement.

* USB solution for high-quality surround sound up to 7.1
* also supports DTS output and Dolby Digital 5.1/EX (6.1 DVD) decoding
* high-fidelity audio output up to 24-bit/96kHz
* true professional 24-bit/96kHz recording
* real-time stereo-to-surround conversion
* SRS Circle Surround II technology delivers realistic surround sound from any stereo source
* simple control panel for Bass Management and other features
* supports all popular media players including Windows Media 9

- USB-to-8 channel analog line out (on 4 stereo 1/8" mini jacks)
-USB-to-S/PDIF RCA coaxial out
-Stereo 1/8" analog line in
-S/PDIF transmits linear PCM, AC3 or DTS
-Input/output formats:
-sampling frequencies (Hz): 11025, 22050, 32000, 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000
* 24-bit linear PCM
* 16-bit Linear PCM
* 16-bit AC-3 over S/PDIF (not available in Mac OS 9)

Note: Due to USB 1.1 bandwidth constraints, not all sampling frequencies can be used in every output setting. This depends on the number of active audio channels.



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- Dynamic range: 101 dB (typical, -60 dB input, A-weighted)
- Signal-to-noise ratio: 101 dB (typical, A-wieghted)
- THD: 0.00345% (typical)

theres always the plain 'ol Sonica... its like $50...

But the plain Sonica like not available any more in Singapore

oh... i had no idea...


can't you order it online and have it shipped? (excuse any ignorance... i'm not familiar with international shipping costs and things like that...)

Never mind, I just bought the Sonice Theatre 7.1

Once you get it up and running, please post your comments.

I'm thinking of getting an Echo Indigo card for my laptop, but the M-Audio looks interesting.

1st Comment:

The card "Look" nice. And the size is small as a CD.

What about the sound quality? Do you hear any improvement from you previous sound card?
Is it a resample sound card or not? Does it support ASIO driver? Does it need high CPU resource?

Sorry, for asking too many question. Because I'm planning to buy this sound card too

Thanx in advance

For the analog output....maybe my speaker not good enough, which is Altec Lansing ACS295 and 1 of the speaker spoiled some more :'( ......so dun feel significan improve without the SRS feature enabled.......

I think it is a resample soundcard....btw, how to check ?

The device drop down list for ASIO driver is blank

I currently using Toshiba Satellite 3000 notebook : 512 MB Ram 800MHz PIII..........until now no problem with resources........

Could you check it with RMAA? To see it's frequency response, THD, and so on...

I got problem with the RMAA....it keep telling me my input is too low, I check every thing liao, volume for out and in all to MAX..........any idea?

Ummm... so the review on a site was true that RMAA couldn't check this card due to too low volume problem. May be you could use cool edit to generate sweep tone to see the frequency response, for THD, you could make 1kHz tone and loop it back then analyse it. I have no idea how to check crass talk and so on...

if you already have a sound blaster live in your system and you connect a m-audio sonica theater, do they play simultaneously?
what is the cpu utilization of the sonica?
does it have head out?

i know i am a bit off topic but dont think its worth a new thread

thank you!!

"Input" is too low? Or the "output" is too low? I believe you are doing a loopback test, perhaps you can try using another soundcard output to figure out the problem is lying on input or output.

IT SUPPORT ASIO OUTPUT NOW !!!!

check the latest beta driver !