Overview Testing the ATP5’s will be
used with my trusty SB Live Value. I have split the test into 3 separate
sections, gaming, because they are designed as gaming speakers, MP3 playback,
you got to have that, and DVD Playback. The speakers are pointed towards
me at the same height for accuracy of the sound quality.
Gaming
For gaming purposes, I tested the accuracy of the speakers using 2 of the
most popular online games with excellent 3D Audio support, Unreal Tournament
and Half Life: Counter Strike. When playing games, you need to set the speaker
mode to “gaming” so it will cancel out the music from the rear channels
so you can only hear footsteps or gunshot. Unreal Tournament,
a game known for excellent 3D Audio support, didn’t seem to sound much different
with a 4-channel setup. It might be the game itself and people just running
around shooting you that you cant notice a difference. Half Life: Counterstrike, a game known for strategy where every move
is important like Rainbow 6, sounded amazing with a 4 channel setup. I would
hear gunshots from behind, left, right, and the speakers represented the
gunshots accurately, saving my behind from getting shot at J. I could almost
accurately hear which direction the gunfire and the enemies were at so I
could avoid them.
DVD
Since DVD movies seem to be in pretty much every new PC there is, I couldn’t
resist testing DVD Playback J. For software, I used Power DVD 3 with 6-channel
support since Power DVD in my opinion has the best sound output.
This time around, I chose not to use a DVD movie; instead, I am using Dolby
Digital DTS Trailers since they do a better job at showing the true capabilities
of the speaker system for movie playback.
After watching a few trailers, all I have to say is, DAMN! These speakers
sound amazing for movies! Even with the absent of a center channel speaker,
they sound amazing. Just like in the games, the rear channel sound output
was reproduced amazingly accurate. Just a side note, don’t have the speakers
turned up halfway when watching movies if you are sitting too close to the
speakers ;) They pack quite a punch for the tiny size.
MP3 Playback
Ever since the mp3 file format was born, it has become the most popular
form of PC Audio files there is. Face it people, it has become a part of
our society; everyone has downloaded at least 1 mp3 before. Since a lot
of people have mp3’s and want to know how the quality seems, I just had
to test the MP3 quality on it .
The MP3’s I tend to use are 112 “Its Over Now,” and Juvenile “Back that
Thing up” because of the amount of bass it outputs. The 112 does continuous
bass output so it would be easy to find out if your sub is up to it. Back
That Thing Up just plainly outputs powerful bass taking the sub to the limits.
When I was done listening to the MP3’s, my sisters got kind of pissed because
I kind of made the ground shake. That just shows how powerful the sub can
be. You can adjust the power on the right front satellite speaker. The sound
was clear and clean.
