Supplied by Audiotrak

*lowest price date of review www.csound.com

The MAYA EX5 from AudioTrak is an external USB audio device for laptop or desktop. The MAYA EX5 features VIA’s VT1616 Vinyl audio technology delivering 18-bit 48 kHz (16-bit 48 kHz digital) sound over 6 channels. S/PDIF in and out accompanies the many analog inputs and outputs along with an dual duty analog/optical headphone jack that has more powerful volume than the competition.

**with additional software.

Specifications

• Interface: FULL SPEED USB (USB 1.1 COMPATIBLE)
• Analog Inputs

• Type: 2 Channel Analog line inputs (3.5mm Jack)
• Level: -10dBV Unbalanced, -10dBV Nominal, +6dBV Maximum
• Impedance: 10K Ohm

• Analog Outputs

• Type: 6 Channel Analog line outputs(3.5mm Jack)
• Level: -10dBV Unbalanced, -10dBV Nominal, +0dBV Maximum
• Impedance: 100 Ohm

• MIC Preamplifier

• Gain: +40dB Fix
• Impedance: 10K ohm

• Headphone Output

• Type: 3.5mm Mini Phone Jack
• Output Power: 60mW Max
• Signal to Noise Ratio: 110dB (Typical)
• (THD+N)/S: -70dB, 0.03% (Typical)

• Headset Connector (3.5 mm Jack)
• Sample rate supports: 48 kHz
• Bits Resolution: 16-bit

• Digital I/O

• Type: Coaxial input & Output Connector
• Type: Mini Optical Output Connector (TOS- LINk)
• Format: IEC-958 Consumer (S/PDIF)
• Sampling Rate: 48 kHz
• Bit Resolution: 16 bit

• A/D Converter

• Dynamic Range(S/N): 91 dB A-Weighted (Typical)
• Frequency Response: 20 ~ 20KHz
• Resolution: 18 Bit

• D/A Converter

• Dynamic Range (S/N): 88 dB A-Weighted (Typical)
• Frequency Response: 20 ~ 20KHz (@ fs=48kHz)
• Resolution: 18 Bit

Back to audio school

Getting your head around audio specifications and what the number soup means is difficult. Our advice is to know enough to look for the anomalies to begin to start asking questions. The first step is to know the basics.

Dynamic range is the measurement of the ratio between the lowest frequency sound and the highest and is typically expressed in dB. Dynamic range can be at the input level and the output level. In human terms a person who hears very low frequencies, very high frequencies and everything in between has a large dynamic range of hearing. A singer who can sing very low notes, very high notes and everything in between has a large dynamic range to their voice.

Dynamic range is expressed in decibels and is the range between where noise (contamination) enters at the low end and distortion happens at the high end. So if a piece of equipment specifies that it has 100 dB of dynamic range at 60 dB a-weighted that means that the 20 Hz to 20 kHz signal was fed to the device at 60 dB and the a-weighted filter was used to analyze the results.

The perfect result would be 120 dB of dynamic range.

So in the case of 100 dB of range the piece of equipment was able to reproduce a 100 dB window between the quietest sound and the loudest sound. (50 dB above and below the 60 dB base signal)

Signal to noise ratio is the strength of the audio signal in comparison to that of the background noise. All electronic equipment has noise and there is no getting away from it. A lower number means that more noise can be heard in comparison to the original signal. For example when listening to a CD and a lot of electronic hum, hiss or crackling is heard then the signal to noise ratio is low but the less the hum, hiss and crackle gets then the signal to noise ratio number, expressed in dB, increases. An SNR of 40 dB is audible noise easily heard by most everyone. An SNR of 60 dB will result in noise heard only during quiet passages. An SNR of approximately 95 dB will mean someone will have to listen extremely carefully in an extremely quiet room to be able to detect the faintest unwanted noise. Above 100 dB and unwanted noise is more or less inaudible.

THD or Total Harmonic Distortion basically is the original signal plus any distortion from the equipment the signal is passing through. All equipment distorts a signal and the rule of thumb is the smaller the percentage the better. Some say that 1% THD is the threshold between audible and inaudible distortion so when dealing with two pieces of equipment that have a THD of 0.01% and 0.001% respectively then based upon that sole specification neither will sound better than the other. The THD is so insignificant in either case. THD+N (Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise) is the preferred rating as that is the composite picture of the entire signal instead of the harmonic distortion. An electronic signal, video or audio, can pick up a lot of noise or “crap” in the journey through a sound card, amplifier or cables.

The preceeding was an excerpt from our guide The Home Entertainment PC 5-part series: Part 3 – Audio.

The one thought that should linger in your mind is how did the testing lab produce the results. If a component is said to have 100 dB of dynamic range then 100 dB based on what input signal? If th input signal is too low or too high to achieve these results then part of the dynamic range will be below or above our range of hearing. This may be good for our dog but a false representation to the consumer.

The guts

VIA’s VT1616 chip is the audio processor.

