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Auzentech AZT-XFPRELUDE Sound Cards
Customer Reviews for AUZEN Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
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Price: $182.99
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Review Summary (152 Reviews): Rating + 4
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Reviewer Product Review
Kalm_Traveler
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
2/6/2010 11:10:20 AM

Rating + 2 don't buy this for digital sound


Pros: When it works, it sounds crystal clear and beautiful. Quality-looking components, very rich analogue sound from the little bit I tested.

Cons: Keep in mind that I may have just received a faulty card, but since day 1 this thing has cut out Dolby Digital Live sound on me quite often. I tried moving PCI slots, new drivers, even a fresh install of a new OS (Windows 7) and nothing would eliminate the problem. Auzentech support also takes quite a while to respond, and the first 3 replies from them were simply informing me that DDL takes a few seconds to initialize (which had nothing to do with my issue). I absolutely can not recommend this card if you're planning on using it primarily for DDL. I made the mistake of thinking they would just release quality drivers and everything would be fine.

Other Thoughts: Again perhaps I simply received a faulty card, but Auzentech has been pretty terrible to work with and since I purchased the card 7/16/2008 I'm sure they won't repair, replace, or even test it.

Lesson: don't put up with second-rate hardware. If it has issues out of the box send it back and buy something else.

All in all, the analogue sound has never died on me so if you're planning on using that and NOT the digital output you should be fine. It even has upgradeable OPAMPs which is a plus if you're into analogue. I never saw the point since all sound coming from a PC is digital in the first place.

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jorge curioso
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
1/17/2010 8:21:46 AM

Rating + 5 Outstanding High End Sound Card


Pros: 5.1 bliss! When playing CD audio over multiple channels (anything more than stereo left and right) you are required to use an 'upmixing' technology. Most home receivers use Dolby Pro logic to accomplish this task. This X-fi based card uses an AMAZING upmixing technology that is a function of the CMSS. This technology is absolutly amazing. You can move the vocals to the center channel! Bass management feature lets you control the crossover frequency to the .1 subwoofer channel as well as an optional 15dB boost. The X-fi Crystallizer is a big plus. Overall the bass managment, 5.1 upmixing and Crystallizer are 3 three things I can not live without. I have an exstensive 24bit DVD-audio collection that sounds incredible on this card!
I would buy another one of these in a heartbeat. P.S. I recommend using the analog out to take full advantage of the chipset on the card.

Cons: Blinking green LED! I had to cover this with tape.

Other Thoughts: I am a speaker builder and also hand make aluminum PC home theater cases. This card and it's unique features are very capable for top quality listening. The 24bit music sounds incredible. Highly recommended!

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Fidler124
Tech Level: average
Ownership: more than 1 year
1/8/2010 1:01:48 PM

Rating + 4 Fantastic Sound Quality!!!


Pros: X-Fi Crystallizer & Virtual 3D Sound for headsets (I Can hear where my enemies are in Battlefield 2). I think Crytek had this card in mind when the created Crysis...

Great Sofware Package with three different modes, (Entertainment, Audio Creation & Gaming).

VERY high quality construction, this card is a joy just to look at. (All solid capacitors and a cooler on the processor).

Cons: Uses Creative's pathetic drivers.

Is know to have Mic issues, mine does.

Front panel audio header is AC'97 not HD.

Other Thoughts: This card is amazing for sound quality, most of us don't use PCI any more in our new gaming systems so it's nothing to toss this card into a free PCI slot. VERY IMPORTANT: If you are going to spend the money to buy THIS fantastic sounding card, spend a tiny bit extra to perchase a (USB headset), unless you want to use your onboard audio for you mic.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Scabies
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/22/2009 9:59:48 PM

Rating + 4 Poor Optical In (5.1)


Pros: Outstanding sound, even from my so-so speakers (an old Creative 5.1 set.) Subtle details in my song collection were now easily noticeable. Can't report much on gaming, though this card is capable of EAX 1/2/3/4/5. Doesn't require an extra power connection (some cards have a floppy power connection, and wont work without it.) Headers for frontside audio. Creative technology paired with higher quality components and a vastly superior workmanship. Digital input and output by either coaxial or TOSLINK (optical) without the need for a breakout box or extra bracket + ribbon cable. Output can be wrapped into a Dolby signal for 5.1 sound on home theater receivers.

Cons: I bought this sound card with one primary objective: 5.1 audio input via optical from my Xbox 360. I researched the current offerings from Auzen, Creative, H|Omega and Asus, and it was reported that this card could do it while having up to date drivers and ongoing support. Turns out, as I suspected, that the tip came from a clueless user; 2.1 "Digital Stereo" works fine over Optical, anything more and you get what sounds like continuous input clipping, and the card wont recognize or decode the signal. Didnt work using bundled drivers, new drivers, or daniel_k drivers on either win7 or winXP. (XP is a bxxxx to install when you don't have a floppy drive... search "install XP from USB," look for USB_Prep8 or some such, cross fingers.)

The search continues for what I need.

Other Thoughts: On the bright side, I had forgotten of Daniel_K's existence, time to dust off the old Audigy 4 Pro to see if I can get that to fly. Unfortunately, he stopped writing drivers/app-packs earlier this year, so if this card ever gets what I need out of it, Auzentech will be the author. Still debating whether or not to return it, because aside from that one point of functionality, its a great device.

for others that might be researching the same thing I was: This card cannot accept a 5.1 signal using the optical-in at the time of this writing. This includes both the PS3 and Xbox 360 optical connections (2.1 Stereo OK.)

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

DrBlog
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/8/2009 11:09:58 PM

Rating + 5 Incredible, but not without frustration


Pros: I have had this card for about two years using a Yamaha HTR-6160 receiver and six Yamaha NS-333 speakers and one NS-C125 and a Boston Acoustics VR-2000 subwoofer. After decommissioning my $20K+ 8 Kilowatt sound studio I never thought I would be satisfied with a PC sound system, I was wrong.
It’s sounds absolutely amazing but it’s up to you to bring it out with quality components.

Cons: Yes it does Sometime glitch and produces screeching and random noise in vista 64 bit and Windows 7 the same. I believe this is the fault of Creative's Dolby Digital Decoder and its nearly made me pull the card. Were not just talking a little noise, unless you’re connected with some 5 watt Logitech speakers.
The software supplied is a mix of 32 and 64 bit and this did not start happening until Windows started enforcing 64 bit driver signing in 07-2007.

Other Thoughts: The software could stand some improvement it’s pretty tedious but did I mention gamming, WOW! I’ll leave it at that

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Dreckspatz
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/30/2009 2:14:48 PM

Rating + 4 Good sound card


Pros: I've had this card now for about 2 years and it's a good card. No real problems with the actual functionality and the sound is great.

Cons: If you are trying to get away from Creative then don't waste your money on this. It's Creative technology with the Auzen name on it.
Drivers can also be a bit strange to install.
Constant blinking light on the card itself is pointless.

Other Thoughts: I feel like I wasted my money on this thing. Sure the sound is great but for almost $200? I'm sure there will be some "audio" guy that has something to say to that but I couldn't care less. Keep on wasting your money on stuff you don't need. I'll never buy this or any sound card priced this high ever again.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/23/2009 8:15:46 AM

Rating + 5


Pros: Awesome audio quality
Drivers are nice
I can hear the difference between using an equalizer and not using one now.
Lots of options

Cons: Sometimes glitches and produces screeching and random noise in vista 64 bit... has not happened since i reinstalled windows
No microphone support (I was well aware of this when I bought it)
Did not easily fit into my pci slot

Other Thoughts: The drivers do not conflict with my onboard sound so i can use my onboard mic and the prelude for sound if need be

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

ed102r
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/17/2009 1:03:19 AM

Rating + 5 Great buy


Pros: Huge difference from on board sound. Worked with Vista 32 and on Vista 64 that I upgraded to. Like so many others have said, i'll never settle for onboard sound again.

Cons: The green blinking light is always on. Always blinking? What's up with that? A bit expensive, but it's an investment and well worth it. It's one of those things u buy once in a verry long tim! Not like a CPU or GPU where they are outdated every few months.

Other Thoughts: You will get the best experience out of these if you have a decent to good speaker system.

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Andret2k
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/23/2009 8:43:14 AM

Rating + 4 Follow up to old review


Pros: I'm upgrading this to 4 eggs. I found that stereo microphones do not work with this sound card at all. You have to use a Mono mic. Once I made that change all is working well. Mostly.

Cons: I'm running Windows 7 x64 (7200) and the beta driver from Auzentech. My connection is a optical toslink to my Onkyo 604 receiver. For some reason the receiver clicks out of Dolby mode and then back in. This causes audio to cut out for a couple of seconds and the timing of when it occurs is random. Only started happening since I moved to Windows 7.

Other Thoughts: Running in Asus Maximus Formula, QX9650, 4GB 1033 DDR2, BFG 8800GTX, (2) Raid0 P128 Corsair SSD, Auzentech Prelude X-Fi, Zalman Reserator XT.

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N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/16/2009 9:49:25 AM

Rating + 5 Great card.


Pros: It may be pricey, but it's definitely worth it. Just make sure your speakers are good enough; otherwise you won't hear any difference over even motherboard sound solutions. I originally had a Creative something... but of course, Creative is terrible with their support and my card sounded pretty bad in Vista. So I decided to upgrade to a brand that wasn't exclusively Creative, but also used the full hardware X-Fi chip (not the software solution "X-Fi" Creative sells). Sounds wonderful, and driver support is great.

Sorry to hear about the guy below me... never had any of those problems. Drivers are great - they're available on the Auzentech website, BTW. Just Google it and you'll find it. Then go to Download> Drivers, and get the correct drivers. Perhaps you downloaded the wrong drivers? Make sure you get the ones for the Prelude.

All in all, a GREAT card, but not for those with built-in speakers or the non-audiophile.

Cons: High price, but IMO it's definitely worth it.

