An
Unofficial Look at Upcoming
Creative Labs / Cambridge SoundWorks Products
On Thursday September 7th we posting the following
story in our news:
We still don't have any official details but the cat is officially out of the bag now so we will post what we have. By officially out of the bag, I
mean the new products are showing up in wholesale catalogues and at online retailers such as buy.com, with pricing, but without
specifications. Specifically we are talking about the Desktop Theater DTT3500 Digital 5 Satellites Subwoofer Decoder BX, the
SoundWorks Playworks PS2000 Digital Speaker SubWoofer (which is one we do officially know about), the SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer
5.1 and the SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1. Thanks to 703 for the pointer. What we have in addition to this thanks to some serious
digging by an anonymous outside source is the new soundblasters have an ETA of around the end of this month and as you would gather
from the new names, the SB Live lineup is being updated with onboard 5.1 support (6 channels of analog output from the card). They also
had news of a product called the PC-DVD Ovation which apparently is a cost effective DVD solution using software decoding. We will
hopefully have an official update sometime soon on these products.
After following up with
Creative Labs we had nothing official to report as they indicated that
they did not have any details for us at the time. We still
don't have any official details yet, but the unofficial details are
getting more and more graphic (literally). We are not going to
publish pricing that we have seen yet until we can verify the info with
Creative Labs so don't bother asking. It's also worth
noting that we expect the official announcement on the SB Live 5.1 on
Monday September 25th.
One of our sources has found some info on a
system that has been designed for the new 5.1 output Sound Blaster Live
lineup mentioned above. Apparently it will be called either
the Cambridge SoundWorks DT Theater 5.1 DT2200 and is
basically the DTT2500 speakers without the decoder box. Based on the
price range we saw for the DT2200 it will be a very competitive price.
Thanks to some tips and emails from the same couple
of readers we have been able to pull together some unofficial details on the
following systems. You can click on the title to bring you to
a page on each item. Keep in mind that until Creative Labs announces
these products everything you see on this and subsequent
pages is subject to change.
Cambridge SoundWorks DT Theater Digital
DTT3500
Cambridge SoundWorks 4Point Surround
FPS1500
Cambridge SoundWorks 4Point Surround
FPS1800
Note that these systems are in addition to
the Cambridge SoundWorks Playworks DTT2500 Digital and Cambridge
SoundWorks Playworks PS2000 Digital that have already been officially
announced by Creative Labs.
Thanks to a pointer from Envy
News we also have information on a couple of new products shown
on a French website and listed as being available in
Japan. The products in the Japanese market have been different
than other markets before so I would not read too much into these products
being the European market's version of the Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1
and Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1, or even being an indication of what
the Platinum 5.1 or X-Gamer 5.1 will be like. You can them
out at the page above and if you want it in English, try entering http://www.puissancepc.com/n/n1247.html
into http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
The other speculative
article on the new Live cards that you can check out is over at ALive.
ALive has also posted an article titled Sound
Blaster Live! in Japan
Getting back to the official announcement of the Cambridge SoundWorks Playworks DTT2500 Digital and Cambridge
SoundWorks Playworks PS2000 Digital Here's a bit from that press release:
The Revolutionary Cambridge SoundWorks
PlayWorks PS2000
The Cambridge SoundWorks PlayWorks PS2000 is a
compact, one-piece revolutionary speaker system complete with a separate
sub-woofer unit that can be easily connected to various generations of
gaming consoles and to support ``virtual'' AC-3 or Dolby Digital 5.1
surround sound for DVD movie and game experiences.
``This revolutionary one-piece speaker and
subwoofer system is very user-friendly, one does not have to deal with
multiple wires running across the room. The design is so compact and
space saving that it makes an ideal personal surround speaker system in
a small room,'' added Mr. Sim.
Gaming and movie enthusiasts looking for high
quality audio can take advantage of the speakers' ability to re-create a
5.1 surround sound field, even from a one-piece speaker and separate
subwoofer. Its built-in dual Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), using a
unique patented reverse interference acoustic dipole technology, enable
the one-piece speaker and subwoofer system to reproduce a highly
accurate 5.1 acoustic surround sound field around the user.
Recent Review From Japanese PC User Publication
``When playing DVD titles with 5.1 channels,
front and rear sound positioning was realistic. You can experience
effective sound -- something that you never expected to hear from 2
speakers. Incredible sound for 2 speakers!'' -- PC User, April 2000
Cambridge SoundWorks PlayWorks DTT2500 Digital
The new Cambridge SoundWorks PlayWorks DTT2500
Digital speaker system is a high output, high performance, digital
home-theater system with a complete Dolby Digital surround sound audio
system with optical or coaxial SPDIF connectivity. The PlayWorks DTT2500
Digital allows users to enjoy realistic and powerful gaming sound and
Dolby Digital 5.1 home-theater quality DVD movie audio.
Based on the award-winning DeskTop Theater(TM)
5.1 and DeskTop Theater(TM) DTT2500 Digital, the PlayWorks DTT2500
Digital features a built-in Dolby Digital decoder, optical and coaxial
SPDIF connectivity, five compact satellites and a subwoofer. Besides
supporting PlayStation2, the PlayWorks DTT2500 Digital is an ideal
solution for other popular gaming consoles with Pro Logic content. In
addition, the PlayWorks DTT2500 Digital is perfect for multi-channel
gaming on the PC platform as it can easily be connected to the Sound
Blaster® Live! audio card through the digital DIN connection for
crystal-clear digital audio, or to PC audio systems via four-channel
analog inputs for better 3D positional audio.
Availability
The Cambridge SoundWorks PlayWorks DTT2500
Digital and the Cambridge SoundWorks PlayWorks PS2000 will be available
to coincide with the PlayStation2 release.
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