VIA Envy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The VIA Envy24 audio chipset series delivers true 24-bit

24-bit

Notable 24-bit machines include the ICT 1900 series and the Harris H series.The IBM System/360, announced in 1964, was a popular computer system with 24-bit addressing and 32-bit general registers and arithmetic...

sound for personal computers. While available as a discrete card, it is sold in greatest volume as an integrated solution for motherboards.

The Envy24 chipset was originally developed by IC Ensemble Inc (PCI vendor ID 1412, established 1997) as ICE1712. The company was acquired by VIA in late 2000.

A total of six controllers exists in the Envy range. Ironically, since the demise of the SoundStorm

SoundStorm

SoundStorm was an advanced integrated 5.1 sound technology certification developed by Nvidia for the nForce and nForce2 platforms based on the nForce audio processing unit .-Certification:...

audio solution, the VIA Envy has become an option as a replacement part for integrated audio on nVidia motherboards, along with cheaper Realtek

Realtek

Realtek Semiconductor Corp. , a fabless IC design house situated in the Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan, was founded in October 1987, and subsequently approved as a listed company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1998...

and SigmaTel

SigmaTel

SigmaTel is an electronics company located in Austin, TX, which designs mixed audio signal processors, and controller chips for multifunction peripherals. SigmaTel was Austin's largest IPO as of 2003 when it became publicly traded on NASDAQ...

offerings.

With the exception of the Envy24 controller, all other Envy chipsets lack hardware 3D positional sound, which means CPU usage across various scenarios is noticeably higher than either SoundStorm

SoundStorm

SoundStorm was an advanced integrated 5.1 sound technology certification developed by Nvidia for the nForce and nForce2 platforms based on the nForce audio processing unit .-Certification:...

or Audigy based solutions. VIA

VIA Technologies

VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics Group. It is the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets...

has stated it has no intention of implementing CPU offload in future hardware, due to the increased manufacturing costs.

Features

24-bit resolution audio format support (Envy24/Envy24GT/Envy24HT/Envy24HT-S/Envy24MT) / 20-bit resolution audio format support (Envy24PT/Envy24HT-S)
Digital sampling rate
Sampling rate
The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per unit of time taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. For time-domain signals, the unit for sampling rate is hertz , sometimes noted as Sa/s...

s up to 192 kHz (Envy24HT/Envy24GT/Envy24HT-S/Envy24MT) / 96 kHz (Envy24/Envy24PT)
Analog sampling rate
Sampling rate
The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per unit of time taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. For time-domain signals, the unit for sampling rate is hertz , sometimes noted as Sa/s...

s up to 192 kHz (Envy24HT/Envy24HT-S/Envy24MT) / 96 kHz (Envy24/Envy24GT) / 48 kHz (Envy24HT-S/Envy24PT)
Up to 8 outbound streams and 8 simultaneous input streams (depending on the model)
Surround sound
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...

audio: 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1
36 bit wide hardware mixer (Envy24 only)
DirectSound hardware acceleration (Envy24 only)

Note that Envy24HT-S supports 24-bit / 192 kHz mode only in 4 channel output (4 channel input) mode, while in 8 channel output (2 channel input) mode it is limited to 20-bit / 48 kHz.

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Features

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