Good and not so good news - w2 optimum sound update

Ok..... well I got my official word on the sound on the W2.

1. The US office was informed by the Taiwan office that the Napa platform W2 will have upgraded sound and dolby digital decoding on board or something like that.... basically they said this problem certainly isn't going to extend to the next generation and the sound as a whole will be even better.

2. Taiwan acknowledges the problem on the current model and are working to fix it.... Taiwan has also gotten a link directly to this forum, so they have all the information.

 

I was worried when I read the title of this thread...but it sounds positive.
Good to know they've acknowledged it!

 

The truth is, the US office really doesn't have more of an update than that..... I'm waiting for more, but like usual, I didn't want to wait to post what I had.

 

Thankyou for the update ... and thankyou for waiting until you had some concrete news rather than post on innuendo and hearsay.

Thnx 2 :asus: as well.

 

Does that mean the new W2 using the Napa platform will be out soon, like say latest 6 months wait? Will it use the Yonah processors or the one after?

Thanks

 

We're looking at more of an 8-12 month time frame for Merom as it is slated to come out in Fall of 2006. For Yonah, which may be unlikely due to its 64-bit compatability, you'll probably be looking at 4-6 months.

 

****, and I was just about to hit the "order" button for a new W2V! I hate to spend € 2325,- on a state-of-the-art machine just to find out a few months later that it is already outdated. Oh well, I guess thats the way these things go, I still think it's a good deal for a W2Vb (P-M 770, 80GB-7200rpm, 2048MB RAM and a free 40GB wireless HDD)

edit: Lol, I didn't know there was censorship at this board...

 

... it's a computer, buy it when you're ready, but there is never going to be a time in your life that a few months after you buy one, it doesn't seem like a geriatric compared to what's going out.... a Quarter in the computer industry can often be like an entire model year for a car company.

I don't have any dates, all I know if that all current models won't be refreshed until after the completely new models get imported....... so I'm thinking late March/early April at BEST.

 

thank you for you good news.
i hope asus fixes this asap.

i'm gonna also contact my local asus technical service and tell them about this improvements.

 

That's all the answer I need (even if it's your best guess). I can still wait a while longer because I think it's worthwhile to wait for Yonah at least. With all the bragging that Intel is making with the Napa platform from recent articles, it'll be interesting to see how it performs before I buy a new notebook.

And with all the issues with the sound associated with current W2, and the news about a new improved sound for W2, it seems even more worthwhile to wait then

Thanks.

 

OK So now that we have a semi-official acknowlegment ( it won't be official untill it is on ASUS support page) of this can we please get a little more information on this.
How widespread is this? Is it on all W2Vs or what? Is it a driver or hardware issue? Is there any temporary workaround available? How do ASUS intend to compensate their customers till a fix is found? Since the first reports of this problem came in September, how much longer are we supposed to wait for a fix?

I can't really say that the announcement above make me any happier, it just feel like more of the stringing along that we have endured from the start!
From the "there is no problem, you must have configured the sound badly youself" through the "Only extreme audiophiles will notice it" and the "It must be your specific laptop, please send it in for repair" to the "We are working on a fix but we won't tell you about it." At which point should we stop expecting help. I think 4 months should be perfectly sufficient to provide a fix if it is just a driver issue, and before anyone start saying that I don't know anything about developing drivers I should say that I work as a software engineer in the auotmotive industry developing systems where we DONT have the luxury of providing SW updates easily.

 

This isn't a some epedemic.... it's a driver issue that should effect all units --- they're mainly looking at why they can't seperate the stereo left and right from the sub... that would solve most of the issues........ on the output - I can't speak of a problem because I don't have it on mine or any of the units I tested and I'm curious if that issue is due to export to subpar speakers systems....

... But, I'm not working on a fix, and this is not my problem. All I can do is try to replicate it so I can use my contacts to try to help the rest of you. If I could get all of you in a room, there isn't a soul who's going to be able to tell me they're not hearing the best sound they've ever heard coming from a laptop nor would they believe the sound coming from the external speaker was being pumped through that computer. I really don't care what they do, but the people with "issues" obviously didn't do more than just complain in the forums, because my contact with Asus said the only report Taiwan had of any issue was mine own back in Septemeber and that issue they supposedly fixed with a bios revision. So if I'm the only one with a voice, I need to have proof and tests so that Asus can reproduce issue others are having. I did that when I gave them a link to the original thread here...... don't shoot the messenger.

