Customer Reviews

M-Audio Revolution 5.1 High-Definition Surround Sound Card

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Installation and configuration of the M-AUDIO 5.1 card was relatively painless under Slackware 10.2. Prior to installing the card I un-installed OSS for the motherboard audio and then disabled the motherboard audio in the BIOS. After seating the M-AUDIO card into the PCI slot, I downloaded and installed the latest commercial OSS drivers which are now free for private/home use. [...]

So how does the Revo 5.1 sound? Lovely! CD's, DVD's, audio and video files, and old arcade games all sound sweet and very clean. I honestly can't hear ANY noise emanating from the speakers (Cambridge Soundworks by Henry Kloss which I bought over 10 years ago) at all. The card will reveal any problems with the source material, e.g. old poorly mastered CD's. Overall the M-AUDIO Revo 5.1 makes near-field listening a very pleasant experience!

A couple of small "problems": I had to recompile the esound daemon so as to hear system sounds and sound from web browsers under GNOME and XFCE. The source-code file needed is esound-0.2.36.tar.gz.
[...] Also the GNOME volume control and XFCE volume controls don't work with M-AUDIO 5.1 card for some unknown reason. This isn't really a big deal since the ossxmix program works just fine and is more informative. Just be sure to set the file permissions as appropriate.

I have had several sound cards, and have heard many others. This one is better than any I have ever heard before. In fact, it is better than my surround sound, and I am using stereo speakers with it. Also, no need to worry about the lower version of EAX. It has a built in mode called Sensura that is just as good as the Creative cards. Also the 192 Kbps output is exponentially better than the normal 48 Kbps.

I've studied the user manual, installed and reinstalled the drivers, but am left with the following unfortunate situation to report:

With my All-in-Wonder 9800Pro, when I capture video, the sound captures with the video in some sessions, not in others. Very strange. Never had this problem with my SoundBlaster.

The "Output Mixer" tab never shows any signals, no matter what other tabs' settings are chosen.

No bass/treble adjustments, so I have to route the sound thru an external amplifier to get the bass I want.

The earphone output is is usually dead. I haven't had time to figure out under what situations it works or not. Since I'm using an external amp, I simply plug the phones into it, anyway.

I suspected these problems might be related to my Windows 98SE, so I installed a friend's Windows XP Pro on a different partition, and ALL the same problems existed there, too! There are no new drivers on the manufacturer's web site to try.

Sorry, I've run out of ideas, so I can't recommend this sound card.

Easy to install, gret price and now I have surround sound on my PC. woowhoo

Bought this sound card as it one of the few at the time to support 192khz, while not costing me an arm and leg.

Forgot why i needed it and what I was developing at the time...

The original driver for this card was somewhat buggy in terms of multi-channel playback. FINALLY there is a new and improved version with great ASIO function which is also Vista compatible. The RCA digital output will support 192 kHz as well as Dolby and DTS pass-through. Sadly the card is now out of production.

The card still needs some work to support features for games that come out for MAC G4 and G5 (PCI-X) systems. A recent BETA driver has been released for LEOPARD (10.5.X) and fixes the problem with the audio console not popping up in the System Preferences pane. DVD movies play great from the card: in particular through it's digital coax system as well as it's analog connection.

Games like QUAKE 4 and DOOM 3 have issues with the Revolution 5.1. Quake will either have the sound "popping" or "skipping" in intervals or at times a kernel panic happens, thus crashing the game. Doom 4 wont play audio AT ALL with the use of the Revolution 5.1. Both games that have the EAX HD sound option for your game, but it won't work with the 5.1 even though the card supports such audio features from these games. I've had no problems with games like Return to Castle Wolfenstien, Return to Castle Wolfenstien: Enemy Territory, and Quake 3 Arena when using the 5.1.

In runs great with WINDOWS VISTA and haven't heard from anyone I know, any problems with playing ANY games on their PC's.

M-Audio in my opinion, should have discontinued this card if it wasn't going to make the effort in maintaining FULL SUPPORT for users that STILL use their Apple G4 and G5 (PCI-X) systems. Both systems are expandable (G5 PCI-X has some limitations) and are powerful enough to run current software and will last in years to come. This card is perfect for it's price for those who don't or cant spend over $100.00 for a decent sound card. It's too bad this card has not been up to snuff as it should.

I am only using this card for a stereo desktop hookup, with a pair of M-Audio AV-40 speakers. Why buy a 5.1 card for just a stereo setup? Because I wanted the M-Audio brand, as well as the capability for future multi-speaker setups.

This card does not come with overblown software that has all sorts of sound effects and environments, most of which are useless. If you want something that cleanly reproduces the sound source and relays it to your speakers, then this is the one to get.

A nice plus is it comes with a very versatile InterAudio's WinDVD program that does a great job of decoding and viewing DVD's.

Also, to finally address many complaints about this product not being compatible with Vista and having older drivers, M-Audio has finally released updated drivers that are compatible with Vista. Go to the support section of their website and download them. I am using XP and had no trouble whatsoever setting anything up.

In short, this is a reliable soundcard that does what it was intended to do without a bunch of bloatware toys that come with other manufacturer's cards that alter the signal and use up your computer's resources.

I bought this card to get digital out (with Dolby Digital) to send to my surround processor in my home theater and normal analog to my computer speakers so I could take advantage of the free instant movie watching feature on Netflix. After installation of the card and drivers from the supplied CD the default output was set to analog. Definitely above average sound quality. Tried switching to digital - couldn't get it to output from the coax digital out at first, but then for some unexplainable reason it started working. However, this card does not output digital and analog at the same time (like the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 that I wound up replacing it with). You have to open the Revolution 5.1 control panel and switch it from analog to digital. Therein was the issue. It didn't want to let go of whichever state it was in at the time. I would have to restart Windows sometimes to get it to let go of the analog or digital when going from normal computer use to home theater usage or vice versa. Did some research and come to find out other people are having problems with this card. I think there's something wrong with the drivers for XP and the most recent driver on the website is dated like 2004. Tried the most recent drivers (a few months more recent than the ones on the supplied CD). Nothing - no change. Gave up and sent it back to Amazon - replaced it with the aformentioned 2496 (which actually has recent driver support). Works much better for me, however I only need stereo analog out to my computer speakers. For those who actually need a 5.1 card, keep looking.

I purchased the M-Audio about three months ago and the experience listening to Music, Movies, and Games on my G4 has changed completely. My room completely shakes when I watch my movies or hearing gunfire behind me when I am playing Call of Duty (I have the Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers hooked into it).

Installing was a snap and I had a small issue getting all my speaker's working, but I got that fixed by visiting the M-Audio website, looking into the FAQ's for Mac, and downloading the latest updates.

All and all I am very pleased and it feels like I am watching movies at the theater.