Auzen X-Fi Prelude problems

A

arman01

Gawd
Joined
Feb 9, 2005
Messages
759
Hey guys,

i bought an Auzen X-Plosion Cinema 7.1 yesterday and was having some problems with surround sound in games. :confused:

Today i swapped it out with an Auzen X-Fi Prelude (cost $250 AUD) in the hope to get better sound for games and surround sound sources. Surely enough, surround sound + EAX works in Doom 3 (the only game ive tested so far)

The problem is,

1. The sound quality in general is not as good as the Xplosion. I am using the analogue outputs to my Z-5500. What determines the quaity of the sound? i.e. while playing music
To my knowledge, the Prelude has a very good DAC and the same OPAMPS as the new Xplosion 7.1 Cinema

2. There is considerable noise or hiss in the playback, at least much more so than the Xplosion. Also, the bass is very muddy, and treble can sound distorted at times as well.

3. I cant seem to output music from stereo sources (eg iTunes playing an mp3) to the surround speakers unless i enable Creatives craptastic CMSS-3D which sounds just terrible.

With the Auzen Xplosion, music sounded fantastic and filled the room, utilising the surround speakers on my wall. Does this have something to do with DTS Connect? AFAIK The DTS Connect / DTS Neo PC feature on the Xplosion was what allowed me to get that awesome surround with the analogue connection?

On the prelude website, it says that DTS Neo PC support will be added "soon". Does this mean that, like the Xplosion, it will output a stereo source to all channels via analogue?

So is it possible for the Xplosion to have better sound quality than the Prelude??

Thanks in advance!!
 
Ok, a couple of things ive noticed..

The distortion is more apparent where i turn up the volume in the windows sound control and/or the sound control for the entertainment section of the X-Fi volume panel.

This is NOT due to the speakers because even if i turn up the z5500's to ridiculous volume the distortion/hiss is less if the volume control in either windows or the x-fi panel set to something like 80.

On the other hand, if the volume is turned down on the Logi's, but the windows volume is set to 100, i can notice the distortion

this shouldnt be happening right? The Xplosion didnt have this problem....

Can anyone shed a light on this?? :confused:
 
grrr im getting ready to rip this thing out of my comp and take it back...

AND i just got a BSOD !!
 
Are you using the SVM feature of the Prelude? If you are, turn it off.

SVM is pretty lame and when no sounds are playing it just puts out annoying noise.

CMSS-3D has two modes. One of them takes part of your stereo signal and outputs it to the surround speakers, and the other mode merely duplicates the front stereo signals on the surround speakers. You can try either.

As far as DTS Connect, yes a component of this (Neo, I believe) takes a stereo signal and also tries to put a portion of that signal over the surround speakers. I had thought this had to be done over a digital connection with a receiver that included a DTS decoder, but I really haven't tried to use it over an analog connection so I can't be sure of that.

I can't help you with the bass and treble settings, I think I lack the audiophile gene that allows people to tell when a setting like that is 'muddy' or 'bright,' adjectives that simply don't mean anything to me. Sorry!
 
Hi, thanks for your reply!

SVM is off, and i tried two different sets of drivers, and also have tried sticking it in a different PCI slot,

Basically the problem is that over analog, audio sounds crap when the volume is turned to 100% in the vista control panel or the x-fi panel

some more possibly useful info:

CMSS-3D is off, crystalliser is off (only makes it worse)


The problem doesn't really occur over a digital connection however i want the digital > analog conversion to be done on the card rather than the z-5500 receiver

Ive taken the card out of the case and going to return it tomorrow and maybe grab the Xplosion Cinema 7.1 again. I really wanted this to be an awesome card, but its getting just too annoying now

Hopefully someone can figure out whats wrong with it by then.....

If you have any ideas at all guys let me know!! Also, if any if you guys have a prelude could you possibl test the level of distortion / crackling when the windows volume is set to 100% ...

Thanks
 
Well, at least on this Titanium PCI-E card I get no distortion or crackling with the windows volume at 100%. It uses a slightly revised version of the X-Fi chip on the prelude. The prelude is supposed to have better SNR than the Titanium, though, so I'm not sure why you'd being getting noise, unless it is a bad card or there is something funky going on with your PCI bus.

I use the analog connections to my z-5500s, because like you I prefer the sound card DACs to the logitech's.
 
Hmm looks like ive tried everything, and looks like its going back...

I doubt its a faulty card, maybe im just expecting too much?

But to me, the Xplosion sounder so much better, and using analogue it sent audio to fill all the speakers, and music sounded awesome...

By the way, apparently there is an "experimental driver" that enables DTS, however i dont know if it will sound as good as the Xplosion. Hell, even the onboard audio on my IP35-Pro doesnt have all that distortion at full volume.

Can any prelude owner shed a light on this? isnt this supposed to be pretty much the best sound card??
 
Btw some guy on some forum said that the high output from his X-meridian clipped his preamp or something..

Is it possible that setting the windows volume to 100% is a too high powered signal for the prelude to send to the z-5500s receiver?

Is it possible that the output is soo good that it makes it sound like crap?? lol
 
It is possible that the output is "so good" that it makes it sound like crap...but probably not in the way you meant :)

I believe I read on a prelude thread that our card uses 5v to the opamps whereas others use less (maybe 3v?). I think this means your opamps will be overdriven if turned up all the way. You may remember a similar problem in the old days when you changed headphones between a battery powered walkman and a wall powered stereo or boombox, lol!

Typically in amps, a cleaner signal is achieved by running them at less than their maximum levels. So in this regard, the fact that the opamps are operating at 5v and you have to turn the max volume down on the output means you should get a cleaner signal than if you run them at 3v maxed out.