 

I submitted a written inquiry to Asus support on Nov 27. I got a response asking me to make a phone call to Asus USA support on Dec 8th. I had to explain about this problem from the beginning when I called. The guy sounded genuinely surprised to hear about the issue. He reiterated several times I was the first one EVER to complain about any sound issues on W2V. Suggested that I try adjusting the volume control and the equalizer settings etc.. Suggested that it's probably meant to work this way and they probably won't be able to do anything with my laptop if I send it in..

But in any case Justin - that at least makes two of us! So somebody's got have been second!

So about my support experience, I sent this guy a very detailed email with description of the problem, the frequency response measurements and examples and links to the various forum threads etc, and he promised to get in touch with TW and check with them. They sent the following response:

Hi:
After discussing with TW,
Basically, W2 is designed to filter the sound from front speacker to sub woofer.
So if customer plug external speaker from front speacker, the sound out put is not complete.
It is hardware design limitation.

However ,there is a solution worked out as followings:
First, set the speacker channel in 4 channel. (as picture)
Second, plug the external speaker into "surround" jack. (not front/ spdif)
Then set the audio jack as "surround speacker".(as picture)

it should provide complete sound.
Hope it can solve customer's complaint.

I responded by saying that in a true solution, the filtering should be turned off when user switches to 2CH or Headphones mode, or that there should be a sound card-level option to clone front channels to the rear channels, so that it's possible to use rear jack at all times, even when the software doing the playback is not outputting surround sound, which is what's required in order to be able to use the rear jack now. I am still waiting for response on that..

 

... that's what you need to change to allow the jack to output all the sound... that is nothing new and is what you needed to do on the W1 as well..... but to have "surround sound" output...... you need to use a digital out and have a digital decoder before or in the speakers..... that's how my system has always been setup and it works flawlessly.

... what kind of setup are you using?

 

I'm not trying to shoot messenger, in fact I'm gratefull that somebody is getting through to ASUS.

I'm trying to shoot ASUS!

For ASUS to say that they have had no reports on this is just ridicullus, I even sent mine in for repairs to ASUS a month and a half ago. This was after weeks of email conversation with their support line where they suggested different sound settings to fix the problem.

When I finally sent it in they still claimed that there was nothing wrong with it, but I persisted and in the end they replaced the motherboard and some kind of audio board.
The work order lists MAIN_BD._MODULE and AUDIO_BD as having been replaced. This change did nothing to fix the sound though so I find it very hard to belive that ASUS was genuinly unaware of the problem before you reported it.

All in all I think ASUS have been lying too all of us, trying to act like there is no problem! I would have hoped they had used the time too fix it but from lexee's mail conversation it looks like it is a hardware design problem, so it doesn't look likely that there will ever be a fix.

So my question (to ASUS, I'm not accusing you ProPortable) is how do you intend to compensate us for this lack of functionality? Not being able to ouput stereo sound is not really a small issue on a multimedia laptop!

The workaround proposed has been reported earlier on this and other boards and it will help but it does not work with all programs. So it is not a satisfactory solution.

The workaround works by setting the computer in surround mode and only using the rear channels. ProPortable what you are describing is to use the optical S/PDIF output and have an external D/A converter do the actual sound output. This will of course produce good audio since the soundcard in the laptop is only forwarding the bitstream. This is not an option for most people though since A. most people do not have an amplifier with S/PDIF in and B. it is not very convenient to have an fiberoptic, not very flexible, cable going out of the front port.

The problem we have has nothing to do with surround sound though, we only use it as a way to bypass the crappy front port. The prefered method would be to use the computer in stereo mode and have it produce good sound but since that is broken we can't!

ProPortable are you saying that the W1 is also unable too produce good stereo sound? Have you actually tried to use the W2V in stereo mode with analog output, not optical TOSlink, and have fine audio?

 

The W1 has very good stereo sound through headphones ... avg speakers though.

The W2 has poor sound through headphones but very good sound through the speakers.

 

haha.... shoot Asus .... there are many days I'd be on that same boat. In fact, if they told me tomorrow to basically abandon this notebook and focus on the next model...... I'd be the first one to pick them off one by one.....

