September 1998

Crystal Computer Corporation
1580 Oakland Road
San Jose, CA 95131-2441
Ph: 800-275-4200
Web site: www.crystalcomputer.com

Price: $149.99

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 5
Documentation: 5
Features: 4.5
GUI: N/A
Overall: A-

Last March, in this magazine’s CC: column, we criticized sound card manufacturers for shipping sound cards without full-duplex drivers. Soon after the column appeared, we received a call from the Crystal Computer Corporation, and were told they shipped nothing but full-duplex drivers with their sound cards. We agreed to test the Crystalizer TidalWave 128. We were eager to see whether manufacturer-supplied full-duplex drivers would make sound card installation simpler, even pleasurable (if only by contrast).

INSTALLATION
Installing the Crystal TidalWave 128 was everything plug-and-play claims to be. It was effortless. It was fast.

We installed the card on a 16-bit ISA expansion slot on a computer with a 266-MHz Pentium II processor and 64-Megs of RAM running under Windows 95. When we turned on the computer, the plug-and-play feature detected the new hardware and prompted us for a disk containing the driver information.

We inserted the CD that accompanied the sound card, and we browsed the CD for the proper driver. We noticed that there were installation files for Windows 95 and Windows NT in several languages, as well as files for Win 3.1 and OS/2. We had to insert the Windows 95 CD to complete the installation, but that was the most complicated part of the process. In all, the installation on the Windows 95 machine took about 10 minutes.

DOCUMENTATION
As Crystal readily admits, the documentation is written for inexperienced PC users. They’re not kidding. The manual is almost painfully basic. It takes five pages and five screen shots to show the user how to get into the control panel in Windows 95.

The Windows NT section also leaves nothing to the imagination. We wondered if a person who needed to be shown the Start Button in Windows 95 would actually feel comfortable enough to remove the computer’s cover and explore its interior.

To be fair, the manual accomplishes its purpose: It makes absolutely sure the installer is never confused. The manual also contains extensive appendices including a full glossary of terms, a troubleshooting guide, general MIDI and MT-32 instrument sounds, and lists of all the installed files and where they go for all four supported operating systems.

FEATURES

• Wavetable multimedia controller.
• MIDI-compliance (with 128 Philharmonic Instrumental and 47 Melodic Percussion sounds).
• Roland MPU-401 emulation.
• Wavetable Stereo Synthesizer with 32 simultaneous voice polyphony.
• Compatibility with Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro.
• Microsoft Direct Sound and Direct Sound 3D.
• Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, and OS/2 installation drivers with full-duplex support.
• Modem telephone answering device (TAD) input port.
• CD audio input port.
• DVD MPEG input port.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
We actually installed two Crystalizer TidalWave 128 sound cards on different computers running Windows 95. We did this so we could make a call using Microsoft NetMeeting and test the full-duplex features of the soundcard.

We plugged in our microphones and headsets and placed a call over the company LAN. At first, we couldn’t hear each other when we spoke at the same time, but we attributed the difficulty to our having neglected to modify the settings for NetMeeting. After we enabled full-duplex audio in NetMeeting, we conversed, making a special point of talking at the same time. We were able to hear each other simultaneously, which indicated the full-duplex drivers had been installed correctly. There was still latency in the voice, but the latency was due to limitations in the NetMeeting program itself.

In addition to providing full-duplex drivers, TidalWave 128 can take sound directly from a DVD drive. One other interesting piece of information about the sound card: We purchased a half dozen IBM Aptiva computers a few weeks back. When we checked the device settings on the computers in the Control Panel, we realized they all had the Crystalizer TidalWave 128 already installed.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
About the only thing the manufacturer could do to improve the Crystalizer TidalWave 128 is bundle it with some software such as NetMeeting, which is free. Crystal also could have bundled it with a microphone to make it a more complete package. Otherwise, this is a very good package, the full-duplex drivers giving it an important advantage with respect to many other sound cards.

CONCLUSION
The full-duplex drivers for the Crystalizer TidalWave 128 worked fine, right from the start. So, we commend Crystal. They met the challenge we issued back in March. Now we are just waiting for other sound card manufacturers to include full-duplex drivers with their sound cards. Full-duplex is what people want. It is what the Internet telephony industry needs if it is ever going to appeal to users.