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Philips Electronics White Paper 
Page 4 of 9 
powerful game-focused systems, a new way of thinking about 
PC sound was required. 
Managing a wide range of variables is called Holistic Sound 
Management
. While MP3 is important, there is still a 
surprisingly large number of digital file formats, each with its 
own unique advantages and disadvantages. There are an 
infinite number of speaker and headphone combinations. And, 
whatever the speaker arrangement, the nature of the room 
plays an important role. 
 
Holistic Sound Management. 
 
Recently, Philips announced the availability of innovative PC 
sound technology capable of dramatically improving the sound 
quality of personal computers. This technology is now available 
to personal computer OEMs as well as current PC owners, 
and was developed to address new requirements of fast-
growing PC entertainment applications. 
 
The new Philips technology is called Sound Agent 2. Sound 
Agent 2 uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze sound along 
two dimensions: the source of sound, which can be any source 
type, and the room or headphones where the sound is going 
to be played. Combining input and output with the sound card 
itself results in high-quality total holistic sound optimization.  
 
Importantly, the end-user also has a means of easily identifying 
and manipulating variables that affect sound quality in context 
of their particular listening experience. So, while Sound Agent 
2 will automatically optimize sound quality along the two 
dimensions described above, the user also has the option of 
tweaking and adjusting sound to suit his or her unique needs – 
via an easy to use graphical user interface. 
 
Sound Agent 2 performs real time logic functionality that 
determines where audio streams are coming from and where 
they are going at any given moment. This control center 
“brain” acts as a media traffic cop – analyzing, processing and 
directing multiple audio streams independently and 
simultaneously. The end result is fully optimized PC audio 
fidelity, in any listening environment, and with any equipment. 
 
Sound Agent 2, and the underlying Intelligent Media Processing 
(IMP) technology, is available to PC users bundled with two 
new Philips retail sound cards, the Dynamic Edge 4.1 with 
quad surround, and the Sonic Edge 5.1 with 5.1 Channel