• P166
• 32 meg of SDRAM
• Quantum 1.5
• Toshiba 12x CD
• Matrox Millenium 2 meg
• Orchid R3d
• Mag DX15

Shark Multimedia has released a 3d sound card using Aureal's A3D technology. Aureal is the hot positioning technology used by other well known standards like Diamonds Monster Sound. The advantage of this board is that you don't need a second board for DOS compatibility; the Predator is recognized as a SOund Blaster Pro. On the other hand, the Predator 3d is an ISA board; some might worry that this means a sacrifice in sound quality, but the Predator also uses a technology called "Phat Enhancement" that adds some richness to its non-Aureal voice. This proprietary enhancement is similar to that used by Ubisofts Game Theatre and is quite effective in most cases.

When Len asked me to review the Shark predator last week, I have to admit I was a bit leery of the experience.  I had been fighting for a week to get a Creative labs Awe 64 to plug and play. Being no stranger to audio/video installs, I had met my match.  Anyway, I was desperate for some decent sound on the PC I was fighting with so I thought I would give it a try.

The install was simple.  The card dropped into the PCI slot like it was meant to; the software cd installed the drivers without a hitch.  Hmm... too easy I thought.   Then I proceeded to take it through some routine tests.  The software had installed some samples in it's program menu, so I thought I would start there.   A primitive helicopter graphic was flying around a 3d map.  As I maneuvered around the map, I was amazed how the headphone sources could accurately portray a audio source in the 3d space.  How a 2-source audio could make something appear to sound like it was above, below or behind me was absolutely amazing!

That was it!  I had to try it on F-22 by DiD.  You have to imagine the incredible thrill to hear my jet pass by me, or around me.  The sense of hearing it come from behind was amazing.  No doubt the 3D audio market will become absolutely huge like 3D video is today.  Could anyone imagine going back to simple 2D engines after a blast in 3Dfx for example?  In this day of increasing realism 3D audio is the Piece-de-la' resistance of any serious sim fan.  The whistle of shells coming from behind you and whizzing past your head is almost terrifying.

< Shark bundles its card with a Jedi-Knight  demo.  My son loved it.  Imagine a light saber humming just over your head whilst you pull a hasty duck in the middle of battle.  It would cause any seasoned warrior to wipe a bead of sweat from a furrowed brow.

  The sound quality was very nice...gorgeous and deep, even on cheap headphones. Very little background noise, which was a problem with a previous card. I had some question as to whether the original card was picking up a lot of noise from within the confines of that box for some reason. I've heard it said that the environment inside some boxes can be unfriendly to sound cards. If Shark is superior at noise suppression it may be worth noting!

If you want use MIDI you've got to add a wave daughter card, but there are no compatability issues here and I spoke to a representative who said that the Wave Blaster is a good addition for this purpose. The Predator also features an enhanced digital game port along with the standard microphone port. For those who need the communications bandwidth, the card is full duplex capable.

I suppose I would liken Sharks audio product to Canopus' video product.  It is a full bodied robust piece of hardware that is essentially a bare-bones package that doesn't include a lot of frills but delivers quality in simplicity.  For a mere $110.00 US street, I think its worth a look at. The PCI version lacks a few features but sells at about the same price point. Here is the hard data from Shark:

Click to continue . . .

A Sound Card Without Limitations

Predator 3D was designed to be used for any PC and with any device. The sound card is equipped with multiple ports including speakers, microphone in, line input, MIDI, and joystick. Portable CD-ROMs can use the line input port to take advantage of Predator 3Dfeatures. Predator 3D represents another product provided by Shark Multimedia that is made with superior quality, design, and dependability.

ISA VERSION

• 16-bit, Plug & Play ISA Sound
• Aureal A3D DirectSound Accelerator
• Greater than 80dB S/N Ratio
• 4MB Samples for 32-Voice Wavetable
• Full-duplex Sound: Stereo Record and Playback
• Phat Stereo 3D Speaker Enhancement
• Sound Blaster Pro, AdLib and Microsoftä Windows Sound System

Compatible

• Sample Rates Up to 48k Hz
• Line Out
• Record from Stereo Line In, CD-Audio In, and Mic In
• 15 pins D-SUB MIDI/Joystick Port
• Audio Connector for Internal CD-ROM
• Modem In Connector
• Upgradable to Wave Blasterä Compatible Hardware Wavetable

PCI Version

• Aureal A3D DirectSound Accelerator
• Greater than 80dB S/N Ratio
• 4MB Samples for 32-Voice Wavetable
• Sample Rates Up to 48K Hz
• Line Out
• Record from Stereo Line In, CD-Audio In, and Mic In
• 15 pins D-SUB MIDI/Joystick Port
• Audio Connector for Internal CD-ROM
• Modem In Connector