Other Thoughts: Just make sure you'll notice the difference in order to justify the pricetag. As I mentioned, if you just use cheaper speakers, then you probably won't notice any difference from the on-board audio on your computer. Many of the new on-board solutions on newer motherboards are actually quite good; but they still don't compare to the Auzentech when paired with a decent set of speakers.

Just FYI, the speakers I use aren't super awesome, but they're the Kl1psch ProMedia 2.1. I've owned several sets of Log1tech speakers before, including ones that were supposed "THX" certified, but they still don't match the quality of the sound from my ProMedias. Not sure why, but Logitech still doesn't really "get it" with sound. Never tried the Creative speakers, but I'm still angry at them for terrible driver support so I refuse to buy anything Creative branded.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Blah
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/9/2009 4:12:14 PM

Rating + 1 Terrible drivers make the card useless


Pros: Excellent build quality, great sound quality...when it works.

Cons: I bought this card assuming Auzentech would have their own drivers. Information on the site at the time claimed that the Creative drivers were temporary. Nope.

My computer crashes at least once every two days because of this card. The driver consumes tremendous amounts of RAM too. Soundfont playback is useless due to audio glitches and premature note drops.

This card would be great if Auzentech had followed through and delivered a decent driver.

Every time I've contacted Auzentech about these issues, they've played dumb. Everything from not knowing what features their card supports, to flat out lying.

Other Thoughts: I've used this card in two systems, both running XP x64. The card has atrocious reliability issues because of the driver. Of course, being an X-Fi, there is no Linux support.

I've reverted to using onboard audio until I can replace the card. R**lt*k sucks, but at least it's stable.

I chose Auzentech because at the time they seemed reliable. Today, they just sell cheap Korean brands and neglect to support their products or customers. I'll never buy from them again.

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Firemann
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/25/2009 8:39:08 AM

Rating + 4 It's alright


Pros: Pretty much every configuration or jack you could imagine. Well and solidly constructed.

Cons: Have owned multiple Auzentech cards because I like them better. However, it is worth noting that on multiple cards I have either had digital feedback in the background (hello SETI) or I pick up a background feed (most likely RF).

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N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/3/2009 5:52:58 PM

Rating + 5 One word: AWESOME


Pros: Sound clarity, features, solid software interface.

Cons: Heh, I only wish the EQ covered a broader spectrum and that there were more on-board inputs for CD-ROMS (there is only one and it is analog, WTH?). But that's it!

Other Thoughts: I had an Auzentech X-Mistique (discountinued) and I loved that. Had it for over 2 years. It had its shortcomings (software EQ had minor quirks).

Now, the Prelude, on the other hand, is just pure audible ecstasy. The bass was the first attribute I noticed for drastic improvement after I tweaked the EQ. More resonant in R&B songs, more concussive in rocks songs, and just all around sweet. The EQ and the other features like Crystalizers and the others make this thing PERFECT for MP3s, FLACs, etc as well as movies and videos. I haven't messed around with the potential of the X-Fi chip as it applies to gaming, but I fully intend to because I am VERY impressed so far with this card.

Again, the clarity of this card is amazing. Also, keep this is mind: your sound system is only as good as the weakest link. I have this card, a Pioneer TRE-D800 II (also known as SE-DHP 800 II). Just google it. I'm also running an all-glass optical cable because it's great. Also, TWEAK your settings!

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DragoonX
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/4/2009 8:57:03 AM

Rating + 3


Pros: Quick installation, Slight Performance Gain over Creative x-Fi Audio card, Software is 3X better than Creatives Bloatware utilities/drivers..

Cons: Upgrading from a Creative x-Fi Extreme Music card (the cheapy PCI one) I was expecting a mind blowing difference in quality.. However, I dont really notice much of any difference at all. Granted, that could be because I'm using just some Altec lansing 2.1's for speakers, and a pair of Sennheiser HD 435's for headphones but there wasn't much of a difference for me. Only a slight performance gain in FPS for games, again. nothing to write home about.

Is there any real point of the X-Fi Crystallizer effect other then consuming 5-15% extra cpu resources? I seriously can not tell any improvement with it on, over being off.

Other Thoughts: My opinion may change come mid-June when I get a set of these new Pysko Audio 5.1 Headphones that everyones been going crazy about, Wonder if their worth the $299US though..

First Person Shooter wise, I did notice you can tell where people are in relation to yourself via footsteps etc a little better over the X-Fi Extreme Music card.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Renze
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/3/2009 10:49:56 PM

Rating + 3 Doesn't live up to the hype


Pros: Produces sound. The bass is there for those who need tight, responsive, and deep bass. Good for gaming with a 5.1 setup.

Cons: Music blows with this card and all X-Fi cards. Soundstage and this card do NOT go together. This card is for people who strictly game. I'd highly discourage anyone considering an X-Fi card for music from buying one.

Other Thoughts: I've tried a few X-FI chipset based cards for music and I've always been disappointed. The soundstage on this card does not exist in my opinion. I'm desperately waiting for my Xonar D2 to come back to me. There is no contest when it comes down to this card and the other. I truly regret sending back my Xonar D2 to try this card out. Anyone who wants quality sound as far as music goes should avoid this and all X-Fi cards.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

sssss
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/27/2009 9:22:30 AM

Rating + 4 Sounds better than my Creative


Pros: I’m not much of an audiophile but the sounds coming from this sound card is WOW!

Cons: Low crackle noise or pops. But all that are gone after I created an image of my hard drive and restore it. don't know why, but now it's good.

Other Thoughts: My system:
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5
OCZ Gold 6GB OCZ3G1600LV6GK
AuzenTech Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 7.1
POWERCOLOR AX4870 1GBD5-PPH
2 X Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS

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Moose
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
4/19/2009 6:33:34 PM

Rating + 3 Sound Card is good


Pros: Had this card for a year. Running WinXP 32 bit and no problems. The sounds was amazing. It really made my z-5500 and Triton Ax360 come alive with the Dolby Digital Live. Sounded amazing.

Cons: Upgraded to Vista 64bit and now I have issues with the mic, crackling and popping when using DTS connect and Dolby Digital Live. A tad pricey but it's a quality card

Other Thoughts: Auzentech has a horrible tech support department. Where they only respond to posts and in my current thread they just stopped responding. If I was getting a do over on this purchase. I think I'd try the Asus Xonar DX2.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
4/5/2009 4:23:17 PM

Rating + 2 Not for gaming


Pros: Great sound and hardware. The optical out works flawlessly and DDL and DTS encoding are amazing.

Cons: Not for gaming -- Nearly every game I play now needs a mic and unfortunately after waiting for nearly a year for a patch to remedy my issue I still can't use a mic with this card.

Your mic will sound extremely choppy and unintelligible while also being unstable and and dropping constantly. Restarts will erase whatever mic settings you had previously and will require to you disable and re-enable each time -- and it will still sound choppy.

Other Thoughts: If you don't use a mic, buy this card... if you do, spare yourself the headache.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
3/22/2009 2:24:32 PM

Rating + 5 Followup to old reviww.


Pros: Great card, nice audio. Audio console has great features.

Cons: Cannot use x-fi crystalizer or eq settings in vista via digital out.

(FIX BELOW)

Other Thoughts: I found a fix that let me use x-fi crystalizer and eq settings in vista, all you need to do is install the windows xp wdm drivers. Only con about this fix, you have to disable driver signature enforcement at bootup.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/14/2009 7:17:04 AM

Rating + 5 Well, it'll be new speakers, I guess...


Pros: This thing'll do anything I need it to do...I am somewhat of an audiophile, I have good ears, and this card can go places my current speaker set-up won't go.

The Vista driver is flawless, so far, none of the problems I had with the variety of Creative products I've gone through.

I hope I'm satisfied with the Z-5500s, 'cuz I think that's where I'm going.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: I've cycled four different sets of speakers past this thing so far (three different 2.1s, and a 5.1 set-up ATM) and the sound just keeps astounding me; what it can make lesser hardware do is hard to believe.

The card is stupid-great...Creative ought to be ashamed, it's products pale in comparison.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

ProtoPunch
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/8/2009 3:39:37 PM

Rating + 4 Excellent sound, but suffers from unusable microphone input


Pros: Superior components compared to standard X-Fi cards from Creative. Software is feature-rich, easy to use, and without hardly any bloat. Sound is subjective, but if you're looking for the best of the best, you're probably looking at it.

Cons: The microphone input is notoriously unstable. The quality is fantastic (when it works) but complaints of stuttering voice recording, simply dropping out at random times, and cutting-in and out in a variety of games and VoiP software such as Ventrilo and TeamSpeak make this a huge headache.

Other Thoughts: AuzenTech has tried for over a year to patch the mic issue without success. If you really, really want this sound card then expect to be forced to use the microphone input jack built into your motherboard instead. This is the only known workaround as the issue affects both Windows XP and Vista users.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/3/2009 2:19:49 PM

Rating + 5 Best sound card out there!


Pros: If you want the best digital sound with Dolby Digital Live and DTS, then this is the card for you!

Cons: A little expensive, but once you hear this card with Logitech Z5500's, you'll realize it is worth it

Other Thoughts: I don't reccomend using the install disk for your intial setup. just go to the website and download the most current drivers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/3/2009 10:41:48 AM

Rating + 4 DTS/DDL + EAX5


Pros: Great sound, DD Live, DTS Connect, Digital In's and Outs, EAX 5.

I love this card!

Cons: I have to take an egg off for the fact that this card runs very, very HOT! The heatsink on the X-Fi chip gets hot to the point where you could cook an egg on it. This became an issue for me when I had two graphics cards in crossfire mode and all my slots filled up. This card overheated the battery backup on my RAID controller card and raised the temp on one of my two graphics cards. I solved the issue by putting a 120mm fan over all my cards. Make sure you have a well ventilated case and extra room for this card so it doesnt overheat other components. An aftermarket fan might not be a bad idea either if you have the room.

Other Thoughts: I have been purchasing Auzentech soundcards since they started making cards that did Dolby Digital Live. If you want both Dolby/DTS Connect AND EAX at the same time this card - or other versions of this card - is your only choice. This company does update their drivers on a regular basis and does fix issues.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

MacK
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/1/2009 11:18:41 AM

Rating + 5 Wow.


