OC3D Review: Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 sound card
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FarFarAway
New member
Looks like a decent card, if only they didn't have to use Creative drivers tbh
Rastalovich
New member
name='SuB' said:i can certainly vouch for iti have one and i love it
would love a THX console for calibrating my speakers though but that aside i absolutely love it
Seeing as it`s software is creative hybrid, I wonder if u can use the THX console that creative have on their cds ?
For me, these cards are equivilant to how an nVidia reference card gets adopted by other manufs.
Talking about the population of a creative card in comparison to this one, it`s also fair to bare in mind that out of the 5 or 6 creative x-fi cards that have been/are available, ranging from the cheapest to the professional studio ones, the density of the surface mounting goes from sparce to crazy-mad-caps-per-inch.
I would have liked to have seen a "crackle-test" on this card too, creative cards get easily bogged down fighting for internal bus usage (so it would appear but not confirmed) which makes them crackle. It`s a mad test to emulate, and it`s conditions are not 100% duplicate-able. But if u have a pc thrash at something like fah on all cores, do some rar`ing, do some massive file transfers..... and play some music - u get crackle on a creative x-fi. Maybe this is more a blame of the mobo design, or windows design, but it would be interesting.
Also - I want pci-e in this crazy lacking pci slot world !
FarFarAway
New member
Creative just dont support THX in Vista, they suck 
Crackle test - would have been interesting you're right
And yep, lets hope some PCI-e versions get out real soon
Crackle test - would have been interesting you're right
And yep, lets hope some PCI-e versions get out real soon
Thanks all for your feedback
@ Rast: For what it's worth mate this machine folds 24/7 (SMP units); music is on all the time that I'm at the machine, and I do transfer quite a bit on my network....not massive, but perhaps on the larger side than normal and I have yet to hear crackle from this card.
A lot of the crackle/pop issues came from Nvidia based motherboards from the reading I have done. My X-Fi Xtreme Audio did it from time to time though, giving out a considerable pop.
I'll throw a little more at it if you like to see if I can replicate the issue
@ Rast: For what it's worth mate this machine folds 24/7 (SMP units); music is on all the time that I'm at the machine, and I do transfer quite a bit on my network....not massive, but perhaps on the larger side than normal and I have yet to hear crackle from this card.
A lot of the crackle/pop issues came from Nvidia based motherboards from the reading I have done. My X-Fi Xtreme Audio did it from time to time though, giving out a considerable pop.
I'll throw a little more at it if you like to see if I can replicate the issue
Rastalovich
New member
There are so many threads and theories on how the crackle comes about. It`s been the baine of creative cards going all the way back to audigy2.1.
I`ve heard the nVidia chipset thing, but in the same instance, whilst I`ve read about them I`ve been using via chipset mobos, never had an nVidia tbh.
All I know for sure is that I can duplicate it on one of my setups 100% of the time. In fact I can use any of the 3 x-fis to get it, and swapping out for any of the old sblive cards I got too, which leans me more to thinking it`s how windows handles the tasks or the mobo shares the bus bandwidth. Different drivers can ~seem~ to help, but this `apparently` is down to where they establish themselves in memory. Switch out a card, and back it`ll come.
The only thing I personally think minimizes it, is to stick it in a slot that is either not paired with anything, or if u`r board relys on pairing, turn the other things off. I turn off parallel ports, serial, raid, anything that`s not required.
Bah, only creative labs could come out with a definative answer, but as we`re all aware - if it aint a brandspanking card for the latest os - they don`t want to know. To be fair, even then they show little interest.
I`ve heard the nVidia chipset thing, but in the same instance, whilst I`ve read about them I`ve been using via chipset mobos, never had an nVidia tbh.
All I know for sure is that I can duplicate it on one of my setups 100% of the time. In fact I can use any of the 3 x-fis to get it, and swapping out for any of the old sblive cards I got too, which leans me more to thinking it`s how windows handles the tasks or the mobo shares the bus bandwidth. Different drivers can ~seem~ to help, but this `apparently` is down to where they establish themselves in memory. Switch out a card, and back it`ll come.
The only thing I personally think minimizes it, is to stick it in a slot that is either not paired with anything, or if u`r board relys on pairing, turn the other things off. I turn off parallel ports, serial, raid, anything that`s not required.
Bah, only creative labs could come out with a definative answer, but as we`re all aware - if it aint a brandspanking card for the latest os - they don`t want to know. To be fair, even then they show little interest.
maraschino
New member
nice review,
i just recently purchased one and it is a very nice card
i just recently purchased one and it is a very nice card
You have made me spend more money!!!!
Just ordered one of these, which should be here on Wednesday. Really hoping it makes the sound through my home theatre system come alive. Onboard sound via s/pdif to my home theatre system just sounded flat.
I have no doubt that this will have significant improvements on my computers overall sound!
Just ordered one of these, which should be here on Wednesday. Really hoping it makes the sound through my home theatre system come alive. Onboard sound via s/pdif to my home theatre system just sounded flat.
I have no doubt that this will have significant improvements on my computers overall sound!