• AC’97 2.2 S/PDIF extension compliant Codec
• 18-bit, 6 channel DAC outputs
• 1 Hz resolution VSR (Variable Sampling Rate) on all channels
• Integrated IEC958 line driver for S/PDIF
• S/PDIF compressed digital or LPCM audio out
• Hardware downmix option to 2 channels
• 3D stereo expansion for simulated surround
• 18-bit independent rate stereo ADC
• 4 stereo, 2 mono analog line-level inputs
• Second line-level output with volume control
• External Audio Amplifier Control
• Low Power consumption mode
• Exceeds Microsoft® WHQL logo requirements
• 3.3V digital, 3.3 or 5V analog power supply
• 48-pin LQFP small footprint package

Note one specification: Hardware downmix option to 2 channels. This is where a 5.1 signal or gaming positional audio signal is hardware mixed down to 2 channels to better simulate the desired effect. The VT1616 allegedly has a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of 97 dB. Audio specifications are not available from VIA for this but some detective work put the pieces together. AudioTrak has been conservative giving an Analog to Digital (A/D) typical A-weighted S/N of 93 dB and a Digital to Analog (D/A) typical A-weighted S/N of 88 dB.

Remember that SNR of 40 dB is audible noise easily heard by most everyone. An SNR of 60 dB will result in noise heard only during quiet passages. An SNR of approximately 95 dB will mean someone will have to listen extremely carefully in an extremely quiet room to be able to detect the faintest unwanted noise. Above 100 dB and unwanted noise is more or less inaudible.

The Philips TDA1308 chip has a S/(THD +N) of 70 dB (typical) and SNR of 110 dB (typical). The VIA TV1616 chip has a peak of 93 dB so apply the “you’re only as good as your weakest link” theory. This little guy drives the output jacks and there are two of them on the PCB. One, presumably, is for the analog signal and the other is for the optical signal on the headphone/optical jack.

The Sonix SN11116F chip is the USB audio controller to which specifications were not available…anywhere. It’s predecessor, the SN11110, supported 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz sampling rates. The curiousity in the SN11110 PDF file was the following: Only R, L channel PCM audio in 5.1 channel can be conveyed in digital playback mode. In analog mode, it supports 6 channels code for analogy playback.

From this one would assume that only right and left channels PCM audio is available through the S/PDIF output. For full 5.1 support the analog outputs must be used.

Again this was taken from the SN11110 specifications and are subject to change with the SN11116.

Connecting the MAYA EX5 to any external amplifier can be done via the 1/8″ stereo jacks or S/PDIF (in and out). Remember to choose where movie audio content is to be decoded; in the pc or by the amplifier. While S/PDIF may be convenient for a single cable connection it means that the amplifier will have to process the audio and not the DVD software. Better support of game positional audio, music and movie audio is found by connecting a sound card via analog. EAX sound, for example, would have to be encoded to dolby digital to use the S/PDIF connection. It would then have to be decoded by an external source such as an amplifier. It would be like going from English to French to Russian then back to English; something would be lost in the translation. ALL S/PDIF connections operate like this and not just the MAYA EX5.

S/PDIF does make DVD movie audio content a snap as long as the amplifier can decode the signal and it has an S/PDIF input. Analog connections are just as simple but more cables are necessary. AudioTrak includes an optical TOS link adapter If an OPTICAL connection is the choice.

The headphone jack pulls double duty for analog headphone connection and optical connection. It is located along the narrower bottom edge.

Installation

The Maya EX5 is plug and play for the headphone and front speaker outputs. No software is needed for those outputs as they are the normal left and right speakers. The software disc had no autoplay file so the driver and application had to be installed manually. This left two folders in the installation directory. The MAYA EX5 folder is the taskbar driver for testing the speaker setup and rudementary settings.

The volume control panel fine tunes each speaker output +/- 20 dB of norm.

The filter tab isn’t entirely obvious in what it does. AudioTrak lists ASE as AUDIOTRAK SOUND EXTENSION which “supports 5.1 channels with 2.1 speaker setups.” That being said to enable 5.1 ANALOG sound with DirectSound output then check ENABLE FILTER and the 5.1 speakers radio button. To hear stereo audio for music sources but retain the digital output for 5.1 sound then disable the ENABLE FILTER checkbox. Think of the filter virtual 5.1 surround option. AudioTrak let us know that “the 5.1 filter is meant to be used with (a) 2 channel source like WinAMP and should be disabled for 5.1 DVD playback and so on.”

The 5.1 filter is meant to work with a 2-channel source. If the filter is enabled the software does automatically detect the audio source but it gives an option to override.

The remote controller isn’t part of the MAYA EX5 package. It can be ignored.

The other folder is the MAYA EX5 Sensaura plug-in for positional sound in games.

The CHANGEDRV icon allows a user to switch from using the Sensaura plug-in to another choice. The pulldown menu will show MAYA EX5 (SENSAURA) and USB AUDIO (STANDARD).

Supposedly the MAYA EX5 can coexist with other audio devices. It should override other devices then allow reversion when unplugged. This did occur with the windows desktop sound schemes but did not with Windows Media Player or Power DVD. The on-board Realtek 97 motherboard audio had to be disabled in BIOS to correct the issue. MAYA EX5 audio functionality returned when the Realtek AC97 onboard audio was disabled in BIOS and the system rebooted. Beware that the latest drivers from the AudioTrak website should be used. Older versions of the CD drivers may cause problems. There were no problems when the MAYA EX5 was unplugged and the BIOS for the onboard audio re-enabled.

