Famed for such respectable audio solutions as the Monster Sound series, Diamond Multimedia is back in the sound card business. What it brings to the table is something most users haven't seen since the demise of the nForce2 chipset series: real-time Dolby Digital encoding, allowing multi-channel system sounds to be fed directly from the audio device to amplifier via a single digital cable, courtesy Dolby Digital Live.

Though Dolby Digital Live is an impressive asset, few products can survive on one key feature alone. However, the XtremeSound 7.1 DDL promises to deliver all the benefits you'd expect from a discrete sound card, such as reduced system overhead, improved game performance, and improved sound quality, at a reasonable price. Does it make good on those promises?