Movies and Games on the Rockus 3D

The 3D mode on the Rockus 3D seems to exist more for these two purposes: producing—or at least simulating—a surround sound environment in video games and in movies.

First, when playing games where pitch-perfect sound accuracy isn't as big a deal, the 3D mode can actually shine. While Grand Theft Auto IV sounded a bit thin regardless of which mode I played it in, I found that the simulated surround space in Left 4 Dead 2—a game where spatial recognition can be downright vital—was much better than I expected. The weather effects in the Hard Rain campaign sounded excellent, and I found I was able to locate my teammates and the infected more easily than I could using the Music mode.

Playing Modern Warfare 2, the 3D mode didn't feel quite as impressive as in Left 4 Dead 2, but it still produced a notable improvement in sound quality. Everything in the game felt like it had more body and depth, and it was a little easier to spot enemies than playing in Music mode.

The other big usage for the 3D mode is in watching movies, and here I ran into my first real snag with the Rockus 3D. I'm not sure whom to blame on this one, either, but it goes something like this: to test movie playback I use ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3, and for the majority of my testing I had the Rockus 3D plugged into the optical jack on my motherboard. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, someone (we'll say Realtek) screwed the pooch. Realtek's implementation of Dolby Surround doesn't work and results in a silent movie, while the Xonar DX is able to produce audio perfectly fine. No combination of settings between the Realtek audio (with a digital connection) and ArcSoft worked, while the Xonar had no such issues.

When I was finally able to test movie playback and actually hear the movie, I used Iron Man 2 and routinely switched back and forth between the Music and 3D modes during the attack at the Stark Expo. My findings here essentially echo the experience I had when gaming: Antec's 3Dsst produces a fuller, richer sound and improves the spatial quality of the movie's audio track compared to the basic Music mode. While it was still nowhere near the level of having dedicated satellites, it was at least a marked improvement over just having the basic 2.1 sound. Audiophiles and purists may very well take some issue with this: 3D mode does change the character and quality of the sound of the movie in a very real and obvious way, but that's what the toggle is there for.

My ultimate opinion on simulated surround sound remains essentially unchanged: while I was impressed with what Antec was able to achieve in 3D mode, particularly in Left 4 Dead 2, it's still no replacement for an authentic 5.1 system. That's fair, because it's not entirely intended to be (not the way Bose's Companion 3 and 5 systems grossly attempt to). The idea here is that if you simply don't have the physical space to hook up a surround sound system proper, 3Dsst offers a reasonable alternative and in that respect it's easy to say I'd rather have it than not. Turn it on when you like, and off when you don't—simple.

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