Auzen X-fi Prelude Pic!

[ROBSCIX]

Here's a pic of the New Auzentech X-fi Prelude 7.1.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/audio/1451-auzen-x-fi-prelude-pic.html#post10627
The specifications are in the same forum.

[vladimir]

Any news on whether Creative or Auzentech is developing the drivers? The only mention/rumor I have discovered is that Creative will be developing the drivers for this particular card. It this is indeed the case, the Auzentech may not fair much better than a X-Fi.

[Donnie27]

Any news on whether Creative or Auzentech is developing the drivers? The only mention/rumor I have discovered is that Creative will be developing the drivers for this particular card. It this is indeed the case, the Auzentech may not fair much better than a X-Fi.

It will use Creative's drivers since Auzen doesn't develope anything drivers wise.

I saw this at Daily Tech yesterday.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7492

[vladimir]

Well crap!
We will still have to deal with Creative's "stellar" driver support!

[Donnie27]

Well crap!
We will still have to deal with Creative's "stellar" driver support!

Mine works LOL! Not worried about Creative's drivers at all.:up:

[RealTelstar]

Creative drivers are utter crap.

[Donnie27]

Creative drivers are utter crap.

Those utter crap drivers work for me:) More than likely Auzentech thinks they work as well or they'd not bother with them:rofl:

[RealTelstar]

They work in XP, but in any other OS you'll have only problems. Of which I really got fed off.

[Donnie27]

They work in XP, but in any other OS you'll have only problems. Of which I really got fed off.

Maybe you're right, I'm sticking with WinXP for now. I do have a few bud's debugging Vista and it has more than just sound card issues.

[nullface]

I dont get it, is this a rebrandet Creative card or what?

[Soulburner]

I dont get it, is this a rebrandet Creative card or what?
Not even close. This is a high quality Auzentech card with the X-Fi chip for EAX. We will finally get the best of both worlds...

[ROBSCIX]

Hardware or drivers are possibly the cause of the production delays... You can be assured of one thing, that card won't get to market with any major issues.
Auzentech has extended themselves as a top quality audio company. Releasing anything but perfection for this card at this point would be extremely bad. I am not worried about this product one bit, drivers or hardware wise. The more delays the better... We all know what happens when products are rushed to market to quick.

[Donnie27]

I dont get it, is this a rebrandet Creative card or what?

The problem is what Creative Labs didn't do. There's NOTHING wrong with the 20K1 DSP. Cheap Caps, Not the best DACs, Opamps and ADC (not counting the Elite Pro) are all areas that could stand improvements on the X-FI's. They're hard but not impossible to mod. Once modded, some have been blown away and wonder out loud, why didn't Creative add ____, ____ and use _________?

Meanwhile, the XMeridian shipped with better DACs, not sure about the ADC's, far better caps and layout. IMHO, sounded slightly better than the Elite Pro before the Opamp upgrade. But the Opamp upgrade made it even better. I agree with MaximumPC, Tech Report, GamePC and Extreme Tech over the lesser sites who'd use the XMeridian for Games. I feel this way because I play more first person shooters that RTS or etc... I listen to most of my Music and watch movies on my HTS in my Den downstairs.

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2007q1/oxygen-sound-cards/index.x?pg=1


So we like the X-Meridian, or at least we like it more than the Inferno. But would we recommend it over an X-Fi? No. You see, the whole point behind cards based on the Oxygen HD is their ability to encode DTS or Dolby Digital Live output in real-time. That functionality is a boon to gamers looking to pipe digital output to speakers or a receiver with a single cable, but if you're serious about surround sound gaming, you really want something with hardware-accelerated positional audio and more advanced EAX support.

The difference between EAX 2.0 and 5.0 is far from academic, and as our game performance tests show, the X-Fi's hardware acceleration can give in-game frame rates a huge boost, even with all sorts of extra 3D voices. That's not the worst of it, though. The Oxygen-based cards can't keep up with the frame rates offered by ADI integrated motherboard audio, either. If you want multi-channel output in games, get an X-Fi and learn to live with analog cables—it's better than suffering through higher CPU utilization, lower frame rates, and fewer in-game sounds just to run a single optical cable.


The Auzentech Prelude 7.1 will address the shortcomings of both cards. It will sound better overall than the X-Fi in any mode. It will sound better for most games than the XMeridian. It seems that Auzen is not as worried about Drivers as some folks think.

[ROBSCIX]

The shipping date has been revised to end of June.

[Donnie27]

They work in XP, but in any other OS you'll have only problems. Of which I really got fed off.

Also note that Games run slower in Vista than they do in WinXP. Since I only have a X1800XT, I don't need anything else slowing down my performance.

[ROBSCIX]

Let's see if the date will stick this time. I personally like delays of this nature. It assures me the company is fixing issues that need attention. I can remember some product releases that were disastrous. Not naming any names or products.

[Andrew LB]

They work in XP, but in any other OS you'll have only problems. Of which I really got fed off.

Mine worked great with XP, XP-64, and now Vista-32.

[Donnie27]

Mine worked great with XP, XP-64, and now Vista-32.

Mine worked as well but saying that on some forums gets you flamed!

[ROBSCIX]

Anyway...There has been further info released to suggest this card will feature BOTH Dolby Digital and DTS aswell. First reports suggested the card would only feature DDL, this is great news considering DTS is the better of the two formats for digital enocoding.

[ROBSCIX]

Double posting. Pardon me.

