Auzentech forte X-fi VS. Creative X-fi

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genetech

Limp Gawd
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Jan 31, 2008
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I am wondering what the difference between these to cards makers is. They seem to have the same parts as well as front panel control module. So to any body who has used both or just the auzentech forte what is your experience with it.
 
i own both the auzentech has slightly more stable drivers. it looks just like creative's
the auzentech sounds better than the creative espescially through headphones as it has a headphone amp. i recommend the forte if you game with headphones as i do. I own a pair of A700's and the forte sounds great.
 
123Lanoix said:
i own both the auzentech has slightly more stable drivers. it looks just like creative's
the auzentech sounds better than the creative espescially through headphones as it has a headphone amp. i recommend the forte if you game with headphones as i do. I own a pair of A700's and the forte sounds great.
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Agreed.I recently went from the X-Fi Extremusic to the Forte 7.1(mainly cause of the sweet deal at the time)and the drivers seem way better.My X-fi was real touchy where sound would drop and I had to reinstall way too many times.The sound quality also seem better but that of course is highly subjective..
 
My Forte is great. I haven't used headphones with it yet; sold off all my good cans a while back but the output is great through my speakers. Definitely better than onboard, and close to my Xonar STX in terms of SQ without doing any critical listening tests.
 
When you mention stability i do come to a thought about how sometimes my Creative X-fi will skip a beat occasionally. Also how it will sometimes even crackle other then that i have never had a system sound crash. Also on this note does auzentech natively support 3d position audio in gaming with vista\7, or does it have to use a program like ALchemy so return it. Cause this is a major turn away for me with the new OS sound engines.
 
It has come to attention that the chips used in the auzentech x-fi Is creative brand. on the newegg page it says in the stats that it uses creative x-ram, pci-e chip, and their audio engine.

The thing that makes the Auzentech different is the components used and the low profile design. I know Newegg doesn't make info mistakes very often, so what they wrote must have some grounds of truth
 
Yes it is a creative chip on the Auzentech thats why its called an "X-FI" which is a creative trademark.
 
The main difference is the headphone amp on the Forte. The Forte also has higher quality circuitry and includes the software license needed to do multichannel audio via the digital output, but the main selling point is the headphone amp. Its a souped up X-Fi.

I'm happy with my Forte.
 
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DeathFromBelow said:
The main difference is the headphone amp on the Forte. The Forte also has higher quality circuitry and includes the software license needed to do multichannel audio via the digital output, but the main selling point is the headphone amp. Its a souped up X-Fi.

I'm happy with my Forte.
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Creative will sell the licence for DDL/DTS (this isn't a ploy to get more cash, Dolby and DTS just want to get paid, and Creative didn't include it originally) for Audigy through the older X-Fi boards (That didn't come with it), and afaik the X-Fi Titanium boards (or maybe just Fatal1ty) ship with DDL/DTS

however the licence is like $1.99 for Audigy and like $2.49 for X-Fi (its something stupidly cheap like that)

although yes, Auzen has included this with their drivers since the launch of the X-Fi Prelude some years ago (I'm guessing because the rest of their products have had this since before they started using Creative chips)

the biggest difference I've seen between the Creative and Auzen boards, aside from the hardware, is driver stability, as has been mentioned, although newer Creative drivers seem much more stable (I'm using Windows XP Professional, no idea how they fare under other versions of Windows)

as far as hardware differences, the Forte does offer somewhat better input circuitry, and
significantly better output circuitry, including the headphone amplifier, Creative has nothing in that price range that offers the same quality (the only boards they've built under the Creative/Sound Blaster marquee with similar quality are the X-Fi Elite Pro and X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum, both of which cost considerably more)

as far as the front panel, the new Titanium front panel is a let down, the older "Live Drive" style panel (which was basically unchanged from SB Live! through X-Fi Platinum) had far more features, including a headphone amp (its actually not bad), mic preamp (something you don't really see anymore), and on most versions a 1394 port, all of which seem more valuable imo than stereo analog inputs and a mode switch knob (basically the older front bay was more multimedia geared, whereas the newer one is more gamer geared)
 
thats not even a comparison, I own almost every single Creative card dating back to the sblive, last creative card I had was the X-Fi Gamer. I now own a X-Fi Prelude and it is way way better than any creative card I have own.

