Test Results
First lets look at the Winamp results. We took a play list that contained varied musical styles and was about an hour in length and allowed it to play with no other processes except for the system processes running (16 in total). So lets see how these two cards performed.
| Sound Card |
Average CPU Usage |
| VIA VT8233 |
0-3% |
| Blue Tango Classic |
8-10% |
We can see from this test that the Blue Tango Classic has a higher CPU usage than the integrated CODEC that comes with the laptop. However even at 10% CPU usage there is very little to worry about as basically all CPU's can easily handle this without needing to expend an more CPU. Now lets look at something a little more challenging, DivX video and audio.
The DivX video we are testing with uses 48kHz MP3 audio and DivX video. We are playing a twenty minute clip of 720*480 video, so lets see how the CPU usage is of the sound card. We do this by seeing the CPU usage of the clip and taking that away from the CPU usage of the system over that time frame.
| Sound Card |
Average CPU Usage |
| VIA VT8233 |
0% |
| Blue Tango Classic |
3% |
We see that in this test the sound card doesn't do much to the CPU usage. The Blue Tango is slightly higher in the way of CPU usage, but isn't too much of a problem.
Our last video test involves a DVD, in our case a music video DVD. We will play a five minute video using 5.1 Dolby Digital audio and do the same as our DivX video test. Lets see the results.
| Sound Card |
Average CPU Usage |
| VIA VT8233 |
1% |
| Blue Tango Classic |
13% |
Here we see the same results continue, as the Bluetooth enabled sound card has a significantly higher CPU usage than the integrated card. In this case the usage while watching the video was 18% for the VIA card and 30% for the Blue Tango system.
We see that the Blue Tango adds to overall system usage, but does it cut down the frame rate in games, lets look at Half Life 2 to see. The tests were run at 640*480 and 1024*768.
| Sound Card |
640*480 |
1024*768 |
| VIA VT8233 |
51.65 |
29.79 |
| Blue Tango Classic |
49.10 |
29.29 |
Here we see that at a lower resolution that the VIA chipset is 5% faster here, where the video card is not the limiting factor in the results, at least as much. When we move to a higher resolution, the video card really becomes a limiting factor as both cards perform about the same at 30fps on average.
Conclusion
We've taken a look at this sound card what can we conclude?
First the theory behind this sound card is very interesting, that of wireless audio from a computer to a speaker system in another room. The downside to this is that it is a class II Bluetooth device, which suffers from short range for the signal, 12' isn't really that great for a wireless device. Another thing I would have liked is to see 5.1 audio transmission but that would be too high a bit rate for a Bluetooth device at the moment.
Installation was basically one of the easiest I've seen, as it is really plug and play. Of course this is limited to the supported operating systems but that really isn't too much of a problem. The packaging of the product was simple but effective. However the front of the box did make me laugh with the line, "Dances with Bluetooth" but apart from that it was fine.
Performance was pretty poor as this seemed to be a completely software solution in all its actions. The higher CPU usage while listening to music, watching DVD's or watching DivX video was rather disappointing but not a major loss for a laptop or desktop user as those are most likely 'free' CPU cycles. Gaming isn't something I'd recommend for this card as it does diminish the average frame rate of most games at lower resolutions where the video card isn't too much of an issue.
Price is another thing to look at, as it comes in at about at the time of writing. For this price you could get either a higher quality sound card for your computer or laptop, or a MP3 player with a couple of GB's of storage. However these other options do have their limitations which makes the Blue Tango somewhat of a unique device.
Good Points
- Wireless audio to your stereo
- Very easy installation
- Unique device
- Space saving devices
Bad Points
- Uses a fair amount of CPU time
- High price for a sound card
- Only stereo sound
- Short range
Final Words
This sound card has some very useful features for those of you with a stereo in your house and a laptop in another location, as it does this very well. Unfortunately this comes at the cost of some range and CPU usage which takes it out of the running as a recommended product, but still worth considering if these don't bother you.
If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
HOME