AFAIK, you will only get +2 channels of sound by using the CMSS or DDL/DTS:C when using a stereo source. There are beta drivers for the prelude for DTS, but DDL should give the same or similar results. You might like DTS sound quality better, but at least for checking you can try to enable DDL and hear if that resolves your surround issue.
 
Thanks for the reply mope54!

I understand what you mean, but shouldn't the sound card be made so that if the volume is turned up to 100% in the windows panel, it can handle it?

I dont know whether it was DTS connect that allowed me to up-mix stereo mp3s to the surround speakers, or if it was just a feature of the card....

I tried enabling DDL, and used it with both digital and analog connections, and they both sounded like crap. Again, nowhere near as good as the Xplosion..
 
I got my prelude two days ago...

same deal, over analog on my z5500's there's a hissing...very faint, but it's there...very obvious when I switch back to digital...which sounds a lot better

I am guessing it's either the logitech receiver or the wiring from the audio card to the receiver...or the card of course

I am not happy, but I am getting an amp and some klipsch speakers this weekend, I will report back if the hissing goes away once that's in place, it'll help determine if the wiring/logitech receiver is the problem or infact the card

p.s. I am using audio record mode, everything turned off, except for bit-matched, which is enabled...and sampling rate @ 44.1hz w/ the ASIO plug-in
 
The quality of sound is determined by the opamps when you are connected via analog.
I think the x-plosion might have better opamps, but I don't think you'd hear the difference unless you had really nice equipment and a stellar ear.

I have separates and use digital connection so I can't really go thru and try and replicate your problems.
If you are a gamer, then you "need" the EAX support that is in the X-Fi Prelude.
If you are an audiophile, then you might consider going back to the x-plosion since you can change out all of the opamps (fronts, rears, center/sub) for better ones instead of the prelude's L/R swappable opamps.

If you're just a casual audiophile who wants some kickass sound with little muss and fuss, you probably won't be switching opamps any time soon, tbh.

There aren't any other differences between the cards that I know of other than the EAX and opamps. Certainly there are nothing other than settings that would change 2 channel audio to surround. I'm not even sure DDL or DTS:C work via analog. Usually those are to encode audio and send them down the digital output. I thought CMSS was for simulating surround with headphones. You can test DTS on the prelude by trying the beta drivers.

What mode are you trying to listen to music in and what settings are you using when you do so?

If I get the chance, I'll go buy some cables and hook my prelude to my system via analog over the weekend.
 
thanks for the replies you guys!

I was using entertainment mode, with all the features turned off (CMSS-3D, Crystalizer)

The particular song that made the distortion more evident was Anberlin - Paperthin Hymn, if thats of any use :p

Im considering returning this and getting the Asus Xonar D2X. I'll happily let go of EAX if it means better music playback (i dont do much pc gaming these days anyway, despite upgrading to a Radeon 4870)

Is the Xonar D2X a good choice? Or should i keep the Prelly and keep playing around with it (and hoping for better drivers) ?
 
I had a similar issue with distorted sound.
After retracing what I had done just prior to it occurring, it turns out I had closed 'Grid' with ALT+F4.
Grid seems to set internal volume levels differently and when not closed properly, it doesnt set the levels back again.

Rebooting didnt help, some sounds were still distorted while playing music etc.
Running Grid again and closing it properly fixed it.
So it could be some program you have run that controls the volume levels and has closed improperly, say from a crash.

FYI
 
My personal opinion is that you either have a bad card or something setup incorrectly.
Both of those can be resolved by contacting Auzentech support. I hear they are pretty good about support...I know they are good about releasing updated drivers frequently.

If you are primarily concerned about music, then you might consider going back to the x-plosion.

I hear good things about Xonar, but I don't have any personal experience with them.
I'm also biased to support Auzen on the X-Fi outside of Creative, so take that into consideration.


EDIT: I looked up CMSS3D and it appears there are two settings: one for emulating surround sound for 2 speaker setups (like headphones) and another for emulating surround sound for 2 channel content (like your stereo music that you want to play through multiple speakers). So it appears as though you could use it to convert music to multichannel output, but DDL and DTS:C should work better for that purpose, imo. It doesn't seem like anyone would use two of these formats at once.

I also forgot to ask what your settings were when you use the windows control panel and configure your speakers? There is a setting where you configure how many speakers you are using as well as the bitrate output on the advanced tab. Have you checked what that advanced setting is set to?
 
Yeah it was set up correctly, and i tried the different settings in the advanced tab.

I took it back, tried another Prelude, and it was the same. Im guessing the problem i was experiencing wasnt really a problem at all. Maybe the particular mp3's i tested were recorded at high volumes or were just crap quality, and the prelude's quality made it stand out..

Regardless, i tried the Asus Xonar D2. The sound was too quiet on the analog output and in general was quite flat, despite the fact that is uses a more advanaced oxygen chipset and high quality DACs and OPAMPs

So yet again, i took it bak and switched it back to the Xplosion. Surely enough, it sounds pretty awesome. However now that ive heard all three im thinking maybe the Prelude had better clarity, and thats why i was experiencing distortion with some games and some mp3s, but not others (or at least, not as evident)

Im quite happy with the Xplosion now, but im sort of regretting returning the Prelude. Ill have a play around with the Xplosion for a while and may eBay it and get the Prelude again....

grrr.....ive spent three days switching back and forth between sound cards, why does it have to be this hard? :mad:
 
Because sound is subjective...

Just wait until you start churning through dozens of speakers, lol
 
hehe yes it seems so, thanks for your help.

Right now im pretty happy with the Xplosion, just not happy that i wasted 2 days swapping out cards and testing them instead of studying for a pharmaceutics test...

However, ill wait and see what new sound card auzen or asus bring out before considering changing...
 
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