Written
: 3/15/2000When the Aureal SQ2500 showed up at The Tech Zone doorsteps, our first reaction was "Wow! What a big box! This must be one huge sound card!" While the box the SQ2500 came in may be big enough for a motherboard, the card itself is the same size as any other sound card, which is to say, very small.
The SQ2500 represents Aureal's entry into the retail sound card market. Before this, Aureal sold their sound chips to other vendors, like Diamond, to make into sound cards. However, with the merger of Diamond and S3, the future of Aureal was in doubt, since S3 once made their own sound chip and may want to get back into that market using the Diamond Monster Sound brand. This would cut off a major customer for Aureal.
As it turns out Diamond is staying in the sound card market, but it's doubtful they will be selling sound cards with Aureal chips in them because Diamond entered into a strategic alliance with ESS Technology. Diamond Multimedia will become the exclusive retail provider of ESS-based audio solutions in the Western Hemisphere. A statement from the press release states "this partnership will be a key component in enabling Diamond to provide top-of-the-line, high-quality 3D audio solutions under its Monster Sound and Sonic Impact brands". Since Diamond only sells Monster Sound and Sonic Impact, this pretty much leave no room for an Aureal sound card in the line up.
What Aureal did is what 3dfx is doing, selling their products directly to the consumer under their own brand name. The first two products are call the Vortex SQ1500 and the Vortex2 SQ2500. The new sound cards are sold under the Aureal brand name by I/OMagic. We took a look at the top of the line SQ2500.