23. Sound Quality

The Aurora M7700 has four loudspeakers along with a subwoofer on the bottom of the case. Two loudspeakers flank the keyboard and a second pair are located on the notebook's front edge. The tone of the surround system is good, and the sound mixer enables many effects. The bass is surprisingly strong. By comparison with the Asus A7J, however, this unit sounds a little flat, with high and mid-range sounds too little differentiated. At maximum sound levels, some distortion is audible. Nevertheless, the Alienware unit delivers good enhanced sound for playing games.

Loudspeakers next to the keyboard and...

... on the front.

You can manage volume levels on the M7700 using two push buttons, without resorting to built-in Windows controls. The buttons are situated right next to the CD player control buttons on the front side of the case. The analog and digital outputs support up to 8 channels (7.1). When playing Spellforce 2, you can select and activate EAX 2 audio.