ABIT SP50 Home Theater Speakers & AU10 Sound Card

The Speakers

Once setup and working, it was nice to be able to just sit back and get lost in a DVD for a while, and then chase it with both some MP3s and also CD playback.  The surround sound was a nice addition to the viewing experience, and fit well into the smaller area to which I’ve recently moved.  The speaker stands in the rear serve to get the speakers to just about six inches beneath ear level, and basically level with the front units.  The center speaker is low enough profile to rest on the desk beneath the monitor, though it still blocks some access to the controls.

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Sound wise, the speakers are of a decent quality.  The construction is respectable—the metal casings give a certain mass to the speakers, which back up a certain amount of energy in producing the sound.  The tonal quality is what I would describe as crisp, with a lot of clarity in the higher frequency range.  The subwoofer seems well matched to the system; the crossover point between satellites and bass module provides for a strong low-end response. However, the sub’s response includes frequencies with directionality, and the source of the low midrange is obviously not coming from the satellites, and instead from the sub.  Though for the lower frequencies, when the driver is beneath a table, it creates a bass trap, or an area of resonance that increases the rumble effects.

One disadvantage to the metal casings is a resonant frequency in the high frequency range.  It builds up in some listening situations, leading to an obnoxious sound.  These effects appear more during music playback with higher playback levels.

The surround sound functions of the card worked fairly well, though sometimes the relative levels of satellites and center speaker seemed somewhat off.  ABIT has not yet received official Dolby certification for the system, though it is in the process and they expect to announce the certification in October of this year.  The software based mixer allows for some adjustment to fit individual listening tastes.

The sound card quality seemed to fall short during DVD playback, as the vocals became extremely crisp with some digital static.  I found that the mixer didn’t seem to have the sort of headroom I would have liked—I had to carefully work the gain structure to prevent overdriving the system and making the voices sound digitized and crispy.

During music playback, the digital artifacts are less of a problem as they are lost behind the music.  However, they still serve to detract from the playback quality.  Compromises made on the audio chip resulted in high frequency effects that reduce the overall enjoyment of the listening experience.

For gaming, the surround sound function worked nicely via the A3D software support.  However, the CPU time this required poses the problem of competing with a game for use of the processor.  We could never get the speakers loud enough to be uncomfortable; it’s a little worrisome that the extra power isn’t there in case it is ever needed.  The nature of these speakers as a small computer system also leads to a limited sweet spot.  If the speakers aren’t close to the monitor and set up for just one listener, they would be small for a home stereo system.  This limits them to one, or maybe two, listeners at a time.  A gaming system seems to fit this application more, although this package is geared more towards home theatre.