Auzentech XFI Prelude - Mini Review with Pictures

M

Moogle Stiltzkin

Gawd
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
814
SCREENSHOTS OF THE CARD THAT JUST ARRIVED


http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6474/prelude001ma0.jpg
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/5176/prelude002jw7.jpg
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/3161/prelude003nm2.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9427/prelude004yh3.jpg
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7500/prelude005oi3.jpg
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/751/prelude006im1.jpg
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7492/prelude007vi8.jpg
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7532/prelude008mb9.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2164/prelude009dg5.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4710/prelude010jo6.jpg
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5035/prelude011dz3.jpg



Someone at NCIX reported he just got his lucky bastard. Mine is ETA 2 weeks i estimate.


Another person from NCIX forum also posted a mini review

Ok... so I picked up this card today expecting great things, installed it in my case, booted up Vista 32 bit Home Premium then.... nothing. Went to the control panel to see what I could find - just my integrated "High Definition Audio." Opened up my case again, jigged with the card to make sure it was in tight. Then I went into my BIOS and enabled PnP for PCI devices. Booted into Windows, then "voila": new device installation dialogue. Clicked cancel, inserted the driver CD and installed... a few minutes and confirmations later it was installed.

... in the meantime, I was reading the box label, and found some little typos and grammatical errors which makes me think whomever designed it did not have english as a first language.

Back to the card. On the rear there are 8 gold-plated inputs:

- 1 for line in.
- 1 for mic in
- 4 for front, side, rear, center/subwoofer
- 1 for S/PDIF in (combo coax/optical)
- 1 last one for S/PDIF out. (combo coax/optical)

I have a Creative digital decoder and some gigaworks speakers that I wanted to try the card out on. Unfortunately, the optical adapters are terrible. They are longer than the ones in the photo, and don't fit well into the holes. The slightest tug or pull, and they fall out. Had to use coax instead.

I loaded up iTunes and started playing some music. Sounded pretty good, but I wanted to try Crystallizer and the other effects. So I loaded up the X-Fi control console, which I must admit, is pretty slick. There are 3 different modes: game, entertainment, and music creation. I changed the settings on all three, but none seemed to make any difference to the sound that I was getting.

So, I switched out of my digital setup, and went to analog. OK, now I'm getting my effects! Looks like the effects don't get mixed into the digital output. I hope that this state of affairs changes soon... The analog audio quality is fine, but nothing spectacular. Am I going to have to go out and upgrade my OPAMP? I think so... which is kinda sucky (IMHO).

In any case, now on to the games test... which is what I really bought the card for in the first place. I need my EAX5! The game of my choosing is Battlefield 2142. Before I begin, I'm not sure I will switch back to digital. The likelihood that EAX will work over the digital output is next to nil at this point. In any case, FPS gaming is best done with headphones so who cares about S/PDIF!?

I hope that older games will recognize this card as an X-Fi. Heck, I hope that newer games recognize this as an X-Fi. I'll let you know after I play a couple of rounds. More to come in a couple of hours...
Click to expand...

He might have posted more info over there ._.;
 
Well my X-Prelude was either shipped on Friday or will be shipped on Monday (says shipped but no tracking number) via FedEx International Priority. So I guess either Tuesday or Wednesday I should get it. I'm guessing it will preform exactly like my Elite Pro does now, but we'll see.
 
That is what i wondered myself.

Is the reviewer a noob or what ? :confused:

Also what does he mean about the optical adapters ?

And what is S/PDIF ?
 
s/pdif stands for sony/phillips digital interface format and the optical adapters he's talking about are actually that. The Prelude has combo digital coax and optical jacks, but to use the optical a plastic connector piece must be inserted into the jack. The guy was kinda a noob, I'm very interested to see a real review. Eax doesn't even work in vista does it?
 
EAX works in vista.

I had an audigy 2 zs sound card with VIsta Ultimate 64 bit.

