Smart Volume Managment

Smart Volume Managment (SVM) when enabled tries to keep the volume level at a certain point. For instance when walking around in a first person shooter game your footsteps and enviormental sounds will be louder than without SVM. But when you start shooting your gun, throw a grenade or if something makes a louder noice it will set the silent sounds (like footsteps or a dog barking somewhere in the background) back to normal. SVM will let you hear the footsteps of a sneaky enemy and won't wake your neighbour while engaging in a heavy firefight.

But games aren't the only thing that will gain from SVM. I just recently watched Pride & Prejudice. My X-Fi was obviously set to Entertainment Mode and SVM was enabled. There is a scene where Keira Knightley walks into a room and stands there for a couple seconds before saying something. There is no music playing in that scene, nothing is going on besides one thing. An old clock is ticking while she is just standing there. Now I've listened to this scene a couple times with and without SVM. Without SVM I would have never noticed that clock, with it it's clearly hearable and adds a certain depth to it.

Another great thing about SVM is that it will control your volume levels even in Windows. When browsing the web I usually have some music playing in WinAmp at ~20% volume. Just recently I noticed that when I watch a trailer, a flash movie or anything other that would make any sound WinAmp is automatically making itself barely hearable while the trailer is loud and clear.

You certainly will enjoy hearing all those background sounds in games and movies without having to set the master volume higher.