M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Surround Sound PCI Card ( PC / Mac )

Average customer rating: 4.0

No Vista Compatibility
Superb sound quality at a great price
Do Not Buy If You Own A Mac
Can't say enough good things
Outstanding Sound Quality--It's like getting new ears

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M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Surround Sound PCI Card ( PC / Mac )

Manufacturer: M-Audio
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B00008DD20

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Product Description

M-AUDIO Revolution 7.1 - This high definition 7.1 channel surround sound adapter provides up to eight channels of professional quality 24-bit/192kHz audio. Revolution 7.1 allows PC and Mac owners to play DVDs and multitrack audio discs in surround sound, to experience more realistic gaming, and record or mix original music. Built-in SRS Labs Circle Surround II transforms CD, MP3 & other stereo content into incredibly lifelike surround sound High 107dB signal-to-noise ( SNR ) ratio & Exceptionally low 0.0031% distortion ( THD ) rating ensure clean, clear sound! Intuitive control panel adds easy access to advanced features like Bass Management, Speaker Optimization and Input Metering S/PDIF Optical Out One year warranty

Customer Reviews:

No Vista Compatibility.......2007-03-22

Do not buy this if you are planning on using Windows Vista. There are no (not even beta) drivers and the Windows XP/64 drivers do not work. M-Audio seems totally arrogant about the whole thing and there are no target dates for any driver support (which hasn't even been confirmed).

Superb sound quality at a great price.......2007-03-06

I purchased this card for my custom-built Home Theater PC (HTPC) running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and it sounds absolutely superb. M-Audio is known for their pro audio gear and the attention to quality can definitely be heard from this great card.

I would give this card 5 stars if it wasn't for the fact that currently there are no Vista drivers for this card. Also, this card is OLD. I believe this card was originally released in 2003. Not only that, M-Audio hasn't released an updated driver for this for a long time. The newest driver is from 2004.

Although the card does not "officially" support XP Media Center, it works perfectly fine with the drivers for regular XP. I had a bit of a problem getting the digital output to work, but their superb tech support was able to provide all the info I needed. Currently I am using the single digital out cable to my receiver and it's outputting PCM, DTS, and dolby digital audio via the digital interface without any problems.

One note of caution if you're using the digital output with XP Media Center Edition: turn off the media center interface sounds (you know, the annoying little sound effects from the buttons, etc.). The digital output can only send audio in one format at a time, so the following scenario can happen:

If you are playing a DVD in DTS, raw DTS audio will go through the digital output. However, if you have sound effects on in Media Center, those are generated in PCM format. XP will send the audio in PCM format via the digital output. Going back to the DVD, you'll find that you get no sound because for some reason either XP doesn't switch the format back or the card doesn't see the change.

If you are planning on running Windows Vista (which I don't recommend at least for a year till the bugs are worked out), then this won't work, but it's a great sounding card for XP.

Do Not Buy If You Own A Mac.......2006-10-02

The M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is listed as being Mac compatible but with all the issues it has currently, I am not sure how that is true.
I own a G4 Mirrored Drive Tower and have had nothing but problems with this sound card. Currently there is still no driver for anything past 10.4.6 and if you upgrade any higher the card will not work in Surround Sound. Besides that there is constant speaker popping and horrible buzzing and squeals when switching between programs, sometimes even when the computer is not in use. It has been flakey with surround sound when using DVD Player and Quicktime, as well. During the 10% of times it works without a hassle the sound is great through my Logitech speakers, so it is quite sad when it doesn't work. It seems that this is the only option for Mac users to achieve surround sound that I know of, which is also very saddening.
I have a feeling I will be selling this to a PC user in the near future and just settling for good ol'stereo.

Can't say enough good things.......2006-05-03

This card, using VIA's superb Envy24 HT chipset, is a huge improvement over my Realtek and VIA Envy24HT-S based cards. Everything sounds better.

My old Audigy 2 platinum (which I think I shall melt) did better in 3D games, but only slightly. Since this card doesn't snap, crackle, and pop like the Creative cards do, I'll venture to say that it actually DOES make games better, since there are no weird noises distracting from the feel of the game.

PROS:
* Very high audio sampling rates, allowing for incredibly good audio production; warm, rich, warm bass all the way up to crystal clear highs.
* No crackling, popping, or hissing! A real joy after pulling my hair out for years trying to figure out why Creative Labs cards keep doing this.
* Well-maintained, solid drivers.
* Supports EAX 2.0
* Excellent ASIO support.

CONS:
* No hardware support for DirectSound; however, if your machine is faster than about 1GHz, you probably won't notice the difference. Benchmark your results on a machine made in the last three years and you'll find that no hardware DirectSound acceleration amounts to *less* than a 1% difference in speed.
* Only supports up to EAX 2.0, due to Creative Labs refusing to license the technology. Sound difference is minimal, though.

Outstanding Sound Quality--It's like getting new ears.......2005-09-23

After months and years of frustration with balky, expensive, poorly sounding sound cards from that 'creative' company, I finally gave up and did my homework. M-Audio has been in the business for a long time, but most of there gear is specialty items. At just the right time came just the right product. This is an excellent sound card--the specs you can read, but hearing is believing.

The difference is just incredible. You don't know what you're missing in your music until you try out this sound card. Absolutely no distortion, dead quiet background noise, and silky smooth, flat wide response. Listening to a lot of jazz, blues, classical and acoustic music demands the very best of a sound system. With the Revolution card, I can hear musical detail that just wasn't there before. I don't need to turn up the volume (although it's a lot of fun) to hear the rhythm section and background instruments. The splash of cymbals, the clank of a cow bell, or the strings of an acoustic bass are right there in front of you. You'll want the best quality speakers or headphones to get the most out of this card.

Great user interface / control panel. The control panel is cleanly designed and easy to understand. You can see the input signal strength independently of setting the output volume and avoid overdriving the DACs. There are a bunch of surround sound synthesis options which work very well--even with headphones.

I went for the 7.1, but the 5.1 would be fine for most applications and at a (street) price 1/3 of the high-end SB cards.

Well done M-Audio. It's about time someone showed SB how to do it right.

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