To get EAX to work i installed Creative's Alchemy program. Then in the games installed, i moved it to the Alchemy enabled page in the program. I closed the program then.

Then i start up warcraft 3, go to audio options, and tick EAX. It worked. Before i couldn't even select it as it said my hardware didn't support it, but now it does :cool:

So i am assuming the Prelude will also require you to run Alchemy to get EAX working. And according to that persons review, seems you need to be in analog as well which is fine with me since my S750 is analog anyways ;)

EAX should work without having to use Alchemy for newer games like Battle Field 2142, Bio Shock etc. Only need Alchemy to get EAX to work on older games that depended on that dsound thingy.



The same person continued his review here

...Continued from my previous post.

I logged into Battlefield 2142, switched my sound settings to "Creative X-Fi, Hardware Sound, Hi Quality," and joined a multiplayer map. I restarted the game, and joined a 48 player map. The the elevator music sounded exactly the same except there was some noticeable crackling while I was waiting for the map to load (The sounds must have been loading into the X-Ram.).

I started off with a Titan map, and was expecting a big difference between the environmental effects between the outdoors and inside the Titan; didn't really sound that much different, to be honest. I did however, pick up sounds that I wasn't hearing before. Small detail sounds that definitely weren't there before. Also, the 3D positioning was better over my headphones. Things sounded like they were coming from different directions... I couldn't tell if this was EAX or CMSS 3D. My hunch is that it was the latter.

During the game, I had to alt-tab out of the game to check something on the internet. The window switch was a lot faster than I had been used to in the past. I scanned over my "Multi Meter" widget and noticed my memory useage was 200MB lower than usual than when playing BF2142(Normally, the mem useage ballons to 2GB, even with the unofficial Microsoft memory management patch for game). Switching back into the game window was also a lot quicker... Chalk one up for hardware sound.

I also noticed that the gameplay was a smoother using the Prelude. I don't know if you can see the frames per second in BF2142 like you could in BF2, but I'm pretty sure I gained at least 10 running the Auzentech card.

I can't really make a good assessment of the sound quality of the card, since my $80 Sennheiser headset is actually not that good. My dad had a middle of the road Koss set that was awesome (crisp highs, strong lows, great image) - I blew them playing games and haven't been able to find a comparable set since (at least not for the price).

The reality is, the full functionality of the card is not enabled as of yet. The effects aren't mixed into the digital input. The Dolby Digital and DTS Interactive is not coming till next year, apparently, so we'll just have to see. Actually, it kind of makes me yearn for the days of SoundStorm on my beloved A7N8X Deluxe (Although that card didn't do EAX, it did have Dolby Digital encoding, like 5 years ago).

CM
ps. Does anyone know where I can pick up the OPAMP upgrade in Vancouver/Burnaby?
Click to expand...

Source: http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index....mid=116&pcbuilderid=0&overclockid=0&subpage=5


For the crackling in bf 1424 he mentioned should i be worried ? Or is this normal :d
 
That guy is clueless, just look at this:
In any case, FPS gaming is best done with headphones so who cares about S/PDIF!?
Click to expand...
I have both headphones and 7.1 speakers, and the headphones comes no where near the 7.1 speakers in games, both when it comes to the full soundpicture...or 3D sound positioning.
 
Well i donno.

I got A900 headphones, and Creative S750 7.1 speakers.

I didn't feel surround sound with the 7.1 helped me compared to headphones.


But then again.....

1. i am on vista and at the time i didnt have alchemy installed ( eax and surround sound don't work on vista for games unless alchemy is installed )

2. I am using an audigy 2 zs. The surround sound isn't as good as XFI so i hear.

I will re evaluate once i get my Prelude in a week or 2 :cool:
 
Atech said:
That guy is clueless, just look at this:
I have both headphones and 7.1 speakers, and the headphones comes no where near the 7.1 speakers in games, both when it comes to the full soundpicture...or 3D sound positioning.
Click to expand...

you must have garbage headphones
 
Moogle Stiltzkin said:
Well i donno.

