This is the second sound card I reviewed running the Aureal AU8820 chipset.And what's the difference does it actually improves over the cheaper SCHUBERT A3D? The specification of both the TeraSound and Schubert are almost identical.With an exception of the bundled game advantage over the SCHUBERT. Let's us take a look here.....

This unit is a full retail box with rather neat design.There's a sticker outside that tells you of the bundled game and it's game requirement.The card overall gives you a feeling of better quality compared to the SC128. Intresource, local manufacturer whom brought us the two popular TeraSound 64/128 sound card running ESS Mastero-1 chipset brings us yet another nicely packed and good quality sound card. It cost about S$30 more than the SCHUBERT 128 reviewed earlier.But this is money worth spending.

The card have an 6w power amplifier to provide quality sound even if you do not own a pair of amplified speakers.A rather nice bundled is the Battle Zone game title included in the box.YAMAHA XG software wavetable program is also included to enable you to have a more varity of enhanced voices.

Installation is without any hitch.Simply plug in the card into an available PCI slot and Windows will automatically detect it's presence. When prompted,select installation using manual/others drive instead of through Windows detection.Just slot in the driver CD-ROM and install the relevant file.

The test system was running using Windows 98,the card was promptly detected by Windows PnP function. After installation.Restart the computer to enable the sound card works.

Do remember to look for a MPC cable for connection it to the CD-ROM drive.

Intresource did a good job of bundling the 'Battle Zone' game with the card as we can start testing the quality of the A3D surround even if you don't own a A3D enhanced game title.

Running the demo game that comes with the driver disc,it produced one of the most astonishing sound wave into my ear drum.I must say that this card is definitely much better than the AWE64 Value, S3 SonicVibes and the Turtle Beach ISA based card that I experience before in term of surround sound effect in 3D gaming.But,a demo is never enough to prove it's quality. Therefore I run the ActiveVision's 'BATTLE ZONE' title which is certified under Aureal website as A3D compatible. Really cool surround sound, with strong bass.

A really interesting feature is the the abilities to actually have many selection of various source of sound output.From quadratic(4speakers) to even headphone and many more selections.Plus the demo ability to test the various positions of A3D surround.

The bad point of this card is perhaps of the A3D surround effect which will only be activated in a minimum Pentium 200MHx MMX system. That means if you are still running the slower P133.You will not get to enjoy the A3D effect, though it's still capable of running with the A3D with minimum P100 systems.The card requires is also very weak in legacy DOS mode as similar to the S3 sound card reviewed earlier. The MIDI effect is also normal & nothing compared to the DLS function in the S3 or Turtle Beach PCI cards.But people can go without it as nowadays MIDI are less used in games.With a much higher price tag over the S3 and ISA based OPL-3 cards. It might not make sense to own this card.

The accompanied YAMAHA XG software are quite interesting in adding more instruments and MIDI effect,but are quite incompatible with some games and recording softwares.

For a little more cash forked out.You will enjoyed a nice packaging with the well documented manual plus the YAMAHA XG software which add vibrant the the already superb sound card.If you are still hesitating whether a CREATIVE AWE64 is better or this.I vote for this new generation card with it's hardware support for Direct X and also a much superb surround sound compared to the Awe64.