Philips PSC60417 Release Note page 3

returns, and this approach no longer improves sound quality in
a meaningful way.
Most surprisingly, this traditional view of sound card
functionality has not attempted to address or compensate for the
loss of data in MP3 files. Clearly, the MP3 format (including the
new mp3Pro format) will continue to play a major (if not the
central role) in digital music for years to come. Add to this the
new standards evolving in pricing, ease-of-use and the net
effect of the listening experience in general, and you have a
market in which consumer sophistication and expectations
have outpaced product innovation.
Improving PC sound is no longer a matter of simply optimizing
the sound card itself – it's a matter of re-defining the listening
experience associated with a personal computer. Sound card
manufacturers need to get out from under the hood of the
car, as it were, and consider where the car is going.
Consumers bring many more variables to the decision
purchase mix vs. vertical markets, each of which must be
addressed. These are:
1. Ease-of-use
2. Reproduced sound quality, especially as it relates to
MP3 files
3. Price
4. Input types
5. Output variables
6. Environment
Clearly, managing all of these variables is difficult. Philips
Electronics has devoted one of its research and development
facilities to this challenge. Located in Tempe, Arizona, the
Philips Audio Lab is a centerpiece to the development of
sound products for the personal computer and digital home
marketplace. One of the latest innovations from those
development efforts are new sound card products based on
the concept of Holistic Sound Management, which is described
below.
New Approaches.
To achieve real innovation – or more specifically, audible
sound differentiation – and put the productivity-oriented
personal computer on a par with home entertainment or
Philips Electronics White Paper
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