The major selling point of the Sonica is it's support for 5.1 Surround sound, which is a first for the Mac. Surround sound support works with MacOS 10.1 and above, but I did not get to test this myself for my lack of a home theater system. I can't complain about the sound quality though after seeing, or rather hearing, the Sonica in action at M-Audio's MacWorld Expo booth. So, since I'm surround sound deprived, I'll concentrate more on the other aspects of the Sonica. (Note that if you want to play DVD's with 5.1 surround sound you will need a DVD player on your Mac that supports 5.1 surround sound output. The only one available right now is the VLC DVD player. You can get it at M-Audio's website.)

Usage is really quite simple. You plug the device in your USB port, and plug your digital receiver, MiniCD player, or stereo system into the other side using a digital connector or a 1/8 inch analog connector. Those are the basics. Then you can edit several different types of settings in the control panel. TruSurround XT, and TruBass (in OS 9 only TruBass is available.) The Sonica already sounds much better than your old built-in audio controller, but with these different types of settings enabled you can make your music sound even better.

TruSurround XT is a SRS technology which emulates surround sound for stereo systems. Even though it doesn't sound nearly as good as 5.1 surround sound, it does, compared to your old analog stereo connection, make your movies and stereo music sound much better. Another SRS feature is TruBass which gives your bass more richness and depth. You can select your approximate speaker size and adjust the level of the bass. Part of TruSurround XT is also something called Dailog Enhancement which brings out the voices of singers in music, or, where it is most usefull, in movies. The last two settings can be adjusted with a slide bar.

I tested the Sonica with an all-in-one RCA RP-9325 system that has two large stereo speakers and two, so called, surround sound speakers that use a stereo feed. Later I also went back and tested some more on a Panasonic SMPA 01 stereo system that has only two stereo speakers. This makes a difference since when you test the TruSurround sound option the number of speakers affect the feel of the sound.

I played different types of music on both systems and found that tweaking the right settings made a huge difference not only from system to system but also from music to music. Classical music, for example, sounded much better on the Panasonic when all extra options were off, but sounded better on the RCA when the TruBass was on, giving the music a richer feel. For rap the TruBass helped out tremendously on both systems, and for most rock all the options helped out to improve the sound. Sometimes it also varied from song to song. Some rock songs didn't need the TruBass since they sound better when they have more treble, such as songs from Nirvana or Sum41. The bottom line is that tweaking the settings can get you much better results, but not tweaking the settings won't do much harm since the audio coming from the Sonica is already a much higher quality compared to the standard audio controller in your Mac.

The TruSurround option has two major modes: Music and Cinema. After testing the Music mode, I tested the Cinema mode by playing a few movie trailers. TruSurround really made a difference here by producing a feeling of surround sound, especially with sounds moving from one side to the other. The TruBass option really enhanced the sound of explosions, and the Dialog Enhancement didn't really make a big difference but was helpful when the bass was a little too "low".

The Sonica also lets you transfer songs from you computer to your MiniDV player or other digital device. Just connect the MiniCD player to the Sonica using an optical cable, hit play on your audio player and record on you MiniDV. Almost as good as an iPod. Since the Sonica is also very small, just about 3 1/2 inches long, you can take it anywhere in your laptop bag. Perfect for DJ's or even for business presentations. Did I mention it also looks pretty damn cool?

Problems:
Except for the installation freeze, and the fact that you have to plug it out of the USB port and back into the USB port every time you start up, the Sonica really didn't have any serious problems. Also be sure to update to new drivers if you make the switch to MacOS 10.2.

Rating: 9 out of 10 Mac Faces.

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