Creative Xi-Fi, Prelude or Xonar?

Deaco

Deaco

Deaco

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Heya, basically which of those would you stick in you system, runnign Vista Home Premium 64 bit.

I'm trying to spec a PC, and currently using onboard sound (Nforce 2 Soundstorm) to hook my comp up to AV via optical. However this isn't needed (although the option to use them speakers in the future would be good).

Currently have a set of 6.1 Creative speakers that use standard analog pin outs that I'd like to use, and preferably have EAX, however I know the Xi-Fi's seem to be very hit and miss, with some people having to swap the parts out due to it sounding like a bowl of rice crispies - where as others seem to be running fine.

Basically I'm looking for a good card, with working drivers and preferabbly EAX5 but I think the xonar is the only card that seems to work well and I guess that, like the Soundstorm only does EAX 2? :confused:

Anyway, cheers for any help :)
 
The Xonar will do EAX 5 through the software, but it wont work in all games. I had a Xonar D2, but i sold it. It is a great card and the sound quality is good, but i preferr my prelude.

If your looking for a gaming card then the prelude is a very good choice.
 
I had an creative labs X-fi and it caused me a few headaches in Vista Ultimate 64. I went for the prelude afterwards and its been fine. I think it may just be down to drivers though
 
My choices were Xonar DX2 or Auzen Prelude, I went with the Prelude. Opamps can be upgraded with little fuss, EAX through hardware, Auzen have a solid history in the soundcard business, Prelude has front panel connectors, Xonar doesn't.

It's just a case of price and reading a few reviews. Unless you can somehow get a side by side test.. which isn't likely. Both are good cards.


I was warned by numerous folk to avoid the creative cards, which I did, so I've no clue about them.
 
I would stay away from Creative aswell. I never owned a Prelude but from the reviews it seems like a very sweet card to have. I currently own the Xonar D2 and it a very nice soundcard. Mostly use my soundcard for music and watching movies and the fact that is sounded better then my M-Audio Rev5.1 made me love this card.
Audio in games is very nice. It depends what your budget is aswell.
The Prelude while a very good sound card it's quite expensive. There are three flavours of the Xonar. The D2 and D2X use the same hardware, the first one is PCI and the second is PCI-E. There is also another model which is quite cheaper but lacks a couple of features that are of no use to most people.
 
Cutshaw said:
.....Auzen have a solid history in the soundcard business....

.......I was warned by numerous folk to avoid the creative cards, which I did, so I've no clue about them.
Click to expand...

ok well firstly, auzen made an impact but they are no better at fixing their cards than creative are. you know that mic level problem that people have been having with the prelude? that dates right back to the original x-mystique which i owned. and they never fixed it on that card, or any card after that.

additionally, the prelude is a Creative XFI. using an XFI spu, running on modified xfi drivers. What auzen did was design the rest of the card. socketed op-amps are all well and good but i dont think thats a reason to buy one card over another unless your running a nice amp and pair of speakers:)
 
Ive had a prelude since launch (last november?) and for sound its a great card,mainly for gaming.

Two things that bug me,the mic has never worked and recently you have to register your card in order to download the latest drivers and then you get a key which you have to enter when installing the drivers which only gives you 3 activations.

Use the 3 up then your off to auzentech begging for another activation key,if they dont change this i doubt i'll ever buy another auzentech card.
 
Fair enough, Mr M.


I said my choice was between the Asus and Auzen, and was only comparing the two.

Aside the mic problem, I've heard of no other problems at all with the Auzen. Compared to the doom and gloom you seem to trip over whenever you get within earshot of the current Creative built cards. BSOD, popping and cracking, etc. I was fortunate that the mic issue was looked at in the recent drivers, the only drivers I've used with the Prelude.

As I said in my previous post. I've really no clue about the newer Creatives, just what I've read and been told.

I do have a relatively nice amp and speakers. It's the only reason I cared enough to look into getting a soundcard.
 
How well does the Xonar perform in emulating EAX 3/4/5?

Seems to be the best out of the lot..

Not sure about the X-Fi prelude as it's basically a creative card in disguise, although not sure how much EAX has an impact on games these days.. thought that they got rid of that with Vista?
 
Well Pedlude = Creative with exactly same problems and issues as Creative cards as they use same drivers and hardware.

EAX is dying and is not worth investing in it. There are 2 reasons first Vista with no support for hardware mixing second much more important - cross platform games = consoles = no EAX what so ever.

Last point in Vista Xonar is often doing much better job in EAX games then Prelude as prelude use Creatice Alchemy to simulate D3D Sound and alchemy is one big Joke.

Xonar uses it own mapping software which actually works quiet well.

I had same problem as you and I went for Xonar and I am more then happy with it (but I am still testing it for lat 2 months).

And Xonar in tests is showing more precise sound reproduction than Prelude.
 
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