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You know it’s Star Wars season around the world, with JJ Abrams’ helmed Episode VII right around the corner. If you haven’t heard of the Machete order, I suggest you read up on it. Basically, you watch the series as such: Episode IV, V, II, III, and VI. You skip Episode I entirely, it’s not a good movie, unless you think Jar Jar Binks is Supreme Leader Snoke. I think it’s just academic, really, so just skip Episode I and watch it separately.
Oh, but we’re here to review the Devil HDX, right? Star Wars Episode III was my review choice, especially since the opening scene of Anakin and Obi-wan rescuing Chancellor Palpatine is great for testing sound. Comparing the Devil HDX to many other cards, the Devil HDX was quite good, top five at least. Through headphones, the Devil HDX didn’t quite deliver the most detailed sound ever (that would be the Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1), but I had no complaints at all. No, I groaned at every piece of cheesy dialog and shook my head at every utterly horrible scene.
It’s always Godfather season here at Guru3D. Turning our attention to the classic and excellent Godfather Part I, we find the Devil HDX in exceptional form. Every single scene is a masterpiece of dialog, framing, and pacing.
The Devil HDX did not, and could not, disappoint here. I also did quite a bit of Netflix and YouTube to see how the Devil HDX performed with these often low fidelity sources. Not bad, not bad at all with YouTube. The Devil HDX is punishingly detailed, enough to make you click on something else that hopefully has better quality audio.
Netflix was a similar story, not a single problem at all with the sound. I’ve watched many hours with the Devil HDX and it performed flawlessly.
With all sources, the Devil HDX doesn’t brain you with flashy sound. Most of the time, the Devil HDX just sounds like a sound card. It’s really pretty neutral, letting the sound source speak through it. The Devil HDX is also very lively, that is, there’s a quickness to the sound that can be surprising. In live sound, there’s nothing between you and the instruments, and to some extent what an audiophile wants to experience through their multi-kilobuck audio system. With very little trade off, the Devil HDX does that very well.