Lets try this..... first... no, the W1 is a great machine, the problem is.. it's got the SAME speakers as the W1, just a newer chipset which Asus says is where they're focusing on. The bios update did send the lows to the sub in the situations I've seen, which should take care of most people's issues........... I just don't like how those speakers still aren't adjustable like they used to be on the W1 to increase the lows or the mids/highs/ independantly of each other.... but that's not a big deal.

Um...I've tried headphones, but because I'm lucky enough not to have to be quiet and because I have very good speakers..... I try not to use them. Using the headphones I used for my ipod at the gym would and should always be so-so on any notebook....... but I also don't have a pair of quality studio headphones to compare them with anymore.

... with that said, I do have a pair of crappy old Boston stereo speakers I have tried to output to.... sound isn't as good as my klipsch, but it does sound about the same as my w3 when plugged into them.

The one set of klipsch I have plug in through an analog mini-rca...... and when they are connected that way you just get half the sound going to the lefts and half going to the rights........... basically the same thing that originally happened on the W2 internally.......... but that's what I would expect on an output since if you're not going a digital out, the headphone jack is going to produce only stereo.

 

Yeah but the problem is that when you have a stereo source, like an mp3 file, you will not get the full stereo sound on the analog output jack since the W2 has filtered out the bass. Acually from the frequency response curves it looks like it filters out the highs also.

You should be able to select a 2 channel configuration and have full stereo sound but this mode is broken in the current hardware/bios/driver.

 

ooooooooooooooooooh.. Ok, now we're getting somewhere. When I output even an mp3 in stereo - through my 5.1 set - it does seperate it correctly, but i'm outputting 5.1 --- so i'm going to get stereo left through two speakers and stereo right through two speakers and the lows through the sub.. i think the center just stays silent.

 

Right! So if you disconnect the center/sub and rear surround from the W2 and only leave the front right and left plugged in you should get the same effect as when you have an 2 channel speaker system connected.

 

Right...... but I believe there is a way around that all by itself...... are you changing the output to 2 channel only?

 

Yep, the problem is that the 2 channel mode uses only the front speaker output which has the bad frequency response curve. Probably because it is still routing the bass to the nonexistant subwoofer.

The best sound I can get with my 2 speaker setup is to use the workaround described above and set the laptop to 4 channel mode and plug my stereo speakers in as the rear channels. The problem with that solution is that not all program output on the rear channels, for example musicmatch jukebox doesn't and the windows system sounds doesn't.

 

Another example of the software that doesn't produce rear channel outputs (even when you switch to 4Ch or 6Ch), is our highly praised USA Media Center, Live TV option. When you watch TV you get front channels only. Another example is the de-facto tool for editing raw sound wave files - Adobe Audition, former Cool Edit Pro.

And in fact I don't blame them for not producing the rears. After all, CD Audio as well as TV sound are a 2-channel audio source - just left and right. There are no CDs that have left, right, and then also rear left and rear right. So to produce just a 2 channel output, which in W2V architecture apparently by default falls into the 2 "front" channels - is in fact a "more accurate" thing to do. As Torbjörn already mentioned - this whole surround sound discussion is just about a work-around to get the rear jack working since it doesn't filter anything out like the front jack..

Anyway, until we hear more from Asus we're stuck same place we were in September..

 

I aint complaining about my sound, i am tickled to death with the on-board speakers, and its plenty loud enough with headphones for my tastes.
I love my W2v!!

BDR

 

we're glad to hear that.

 

Sorry to hear that "It is hardware design limitation", guys. That's one time I wish my suspicions hadn't been correct.

It's really a too nice notebook to give up for something like that, though, and as a W3 owner I'm somewhat familiar with (minor) sound issues sound hampering an otherwise good product. I'll (re)suggest the same workaround: A USB soundcard. They're tiny, dirt cheap, and not too impractical. Should serve you well for all your 2-channel needs.

 

But you've got to admit that it REALLY sucks having a $24 usb sound card being an UPGRADE on a $2700US laptop. Actually I don't know about anyone else but I find that impossible to swallow. Fit for purpose refunds spring to mind.....

Is anyone else having issues with background buzzing/hissing at low volumes, clicking/distortion from the in built speakers and certain channels of audio (eg music on some dvd's) going missing completely? If not I think I might have a warantee issue as well as the on going issues everyone else is experiencing.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

yes, i do have the same issues, too.

btw, Torbjörn thank you for your excellent explanations.

