Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound Card Review

If you want the audio fidelity of the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro but with a price tag below $200, then you absolutely must take a look at the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 sound card.

Designed and built by Auzentech around the Creative X-Fi audio processor, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 is chock-full of quality opamps and even 64MB of onboard X-RAM. This is definitely a sound card made for audiophiles who want to game as well.

Here's a quote from the review :-

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Link : Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound Card Review

 

That's a cool sound card for the audiophiles! Will my favourite Baroque music sound better in this card, provided if I have those wooden, 3-speaker style (woofer-tweeter-mid) system?

Also, this op-amp is high-quality. Must be very expensive, and it's replacable, like 'processor upgrade'! Currently I only come to know about good instrumentation amps (the cheapest I could obtain is the Burr-Brown INA128).

 

Bach and Corelli played by Manze and Podger sounds absolutely wonderful on this card if you ask me. The trills are well defined, the tonal accuracy (most important when it comes to baroque if you ask me) is dead on 90 percent of the time, and the card simply doesn't miss a beat of sound when it comes to sonically challenging pieces.

Tartini's simple violin sonatas and the Art of the bow are two other pieces i hold in high regard when it comes to testing out whether an SC can deliver prescision when it comes to making good music rather than just technically competent music since baroque simply didn't have the equipment to go technical lol, so it made up in melody. And i'll have to say, the card does pretty darn well i tell you.

 

I still love my Auzentech X-Plosion here for most things works well. For the studio we use M-Audio its pricey but hey you get what you pay for

M-AUDIO

 

There's always the X-Fi XtremeMusic + Head-Fi mod

 

Hotrodding the X-Fi: A Layman's Guide (No 56k) - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

 

empire23,will you review the audiotrak prodigy hd2 somewhere in the future, so that I can compare with Auzen X-Fi Prelude with the HD2 i am using now.

 

No problem man.

I actually have the HD2 sitting here doing nothing. Bought it for review but i haven't gotten to reviewing the tiny beast just yet. But rest assured, i should have a review delivered to Adrian when i've finished my "build your own interconnect" guide.

 

Anyways, bump for update. It seems that Auzentech has released the long awaited Dolby Digital support we've been waiting for. Haven't installed the drivers as i'm busy reading up on feedback loops and crap about pass transistors.

 

Their website lol.

Anyways if they were kind enough to implement Jung Multiloop or a buffered topology, i'd declare the card god like. Throw in MOSFET output stage for way past God like.

ELECTRONIC DESIGN - December 14, 1998 - Walt's Tools and Tips - Op-Amp Audio

Reading through old papers by Walt Jung and Erno Borbely, so i though anyone interestered would appreciate the read.

 

It's the same review card. It's just that they added a new driver that allows for the support of dolby digital decoding and encoding.

 

lol leview sample. But the general price is around 750 ringgit if you look in the LYN forum bulks. Pricey, but when compared to the similarly priced 1212M, i think i rather take this ler.

 

Which decoders to use?

Hi all,

I ordered a Auzentech Prelude today due primarily to your great review. I had planned on putting this card in my gaming rig as an upgrade from my Realtek onboard six channel which I have been limping along with until now. But after reading reviews a few questions raised themselves that I am hoping you guys might be able to help me with.

I currently also have a HTPC with a Auzentech Xplosion plugged in by Coax SPDIF to my Sherwood Newcastle R-965 receiver
sherwoodusa.com/prod_r965.html

I read with interest that you made mention to the 1852's which are actually used in my sherwood and also that my Sherwood uses an older ADC the AK5380. In light of the quality of components in the xplosion, the prelude and my R965, I started to think about which DAC's I should use and whether the DAC and ADC's on the Prelude were actually better quality than those in my R965 or indeed if the xplosions componentry is actually better than the R965's components.

My thoughts were that if the DAC's on the Xplosion are better than the DAC's in my receiver then perhaps I should swap from SPDIF to six analog inputs on the amp and let the xplosion do the decoding from here on in?

I already have a sneaking suspicion that if I put the Prelude into my HTPC then the answer to the question above in this instance would be definately swap from SPDIF to analog inputs as the DAC's on the Prelude seem newer and superior to those included in my aging receiver. The only thing stopping me from doing this right now is the state of play with DTS support on its current driver release (I understand only DD live is currently implemented unlike my xplosion where DDlive and DTS interactive are present)

Beyond this, I wondered if the DD and DTS decoding cababilities of either the prelude or the xplosion would be better (more immersive/better soundstage etc) than those in my sherwood due to them being newer revisions??

I know at the end of the day, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, but I don't want to go pulling things out and recabling if the stats don't stack up first.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Nick