11. Playback Performance At 24 Bits/48 KHz (E-MU 1820 Recording)

Playback is generally better than recording in commercially-available soundcards, so we tested playback of a recording made with an E-MU 1820 card. The performance was very high level as you would expect...

Frequency Response(20 Hz - 20 kHz) : +0.14, -0.68 dB

Signal/Noise Ration : 104.7 dB(A)
Distortion: 0.0003 %
Stereo Separation: 105.5 dB

Overall, the Video Editor gave a strong performance but, all the same, the input control and the audio noise on the video input are regrettable. Admittedly, it's very low and isn't likely to be an inconvenience but it would be better without it...

Games And 3D

For games, the Video Editor is effectively an Audigy 2 system and so has the same ability to reproduce 3D sound effects, especially with EAX Advanced HD. On the other hand, like all USB cards, it's greedy for CPU power and could slow down your game if your PC isn't powerful enough. It's not, therefore, a "Game Enthusiasts" card but it can nevertheless perform its role in a powerful PC. We should point out that the tests are not completely comparable with earlier ones (even if the PC used was identical) because of operating system developments (the introduction of SP2).