Wolfson enables HD Audio revolution in PC and laptop market

Peter Frith, Chief Technology Officer at Wolfson Microelectronics, said: “The PC audio space demands a transformation. For too long, PC audio quality has been overlooked, and consumers have had to accept lower levels of audio quality in their computing devices. With our new HD Audio product line, we can now deliver professional audio quality to PCs and laptops that matches the quality of the video and imaging.”

Wolfson’s innovative new multi-channel HD Audio devices, the WM8850 and WM8860 deliver the best audio experience available in the PC market, enabling consumers, as well as music industry professionals, including producers, musicians and DJs, to experience audio through their PC or laptop as never before. Creating, producing and listening to music through a Wolfson HD Audio-enabled PC allows the user to experience faithful rendering of music, and an immersive soundstage where they can hear each individual instrument in isolation, feeling as if the music is being performed live in front of them.

Peter Frith added: “PCs and laptops are fast becoming the centre of converged home entertainment systems, where multimedia content, especially music and video, is consumed and created in increasing amounts and in new ways. With our new HD Audio products, combined with our 25 years experience operating in the high performance audio markets, Wolfson is helping enable the ultimate audio experience in the next generation of products.”

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Wolfson’s HD Audio WM8850 and WM8860 both deliver exceptional audio performance, excellent signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and total harmonic distortion (THD) performance, while also enabling a smaller PCB area, reduced bill of materials (BOM) and significantly lower power consumption.

Both devices are fully compatible with the industry-standard High Definition Audio interface and compliant with Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). The WM8850 features three high performance stereo digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) to enable six channels of HD Audio, ideal for 5.1 surround sound multichannel audio systems, while the WM8860 incorporates two high performance stereo DACs to enable four channels of high definition audio.The accompanying software enables advanced use cases, low power operation, and builds upon the Windows 7 audio framework, while also supporting Windows Vista, XP and Linux. At the heart is Wolfson’s Audio Studio, which sets a new benchmark in usability and feature set, while embedding the Wolfson SoundStage(tm) effects engine.