[ROBSCIX]

The company has updated their website to include further info about the card.
Seems the driver will follow a similar modal approach to audio tasks.
http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php

[Donnie27]

RealTelstar
Xtreme Member
Creative drivers are utter crap.


Picks self up from floor from laughing so hard.:rofl:


One 40-pin digital extension header on board to support AD-Link and other digital functionality

S/W and drivers
Creative X-Fi Driver


Same old bloatware but I can use my same I/O Drive, base drivers, Audio Control Panel and YouP_Pax apps.

[OpTioN]

wow that's sexy... can't wait to get my hands on one.

[ROBSCIX]

According to information on the net. Creative Labs did NOT open the source code for the drivers.

[Donnie27]

wow that's sexy... can't wait to get my hands on one.

Same here:)

Don't be shocked or surprised to see some of these improvements make it to at least one or two of the Creative branded cards. Folks are modding X-FI by shorting out parts, changing caps and Opamps as well. They're getting very good results.:up: No way in hell Creative isn't noticing it;)

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=229350

I even saw where folks even emailed Creative about such mods in Creative's own forums.

[ROBSCIX]

The X-Tension DIN board has been released.

This expansion board is compatible with both the X-Meridian and Upcoming Prelude cards. It has a good feature list. I figured I would post it for you XM users and future Prelude users. Info from the site:

-Turn your PC into a virtual studio workstation with the Auzen X-Tension™ DIN.

You're into audio. You want MIDI in and out. Another microphone input. The purity of digital in and out at 24-bits/192 kHz resolution. Optical or coaxial connections. You want to hear everything and record anything. And now you can.

Specifications

Mic Preamplifier
1) Peak level : 0dBFS @ -40dBV
2) Gain Adjustment : Gain +20dB up
3) 5V power supply (Condenser Mic)
4) Connector Type : 1/4” TRS Input

MIDI I/O
1) 1-in, 1-out 16 MIDI channels in and out
2) Connector Type : MIDI Standard MIDI 5-pin DIN

Digital In
1) Connector Type : RCA or Optical Combo
2) Format : IEC-60958 Consumer(S/PDIF)
3) Sampling Rate :44.1,48,96,192kHz
4) Resolution : 24-bit

Digital Out
1) Connector Type : RCA or Optical Combo
2) Format : IEC-60958 Consumer(S/PDIF)
3) Sampling Rate :44.1,48,96,192kHz
4) Resolution : 24-bit

G9 Digital Out
1) Connector Type : 9-pin Mini Din Jack
2) Format : IEC-60958 Consumer(S/PDIF)
3) Sampling Rate :44.1,48,96,192kHz
4) Resolution : 24-bit


I have been waiting for Midi I/O for my card. It is nice to know that if I decide to move to a Prelude I will still have these features. As far as I am concerned a audio device can never have to much I/O. It is a decent price considering the features it adds to the cards. Also remember the HDMI 1.3 board is coming aswell for you guys that use it...

[ROBSCIX]

The Release date for the Auzen X-FI Prelude has been moved up to end of July.
Auzentech Said:
The revised July 2007 release date for the Auzen X-FI™ Prelude 7.1 allows for in-depth testing of both drivers and hardware. The analysis performed by Auzentech engineers is more detailed than that described on audiophile websites, and is one reason for the superior audio produced by Auzen soundcards.

[Hey_Its_Cole]

Any idea on price???

[ROBSCIX]

Rumored to be similar to the XM...~$200 USD

[EternityZX9]

Hey do you guys think this card will have a fix for the 4GB of ram in Vista 64 problem that a lot of people have?

Would be nice...

Or do I have to wait for the next creative update that's supposed to fix this?

[Donnie27]

Hey do you guys think this card will have a fix for the 4GB of ram in Vista 64 problem that a lot of people have?

Would be nice...

Or do I have to wait for the next creative update that's supposed to fix this?

I'd worry more about them fixing Vista first. I think I'll stick with WinXP, any version of it.

[ROBSCIX]

Hey do you guys think this card will have a fix for the 4GB of ram in Vista 64 problem that a lot of people have?

Would be nice...

Or do I have to wait for the next creative update that's supposed to fix this?


Should be, I was told on another site the manufacturer of a certain MOBO had the fix for it on their mobos. This card is only using the X-fi DSP chip other then that the entire card is different. I would think they are using a different PCI controller on the card. This is all guess work but I would say you have to wait and see. If the bug is there it will be posted rather quickly. This company makes SOLID cards, in both hardware and software.

[EternityZX9]

Should be, I was told on another site the manufacturer of a certain MOBO had the fix for it on their mobos. This card is only using the X-fi DSP chip other then that the entire card is different. I would think they are using a different PCI controller on the card. This is all guess work but I would say you have to wait and see. If the bug is there it will be posted rather quickly. This company makes SOLID cards, in both hardware and software.

Good to hear, I should have a great sound system for my new computer (see sig!) :)

[Donnie27]

Good to hear, I should have a great sound system for my new computer (see sig!) :)

Just specualtion on my part, but if folks are having a 4GB problem now, it will more than likely have it when or if this card ships as well. But that's simply my opinion. It is after all, Creative's drivers and software.

My wait just got a little longer anyway. I just bought a Acer 22" Wide Screen Monitor.

[ROBSCIX]

Here are some New Pictures of the Prelude for you guys to check out. They are at the bottom of the post. They will be outfitting the Prelude with a heatsink aswell. Very nice shots.

New Pictures! (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/audio/1451-auzen-x-fi-prelude-pic.html)

They are near the bottom.