 

Aside from noise in the video channel, which you can get rid of by muting video channel, mine makes hissing and high pitch alternating sound when running on battery power only. The sound disappears when cpu goes to 100%. I would think most people without speedfan probably won't notice this, as the fan would obscure the sound. But with speedfan and otherwise completely quiet notebook you can definitely hear it. Thank goodness at least it's absolutely quiet on AC power.

 

I received my W2 yesterday and also have the sound problems. One thing I noticed that in the Audio & Sond Control Panel, it lists the default sound card as 'rear speaker out'.

I have it set to 2 Ch.

This seems very odd to me. It also brings up another hypothesis. If Asus really are outputting the rear channels through the fronts, they may have applied a Dolby Surround filter to it, hence the rolled off bass and highs.

Cheers

Steve

 

...I'm glad that the problem is finally getting understood. I first complained about it to ASUS in August 2005. Directly and via the ASUS support forum It is outrageous that they deny knowing about the issue and are only now first acknowledging it, and then only indirectly via Justin. No offence to you Justin...
It is this issue that brought me to the (excellent) 'notebookreview' forum in the first place as the ASUS support forum seems as dead as a doornail and I had to look further for a solution!

Yes, the onboard speakers work just dandy for a laptop.
Yes, the 5.1 output works fine as well.
BUT, getting an unfiltered 2 channel output from this laptop for playing regular 2 channel music to connect to a regular 2 channel amp is just not possible. The 4 channel setup on the W2V and just using the rear channel output for stereo output is a workaround and better than nothing but it is audibly (and per definition) not the complete stereo signal contained on my CD or mp3's.

So, I'll be very interested to hear what if anything happens next. Another period of deafening silence?

One of the reasons I bought this machine to function in my livingroom as elegant multimediacenter (when I'm not on the road), but it will not work properly with a 2 channel stereo system without using up the pc card slot with a external sound card. I think this is not too much to expect.

 

I hear you and it's for that reason that I still think this is probably the best laptop out there even with this issue and I'm sure you'll agree.

Considering this is a "media center" laptop and considering the quality of the onboard audio.... if you're outputting to only some stereo speakers, it's almost a waste. I don't and won't write that off, but for me and most of the people buying a system like this really wouldn't hook them up to anything less. When they want to talk about "audiophile level sound".... I rarely hear those types of people wanting only 2 channel audio either..... So I think for 90% of W2vb owners, this is exactly what they want and they shouldn't be scared off unless they plan on using headphones all the time which is something I think a system like this should never really see anyway..... It's too big not to use a nice speaker set while at home and it's also too big to really be carrying with you on a plane or a subway.... so keeping the sound to yourself shouldn't be a problem there...

The important things are:
1. the onboard speakers now work how they should
2. outputting to 5.1 speakers work as expected.....

But yes, Asus knows what's up and is trying to do what they can... some of it is apparently a hardware issue, but any part of it that's still a software issue they are looking into.

 

I would guess that the vast majority of people who buy a machine like this are business / soho users that actually want music in the background whilst they work.

This is my setup and at a guess quite indicative of most users. I know my biz partner and graphic designer friend have very similar setup's, laptop (maybe + big screen) + nice sound system. I don't think you spend this sort of money for a machine to playback 5.1, where are you going to put the center channel ?

 

You don't spend that kind of money to playback 5.1 sound? You don't? I would think that you don't go and buy a $700 laptop and pay $400 for speakers....... I would assume someone who is buying the laptop for it's quality and the good sound that is built into the laptop......... would want the best speakers they could afford.

I would venture to say that you have decent speakers, but they don't look like any speaker setup I've seen for a computer and if you're running an analog cable to that amp under the desk to power them, I know you're not going to get great sound with the setup even though it may be very loud. Just like you found an old websters dictionary to put your laptop on (not the best idea for circulation by the way)... you could certainly find a place for the center channel. Anyone who bought this for the media center side or for the graphics side... certainly has 5.1's and will have a place to put them.

I appreciate your oldschool mentality with the external keyboard.... that's gotta be 15 years old! $15 will buy you a nice slim, black, usb model at best buy. Save that one to defend yourself if your place is ever broken into!

By the way is that a Logitech Bluetooth mouse I see?

 

Hi Justin. Just a few questions about this ongoing audio issue.

