Okay, I'm pretty happy with the results of the combo barring a few issues. I initially setup the software for music and played some classical jazz. I will say that I was pretty ecstatic about hearing the fret buzz on the bass itself. I also played some rock, classical, and rap just to test the wide gamut of sound potential. The rock band sounded pretty good with clear and bright sound coming from the HPs. I will have to say, it did sound a little to bright for my liking, but they are brand new and Im sure the sound will warm up the more I break-them-in. When I played some Classical music, the sound was awesome. The Classical sound was very bright and fairly balanced as the sound came through the HPs loud and clear. The only underperformance that I noticed really was when I played more R&B/Rap music. The music tends to have a funkier beat, and with the lack of the lower tones it sounded a little off (Though I believe this will change as the cans warm up). My only complaints are that the HPs arent deep enough or my ears, or my ears are just too damn big.
As for the Auzentech Prelude, well, it has plenty of options (more than I know what to do with at the moment). The literature that comes with the box isnt as descriptive as I liked, but the PDF file on the CD helped out quite a bit. It took me awhile to figure out where to plug in the headphones since the card doesnt label a headphone slot (FYI, HPs are plugged in the slot labeled front). I also ordered from Amazon the Zalman clip-on Mic that I cant get to work, apparently from a known Vista 64 compliance issue. Since I game, I needed a Mic and ended up buying a USB Microphone which works fine for now until they can figure out the problem. I mainly use Ventrilo for communication and I set up the comms so that I hear sound out my card and input through the Mic (its fairly easy to setup). Furthermore, I dont know if Im going deaf or the HPs need a lot of power to sound decent, but I have to turn my volume button up to 75% to hear the sound (the dial is on the taskbar).
Ive played several games, such as: COD4, BF2, BF2142, and etc and will say the positional sounds is pretty good. Though I cant quite differentiate between sounds above or below me, perhaps thats something I can cleanup with the software. Other than that the game sound is pretty decent.
I have to admit that Im a novice audio enthusiast when it comes to Headphones and computer sound quality. But if I had to give it an overall rating for out-of-the-box performance, Id give it an A-.
As for the Auzentech Prelude, well, it has plenty of options (more than I know what to do with at the moment). The literature that comes with the box isnt as descriptive as I liked, but the PDF file on the CD helped out quite a bit. It took me awhile to figure out where to plug in the headphones since the card doesnt label a headphone slot (FYI, HPs are plugged in the slot labeled front). I also ordered from Amazon the Zalman clip-on Mic that I cant get to work, apparently from a known Vista 64 compliance issue. Since I game, I needed a Mic and ended up buying a USB Microphone which works fine for now until they can figure out the problem. I mainly use Ventrilo for communication and I set up the comms so that I hear sound out my card and input through the Mic (its fairly easy to setup). Furthermore, I dont know if Im going deaf or the HPs need a lot of power to sound decent, but I have to turn my volume button up to 75% to hear the sound (the dial is on the taskbar).
Ive played several games, such as: COD4, BF2, BF2142, and etc and will say the positional sounds is pretty good. Though I cant quite differentiate between sounds above or below me, perhaps thats something I can cleanup with the software. Other than that the game sound is pretty decent.
I have to admit that Im a novice audio enthusiast when it comes to Headphones and computer sound quality. But if I had to give it an overall rating for out-of-the-box performance, Id give it an A-.