Audio Tests

Properly assessing an audio device’s capabilities can only be properly performed with professional audio testing equipment by skilled technicians. There are several benchmarks around the web that allow for basic differences and comparisons to be revealed. These benchmarks are not as highly accurate as professional assessment and should be used only to show the basic differences between audio platforms given identical or as identical as possible hardware supporting it. In other words the tests give an indication but not a 100% accurate assessment.

Test system

• AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Processor (32-bit mode Socket 939)
• Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 motherboard (Realtek ALC650 audio chipset)
• MAYA EX5 USB audio device
• ATI 9800 PRO 256 MB Video Card Catalyst 4.2 drivers (Application preference ticked for Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering in both Direct 3D and OpenGL, VSYNC disabled BIOS AGP aperture set to 256)
• 2 x 512 MB Corsair PC3200LL TwinX DDR RAM in DIMM 1 and 2
• LG 8x DVD +/- RW
• 80 GB Seagate Hard Drive
• Samsung 950p 19″ Monitors
• USB Keyboard and Optical Mouse
• Retail boxed heatsink
• AMK SX1000 modded PC case (window, fans, cables, loom)
• Enermax 465 Watt FC PSU
• Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 updated DX90.b installed.
• Chaintech AV710 PCI Audio card.

RightMark 3D Sound 1.01

There are three audio devices presented to demonstrate the differences between what may “sound” like similar devices but the capabilities under the hood are quite different. The Realtek ALC850 chipset is commonly found on motherboards with on-board audio. This chipset offers 8-channel sound but it is limited in the hardware to properly handle game audio. Note the missing bugger numbers in comparison. The Chaintech AV-710 is a mid-budget PCI audio card offering 7-channel sound built on the ENVY24 chipset. The MAYA EX5 matches it for game audio capabilities but only falls behind in the amount of simultaneous voices which is of particular interest to gamers.

RightMark 3D Sound creates an assessment file of the audio device’s capabilities.

The audio transfer speed is greater with the MAYA EX5 only because of the USB connection which isn’t a fast as an on-board audio or PCI based sound card.

Rightmark 3DSound 1.01 has their own CPU utilization tests

This synthetic test is used to measure CPU utilization depending on operation mode of the selected DirectSound device. The test emulates the primary cycle of a typical game sound engine. The results are obtained through a special CPU utilization measurement algorithm getting data in specific intervals (0.5 s) that provides a higher degree of accuracy and lower dispersion for smaller CPU load than WindowsXP standard system counter. To control background CPU utilization a measurement is conducted in the beginning of every test before any actions are performed.

From the RightMark 3D Sound manual.

Remember the ALC650 does not support as much for game audio and it’s interesting to see the total lack of 8-buffer presence with the ALC650 and its higher usages at 32 buffers.

Audio Winbench 99

Audio Winbench 99 measures CPU utilization and in the following set of tests the ALC650 chipset surpasses it for one reason; it is doing less simply because it hasn’t the hardware to…do more.

Conclusions

The people at AudioTrak are playing an agressive game. They have mirrored the competition and, in some cases, been far more comptetitive with their pricing. The nearly identical counterpart is the Terratec Aureon 5.1 USB which is more expensive ($119.00 USD). Other choices to consider is the more aestethically pleasing but not as portable Philips PSC805 Aurilium ($99.99 USD) or the M-Audio Sonica Theatre which ups the ante to 7.1 sound and, of course, the price.

The MAYA EX5 isn’t so much a “no frills” 5.1 USB sound card but a streamlined audio upgrade for laptop or PC. It is most definitely a consideration for laptop users. Laptop users will like the high quality sound output especially for 5.1 audio. S/PDIF in and out makes it very adaptable to inserting a laptop in an audio chain for DJs. Many college students have laptops and the MAYA EX5 makes it easy to get 6-channel sound for gaming and 5.1 Dolby for movies. The MAYA EX5 supports Dolby Digital, AC3, DTS and Dolby Pro Logic II providing the necessary DVD software accompanies it. It also supports Sensaura positional game audio. You don’t need the 5.1 filter on with Sensaura 3D. MAYA EX5 is one of the few external USB sound card solution that is compatible with 3D game surround sound APIs like EAX. DVD software would have been a considerate inclusion for those without. For those already with DVD software then its a bonus not having to pay for it within a bundled price.

Desktop users can look at the MAYA EX5 as a simple USB plug’n'play device that is transferable between systems. That’s it’s strong point when compared to a PCI audio device. It offers many of the features that mid-grade PCI audio cards do.

The MAYA EX5 is new ground for AudioTrak and while the hardware is solid the software suite is still undergoing changes and development. AudioTrak concentrates on drivers first then makes it all “look pretty.” The GUI and driver set will need a facelift and overhaul if AudioTrak expects to increase the popularity of the MAYA EX5.

Our thanks to AudioTrak for
their support of this and many other sites.