1. You say the speakers are now functioning as they should. When did this happen? What update do we need to get them working?

2. I've grumbled about it plenty of times but never actually got to the bottom of a couple of other problems. I've got a kind of background rustle/buzz/interference type noise that coincides with sound output. I'm pretty sure it's there with the built in speakers as well as with the headphones but it's most noticable when using headphones. Others have said they experience the same thing too. Any ideas what's causing this and what I can do about it? It's particularly noticable at lower volumes too but seems to be there all the time.

3. The speakers seem to buzz or click at times. Maybe something is just loose? Overall the sound quality from the built in speakers is excellent but with some sounds this annoying distortion appears even at fairly low volumes. The Windows boot sound is a perfect example of a sound that does this badly. Actually listening to music right now on the built in speakers I'm pretty sure this is just a resonant frequency issue with something that's loose around the speakers. How hard do you think it would be to access around the speakers to check for anything loose?

Thanks for all your ongoing efforts on this issue. Hopefully we'll actually get it resolved soon.

 

1. There was a bios update that did it for me and others... make sure you're up to date.

2. You shouldn't have any buzz or anything that sounds like interference unless the audio you're outputting is of a poor quality and/or you're pumping it out to unamplified speakers. Most if not all of the problems these guys have seen have been basically pinned down to 2 channel, stereo speakers powered via an analog out cable.

3. Again, unless you've got a poor mp3 file or something, you should not get that

 

1. I'll double check that. Thanks for the tip.

2. This happens from a wide variety of sources including brand new, full commercial DVD's. So I'm pretty sure it's not the source. If I play with the levels in the volume control I can make it better or worse but it's there all the time.

3. This problem seems to be more of a rattle associated with certain frequencies. As a sound passes through different frequencies it comes and goes.

Thanks again for the tips.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

I my self fan of ASUS, but it seems sound problem is getting much better and better! I bet this is a hardware issue(not even bios). Had it been a driver or Bios issue ASUS would have done it already.

On top of the problem, acting as if they never heard about this, and ridiculing Customers is really absurd. How customers want to use the output is upto them. I had similar experince with sound with one of the ABIT P4 top of the line (at that time) Motherboard IC7 Max (almost 3years ago). It used to have problems with MIC and Line-out. Initially denied, later Half-Acknowledged. It was caused by Hardware design problem, interference from Video, and PCI bus directly affect the Audio. Initially they blamed RealTek, but same chip used by several MB without any problem. Later for the people who sent in their MBs, they just added some filters in output stage to filter out some frequencies, but it hardly helped. The MB even killed some sound cards. They kept selling it like that as no one really went to court.

If anyone cares you can check this thread
http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=12382
That is my last ABIT board, after that I never used/recommended a ABIT board for any of my company PCs or friends PCs.

After trying couple of those boards ( I upgraded from AX4GE Max board that time), I finally settled for ASUS P4P800 which I really love. Stable, Excellent OCer( see my sig, My 2.4 can actually do 3.3Ghz on AIR on this board, but left it at 3Ghz).

Unfortunately I am seeing same pattern from ASUS, which is verybad. ASUS makes very good quality products, and this particular model problem should not stop anyone from buying ASUS products. Some times unforeseen problems can comeup, and ASUS has to accept responsibility and do the necessary things gracefully.

Someone may ask why don't you use Digital and all that, the point is when we goto office, or when you are some where out( That is why we buy laptops), mostlikely you are going to use Headphones, not 30 pound Digital receiver and 100 pound home entertainment system.

Even in my desktop I use LCD speaker to watch/listen to news, or use my nice Titanium headset, only when I play DVDs and loud music I use my Digital out( I use Optical) connected to my Onkyo 6.1 Receiver with Polk towers which gives excellent sound.

IMHO, I do not think it is going to solved by Bios or Driver, unless ASUS steps up to plate and replace MBs or necessary modules.

I would suggest everyone contact ASUS give them this thread telling them this a common problem that needs to be addressed. Hope, problem will be solved soon.

 

Dude (PROPortable guy). I'm not sure if you're trying to be helpful or not.

Basically I'm commenting that analog 2ch output aka most basic of requirements does not cut the mustard. If I'm listening through my $xxx Senns it sucks. Period. Full stop. I don't want/need to listen to 5.1 and I've never seen anyone in an office environment need 5.1 either. So sure some people want 5.1, all I want is good quality 2ch sound from my $6kNZD laptop..

