Sound, it’s everywhere! In everything we do, in the latest games they are making use of high tech sound for ambients and every other part of it. We all know movies have excellent sound tracks in them, but are you missing something with that onboard sound setup? HTPC’s are very popular, and high end gaming PCs are as well, but the part that is most often overlooked in the sound card. Most people are happy with the onboard sound, but you can exponentially enhance your listening experience with a good sound card. Today for review, our friends at Bluegears have sent over their new b-Enspirer PCI sound card with the new, and probably best, Oxygen HD sound processor chip built in. This card has got everything covered, the whole range of Dolby, DTS, C-Media, 8-channels and much more. This is a card that you must have if you truly enjoy excellent quality sound. Read on to check it out…

Bluegears b-Enspirer PCI Sound Card

Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos

Sponsor: Bluegears

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

Bluegears b-Enspirer PCI sound card

Ultimate PCI sound solution for Gaming and Home Theater PCs.

8 Channels, 24-bit/192KHz, over 110 dB Oxygen 8788 PCI sound card.

Bluegears’ b-Enspirer is a high quality PCI 8 channel sound that can be built into home audio electronics or personal computers to provide high fidelity sound playback and processing. b-Enspirer enables studio level audio performance. With support for 8 outbound streams, b-Enspirer can easily support the latest theater quality 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1 surround sound systems. For enhanced playback, b-Enspirer enables the hardware that allows customers to experience the complete surround sound experience whether using four, or even two speakers.

Features:

DTS Interactive – a real-time 5.1 channel encoder that takes 2 or more channels and encodes them into a DTS bit stream

DTS NeoPC – an up-mix matrix that turns any 2 channel audio into 7.1 channel surround sound

Dolby Digital Live(AC-3) real time 5.1 channel encoding bit-stream to facilitate the connection with CE AV receiver

Dolby Pro-Logic IIx surround processor, spreading stereo audio into 7.1 channel surround sound

Renowned Dolby Headphone technology, conveying 5.1 surround and 3D gaming audio over stereo headphones

The latest Dolby Virtual Speaker solution, creating amazing virtual surround sound from a generic two-speaker configuration

C-Media FlexBass – configurable LFE channel crossover frequency(from 50 to 250Hz)

C-Media Magic Voice, a popular feature for disguising voice in online chatting

C-Media Xear3D 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter technology

C-Media’s unique Karaoke functions: Microphone Echo, Key-shifting

Individual 10-band EQ for each channel

27 global reverberation environments

Play 3D demo program

Supports most industrial standards of 3D sound for PC gaming, including EAX 1.0&2.0, A3D 1.0 and DirectSound

Supports 7.1 CH digital audio playback for WinXP, 2K, ME, 98SE(Microsoft DirectX V.9.0 and above is required.)

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Included in box:

Bluegears b-Enspirer Audio Card

TOSLINK Fiber Optic Digital Cable

English Owner’s Manual

Drivers/Applications Installation CD

Warranty Card

Price $109.99 From NewEgg at time of Review

A Better Look at Things

:

First thing we always take a look at is the packaging, and the packaging for the b-Enspirer is pretty darn cool, the bright red, white and black make a great color combination. The front of the box has some main product features listed and you can see the actual card in the background.

The back of the box has some nice screenshots of the actual software you will use to configure your sound system along with a whole list of features explained. Nice informative packaging.

Opening the box up we find, the b-Enspirer itself wrapped in an anti-static bag, the toslink cable, driver disc, warranty card and user manual.

The card itself is something to look at, it looks a bit busy with all those caps, chips and other components all over the place. The bright red PCB is a nice change from the standard green that we see so often. There are also connectors located about the center of the PCB near the top that are labeled CD-in and AUX-in, so you can hook your DVD/CD drive directly to the sound card for better sound quality.

The heart of the b-Enspirer sound card is the Oxygen HD sound processor chip, here is where all the magic essentially takes place.

You can’t miss the Oxygen chip on the card, it’s pretty large.

