This article is really defeating its own point. The focus is shifted into framerates rather audio realism, much like the computer-based audio industry itself. The number of 2D/3D voices and the number of mixers and submixers are currently of the more concentrated-on aspects of sound processors. While these are important to an extent, they have been taken too far, because of a mostly MIDI-based history. With a chord/note basis on sound, it used to be necessary to have a seemingly endless number of simultaneous sounds to replicate a real sound. Effects such as obstruction and reverb need to be standardized to allow for more effective development, but shouldn't necessarily be selling points. Instead sound quality should be the focus. This means sound cards will be of little importance beyond what they are now. (sampling rate, quantization/resolution, normalization, equalization, encoding [yes, kudos to the article for addressing this]) What should be of importance is the delivery of the processed sound. This includes the preamp, the amp, the acoustic transducer (speaker but acoustic transducer sounds smarter :P), and the wiring. Currently, there are no good options other than getting your own preamp, amp, wiring and speakers. Klipsch is great and all, but their computer speaker options aren't representative of the rest of their lineups. That's my $.02! (oh BTW there are now new state nickels...)
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