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Introduction

DVD-ROM drives are quite commonplace in today’s home PC. However, what is rare to find, are multi-channel sound cards to fully compliment the DVD - inherently multi-channel in nature. Recently, sound encoding on DVDs has allowed for more channels to be recorded, namely DTS ES 6.1, thus creating a more realistic entertainment experience. Consequently, existing sound cards supporting only 5.1 channels (SB Live!, Philips Acoustic Edge PSC 706) cannot explore the full potential of DVDs allowing for more than 5.1 channels.

Enter the MAYA 7.1 and MAYA 7.1 Gold sound cards, offering, as their name implies, 7.1 channels of auditory excitement to create a true desktop home theatre ("crowd cheers" - in 7.1 channels, of course). Let’s take a look at the specs:

Specs

	Maya 7.1	Maya 7.1 Gold
Interface	PCI
Input Type	3.5mm Line In, 3.5mm Mic In, Aux In, CD In
Output Type	8 output (3.5mm), 20-bit S/PDIF via optical TOS-link (48kHz)	8 output (3.5mm), 20-bit S/PDIF via optical TOS-link (44.1/48kHz), G9 connector
Output Channels	DVD 5.1/7.1 support
Max Bit-Depth	18-bit Analog to Digital, 20-bit D to A
Sample-Rate	48kHz	8 / 11.025 / 22.05 / 32 / 44 / 48kHz
Mic amplifier	+45dB pre-set; +20dB switchable; 0-18dB adjustable; 12V phantom power switchable
Dynamic range	90dB A-weighted
Phantom Power	+4V Phantom Power, Multimedia Mic Support
Other	Internal input for CD-Audio signals (AC'97; S/PDIF), AC3/Dolby Digital/DTS throughput to external decoder
Driver support	E-WDM drivers for Windows 9x/ME, Windows 2000/XP (MME, DirectSound, ASIO 2.0, GSIF)

The MAYA 7.1 Gold sound card offers some extra benefits, which I will touch upon right away. The first and foremost point to note is the support of multiple sample rates (8kHz - 48kHz), which will give a marginal performance increase. Bear in mind that there are often times a DVD is sampled between 96 - 192kHz, so there will be little or no difference in what we hear, especially for lower frequencies. The Gold sound card also offers an analog G9 connector, allowing 6 channels to be sent via only one cable, as opposed to 6 individual 3.5mm wires. This of course, means that you will need a G9 input on either your A/V control center or your speakers. Other than that, I should mention that there are minor variances (+/- 5%) for some of the specs, which I didn’t bother to include in tabular format listed above because of their relatively low deviation. The specs affected are I/O level, input impedance, IN 1,2 record gain, output attenuation, and mic input gain. So that’s all the technical stuff.

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