Pros: The software isn't bloated like the Creative X-Fi, and it actually works! Sounds amazing in games, the only thing it uses is the X-Fi processor from Creative.

Cons: The sound processor is made by Creative.... and it's PCI not PCI express. Not really a big deal.

Other Thoughts: I recently purchased a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional, last week. After a few nights of the "squeal of death", games getting ruined, poor performance, the software actually slowed my computer down and increased boot time by at least 1-2 minutes, I uninstalled the card and sent it right back to Newegg for a refund. Creative just said my motherboard is faulty, and to try it in another computer. I wish Auzentech would create their own sound processor dedicated to gaming, that would be great. I'll never in my life buy anything from Creative. The Creative drivers haven't been updated since August 22nd, 2008-- Auzentech's drivers get updated every 4 months!! Highly recommended.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

SCAVENGER1
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
2/21/2009 12:28:30 AM

Rating + 5 great sound and it works


Pros: its not a junk creative made which is a PLUS in my book. i did have there fatality pro which was totally junk!! but this card just rocks!!. and in BF2142 or BF2 i no longer get the dreaded creative snap/crackle/pops no more. like the i had before. running the RC8 driver right now on both OS i have. so far xp 32bit still has better sound QA then vista 64bit could ever have.

Cons: i paid alot for it last yr but it was worth it!! like well over $200+ . and i do have 1 cons. auzen tech are now putting all that garbage creative bloat ware into there drivers now :( which was a plus when i 1st got it. but now they have all that junk software in the install file. but they told me i can go and uninstall it. which is still B$ but creative still makes the driver for it yet.

Other Thoughts: running it in a abit IP35Pro with E6850 clock to 3.8ghz w/8gigs of corsair dominator ram. and evga8800gtx. i have xp 32bit and vista 64bit. xp sounds are much better then vista could ever have. but i only have a few games on vista the rest are on xp.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

MongGrel
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
2/8/2009 3:02:02 PM

Rating + 5 Trouble with Mics in Vent and Teamspeak


Pros: Anyone having trouble with Vent etc when using this soundcard should try these out, it solved my problem.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826289001
It worked fantastic otherwise, hopefully be going again soon once resolve a few things.

Cons: Nothing related to the sound card, Im waiting on my Rampage Formula to arrive tomorrow so hopefully I can get my Main system running full bore hehe, was just cruising the reviews.

Other Thoughts: Well if nothing else Ive gotten my wifes system beefed up in the off time hehe

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

The Feadship Man
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
1/22/2009 5:45:11 AM

Rating + 1 Trashed my MOBO


Pros: None

Cons: Where to start? First off, without warning one day it sent out this horrendous burst of digital quantizing noise that fried the passive crossovers to my speaker system, also fried six very expensive tweeters.

Then later, downloaded latest driver and it zeroed out my BIOS, turned my 5000 dollar computer into a brick.

Will never buy another Auzen product again. Total piece of you know what.

Other Thoughts: This sound card cost me plenty, I am actually thinking of maybe filing a lawsuit for all the damages I have suffered as a result of installing this garbage.

Never again.

3 out of 25 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/21/2009 8:11:01 PM

Rating + 5


Pros: Great sound quality. Great drivers. Colored LEDs on the plugs.

Cons: The only LED that lights on mine is the mic plug. Others don't light at all.

Other Thoughts: Get this instead of the Creative stuff. Auzen's drivers have 90% of the bloat removed.

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Dukman
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/3/2009 11:31:56 AM

Rating + 5 Friends don't let friends use onboard sound.


Pros: Incredible sound! If you are an budding audiophile or even a non-budding audiophile then I recommend this card.

Sounds are crystalline and well defined.

This soundcard can be a bit daunting in it's price, but it is worth every cent.

Cons: Card was a bit stubborn about going into the PCI slot.

Initial drivers were twitchy but the latest drivers solved that problem.

Other Thoughts: I originally had a (now deceased) Creative X-Fi Xtreme music card. I was satisfied the sound quality of the card, but was growing weary of the Creative drivers having fits everytime I upgraded to a new GPU.

Then my X-Fi died and forced me for a short time to fall back onto the onboard sound.

I'm still traumatized and seeing a counseler from that event.

Bear in mind, a good soundcard is useless without a good set of speakers or headphones. I have a Logitech Z-680 setup, but have switched the front speakers out with my set of Advent bookshelf speakers.

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chris
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
12/25/2008 12:49:55 PM

Rating + 4 Sexy Card


Pros: Has a TON of features. I upgraded from onboard sound on my old MSI mobo, and its true, you really can hear the difference. its crisp, highs are high, lows are low, it made my old sub from my logitech system actually sound like quality bass... and its a sexy card! black, silver and gold. quality!

Cons: didnt come with any manuals, or cd's with drivers. was a simple update off their website tho.

had trouble fitting into my mobo and tower.. but it was a tower issue,not the sound card.

Other Thoughts: great card.. never had sound blaster's, but i took a chance, and im not looking back!

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Death224
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/23/2008 4:04:01 PM

Rating + 5 Great Card


Pros: Great sound quality. Really nice. However, in order to really get the most out of the card, you have to customize it to the speaker setup and your audio player. When you do, though, this card is great!

Cons: The card was kinda difficult to put into the slot. Needed alot more force than thought, but its in: not really worth losing an egg for.

Other Thoughts: Get some good speakers for this!

prelude + z-5500 + foobar2k = Awesome!

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rgsgww
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
12/7/2008 1:29:08 PM

Rating + 5 Really nice card.


Pros: This card is a great gaming and music card. I like the digital input for digital sources. The card has a powerful audio processor, it processes analog music and game audio to near digital quality.

Cons: None really, though, I am disappointed about the compatibility with Windows vista x64, sometimes the audio starts loud popping and the audio goes out. I booted into Windows Xp x86 and it never happened...still awaiting new drivers.

Other Thoughts: This card is really worth the money! After reading about some of the problems with creative cards, and having owned several creative cards I decided to try something new.

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this is a nickname
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/6/2008 1:25:37 AM

Rating + 4 Great once you get it working


Pros: * EAX 5.0 - primarily for gamers.
* Sounds great.
* Excellent build quality.
* Customer support is decent, although I dislike their web interface.

-1 star for installation issues.

Cons: * Compatibility issues, YMMV.
* Driver quality - it's a continual work in progress.
* Unsure about the mic input quality (haven't used it). I prefer to use USB mics.
* Not really a con, but gamers: don't expect a gigantic increase in performance by switching to this card from on-board audio, especially if you're running a multi-core system. The processor is usually more than enough to handle game audio processing. This card will make your games sound better (if supported by the game) but may not necessarily increase your FPS.

Other Thoughts: I ran into compatibility issues with this card and my HS-1200 wireless headset by Creative. Because AuzenTech licenses the X-Fi DSP from Creative, the Prelude comes with Creative drivers. This caused a lot of problems for me because I had an existing Creative installation and the two hated each other. It actually installed a second set of Creative volume panel and associated apps which wreaked havoc.

Ignoring the two sets of apps thing, when installed, the card would only allow me to select Stereo and 5.1 speaker set ups despite me having a 7.1 configuration. I tried everything: reinstalling the drivers, removing my HS-1200, messing around with Windows audio services, etc. In the end, I got everything working by removing both the Prelude and HS-1200 drivers, installing the Prelude drivers, and just plugging in the HS-1200 (without installing drivers). I lose some functionality but at least the two devices work together.

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N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/5/2008 8:24:29 PM

Rating + 1 EPIC FAIL... buy a fatal1ty


Pros: great sound.. cant deny that.

Cons: where do i start,

1) the driver software had a hard time installing the first 3 times round... i went through with DC Pro (driver cleaner) and removed all of the junk that might be hindering its install.. turns out that the 4th attempt is actually the charm

2) and this is the Huge one.. mic input is broken... flat out broken, and its not a software issue. when auzentech designed this card they completely messed up the input for the microphone. the recording volume is set so low that you have to boost it full +35 db and then yell into the mic to have a mouse sound come out. the sound taht comes out also fades after about 15 seconds of initial playing.

Q: how can you make "high end" sound card. that is semi-targeted toward the gaming audience and fail to make a working mic port?

Other Thoughts: ..... Need i say more....

i bought a creative x-fi fatal1ty xtremegamer and couldn't be more please

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OSUTOWER
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
12/4/2008 9:58:46 AM

Rating + 4 Fantastic Card


Pros: This card whips my old Audigy 2 Platinum and is well worth the money. I can’t stop listening to music now. Recording is also out of this world.

Cons: However, be prepared for a possible small bump in the road. I had an issue loading the drivers from the disc. After checking around, I found that several people had the same issue. The installation will hang on the driver install (didn’t seem to be OS specific either, but I’m running XP with all updates). The fix is to simply go to the Auzentech website and download the latest driver—simple if you have high speed that is. The driver set is 226mb. The newer drivers loaded in seconds and a reboot later I’m listening to some great sound.

Other Thoughts: Buy it!

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xbadwolfx
Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
11/24/2008 6:28:41 PM

Rating + 5 Beats Creative By A Mile... Or Two


Pros: - Amazing Sound Clarity
- Great Drivers, No Nagging Software
- Great For Gamers & Audiophiles

Cons: - It Wasn't Free

Other Thoughts: Take a Creative Labs card, get rid of the nagging software, fix the bugs, and make it much much more powerful. That's the X-Fi Prelude.

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Kibagami
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
11/19/2008 7:10:52 PM

Rating + 5 Great sound card for a HTPC


Pros: Has worked flawlessly for several months in a XP Mediacenter 2005 HTPC playing music, games, and movies from files as well as HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs, in all modes available. I can tell a sound quality difference between this card and my Creative made X-Fi Fatality champion card. It must be the Op Amps and reworked design of this card vs the original X-fis.