I got A900 headphones, and Creative S750 7.1 speakers.

I didn't feel surround sound with the 7.1 helped me compared to headphones.
Click to expand...


I loose about 50% af the directional sound(front-direction is alomost gone and front sounds like rear sounds) when I try and game with headphones, even high end head-phones.

But then again.....

1. i am on vista and at the time i didnt have alchemy installed ( eax and surround sound don't work on vista for games unless alchemy is installed )

2. I am using an audigy 2 zs. The surround sound isn't as good as XFI so i hear.

I will re evaluate once i get my Prelude in a week or 2 :cool:
Click to expand...
Please do! :)
 
TheBeelzebub said:
you must have garbage headphones
Click to expand...

I have tried with many brands from expensive to ghetto-price, always the same, the 3D-positioning with headphones seems lack-luster compared to 7.1 speakers.
(even going from 5.1 to 7.1 speakers gave me a much better 3D-sound picture)
 
No shit sherlock

289981080_4008fa579a.jpg


:eek:

Don't anger the hulk !

hulk25-fight.jpg


ps: dude WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT PICTURE LOL!!!



Anywayz.... *one last glare @ Mito

I notice the manual here

http://www.auzentech.com/site/download/manuals.php

Just flipping through :]
 
For the crackling in bf 1424 he mentioned should i be worried ? Or is this normal
Click to expand...

I have this crackling as well with an X-FI Fatality, but it is only while the map is loading. In-game, there is none. So, it really is nothing to be too concerned about.
 
mito said:
It was funny because you said the guy is a noob and then ask what is SPDIF... :D
Click to expand...
One might be inclined to call you a noob for calling it SPDIF as opposed to S/PDIF, the latter of course being the correct acronym. It's, of course, not the Sony-Phillips Digital Interface as SPDIF might imply (as such implying that Sony and Phillips are actually one merged entity), but the Sony/Phillips Digital Interface (thus, S/PDIF). Moogle asked what S/PDIF was, by the way: the correct acronym.

Noob.
 
phide said:
One might be inclined to call you a noob for calling it SPDIF as opposed to S/PDIF, the latter of course being the correct acronym. It's, of course, not the Sony-Phillips Digital Interface as SPDIF might imply (as such implying that Sony and Phillips are actually one merged entity), but the Sony/Phillips Digital Interface (thus, S/PDIF). Moogle asked what S/PDIF was, by the way: the correct acronym.

Noob.
Click to expand...

pwnd! :D
 
phide said:
One might be inclined to call you a noob for calling it SPDIF as opposed to S/PDIF, the latter of course being the correct acronym. It's, of course, not the Sony-Phillips Digital Interface as SPDIF might imply (as such implying that Sony and Phillips are actually one merged entity), but the Sony/Phillips Digital Interface (thus, S/PDIF). Moogle asked what S/PDIF was, by the way: the correct acronym.

Noob.
Click to expand...

By the way, "noob" doesn't exist in the English language.

Owned!

:D :D
 
Ok i admit i am a nooblet. ( with a Creative S750 gigaworks speaker analog system, i will be stuck on analog for a long time before i ever get to know more about digital =_=; )

Lets stop fighting and move on.....


Anyway... i was told i was getting my mail from fedex with shipping code on tuesday.... now is wednesday :confused: WTF !!

I ordered from the Auzentech Online store by the way.


Someone mentioned it was being sold on the site so i went to see and voila it was, so i placed my order. It didn't even say it was a pre order, and only later i found out it was only getting shipped on Tuesday, so ok fine.

Now is past Tuesday and status still not shipped :d ....
 
hummmmm.

I'm using spdif (no slash), everything works fine except Bioshock. I hear sounds in the game menu, however, no sounds in the game itself.

note: there's sound when I hack one of the those terminals (the pipe game).
 