The fact that yes I have an old school keyboard is irrelevant and more has to do with my entire office furniture and components are in shipping as I've just moved to Canada and the whole reason for buying this laptop in the first place.

Analog v Digital interconnects between amp and source, well, they shouldn't make too much of a difference (just in terms of clarity), what makes a difference is that the source in this case has bugger all bass response. Regardless of whether it's through sennheisers, AV amp, Klipsch powered satellite system yadda yadda. My girlfriend does have a point

"Why do you want to buy this $xxx sound card when you paid $yyyyy for the laptop???"

The machine is an awesome piece of hardware, it's just flawed in a way that really bugs me. Oh and 5400rpm drive from the factory ?? Why with everything else did they put a slow HDD in it ? ... Made sure I bought it with a 7200rpm drive.

I knew it when I bought it having read the forums, but still it is a PITA and would great if it could be fixed. I'm not downing on you or Asus, or anyone else. Fact is I've had everyone who's seen the machine drool non stop, even my biz partner who is a hardened powerbook 17" user.

Happy Holidays !
R

 

of course I'm trying to be helpful... that's my role! I'm =just saying the keyboard is oldschool and "cool" in my book!

well 5400 vs 7200 is a BIG upgrade, but they come as they come and either way it's a good laptop... no?

 

Ubermonkey,
yes your girlfriend does have a point! In fact I don't even care to mention to my wife that I it looks like I have to fork out for an extra soundcard just to get some half decent signal to our quite high-end 2 channel hifi system. 2 channel, yes stereo, that's nothing to sniff at Justin, really! Given the fact that 99% of music recordings available are recorded in lowly stereo, a perfectly good setup I would say

Finally, I don't doubt your intention to be helpful, Justin. I really hope you did get through to them on this issue. I just wish that those in a position to do something about the problem took the same attitude and not just ignore the feedback from their customers. :asus:

 

Excuse me, but I think I am missing something here......the latest bios driver (On the Asus site) is 0206A and I've been running that since juli 2005...... :hardfind:

 

I agree with BarnOwl... I use the same BIOS version and ASUS site doesn't have a newer one, latest update: W2V Mobile Theater User's Manual for Simplified Chinese Edition (C1897) - 2005/09/16

 

I have saved the bios for you, and attached it here.
Version 0207.
I had to rename the file to pdf, to be allowed to attach it, due to size restriction, for zip files, in the forum.
So just rename it to 207.zip, then extract it, and it's ready to flash.
I doubt it fixes any audio issues though.

 

Tnx for the file Speedy.....

I cannot see any difference so far. what are the fixes from 2.06 and where does it come from? (As it is not available on the Asus site)

 

Well, true audiophiles are still into stereo, 2 channel rigs. I've got a pair of Martin Logan Vantages with a nice Conrad Johnson tube amp, and properly implemented 2 channel still beats out multi channel in my mind. The soundstage is much more realistic. For special effects and home theater maybe not, but for music, stereo is still the way to go.

The w2 is a sleek, simple design. and lends itself to a top channel stereo setup. I've been off the board for a while, enjoying my laptop, but I'm finally going to be traveling with it, and really wanted to get the sound issue resolved. It's the same thing with mine.. missing lows and highs in 2 channel headphones or 2 channel speakers. I'm disappointed to see that there isn't a solution yet.

 

I have to agree 2 channel stereo is more important to me than 5.1. i have the w2v and a top of the like desktop pc and even my desktop is just running a nice 2 channel setup. I save the 5.1 for my home theatre. music to me sounds best in stereo. ill be honest i dont even use the tv tuner or the mce features of my laptop i just use it cause its a beautiful machine i could care less if its a DVR thats a useless function of a laptop i think just an added bonus. i have a real home theatre PC for that. but anyways just my 2 cents.

 

Hello, and happy new year!

Hope I'm not out of topic.

I own a W2 ( Pm 760, 1GB, 100 GB, X700 128MB, UJ-845S...)
I had a look at the Vista Beta 2 (build 5231).
I installed the sound manager that came with my unit
under XP.

It seems that the Sound manager can "manipulate" all
possible speaker "setups".

How could we "exploit" that, in a near future,
if I'm not wrong or missing something ?

J.