Cons: Sometimes wish I had the I/O drive connectivity as I do on my main PC with the Creative Fatality X-fi card.

Other Thoughts: No problems with an EVGA 680i MB, 2GB 1066, 8800 GTS G92, LG HD-dvd/bluray drive GGC-H20L.

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dstoli
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
11/18/2008 4:38:32 PM

Rating + 5 Best card for Vista x64


Pros: I had an Audigy2 sound card installed in my Vista x64 bit system with a 5.1 surround digital out receiver and cheap surround speakers that sounded pretty darn good. I had to remove the 5.1 receiver and speakers to use for my main surround system so I purchased the Logitech Z-2300 speaker system. With the analog setup my system sounded flat with unclear midrange and grainy treble. No matter how much I adjusted the equalizer in WMP or WinAmp it sounded awful. I also adjusted the treble and bass using the standard Vista sound panel since none of the Creative software like the mixer, eq, and EAX installed for the Audigy2 since it's only supported in XP. Now I have the Auzen Prelude everything sounds amazing. All the sound is there and its high quality sound for a PC with a standalone 200 watt 2.1 analog speaker system. The Crystalizer makes a huge difference in sound detail using the analog setup. I can’t begin to imagine what it would sound like through a digital receiver.

Cons: Price. But, with the rebate I saved 30 bucks

Other Thoughts: This card will not disappoint. Get an additional year warranty just for registering with AuzenTech. This card is build like a rock!

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SCAVENGER1
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/25/2008 11:48:04 AM

Rating + 5 great sound and it works


Pros: it has all the features of the top line creative xfi card has and more. and it works with no problems at all.

Cons: the cost other then that, also wish it had the 4 to 4 plug cable which is some thing i have not found yet. i had to use the creative cable that my inspire P7800 speaker have and then i had to buy a single cable so i can now have a 4 to 4 plug cable to connect with. but some reason i can not have that plug go all the way into the card, or it will not work right.

Other Thoughts: needs to have a mail 4 plug to male 4 plug cable to connect speakers to the card.

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N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/21/2008 11:04:51 AM

Rating + 5 Great Card!


Pros: This is the only card outside of Creative that offers the use of the X-FI chipset, and it is a great one. I upgraded from my old audigy 2 ZS, and there is a clear difference. The drivers installed perfectly with no problems, which is usually the number one concern, and the card worked right out of the box. I am a complete audiophile and this upgrade made a huge difference in the way my music sounded, even when I already had very nice headphones (Sennheiser 280HD Silvers) and a good sound card. If you are willing to shell out a little bit of money and you love listening to music or producing your own like me, this is a definitely a good investment. I was skeptical about buying the card at first, but it was worth it.

Cons: None

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VietStud525
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/20/2008 2:05:00 PM

Rating + 5 Auzen X-Fi Prelude


Pros: When i hooked this up with my Z-5500 i was hearing sounds that i did not ever hear in my listening experience. It was a true audiophiles sound card, equipped with super high quality dacs and such a nice clean card, this will last me years to come with the solid copacitators on it. I am so amazed by the quality of the sound.If you are a music type of person go out and buy this, also auzentech replies to your message in 1-2 days at most. Also it's creatives x-fi chip which high power processing and eax hd 5.0.

Cons: Should have had those dolby or w/e features Already implemeted, but its a beta card really. But i bought it when dolby digital live was implemeted, so im just waiting for the neo pc or w/e. I have notice my cpu usage is always 3-6 % while doing nothing or listening to music. I can disable it then it will be at 2-3. But The X-FI chip is soppose to be superrior to onboard but the cpu usage is higher same if i DISABLE the creative audio thingy or w/e but that limits you from playing spdif or digital in digital mode.

Other Thoughts: You also dont get to deal with creative's bloated drivers, auzen made it alot easier but is behind creative in the software area, obviously because they are the main company of the x-fi chip. Im waiting to test it on High end DVD's and takign advantage of the eax 5.0 HD soon

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/16/2008 4:00:51 AM

Rating + 5


Pros: Card is phenomenal, major upgrade from what I was using. Plus, it's NOT CREATIVE. Overall very good.

Other reports say that the microphone jack doesn't work - mine works fine.

As well, I'm on an nForce motherboard. Rumor has it the card has problems with nForce boards, but this is moreso the fault with the motherboard. Usually using a different PCI slot will work.

The drivers are also apparently modified Creative drivers, so they're a lot better than Auzen's usual fare.

Cons: The stock card drivers don't include DTS encoding. In order to get that, you have to download a 200+MB 'driver' that is clogged with Creative bloatware. This is likely not Auzen's fault (you think they want to be hosting a file that big?) but probably Creative's as part of the X-Fi licensing deal.

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Fyrepony
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/15/2008 4:32:12 AM

Rating + 3 Neat card but WARNING


Pros: The Dolby Digital Live And DTS sound great. Music sounds incredible. Games sound great. EAX 5.0

See.... Cons...

Cons: WARNING, do not purchase this card if you have an NVIDIA chipset motherboard. Its very hit and miss if the card will work correctly and not make snapping and poping noises. The card seems to work fine with all motherboards but NVIDIA based chipsets. When I could get the card to not snap and pop it was great. But I wish I would have reserched it first.

Other Thoughts: Wish I would not have sent in the rebate so I could return the card as I now have a 175.00 dollar card I can not use. On the upside X-mas is coming and my buddy has a new ATI motherboard, I think I will give the gift of sound.

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SCAVENGER1
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/1/2008 12:35:06 PM

Rating + 5 great sound


Pros: has EAX5 and Dolby as well. in BF2142 i can play it with EAX XFI set to ultra high and have no issuers with it at all. unlike the xfi fatality pro i had before.

Cons: the cost but it does sound that good. drivers still have creative on them. and now the newest driver RC8 has a bunch of junk from creative.

Other Thoughts: they have a lot more driver and supprot then i had with creative.

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Kendokan
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/1/2008 10:21:59 AM

Rating + 4


Pros: I replaced my mobo riser audio with this card and the sound quality difference is very apparent, it just sounds great and cut speaker hiss dramatically. Primarily I wanted Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect features so that I could use a digital connection to my speakers with games, and the fact that music and movies sound so great is a nice bonus. This card is working flawlessly on Vista 64 with the latest drivers from Auzentech (RC8).

Cons: When you use DDL or DTS Connect under Vista, you can only control the volume using the Wave slider, not the Master slider. Thus, I'm no longer able to control volume or mute from the multimedia keys on my keyboard. Auzentech lists a workaround in their FAQ that only applies to XP. To be fair, though, this is a Vista issue and not a Auzentech issue, but it was unexpected and a minor letdown.

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nburge
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
9/28/2008 5:57:53 AM

Rating + 5 better than creative by FARRRRRR


Pros: The sound is amazingly clear. I can actually max volume and not see any distortion. Everything sounds better in short. dolby digital live works perfect and sounds fantastic. what a clear improvement over my x-fi extreme music. I love it!!

Cons: price as usual

Other Thoughts: Youll be happy

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N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
9/22/2008 3:47:04 PM

Rating + 5


Pros: Great sound, drivers are way better than the equivalent creative offering

Cons: Had a rocky start and a few rocky driver releases but the current RC7's are great.

Other Thoughts: Don't use DDL

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N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
9/18/2008 2:24:18 PM

Rating + 5 Nice!!!


Pros: This is my first sound card so my frame of reference is limited. I nonetheless am totally satisfied with this purchase. The different modes allow you to tweak the sound to whatever you have going at the moment be it games, movies, or music. I have yet to really mess with the creative mode but it looks interesting. The 3D sound is unbelieveable. With a half decent headset, it sounds like you are in the actual environment in COD4. The card itself is quality and well built.

Cons: Wished it was under $100 but oh well... you get what you pay for! One major issue for me is that this card prevents my tower from going to sleep by itself. After checking everything, I found that the card does not support sleep function. It sucks because wife and kids also use PC. If they don't push the sleep button then the PC stays on until I notice it running which can be hours.

Other Thoughts: I did a number of upgrades before buying this card. I think adding a sound card is often overlooked or left out altogether. My onboard sound was decent but if anyone is in doubt, adding a good sound card is a worthwhile addition. I will give this warning however - if you are a plug-n-play person and don't won't to be bothered by having to tweak the settings, this card is not for you. The settings I use for COD4 don't work for Crysis. Movies and music may also require different settings. In the end, a few miuntes of tweaking provides a superior sound experience.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
9/16/2008 4:56:06 PM

Rating + 5 Great Sound


Pros: I've owned the HT-Omega Claro, X-Meridian, and the X-Fi. They all sound great! For analog out, I especially like the Auzen products for the Op Amp change out option. SPDIF thay are all the same in my book, except the X-Fi Crystalizer option. You could always get DFX software to do a simular task.

Cons: Software still needs some updates. No bass manament in Entertainment Mode, Wave volume is turned down on reboot. No freezes or Blue screens though.

Other Thoughts: I tried the stock chip, AD 8620 BR From Bround Dog, and a Burr Brown OPA2134PA. The BB2134 sounded the best to me. Softer High range and good bass. The 8620 was punchier, but not as smooth. Stock chip sounded harsh to me in comparison. Stereo was a Marantz SR18EX.

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Andret2k
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/29/2008 4:59:47 AM

Rating + 2 Drivers are not all there yet (including RC6)


Pros: Fantastic sound in games utilizing Alchemy and EAX 5. Positional audio works perfectly. Digital out via Toslink or Coax to an external receiver is a huge plus. X-Fi chip really IS the bees knees. Music is more rich and full, quite an experience to hear every single instrument if you try. Just fantastic output.

Cons: I'm going to say this here, because before making a purchase, I typically read the user reviews and make my decision. I didn't know what to google for a problem until I actually got the card. The problem is the microphone jack doesn't work. I think it's a driver issue, but the audio level is so low, the only way I can get the microphone to pick anything up is by dropping it on the table. I then found that this is aparently a pretty wide spread problem. Either the microphone levels are acceptable for a few minutes, then fall off to nothing. Or like my situation, it's always incredibly low. Yes, I've enabled the +20db mic boost, I've turned all the recording levels up through the roof. It just doesn't work properly. I did not load the drivers out of the box, but rather used the RC6 drivers from their site. I've tested the Mic and it works perfectly, just not plugged into this card.