:d *touches Mito's card

Hei i got more info from another person

Important info for audiophiles using headphones!

Just wanted to say that I installed the card and plugged in my Shennheiser HD570's and was greated with mediocre sound, somewhat muddy in fact, then I realized, I beleive the front panel audio jack is supplied with a cheap opamp for amplification. I plugged in the headphones to the main front out to take advantage of the quality opamp and indeed, it sounds MUCH better, so beware if you do critcal listening, use the front L/R speaker jack on the card instead of the front panel audio connector. Remember to put the volume all the way down before playing any music!

I am letting the card breakin before I give any critical judgements.
Click to expand...

Which makes me wonder..... i hook my headphones to my S750 Gigaworks external volume controller box, instead of directly to my sound card..... any ideas which i should use ???? :confused:



I received my card today. Running XP 64 bit and my primary use is hd tv/movies. I didn't anticipate any issues over SPDIF but for anyone wondering I have confirmed DD5.1/DTS working straight out of the box with
Zoom Player:
x and h264
transport streams
bluray
PowerDVD:
hddvd

Overall, the sound clarity is the biggest thing I have noticed in the first couple hours of use. Then again, I am comparing it to the embedded one that came on the dfi nfoce4.

Drivers are taking up ~25MB memory.
Click to expand...
 
I'm listening to my mp3s hooking my audiotechnica ath-a900 to an onkyo ht-s970 receiver, which in turn receives spdif (no slash) from my prelude.

can't complain.
 
I had to disable EAX in Biotech...

vista 64 + auzentech prelude = no EAX.........
 
I also use Vista 64 bit ultimate.

Mito did you try installing Alchemy first ? Because Eax works on my Audigy 2 Zs once i installed Alchemy :D

To my noobie understanding, newer games that don't rely on dsound, but openal can have Eax without having to install Alchemy. Whereas games ( usually old ) that still utilise dsound, must use Alchemy for you to be able to use EAX.

Correct me if i am wrong :D
 
BioShock uses the fmod middleware on top of OpenAL, so there should be no problem in Vista. No ALchemy required.
 
phide said:
BioShock uses the fmod middleware on top of OpenAL, so there should be no problem in Vista. No ALchemy required.
Click to expand...

Thx for clearing that up ;)


Ok anyway I was surfing Auzentech website and i found this

X-Fi Prelude Driver Status Report
The known issues in the latest driver, workarounds, and solution schedule.
Click to expand...

The driver issues as well as the manual can be found at the link below.

Source: http://www.auzentech.com/site/download/manuals.php


The Prelude drivers still aren't online yet

http://www.auzentech.com/site/download/updates.php



Hm some interesting mentions concerning the driver issues.

- Alchemy won't detect Prelude as being a legit sound card based on the hardware ssid. So they said Creative will fix that sometime in September o_O: ??? anyone have more info concerning this.

- Hm someone reported they didnt have the 4b ram issue, but it's listed as an unresolved issue on the site o_O; any comments ?

- They didn't mention anything about Eax not working over digital ._.;



So i think this is a good thing. Auzentech doesn't make the drivers, BUT they can be helpful when nagging at Creative to get the fixes done. At least more pressure on Creative to fix problems then let it lie as is, since Auzentech depends on the drivers :] But of course it would be better if Creative shared the code so it could be fixed by Auzentech themselves >->;
 
Moogle Stiltzkin said:
Hm some interesting mentions concerning the driver issues.

- Alchemy won't detect Prelude as being a legit sound card based on the hardware ssid. So they said Creative will fix that sometime in September o_O: ??? anyone have more info concerning this.

- Hm someone reported they didnt have the 4b ram issue, but it's listed as an unresolved issue on the site o_O; any comments ?

- They didn't mention anything about Eax not working over digital ._.;
Click to expand...

