• PII 300 MHz, 512K cache
• 64 meg of SDRAM
• Quantum Ultra DMA 4.3 gig
• STB Velocity 128 3d 4 meg
• Orchid Righteous 3d 2
• JAZZ 3d Speaker System front
• Hitachi Speaker System rear
• Viewsonic G790 19
• Quickshot Masterpilot
• TM F22 Pro and TQS

In May of this year we reviewed the TB Montego, awarding this PCI based sound board an Editors Choice for quality, features, and ease of installation. In this review we look at TBs remaining ISA based board, the Malibu Surround 64.

The Malibu is perhaps best compared to the Daytona PCI, since like the Daytona it supports SRS spatialization, but does not accelerate Microsoft's DirectSound3D or Aureal's A3D Interactive algorithms. However, unlike the Daytona, the Malibu doesn't accelerate Direct- Sound. This raises the question as to why anyone would choose the Malibu over the Daytona or Montego? The price difference is nominal, and we've already given the Editors Choice to the Montego.

Actually, there might be one reason to select this board: if all your PCI slots are full! I installed the Malibu into an ISA slot in my ASUS LX mainboard, and it installed and ran without incident. Be aware, however, that if you need sound in a real-mode DOS session you may find some challenges.

As with the Montego, sound quality is better than average. Wavetable synthesis is provided by a 32-voice Kurzweil synth and 4MB of waveform samples in ROM. Like the AWE 64, Turtle Beach uses oftware synthesis to generate the other a total of 64 voices. TB, however, uses a utility called VSL (Voyetra Synth Layering) to intercept MIDI calls and map them to both the hardware and the software synth. The effect works, and Turtle Beach describes it like this:

Although many sound cards have 64 voices, most MIDI files and games use no more than 32 voices, leaving the other 32 voices unused! The Malibu's VSL driver lets you take advantage of ALL 64 voices.

Pro musicians layer voices on top of each other to create a fuller sound. The Malibu's VSL driver takes advantage of this same pro technique, layering the second 32 voices over the first for a rich, full sound. When a single voice is played, the VSL driver actually triggers two voices to create an incredibly full and spacious audio experience, just like the pros!

Click to continue . . .

There is no provision on the Malibu for adding sample memory or a wavetable daughterboard, but the board does host an S/PDIF output. You'll also find the standard 1/8-inch jacks for mic input, stereo line-level input, and stereo line-level output, plus a MIDI/joystick port.

For the audiophiles out there, surround sound is via Windows Sound System APIs and includes a hardware implementation of SRS Laboratories' 3-D- spatialization algorithm. Mallibu supports full-duplex audio but generates digital output at 44.1 kHz, so that you can't go directly to a 48-kHz DAT tape.

MIDI output is where the Malibu falls short. Compared to the Montego or Diamonds new boards, sounds are not as rich and feel artificial. Furthermore, percussion sometimes drowned out other instruments.

Most gamers will never use the MIDI output, having probably invested in higher end devices for that kind of thing. If you need to replace an old ISA board or if your PCI slots are occupied, the Malibu could still be a good option. I ran the Malibu with a variety of last years sims as well as with Microsoft CFS beta and Falcon 4 beta without incident.

Street Price: $79 US.