A Better Look at Things

Continued:

The back of the card is where you’ll find the serial number, UPC code etc.

On the bottom edge of the card you’ll find all the all the features listed again, just in case you forgot them…

The PCI slot side of the card is where you’ll find all of your connectors, all nicely color coded for ease of installation.

Below the color coded connections you’ll find the S/PDIF in and out connections.

The PCI bracket is a classy gold color, it adds a touch of class to any system…

Installation and Testing:

My HTPC consists of:

Biostar m7vig socket A motherboard

Amd Athlon XP-M 2400+ Cooled by Thermaltake Rhythm liquid cooling system

EVGA 5700 Ultra LE video card

2 gigs Kingston HyperX PC3200 2-3-2-6

NEC DVD/RW/DL drive

Blue Gears b-Enspire 7.1 sound card

Proton 313 multimedia floor speakers (magnetically shielded,self-powered)

Antec Fusion HTPC case (modded to use remote VFD)

Yeah, it’s an Athlon XP based system but it works great for an HTPC system! The Biostar motherboard has built in C-Media CMI9761A 6-Channel AC’97 CODEC, it also uses the Xear 3d sound setup as well. I have to say, even the onboard sound is pretty good through a good set of speakers though.

Installing the b-Enspirer is fairly easy, even in a case that is as cramped as mine.

For testing I decided to try the b-Enspirer with just my two Proton speakers, and play with the various setting of the virtual surround sound setup. I threw in Star Wars Ep1 and then Ep2 because the sound effects are just incredible. There was a big difference compared to the onboard sound, and while the virtual surround isn’t the real thing it is very close to it. If you have a two speaker setup and want a good virtual surround sound card then this is it, it works very well.

There was a time I was quite the audiophile, this was BC, or Before Children of course. I still have a few remnants left, and I have some higher quality PC speakers as well floating around. So I decided to give the 7.1 surround a go at it, I hooked up a various assortment of speaker I have, Polk Audio, Boston Acoustics and the Protons. All I have to say is WOW, the surround is amazing, I just wish I could leave it like that forever but that won’t happen, kids have to sleep ya know!

The software included is pretty much easy to work with, but a little help would have been nice, i really couldn’t find any help files or anything so I just kind of went at it haphazardly till I got the configuration I wanted. Of course after a while I figured it out, but some in depth documentation would be nice for the beginner.

I also noticed that the Oxygen sound processor chip gets very hot after a few minutes of use, and even hotter after/during playing a movie. It gets so hot that you really can’t touch it. This does worry me a bit, my case does have good airflow but others might not, I can recommend either Bluegears puts a heatsink on that chip or the end purchaser does. Heat is not good for components, especially any kind of processor. I didn’t notice any problems, but the heat could lead to sound distortions etc possibly, but not immediately.

Summary:

To finish this up, despite the lack of real documentation on the software, the Bluegears b-Enspirer is an excellent choice for a sound card, I can easily see this selling for much more. You do have to remember though, the sound processor is only as good as the speakers really, so if you don’t have quality speakers with woofer, tweeter, midrange etc, then don’t expect the b-Enspirer to magically turn your stock PC speakers into something awesome. Yes it will improve them, but for the maximum enjoyment and performance from the b-Enspirer you need quality equipment! If you like quality sound then do your self a favor and get one of these cards, you won’t regret it. I’m actually thinking of picking up another one for my main system just because I like the excellent sound quality that card produces.

DragonSteelMods gives the Bluegears b-Enspirer PCI Sound Card a 5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.

Pros:

-Excellent sound quality

-Lots of options in software configuration

-Great for those who don’t have lots of speakers and/or room for them

-Great for HTPC and Gaming alike

-Low price for the quality you get

Cons:

-Chip gets very hot, recommend heatsink for safety sake, and adequate airflow in chassis

I would like to thank Bluegears for the chance to reviews the b-Enspirer and for their continued support of DSM.

Find lots of Bluegears products at Shopzilla!