Other Thoughts: If you don't mind being a beta tester as someone else here stated, pick up the card. If you need Vent or TS to work for online gaming, move along.

3 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/25/2008 2:49:24 AM

Rating + 4 Update! Look. RC6 driver changed many negative reviews...


Pros: The newest driver (RC6) fixes the hugely anoying and very wide spread problem with DDL dropping and either total sound loss or reverting to 2 channel. Fixed! Some stability that is overdue. Auzentech deserves every single negative review they have here on this product but they have fixed that terrible bug. I'd say you have a50% chance at least of having this issue with drivers before RC6. This makes the card much better.

Cons: They continue to use YOU to test thier drivers. Welcome to the BETA team if you buy. If it's OK with you then buy.

Other Thoughts: Made in Korea and United States developed. Thats a plus for me. This almost got returned and/or exchanged many times through the different driver releases but it paid off hanging in there. Auzentech I'm in your box.

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Raccio14
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/22/2008 12:02:04 PM

Rating + 5 Absoluteley amazing


Pros: Best audio processing chip on the planet, the XF-I, but without Creative's horrible lack of attention to detail.
More powerful then Creative's cards. All solid state capacitors, and replaceable opamps are going to give this card an awesome lifespan.
The drivers work WAY better than Creative's standard drivers. I am using Vista Ultimate 64bit.
This thing just oozes quality

Cons: Annoying little green LED on the side that's constantly blinking. I just covered it up with a bit of black electrical tape and It's all good.

Other Thoughts: Just buy this card!!!!!

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Doinmybestatlast
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/21/2008 10:46:10 AM

Rating + 2 Oh boy!


Pros: Pretty good sound

Cons: Drivers - not fully mature.

Other Thoughts: If you have checked with others on the AVS forums, you will know many have bought this card for HTPC, with the promise of an HDMI daughtercard. No daughtercard, many broken promises. If I knew this would happen, I would never have bought this card. When the Asus card comes out with HDMI, there will be a whole bunch of these cards on an auction site. I, for one, will never buy an Auzentech/Creative product again.

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JoshH
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/19/2008 11:25:44 PM

Rating + 5 Absolutely Amazing


Pros: Amazing sound card. Opamps are high quality as with most auzentech cards. X-fi chip which supports EAX 5.0. Non-bloated drivers compared to creative. DDL and DTS support. Replaceable opamps (not really needed for most users). "Best of both worlds."

Cons: Drivers are still being worked on but for me they are stable (on both xp prof x64 [main OS] and vista ultimate 64-bit)

Other Thoughts: For those haters:
1) Serial number is ON THE BOX
2) Auzentech explains why they make you register to get the driver (read it!). Anyways, they give you an extended warranty and you do NOT have to put in your address, etc (check the * for required fields)
3) I would expect more users to be using xp. Vista destroys directsound hardware acceleration - some games support openal and and are ported for x-fi chips though alchemy for hardware acceleration though not all
4) Auzentech is probably the best x-fi equipped sound card. Check the pros.
5) Try uninstalling onboard / other sound card audio drivers. I've read that this card generally does not work well with other audio drivers.

The ASUS xonar d2x was the other card I was deciding between but the x-fi chip mainly sealed the deal. The xonar is definitely another great card.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/14/2008 10:40:54 AM

Rating + 5 Sonic boom!


Pros: This is the best sound card I have bought to date. The sound is crisp and it made even my older games sound so much better. Comes with front panel audio connector for PC cases (why doesn't Creative do this?!).
Auzentech recently released (on 8/12) an experimental driver for this card, which you do not need to register for, in order to download from their website. It has been running stable and without an issue on my PC (OS: Windows Vista 64)

Cons: Driver download (128meg file) seemed kind of slow...

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Crystalizer
Tech Level: somewhat low
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
8/7/2008 9:25:53 PM

Rating + 5 Incredible card -- getting better


Pros: Incredible sound. It's like I'm hearing the song for the first time -- live. Dolby for movies and EAX 5.0 for games with build quality that's unmatched. Like the earlier X-Meridian, the sound is amazing and always will be.

Cons: The final drivers will make this card reign supreme, but they're still in development -- latest are still in Beta hence buggy. Older driver more stable but sans some features.

Other Thoughts: But support is improving. A new "knowledge base" helps. Registration was required b/c of driver hijacking but not with next driver. They're giving registered users a warranty extension. Company has had some growing pains, but they seem to listen to complaints.

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bakabo
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/6/2008 12:07:05 PM

Rating + 5 Woot Woot


Pros: I got this card after reading tons of articles and reviews. It was a huge upgrade from my onboard HD audio. Sound is amazing, no cracking, clear thumping, absolutely love it.

Cons: Like many reviews, software sucks. The card is huge, no surprise though. My full tower case doesnt like this card to much, because of the weird locking mech it has in place for pci cards

Other Thoughts: -running, GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM, AMD Phenom 8650 2.3GHz, G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066, HIS HD4850, Auzentech Prelude 7.1, GIGABYTE 3D Aurora 570 GZ-FA1CA-ASB Black, Vista Home Premium 64

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N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
7/23/2008 5:13:09 PM

Rating + 5 extreme music to xfi prelude


Pros: sounds very very clean,crystal clear, going to an x-fi was nice but going to the prelude is even better! Everything works perfect. dolby digital live is fantastic! I am very very happy:)

Cons: none worked perfect

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David
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
7/19/2008 4:25:40 PM

Rating + 1 TERRIBLE SUPPORT!!


Pros: Nothing. Failed to work.

Cons: As other on the internet have said, their technical support is practically nonexistant. They make you fill a trouble ticket out and they respond 2 weeks later with some form letter reply. Needless to say, the card failed to install correctly. I returned it and they lost a customer for life!

Other Thoughts: HORRENDOUS support. Don't count on this company for anything that you can't do yourself...if you're lucky.

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MvdL79
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
7/15/2008 3:36:59 AM

Rating + 1 Bad experience with product and support team.


Pros: Well it really is good if it does what it's supposed to do. Looks better than Creative's product.

Cons: I now have problems both in Windows XP x64 as in Windows Vista x64 (I only had problems with the Creative card in Vista before). Problems like: distorted sound, sound hangs and / or loops, crackling.

I contacted Auzentech support over a period of 3 months several times (= a lot of times). Not only didn't they fix my problem or offer a solid solution; they stopped responding altogether!!

I am very disappointed with the Auzentech X-FI Prelude and with the Auzentech support. I was hoping to end my Creative sound-problems when I purchased the (expensive) Auzentech, but alas I was terribly wrong...

Other Thoughts: After having a lot of problems with my old soundcard, which was a Creative XtremeMusic, I decided to invest in a futureproof soundcard. After doing some research I was considering 2 soundcards the Asus Xonar and the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. Since the Xonar did not have EAX 3.0 (and higher) support, the choice was easy made. Or at least I thought it was...

6 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Bob
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/14/2008 5:49:18 PM

Rating + 1 Drivers Suck


Pros: High Quality sound card

Cons: Drivers are horrible, IF you can download them. You MUST register with Auzentech to download drivers. Not only do you have to give name, address, email etc, you have to open your case back up, remove the card and record the serial number to download the drivers. As far as I know, not other mfg of consumer level pc products makes you do this.
In short, the drivers suck, IF Auzen will even give them to you.

Other Thoughts: I wouldn't buy

5 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

mcg
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/13/2008 9:25:32 PM

Rating + 4 pricey, but it works


Pros: i have vista home premium 64-bit, and a soundblaster x-fi extreme gamer card caused me to have to re-install the OS all three times i tried to install the soundcard. not only didn't that card work, but it corrupted the OS to the point of constant blue-screens, no matter which drivers i tried. the auzentech card installed easily and it worked immediately. the sound clarity blows away my motherboard sound processor.

Cons: too expensive, really. i only paid this price because after hours of online research, it was the only card i felt confident would work with 64-bit vista. the only other con is that i had to plug my rear surround speakers into the side surround output port to get them to work. that doesn't make sense to me, and had me sweating it for an hour or so until i figured it out.

Other Thoughts: get it on sale, and preferably with a rebate. if you have 64-bit vista, this thing worked for me when nothing else but onboard audio would. expensive, but it works.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

DrStrangelove
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/12/2008 3:43:33 PM

Rating + 2 It works, Bad drivers


Pros: Sounds good.

Cons: I gotta tell ya, this is probably the hardest piece of hardware I've had to install. I've got three comp builds under my belt. This board is hard to get the drivers to install. The drivers on the disk didn't work, so I downloaded the beta 1 drivers from their site. They worked. Went to update the drivers almost a year later, Big Mistake! Beta 2 drivers will not install, because of outdated Flash. Updated Flash still will would not install. I System restored to previous day, Windows cannot find card. These drivers suck! Going back to beta 1 drivers till I can get this figured out. Might want to go with another card since support for this card is lacking. For the price of this card, one would expect top notch support.

Other Thoughts: Go to Auzentech Website and use Beta 1 drivers (Older Drivers), and save to My Documents.
You have to register and input card serial number. No big deal, because serial number is on top of card when already installed. Use Beta 1 drivers if you have bad luck with beta 2 drivers.

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Killfly
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/4/2008 11:24:37 PM

Rating + 2 Serious Cons - No S.Card fan but...


Pros: Better sound quality, yes.

Cons: Software. Absolutely terrible driver packages. Updates have added features and not addressed major problems many, not a few, users have. Customer support replies are nonsense ..but they do reply. Possibly a high amount of Lemons.

Other Thoughts: Read the negative reviews here. They aren't minor issues and they are more common than you'd think. I'd think about buying again but not before making sure there's been marked improvement in the Con's.

