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 $150
(US) 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.
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