NO Driver problems, No Creative bloatware especially that registration crap

also the soundcard is louder meaning you would turn the volume down lower on your speakers to produce the same results with the creative junk. overall, worth buying!!
 
yea the forte is very loud through headphones i do not even have it turned up halfway
 
They should bundle copies of Max Payne 1 & 2 with the Bravura. It's only fitting.
 
Not to thread jack. How would you compare the XFi Elite vs the Forte? I ONLY have headphones hooked up to the card, never have or forsee having speakers.. No amp in the way.
 
Liver said:
Not to thread jack. How would you compare the XFi Elite vs the Forte? I ONLY have headphones hooked up to the card, never have or forsee having speakers.. No amp in the way.
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Elite Pro has better input stages, better A/D quality, more I/O (phono pre, MIDI, etc), and so on
Elite Pro should be a little better on the analog output side as well (its up there with the Prelude for analog I/O, the Forte is a bit lower spec'd, I can say with some decent certainty that 99.999% of users couldn't pick one of them out against the other two in a blind test)


both have identical processing power

headphone amp wise, its tough to say, the headphone amp they built into the live drive for Live!, Audigy Plat, and X-Fi Plat was pretty decent

although I've read some speculation that the EP's accessory box (which provides the headphone amp and so on) is closer to the E-MU Microdock than the Live Drive in terms of its opamps and design

I'd probably say unless you've got some really high impedance headphones, the Elite Pro will be comparable to the Forte, at twice the price, so I wouldn't suggest it unless:

A) you already own it
B) you actually need some/all of its I/O abilities (as in, you realize that its a MULTIMEDIA card, not a GAMING card, and you're going to use some of those features (like a small project studio/computer musician setup, an HTPC, etc))
 
obobski said:
Elite Pro has better input stages, better A/D quality, more I/O (phono pre, MIDI, etc), and so on
Elite Pro should be a little better on the analog output side as well (its up there with the Prelude for analog I/O, the Forte is a bit lower spec'd, I can say with some decent certainty that 99.999% of users couldn't pick one of them out against the other two in a blind test)


both have identical processing power

headphone amp wise, its tough to say, the headphone amp they built into the live drive for Live!, Audigy Plat, and X-Fi Plat was pretty decent

although I've read some speculation that the EP's accessory box (which provides the headphone amp and so on) is closer to the E-MU Microdock than the Live Drive in terms of its opamps and design

I'd probably say unless you've got some really high impedance headphones, the Elite Pro will be comparable to the Forte, at twice the price, so I wouldn't suggest it unless:

A) you already own it
B) you actually need some/all of its I/O abilities (as in, you realize that its a MULTIMEDIA card, not a GAMING card, and you're going to use some of those features (like a small project studio/computer musician setup, an HTPC, etc))
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Thanks! I own the EP at the moment and just contemplating what I will replace it with. Reason is the PCI vs PCIx slot in a new built in 2010. Just thinking ahead.

Making a list of sort of things to look into when the time comes. And wanted to guage what sort of upgrade / side grade and hopefully not a downgrade I was looking at.
 
Liver said:
Thanks! I own the EP at the moment and just contemplating what I will replace it with. Reason is the PCI vs PCIx slot in a new built in 2010. Just thinking ahead.

Making a list of sort of things to look into when the time comes. And wanted to guage what sort of upgrade / side grade and hopefully not a downgrade I was looking at.
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you'd lose a lot of I/O abilities and analog input quality basically

but if the card can't connect to your system, it can't do a thing, so the PCIe option might be worth it

unfortunately, tmk there are no Creative boards (except E-MU 1616m PCIe) that will post features and quality like the EP that are PCIe, the Titanium/Titanium Fatal1ty are a downgrade in quality and/or I/O, the Forte is a downgrade in I/O and input quality, the HTHD is a sidegrade in I/O (and probably stupid expensive, haven't checked its price), and so on

basically, there aren't any direct replacements for the EP that are PCIe based, mostly because the whole multimedia soundcard niche has seemingly died (between all of the hype and hysteria towards USB solutions, the rise of laptops, and the rise of gaming accessories, etc there more or less just isn't a large target audience for it)
 
as my understanding and owning a x fi ... the forte is better in
total distortion but this driver theory passed 2 years ago I was part of it with the x fi and vista and yes it was garbage , but now creative has matured there drivers and um it perfect yes forte is great but from a x- fi platinum besides a Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamerwhich was garbage by the way........ only idiots compare onboad audio to x fi and um new x fi is stable don't get me wrong the forte is the bomb but im not dropping my 16 x to 8 x for sound so i need the shorty titanium fatality
 
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