1. The cracked version of ALchemy works fine; they are better than the official version anyways.

2. I don't have problem (yet) with 4GB installed.

3. EAX does work over digital, but since one can only get stereo out of the digital output (until DDL and DTS:Interactive arrive), EAX will make very little difference.

I had to disable EAX in Biotech...

vista 64 + auzentech prelude = no EAX.........
Click to expand...

I use Vista x64 and not only does Bioshock work with EAX, but BF2, ut2k4, hl1, and wc3 do as well (obviously I used ALchemy for ds3d games).
 
Ah thx for the feedback.

1. The cracked version of ALchemy works fine; they are better than the official version anyways.
Click to expand...

Yes i wondered whether it would work on the cracked Alchemy since they must have removed that check so people could use it :D


3. EAX does work over digital, but since one can only get stereo out of the digital output (until DDL and DTS:Interactive arrive), EAX will make very little difference.
Click to expand...

So basicly EAX over digital will be 100% resolved once the driver update for DLL/DTS arrive. This is a closed case in my books :D


Ok so the only problem i am concerned now is the issue someone reported with the Mics being soft.

Also a mention of crackling noises when loading Battle Field 2142 ( which the person thought might have to do with the sound being loaded into the X-Ram ).

:confused:
 
Moofasa~ said:
3. EAX does work over digital, but since one can only get stereo out of the digital output (until DDL and DTS:Interactive arrive), EAX will make very little difference.
Click to expand...

EAX will work the same with or without surround. EAX has nothing to do with surround, that is handled by the API (be it dsound or openal.)

EAX = Environmental Audio eXtensions. Literally. They are extensions for directsound and openal that add effects like chorus, reverb, echo, envelope, occlude, etc. to existing sounds to make the audio sound more like it is coming from an environment other than your room, regardless of the number of audio channels. The positional audio, and thus surround, is calculated entirely by directsound3d or openal (whichever the game happens to support.)

Creatives marketing is rather deceptive about this fact.
 
Moogle Stiltzkin said:
:d *touches Mito's card

Hei i got more info from another person



Which makes me wonder..... i hook my headphones to my S750 Gigaworks external volume controller box, instead of directly to my sound card..... any ideas which i should use ???? :confused:
Click to expand...

I WOULD AGREE WITH THE CHECKING THE VOLUME PART BEFORE LISTENING TO MUSIC WITH YOUR HEADPHONES. SORRY IF I'M SHOUTING BUT MY EARDRUMS WERE JUST SMASHED!!!:D

Anyway I tried using the headphones with my Klipsch ultra's dock but the sound sucked. Was messing around with the volumes hoping there was something muted. Went around back and plugged the headphones into the jack and BOOM!! I still have some ringing going on. Nice sound. Coming from an Audigy 2 this is a big step up. Games sound incredible.
 
Bucken said:
I WOULD AGREE WITH THE CHECKING THE VOLUME PART BEFORE LISTENING TO MUSIC WITH YOUR HEADPHONES. SORRY IF I'M SHOUTING BUT MY EARDRUMS WERE JUST SMASHED!!!:D

Anyway I tried using the headphones with my Klipsch ultra's dock but the sound sucked. Was messing around with the volumes hoping there was something muted. Went around back and plugged the headphones into the jack and BOOM!! I still have some ringing going on. Nice sound. Coming from an Audigy 2 this is a big step up. Games sound incredible.
Click to expand...


I also notice the volume went lower when i hooked my OLD cans into the dock. But when i put into the sound card itself, it was louder.

Thing is i bought A900 cans which is gold compared to my old piece of trash, so when i plugged into the dock the volume was alright :cool: Anyway i'll just plug into sound card now on.
 
Moofasa~ said:
I use Vista x64 and not only does Bioshock work with EAX, but BF2, ut2k4, hl1, and wc3 do as well (obviously I used ALchemy for ds3d games).
Click to expand...

I really meant Vista 64 + SPDIF + Bioshock = No EAX.........

:mad:
 
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