HT Omega Claro Plus

Specifications

At first glance, the HT Omega Claro Plus might intimidate you with all the ports and little knobs on the card that you know you aren't supposed to bend even though you know you will have a tight fight with your triple graphics card setup in your full tower computer case. Low and behold you will need to have what this sound card offers to get the full experience of all your media devices.

Sample Rate - 192 Kilohertz

Channels - 7.1 (7 speakers and 1 subwoofer)

Audio Rate - 24 bit (High Definition (HD) Sound Quality)

Sound Encoding - Dolby and DTS

Connections - Line in, Mic in, MIDI, Joystick, CD, Auxiliary, SPDIF In and Out (Optical)

Port - PCI

Overview

Many cool things can be said about the HT Omega Claro Plus. The first thing to be stated is that it has passed the Creative SoundBlaster line for best all around. You can check my sound card reviews for information on that. It simply has moved itself about the local retail store market to the consumer that demand a little more in their sound quality and performance.

Many people may know about the two most important specifications in sound quality. These two would be the bit rate annd the sample rate. With a 24 bit rate you are getting HD quality sound. Most TV stations broadcast in 16-bit rate, which was used for standard television and is adequate for most viewing. However, all movies have moved to 24 bit technology and people are enjoying the sound effects. If you like music all CD's are done in 192 kHz or more depending on song sizes. The higher the number the crisper the sound gets.

One thing I really loved hearing about the HT Omega Claro Plus was the "Up-Mix Matrix Technology". This is done with Dolby and DTS encoding technologies. Dolby Logic IIX will turn any stereo or 5.1 channel into a 6.1 or 7.1 ouput channel. DTS NEO:PC turn any 2 channel output from a stereo channel into a 7.1 channel output. Everybody has been looking for an easy way to do this without having to go through heavy encoding, but the technolgy is already built into this sound card.

Some sore spots do happen with this card and you may have heard about them already. The sound switches harshly on the different channels with computer games. This sound card is not really for computer gaming, but it should be better at it than it is. The software for it could be a lot better. Many people have problems with it in operating systems that are not 64 bit for some reason. I believe they need to update it. Then we get to the sound professionals, which believe that it is the worst thing they have ever heard. However, well over 80% love their sound cards and how they are functioning for them.

Price

You can purchase the HT Omega Claro Plus for around $175 from an online retailer like Newegg. You will most likely not find this brand because creative is most popular with stores, but it is a more consumer grade version than the HT manufacturer.

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