4 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

nburge
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
7/4/2008 9:20:40 PM

Rating + 5 clean,crisp clear i love it


Pros: upgraded from an x-fi extreme music... this prelude is alot better ,it sounds cleaner less noise it really sounds good i have logitech z5500 speakers and dt990 beyerdunamic headphones and the famous darth beyers v3 !! everything installed perfect and after being patched i believe that lovely sound is dolby live.

Cons: none maybe price would of like to pay around 150$

Other Thoughts: not a huge upgrade over the x-fi extreme music but for an audiophile youll really like the improvement. I wanted something just a little better than what i had and i feel ive found it. I just wish i had an headphone amp other than the z5500 to really push my pro headphones.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Misha
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/24/2008 6:39:50 AM

Rating + 2 Update To "Risky"


Pros: see previous review--hardware rating is 4

Cons: see previous review--software rating is 1

Other Thoughts: I got a reply from an AZT support ticket where I stated that after repeated uninstall/reinstall operations using the latest drivers the software did not detect the sound card. The ticket was essentially what I wrote in my previous review but I didn't tell AZT that I had to actually remove the card to get the software to recognize the hardware.

I felt that I had to share AZT's reply to that ticket with potential buyers at this site. AZT's "technical" support reply was that I should uninstall and reinstall using the latest drivers!!! Exactly what I indicated in my support ticket I had done repeatedly.

My overall rating has changed to "Poor" because Auzentech support gets a 0.

4 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Misha
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/21/2008 7:00:12 AM

Rating + 3 Risky


Pros: The Hardware:
Sound quality is very good; there is good delineation and sharp reproduction of frequencies--on a card using lower quality hardware, instruments that would sound muffled, in the back of the sound field, and hard to distinguish are sharp, up front, and easy to hear and distinguish on this card. I only use 2.1 channels and stereo imaging is excellent. The ability to upgrade to a different OPAMP is a plus--a better OPAMP will produce better analog sound. Company website has links to compatible OPAMPS for purchase. Hardware gets a 4

Cons: The Software:
Lots of problems here: no decoder, encoder, performance, or headphone tabs in Audio Console (eventually got encoder tab to appear but nothing else--this could be something I'm not understanding or doing correctly but Audio Console Help doesn't provide any info about why those tabs would not show up); at times there was no sound when in Audio Creation mode--switching to Entertainment mode brought back sound but then the Creative application would crash; and system shut down times increased by over 500%! See other thoughts...

Other Thoughts: ...did an uninstall & reinstall and that's where the insanity really began: when Audio Console or Console Launcher were opened they did not detect the card. The drivers installed and Windows showed the device in Device Manager, but neither Audio Console, Console Launcher, or Volume Panel detected the card. I had to pull the card out, reboot, shutdown, put the card back in, and reinstall the software and drivers to get the software to detect the card.
I've never experienced this kind of issue--having to literally remove the hardware and then put it back in--to get software to detect hardware after an uninstall/reinstall sequence-AZT needs a big improvement to their software. Software gets a 1.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Saril
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/17/2008 5:49:10 PM

Rating + 5 Bye Bye Soundmax


Pros: Overall sound quality is excellent. I am using the coax S/PDIF output of the Prelude to my digital surround receiver. Hands down – the best sound for both games and music I have ever experienced. I most likely will never return to onboard motherboard sound. This was a great way to get more enjoyment out of my aging system. I am also going to take advantage of the ASIO capabilities this card has to offer. I really like the simplicity of the user interface. Based on my experience with other sound card products - I think Auzentech support is better than average. Waiting for the driver was worth the wait. Signal to noise ratio is absolutely stunning.

Cons: Getting the drivers was a pain - not entirely Auzentech's fault. My problem was that MSN Premium would not process the download correctly. I simply used IE and it downloaded fine. Once I figured what the correct serial number was I had the new driver installed in no time. My serial number was the bottom number on the left side of the box. Bottom line - new driver corrected "popping" noises during online gameplay.

Other Thoughts: The FAQ on the website is very informative and helped me with questions concerning S/PDIF and Dolby Digital Live - especially the tidbit about setting my rear speaker size to large to get the subwoofer to work.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

ICE777
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/17/2008 3:02:36 PM

Rating + 5 Awesome Card


Pros: This card is the bomb. Way above my Aud 2zs and Xi-Fi that came with my motherboard. I love music and I was about to buy components because I wasn't getting the right sound from my Z-5500s. Music had no life or punch. I must say this card brings it all together I am hearing mids highs that wasn't there. Also my z-5500s have that punch and fullness that I was not getting. These people did their homework, thank you.

Cons: Only negative I have is the drivers took me some time to get it together after typing in activation keys, unzipping and etc.

Other Thoughts: Again, this card is awesome; music is full with natural sounding bass. Plan to switch the OPAMP which will deliver even better sound. For those of you who are having problems maybe you need to make sure that your previous soundcard drivers are completely gone(DH.com). Buy this card you won't be disappointed.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

cto
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/13/2008 5:09:21 AM

Rating + 1 Makes for an attractive paperweight


Pros: Installed without problems. Comes with 64-bit drivers.

Cons: After installing this card, I immediately began to have problems. PowerDVD refuses to play Blu-ray movies when I use the newest drivers. Previous version drivers create terrible clicking/popping noises and system freezes (using the DDL feature to re-encode TrueHD to Dolby Digital 5.1).
Games sound terrible with DDL. The audio clicks/pops and frequently stops working altogether. Certain games crash.
Onboard audio was a welcome change from this card.

Other Thoughts: I e-mailed AzunenTech's customer support today, so I can't comment on their support department.
I should have known not to buy another X-Fi product, but the lack of the "Creative" name on this card got my hopes up; it was a bad choice.
The card is currently sitting on my desk as a decoration.

4 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/9/2008 5:53:13 AM

Rating + 1 Unsatisfied


Pros: The sound was amazing when it worked

Cons: Ventrilo doesnt work for more than a few minutes with this card, so I still had to use my onboard sound for that. Almost immediately after installing this card I began to get various bsod's. I changed my memory, the settings in the bios, and even tried reinstalling my os, but nothing helped. I removed the sound card, and the bsod's eased up, but still continued. I purchased a new motherboard, and everything was smooth sailing with zero bsod's. Auzentech released new drivers, and I thought I would give this card a second chance. I installed this card in my pc and upon powering up I recieved a bsod directly after post. Not wanting to fool with this hassle again I removed the card only to be greeted by bsod after bsod. I dont understand how, but this card wiped out two motherboards. I tossed this piece of junk in the trash where it belonged. Although add in sound is far superior in quality to onboard, I will never stray from onboard sound again... its just not worth the trouble.

Other Thoughts: Newegg is the best

4 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Anti
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/2/2008 6:33:00 AM

Rating + 5 Excellent Sound Card


Pros: All the goodies of the X-Fi chipset, without all the creative bloatware.

Cons: Price

Other Thoughts: Excellent card for gaming. I have this connected to my Astro A40 Headset, and the sound is just incredible. If you can afford it, this is the card to get.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Will
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/31/2008 2:08:21 PM

Rating + 2 Good Hardware, Terrible Support


Pros: DDL out is nice, as is the ability to have a non-Creative X-Fi class card.

Cons: Hardware is almost "moody." Support from Auzen is non-existent (good luck getting anybody to reply to a help ticket about *anything*). Their driver downloads have been absent for quite a while, and despite claiming to be back up, aren't really working.

Other Thoughts: The hardware is fine, if somewhat overpriced, when it works. Auzen's driver support is, in a word, awful, as is their tech support.

Pick your poison: support a monopolizing, stale company like Creative or the borderline-incompetent upstart Auzen.

6 out of 8 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Russell
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/31/2008 7:06:53 AM

Rating + 2 Follow up to my last review.


Pros: See my last review

Cons: i made a customer support ticket and I guess an e mail saying "We will send the RC5-1_Patch1.0 driver which is the latest one to your personal email account via Webhard email today." Well no driver so I replied and still no e mail with a driver. I even checked my bulk mail. Well the second time I still didn't get a driver. This time I did not check my bulk mail and guess what it was there. But the link was expired so I e mailed them again asking if they could resend the link to the driver. Well like all the other times I got the automated e mail but no other response. Well 10 days later I got an e mail that said they would be releasing the driver on their web page and I should wait for it! The reason they didn't reply for so long was because they were stalling till the the new "hack proof" driver was about to be released. Well I found someone had put the driver on a file server and posted a a link to it in a computer form! (continued below)

Other Thoughts: Yaay for them I have a updated driver so Auzentech can keep their "hack proof version" Overall it is a very good sound card but don't expect support from the manufacturer. Not to say Creative has better customer support lol.

5 out of 8 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Malketh
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/29/2008 7:29:28 PM

Rating + 4


Pros: Fantastic card for gaming and you don't have to really deal with Creative. Dolby Digital Live is really nice when hooked up with Logitech's Z-5500 speakers.

Cons: Nowhere near as many tweaking options as Creative's X-Fi offerings, and the complete lack of Dolby decoding on the Prelude really made me wish I'd done even more research before buying since the X-Fi chip is certainly capable of doing the job.

Other Thoughts: If you need to decode Dolby Digital signals then go with the Creative board (I use the X-Fi Elite Pro which sadly doesn't do as great a job with the hacked drivers and DDL from the wonderful Daniel_K), but if you don't need Dolby decoding and/or want/need Dolby Digital Live encoding then go with Auzentech's. Getting drivers is easy if slightly annoying thanks to having to use Auzentech's support page and waiting for an email with a download link, but that only took a day of waiting since I put the ticket in at like 9pm EST.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/29/2008 11:44:20 AM

Rating + 5 Great Card for those who can spare it


Pros: Very good signal-to-noise ratio. Excellent frequency response. What more can you ask for? This the best sound card money can buy. AzuenTech improved upon CreativeLab's X-Fi crystalizer technology and incorporated it into this killer card. Plus, since it's based on the X-Fi, you still get current EAX 5, as opposed to non-creative cards that are permanently stuck at EAX 2. Great card for gamers who simply must have great sound.

