Auzentech X-Fi Prelude Returns

ScottiB

ScottiB

ScottiB

OcUK Systems
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After months of waiting the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude finally returns to these shores. The exceptional demand experienced during the initial release meant that all stock sold much quicker than Auzentech expected and so I have been waiting with baited breath for this new batch to arrive.

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Auzentech, the audiophile favourite teamed up with Creative to provide the perfect sound card for todays PC junkies. No longer do you have to choose between superior sound quality and EAX support, this card has it all.
 
Well EAX for games would me nice, I'm not sure how much difference there would be for anything output over optical, none I would imagine.
 
Going from onboard to this with a pair of aego m's made a huge difference for me. Beore they would distort at about a quater way up the dial. Now i crank them up to full and it sound sublime. lol

Dont know how good your onboard is though.
 
The main difference is the way that the signal is handled after the initial A-D conversion, you are asking the difference between an Auzentech card and onboard audio...well this is the difference:

Auzentech - high performance audio OPAMP IC's for each channel such as those used in professional audio equipment, solid capacitors, X-Fi support, co-axial & optical digital inputs & outputs.

Onboard - mass produced OEM audio codec IC based on the AC97 Intel Standard, which as the name suggests is now ten years old or the Intel HD Audio standard which is about 5 years old.
 
Ive had my prelude for a few months now and one thing that is a terrible let down is the fact that the microphone is absolutley pants on this card and basically doesnt work.
 
It is i'm afraid. It's a software issue rather than hardware though as the issues only appear every few restarts on my X-Fi.
 
Pah sorry I won't be buying one then, maybe these people need to fix their software before releasing the hardware! (novel thought).
 
creative & auzentech both have the same issues...does that mean its a problem with X-Fi software or Vista?...never had the issue with XP myself
 
On my previous x-fi card the mic always worked well in xp but not in vista,my preludes mic has never worked well in either xp or vista.
 
I read a review that said the card can't output raw ac3/dts signals. Is this the case?
 
is there any news of a fix for the mic issue, i cant really buy this card then find im gettin mic issues as i use a mic daily. preety annoying
 
meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehh


and be warned, mic issues arent a creative problem, they are an auzentech problem. dont be too surprised if it never gets fixed, as is the trend with their other soundcards.

ScottiB said:
The main difference is the way that the signal is handled after the initial A-D conversion, you are asking the difference between an Auzentech card and onboard audio...well this is the difference:

Auzentech - high performance audio OPAMP IC's for each channel such as those used in professional audio equipment, solid capacitors, X-Fi support, co-axial & optical digital inputs & outputs.
Click to expand...

Analogue > digital conversion isnt working yet as you probably know (im referring to ddlive and dts interactive of course) and when it is, and everybody goes nuts and starts using DDLive/DTSi, then those hi performance opamps wont even get used.


i can understand getting a high performance analogue card. i can understand the need for a ddlive/DTSi card. what i cant understand is doing both on one card and charging the earth for it knowing that this feature that everybody is waiting for will mean their high performance analogue parts wont even be used. the smart money (as far as the consumer is concerned) would be on an encoding card with average analogue outputs, or a high quality analogue card without DD/DTS encoding which could both be made available cheaper.
 
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