Dell gets serious about sound with THX

From...

by Tom Mainelli

(IDG) LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Audiophiles, listen up: Dell wants you to hear its new THX-certified Dimension desktops, announced Tuesday here at Comdex.

Starting next week, Dell will offer two Dimension Pentium III-based 4100 systems with the THX certification, says David Bowes, Dell's marketing manager for information appliances. The company will also soon ship a Pentium 4 system with the THX certification, he says. (Intel announced Tuesday it plans to launch the Pentium 4 on November 20.)

What is THX? It's a company started by Star Wars creator George Lucas to promote better sound quality in theaters and home theaters, and now the company is spreading into PC multimedia sound and video. To receive THX certification, products must meet certain standards in sound performance, user interface, and construction quality. The name is based on Lucas's first movie: THX 1138.

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To achieve THX-quality performance, Dell offers specially configured systems that Bowes says are the first PCs to ship with THX certification. The systems must contain specific hardware components that meet the standards, including the right sound card, video card, monitor, and speakers. A special set of hardware drivers is also needed, he says.

Dell achieves the correct mix with two Dimension 4100 PCs. The first is an 866-MHz PIII system with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP sound card, GeForce 2 GTX graphics card with 32MB of DDR memory, a 17-inch Trinitron monitor, and the four-piece Altec Lansing THX-Certified ADA885 Dolby Digital speaker set plus subwoofer. The system also includes 128MB of PC-133 SDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, a 12X DVD-ROM drive, and a 56-kilobits-per-second modem, all for $1899.

The second package has a 1-GHz PIII and sells for $2349. In addition to the faster processor, the unit includes a 19-inch Trinitron monitor and 64MB of DDR RAM on the graphics card. The rest of the specifications are the same on both systems.

Visitors to Dell's off-site meeting place were treated Tuesday to repeated viewings of a THX video--often seen in movie theaters--that illustrates the THX sound quality. That quality was apparently high, as listeners gasped and remarked about the sound and video, and nearby onlookers wondered what was causing the wood floors to vibrate.

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More sound from Dell

Dell also announced Tuesday the release of the Dell Audio Receiver. It's a Dell-branded version of the S3 Rio Digital Receiver, and you can plug the unit into an existing stereo or just add speakers. Then you plug it into a phone line and, using home phone-line networking, stream your favorite MP3 audio files from your PC's hard drive to the receiver.

Dell announced the receiver earlier this year, and it's available exclusively through Dell until December 15. Dell customers buying a PC can add the receiver to their order for $249; if they purchase it solo, it sells for $299.

Early reviews of the S3 receiver upon which the Dell unit is based have been favorable.

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