Auzen Forte vs ASUS Xonar Essence STX

[Soulburner]

Get the STX. Can't comment on Auzentech but have been using Creative cards including 2 X-fi's in the past. Noticed immediately a major improvement in sound quality with the STX. Simply put the sound sounds crisper, richer, and adds a whole new level of immersion in various multimedia. The campaign in Call of Duty 4 sounds insane! I've got Swans M10 speakers and they're finally reaching their potential.

Added to this the installation is no fuss no muss. No bullsh-t software, driver updates actually work, software has a very small profile; it really is a night and day comparison here. Also speaking for myself I always thought EAX was a little bit of a gimick and doesn't really add a whole bunch to the overall audio experience-but that's just me.

But to be fair this is Auzentech not Creative here. And from what I understand Auzentech really brings the X-fi chip to its full potential with cleaned up software and drivers among other things.

But if anything if price isn't a concern you could simply get the STX just based on the physical appearance of the card... It's a very classy and sophisticated looking piece of hardware.

Anyway this is my first ASUS card and I don't plan on going back to Creative any time soon.

Completely different hardware.

Too many people relate Auzen to Creative, and I can kind of understand why, but its getting old. Completely different companies. Auzentech cards are top notch and there is no justification to not buy one just because you are tired of Creative. They use the X-Fi chip to build their own implementation of a superior sound card with different components.

If the Forte is anything like the Prelude (and I'll assume it is, can't be that different), it will rock. The software is light and stable, mine has been set-it-and-forget-it for a long time now, save turning off CMSS whenever I game (so proper 5.1 is used).