Cons: Expensive! This card simply may not give enough benefit to justify it's purchase over any other X-Fi card. This is the Rolls-Royce of sound cards, but most other people will be happy with the Chevette.

Other Thoughts: Would have been nice to have had color coded connectors on the back of the card.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

DEC123
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/28/2008 9:04:33 AM

Rating + 4 Good, but not everything I wanted it to be.


Pros: Very good analogue output. Made me realize how bad the analogue outputs of my other cards and motherboards are. CPU off loading, though I wonder how much that really means given today's processors. EAX 5.0 for gamers.

Cons: The analogue output is not resulting in as crisp a sound as the S/PDIF outputs of this card or my other less expensive cards. It's especially noticeable in the initial punch of sounds coming through my Onkyo to the sub woofer. I am unsatisfied with CMSS performance. I initially had the 20% volume another reviewer noted, but after playing with the settings the problem did not return. The analogue outputs are so close to each other that you cannot make some of the "better" connectors you might buy fit without shaving them down. That really perplexes me given the analogue quality emphasis. Sadly it is a common issue with modern sound cards.

Other Thoughts: It took Auzentech 4 days to respond to me with a link to the new drivers. They are .rar compressed, which was a minor irritant.

At present I would not recommend the card for HTPC if you are going to use S/PDIF to your receiver and it is a quality unit. You can obtain the desired results far cheaper. If you are looking to run analogue to your receiver or PC surround speakers then this is an expensive option for very good sound.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

marcin
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
5/25/2008 12:12:54 PM

Rating + 1 DO NOT BUY THIS - DISRESPECTFUL CUSTOMER SUPPORT


Pros: DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT AS YOU WILL GET ABSOLUTELY NO TECH SUPPORT - THERE IS NO DRIVERS AVAILABLE ON THEIR WEBSITE TO DOWNLOAD. EVERY WEEK THEY POST A NEW DATE THE DRIVERS WILL BE AVAILABLE.

YOU HAVE TO SUBMIT THE TICKET AND NEVER GET ANYTHING BACK. THIS DISRESPECTFUL TREATMENT MAKES ME WANT TO THROW THIS JUNK IN THE GARBAGE

Cons: PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF TROUBLE AND STRESS AND STAY AWAY WITH THIS COMPANY THAT DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS

Other Thoughts: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT

4 out of 15 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Russell
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/20/2008 7:16:49 PM

Rating + 5 Excellent Soundcard!


Pros: This is a very good alternative to Creative soundcards. I don’t own the Creative X-Fi card so I can’t compare them side by side but from looking at the specifications this card seems to be the better choice. I purchased this card because I upgraded from 2 tiny speakers to a 5.1 speaker setup. With the integrated sound everything was flat and the sound had no depth but now it sounds great. When listening to music it sounds awesome and when playing games you hear more sounds around you.

Cons: You can’t download updated drivers from the website! When you go to the download section you get the message “Due to security concerns we have temporarily disabled downloads of the X-Fi Prelude driver”. What Auzentec means by “security concerns” is someone figured a way to modify the Auzentech X-Fi driver to use it on Creative soundcards. This upset the folks at Auzentech enough to take the driver download off their website. If you want a driver you have to go to the Auzentech website and fill out a form with your serial number to start a support ticket so they can e mail you the driver. To me this is a bit much just to get an updated driver! Although this irritates me I still would buy it again.

Other Thoughts: This card isn’t cheap but you get what you pay for. You might save a few bucks buying a SoundBlaster X-Fi but then you will have to deal with Creative’s “wonderful” software and customer support. Even with the con above I give it five stars!

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

ArcticAndy
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
5/20/2008 11:42:28 AM

Rating + 5 A Creative card that's better than Creative


Pros: I have two PCs, one running Vista Home Premium the other running Win XP SP3. Both boxes have this card and both installs were straightforward stick it in the slot, power on, load drivers and reboot. I run WoW and Battleground 2 on both computers, and the card works flawlessly with both games.

My XP box also includes games like FIFA 08, Call of Duty 2, Oblivion and the Lord of the Rings MMO - and again, none have any issues using this card or its EAX 5.0 3D sound.

There have been reports of problems with Creative products - especially on Vista. I'm happy to say this version has none of those problems.

The main reason for getting this card over something like the Audigy 2 or the cheaper versions without X-RAM has to be performance, whether that's with sound, movies or games.

I have a 5 speaker Sony surround system connected via the card's digital output. Generally the performance boost is around 6-7 FPS over the Audigy 2 and it blows any motherboard chipset away.

Cons: One minor gripe. The control software is extremely good, offering easy settings for changing the mode of the card and basing it's performance on Entertainment, Games, etc.

However PCs are still mostly a games oriented device when it comes to sound, so having to remember to constantly switch it to "game" mode from it's default "entertainment" setting is a small annoyance.

Obviously that's hardly a show stopper, and I had to think long and hard just to figure out something that might be a con to me, but a positive to those that use PCs for movies.

If I could work out a way of defaulting the card to "game" mode I'd be a tiny bit happier. As it is I just have to run a piece of software and click once. Or close the game, run the software and click once.

Other Thoughts: The EAX support up to v5.0 is great, and obviously available because it's a souped up Creative Labs card. Having the onboard ram means that you get a performance boost even when using 3D sound effects. Whether that's ambient sound or hearing things creeping up on you from behind, it definitely adds to any game's atmosphere. Yes that does mean you hear the approach of enemy players as they try to sneak up on you, brilliant for PvP in WoW or BG2. Also great for feeling immersed in the stadium atmosphere in FIFA 08.

Even if you don't use these features you'll still gain a small performance boost, just because the card is taking more of the load from the motherboard chipset and processor.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

musicman
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/19/2008 11:57:55 AM

Rating + 5 Excellent card!!


Pros: I absolutely love this audio card! The fidelity is excellent, both in games and for listening to music. I purchased this to replace my SoundBlaster XFI Fatality Pro, because the SoundBlaster doesn't work in Windows Vista 64. I am so glad I did, this card blows away the soundblaster in every facet. The Auzentech Software installed in my dual-booting XP/Vista computer without a hitch.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I will never buy another Creative Labs/Soundblaster product EVER AGAIN. I would definitely buy another Auzen product again in the future, their software support is excellent!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Jordan Kratz
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/17/2008 7:53:50 AM

Rating + 4


Pros: Has Good Sound.No issues with the sound so far.Sound is clean and as goos if not better than the older Audigy 2 ZS I had

Cons: Would not install from box !!! Forced me to make a tech support call on a regular non-800 phone line.Tech support sent me a link to download drivers since they have none on their own website.Ended up wasting around 40 minutes to install this and it is only a sound card !!!

Other Thoughts: Not sure of the benefits of this card verses creative.
Now I own it so I might as well enjoy it.
Worst website support I have seen.Not putting drivers that work on your website......great idea guys

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

ArynBergman
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/16/2008 9:14:35 PM

Rating + 1 No support


Pros: X-FI chip plus front audio sound ports

Cons: Does not work on a MB with AMD 780G chip and Vista 64 and I cannot download drivers from website. Says something about a security issue. Contacted tech support but haven't heard anything for a few days.

Other Thoughts: Getting equipment that doesn't work is getting old.

3 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

wat
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
5/14/2008 9:15:28 PM

Rating + 5 Great card


Pros: Great analog output quality. OFFICIAL Dolby Digital real-time encoding. Real-time DTS encoding coming soon (on Vista). X-Fi chip on a non Creative product. Great for gaming AND music AND movies. I've haven't had any problems under XP SP3. HDMI extension DIN for multichannel LPCM output coming within a month or so.

Cons: Only front L/R opamp is swappable with out busting out the soldering iron. No hardware DD or DTS decoding. Figuring out the proper CMSS settings can take a bit of research (not as easy as turning on a setting for say Dolby Headphone or Dolby Pro Logic II). Not as much logos on this box as other Auzentech cards, but CMSS covers the feature gaps listed above. No THX logo or settings although the quality of the card clearly surpasses Creative's X-Fi cards. Newer Dolby Digital Live drivers won't be back on their site until May 19th because Creative X-Fi owners were using a hacked version of them to get Dolby Digital encoding on Creative's Cards.

Other Thoughts: If you care nothing about gaming or decreasing CPU load in games, get another card from Auzentech, HT Omega, or others. EAX and hardware audio ISN'T dead because of Vista. Game developers can still do it in sound APIs other than DirectSound3D. That is how Bioshock uses EAX in conjuction with the OpenAL API. That aside, this card will please music and movie geeks AND gamers.

This card is for people who want excellent analog output ALONG with excellent gaming support and Dolby Digital & DTS encoding.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

ZZMAN
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/13/2008 6:09:57 AM

Rating + 1 BAD SOUND CARD !


Pros: It came in a nice Box with a fiber optic cable.

Cons: It would "not" work out of the box after installing with the icluded software. I could not get the drivers for it without applying for them because the company would not give them without a serial number. It also required a patch.

Other Thoughts: After Tweaking for about 2 hours, I could only get about 20% VOLUME level. An Expensive Card that would not work out of the Box. Worst card I ever purchased. Going Back to Sound Blaster ! (Windows XP )

3 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Ace4_0
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/12/2008 10:54:50 AM

Rating + 5


Pros: Great card upgrase for onboard sound from asua p5n32 sli plus Hellgate London sounds great Drivers from sight work well have Vista home basic 64

Cons: none yet

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

mova
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/12/2008 2:07:45 AM

Rating + 5 Perfection


Pros: Clear highs and rich lows,you REALLY open up your music with this apu, although it's great for gaming, im truly blown away by the audio quality.

Cons: The price and maybe the slow driver updates.

Other Thoughts: This really is a great card, even some of my lossy mp3's sound somewhat acceptable. I do suggest you pair it with a good set of cans or digital speakers to really get your money's worth.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Xan81
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
5/8/2008 6:12:24 AM

Rating + 5 Beatiful sound


Pros: I've always read when people say things like, "I'm hearing things I've never heard before with this sound card!" and I've always thought that they were full of it.

Well, after installing this card, I (of course) tested it with some Portishead.

Wow. There are so many more audiophiliac elements that I've never heard before. Whispers, beats, even instruments that I've never heard before in these tracks.

Easy to install (obviously; it's just PCI); however, read in the "other thoughts" section...

Cons: Insofar not very Spider-friendly (as in the platform).

Other Thoughts: I'm going to have to figure out how to get HDMI-audio working again with this card. Not a con (otherwise, I'd put this in the 'con' section), but having the drivers for the Spider-compatible audio installed is wreaking havoc on the sound quality.

I will have to figure something out.

For reference: Vista x64 Ultimate, AMD Phenom 9500+, 4x1GB Mushkin EP 8500 DDR2, MSI K9A2 Platinum, Sapphire AMD 3850 Ultimate, Auzentech Prelude 7.1, Antec TruePower Quattro 850W PS, Logitech X-540 5.1 Speakers, Logitech LX710 Cordless Desktop, APC Back-UPS ES 750.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

a-dub
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/7/2008 7:05:18 PM

Rating + 4 Good card, but audible cracking


Pros: Clear sound quality, definite upgrade over my old Turtle Catalina card.

Cons: Near constant cracking/popping sound disrupts the overall sound experience as some other users have noted. The latest drivers (as of 5/7) do not fix this issue, and the website for Auzentech claims that they will not have a download available until 5/19.

Other Thoughts: Again, a solid card with good, clear quality, but they need to fix the crackling before it can earn a solid 5.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Seeker2
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/7/2008 5:20:15 PM

Rating + 1 Not Impressed


Pros: Pretty packaging? Its the only positive I have.

Cons: Ok...to start. No color coding on speaker connections.
Got around that by looking at manual and connecting as suggested. Boot up and cancel loading drivers as I wanted the latest from the site. Go to site and read that there is a problem with Prelude drivers and could not download. Expected return of the drivers is 5/19....huh? Ok...load drivers and software from disk and once rebooted I find that my only speaker option is 2/2.1? I have 7.1 speakers connected! Open up a support ticket and no response. Sorry to those who think I am being to harsh in my review, but I paid top dollar for this (Newegg doesn't like the posting of prices) and expect much more for the money I paid.

Other Thoughts: I am thinking of returning this item and suggest to anyone thinking of purchasing it to at least wait until they get their driver download taken care of.

3 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Spyder2k5
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/7/2008 10:38:19 AM

Rating + 5 Its creative, but its not...


Pros: Works wonders on how it makes games and movies sound. Music is so full and sharp with this card. It has X-Fi but does not use creative drivers.

Cons: None, Maybe price is a little steep, but well worth it.

Other Thoughts: Drop creatives cards?

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Miffed
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/7/2008 4:29:11 AM

Rating + 2 When and if it works right, great card


Pros: This card has all the features and specs right, sounds wonderful, and it probably could be a great card.

Sound is very clean, seems to have good grounding and interference protections. Analog has a lot of punch, not weak at all and when using Digital Out it is so clean and noise-free - it's just beautiful.

Cons: In my experience - tech support is HORRIBLE, like other posters have bee in a runaround with their support site and subject to huge lags in their response.

Card is unstable in Dolby Live over SPDIF, drivers trigger Blue Screens of Death more than anything else I've seen on Vista - early NVIDIA drives included.

Other Thoughts: Support seems to be universally poor but it seems to be hit or miss if you are going to have massive issues with the hardware/driver. Be wary of this one and keep the receipt!


Abit IP35 Pro
Core2 Quad 2.6
4GB RAM @ 1066 5-5-5-15
Vista32 SP1

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Nvidia User
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/7/2008 3:31:42 AM

Rating + 2 Does not play nice with others


Pros: Very good sound quality when playing MP3's and viewing movies when it isn't crackling/popping.

3D stereo surround mode

Cons: Auzentech is very slow to update their drivers. The current drivers constantly crackle and actually cause my desktop to stutter when used with many of the newer Nvidia Vista-64 drivers and causing game crashes.

This could be as much Nvidia's fault as auzentech's but i'm inclined to blame the one with the X-fi chip. This leaves me with the choice of using on-board sound, or not being able to play some fo my games.

By the way I find it very hard to believe any of the glowing reviews on here claiming this card eliminates all crackling/popping on vista 64/SP1, no matter what it's always going to do it occasionally.

Other Thoughts: 790i Ultra reference board, 2x2 PC 1600 corsair ram, Q9450, 2x 8800 GTS 512

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/6/2008 4:47:38 PM

Rating + 5 Fantastic HTPC and Gaming Card


Pros: EAX 5.0 X-FI and Dolby Digital in one card. DTS coming in Q2 08. This is an amazing audio card. The built in DaC's are amazing most likely better than the DaC's in your home theatre receiver. I don't want to start the debate but seriously try the analogue outputs if your receiver supports separate inputs for surround, you might find it better than the coax or optical connections.

Cons: Chuck Norris not included

Other Thoughts: This card suffered from some early reviews, perhaps the drivers were not yet mature enough. Use a clean install when setting this up, I did and had no problems. I'll bet you 20 Schrute bucks people with issues didn't do a clean install.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Giengus
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/24/2008 7:35:49 AM

Rating + 4 Works with Vista 64-bit SP1


Pros: EAX 5.0 support, works under Vista 64-bit SP1, flawless sound in Assassin's Creed. This card installed with minimal fuss on my Vista 64-bit with SP1. Make sure you download the RC5 drivers though or you'll not get the AuzenTech software to work. The packaging is minimalistic with a very solid board design. Gold plating throughout.

Cons: There is no color coding on the connectors and when the card is installed it is impossible to know where to plug things in. The Alchemy does not detect Assassin's Creed (which is the only game installed at this writing) and without the RC5 drivers installed the card is not detected by any of the software that comes with the card. There is little or no controls for the Mic other than a volume control and a Mic boost which did nothing for my Headset Mic.

Other Thoughts: Intel Q9300 CPU
EVGA nForce 790i Ultra MBD
Patriot DDR3-1333 4GB (2x2GB)
MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 512 (G92)
Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/15/2008 11:48:55 AM

Rating + 5 Crystal Clear Audio, without the Creative Shenangians


Pros: There's no doubt that Creative makes some pretty good hardware. Where they often fail is their support, service, and driver updates. With the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude you get the best audio hardware on the market without having to deal with Creative's miserable service or drivers. Add to that, feature-for-feature, the X-Fi Prelude crushes the competing Creative XtremeGamer Fatal1ty. Here you get separate outputs for each speaker as well as Optical and Digital Coaxial outputs, making it very simple to connect this card to any home theater system or high-end desktop audio setup. The sound was unbelievably clear with excellent highs, mids, and lows on both my 7.1 Sony HT and 5.1 Klipsh Premedia desktop setups. The positional audio is simply incredible, with plenty of tools for tweaking depending on your setup. Also, everything works painlessly on my copy of Vista Ultimate 64.

Cons: For some reason, the first time I ran the install (downloaded from the Auzentech website instead of from the included CD) the software claimed that no compatibly device was installed. In the end, I had to uninstall all the software, manually install the device driver from Device Manager, THEN reinstall the software. I have a feeling this had something to do with my using the 64bit version of Vista, but it really didn't require too much troubleshooting.

Other Thoughts: If you want the best soundcard you can get without directly lining Creative's pockets, this is THE soundcard to get. I really can't convey any better how pleased I am with the quality of the audio and number of features. Finally, since Auzentech writes their own drivers, you get updates a lot more frequently than you do with Creative's own cards. Add to that, Dolby digital support in Vista and there's just no reason you SHOULDN'T own this card. Don't let the price deter you, you really do get what you pay for.

9 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

UnderEst
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/15/2008 8:50:05 AM

Rating + 5 Amazing Sound Card!


Pros: Vista Support is great; no problems! Also, this is one of the only non-Creative cards that has the X-Fi chipset. The sound quality is great, even in headphones. It absolutely blew me away how great the sound is with movies, games, and music. You definitely won't be disappointed.

Cons: The price of the card is pretty expensive, but this is one card that you could carry over to a new system down the road.

Other Thoughts: I've never used a sound card other than one by Creative. But since I've migrated my home systems over to Windows Vista, Creative's cards lacked driver support. And without driver support, things don't work properly and you have an unstable system. Auzentech was the way to go!

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Puffnstuff
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
4/10/2008 2:44:02 AM

Rating + 4 Microphone jack doesn't work


Pros: All hard caps and the x-fi sound chip, well marked jacks on the card

Cons: Microphone port doesn't work. Contaced auzentech through the ticket scheme and they acknowledged they were working on a solution and to be patient.

Other Thoughts: I bought one and everything worked except for the microphone port. I ended up returning it and purchased another creative x-fi extremegamer fatal1ty professional which does work in vista as it should. Not defending creative since it took them over a year to produce functional drivers for vista. Leave this auzentech card alone until they work out the issues.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/6/2008 2:19:44 PM

Rating + 4 Great sound card


Pros: Works with Windows Vista.
Excellent sound quality with music and games
Noticeable improvement over my old Audigy 2 ZS

Cons: If I enable the x-fi hardware mode I get strange noises and squealing sounds out of the speakers. I've encountered this problem before with other x-fi cards and I'm not sure exactly what the problem is.

Other Thoughts: Overall one of the best htpc and gaming sound cards around. It is a high quality card and is the only x-fi card that I have gotten to work.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Cowboy
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/5/2008 9:16:36 AM

Rating + 5 AWESOME!


Pros: Great sound. Really worth the price. Makes my Z5500 sound so much better. Doesnt take my FPS away as i used to have with a Xonar. EZX 5.0 is amazing!!! im addicted to my new sound.

Cons: The audio driver installation stalled at 63% overnight and i just ctrl+alt+deled it and my sound works now.

Other Thoughts: Definite upgrade from xonar d2. best spent 170 bucks on my computer.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

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