[Rancidm]

I'm considering getting this card. (AUDIOTRAK Products Pages) Does anybody have any experiences with it?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Considering the feature set of this card, I am guessing your looking for something for gaming?

 

[leeperry]

interesting find

swappable op-amp for the headphones out, X-Fi drivers(bit-matched ASIO and great game compability)...nice to see Gyrocom are actually using their Audiotrak branch(they bought it from ESI I think)

 

[Apocalypsee]

Its a very new card, looks pretty good. Judging by the DSP size, it looks like it based on XtremeAudio and not the Titanium chips. But the DAC have a nice spec and separate headphone/front speaker out is a nice touch. But after the swappable opamp there is another non changeable SSIC opamp, looks like 4580 (leeperry run away!

)

One thing that I wanted to see is Audiotrak make their own driver for this card, more professional than Creative, like what they did on previous card like Prodigy HD2

 

[ROBSCIX]

There are a couple new cards coming based on CL chipsets. -for better or worse.
IIRC, MSI is also building a few models.

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apocalypsee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Its a very new card, looks pretty good. Judging by the DSP size, it looks like it based on XtremeAudio and not the Titanium chips. But the DAC have a nice spec and separate headphone/front speaker out is a nice touch. But after the swappable opamp there is another non changeable SSIC opamp, looks like 4580 (leeperry run away! ) One thing that I wanted to see is Audiotrak make their own driver for this card, more professional than Creative, like what they did on previous card like Prodigy HD2

yeah, I see they've also made a very beefy USB DAC(based on the cube), it's got many 4580 and one swappable on top of it..but its max output voltage is 20V! yikes, that's a lot of power

I don't think Audiotrak will ever release any new EWDM drivers, because they are not owned by ESI anymore...and Gyrocom will stick to generic drivers(X-Fi or VIA).

plus, Creative doesn't allow third party manufacturers to make their own drivers..

I see the HD2 DE won an award in Korea BTW: AUDIOTRAK Community forums • View topic - Prodigy HD2 Series won the '08 KOREA VIP ASIA Awards.

 

[ear8dmg]

Looks like a glorified Xtreme Audio with better analogue components (the specs state only up to EAX4).

Wouldn't touch with a barge pole to be honest.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Still would like to hear it just to gauge overall sound quality.

 

[Rancidm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif Considering the feature set of this card, I am guessing your looking for something for gaming?

No. I'm looking for something that has excellent 2 channel output, isn't ASUS, isn't VIA, preferably has a headphone amplifier, preferably pci-e, and preferably internal. This was the only card I found which fits those criteria. I don't want ASUS or VIA because I've had really bad experiences with both companies in the past and I don't want to "support" them.


Do you guys mean that it uses Creative's drivers? Does that mean that I'll have to put up with Creative's driver bloat if I get this card?

 

[leeperry]

well yeah, what did you expect? read the manual, it's available on their site.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rancidm /img/forum/go_quote.gif No. I'm looking for something that has excellent 2 channel output, isn't ASUS, isn't VIA, preferably has a headphone amplifier, preferably pci-e, and preferably internal. This was the only card I found which fits those criteria. I don't want ASUS or VIA because I've had really bad experiences with both companies in the past and I don't want to "support" them. Do you guys mean that it uses Creative's drivers? Does that mean that I'll have to put up with Creative's driver bloat if I get this card?

What about the Onkyo line up? -Although the Via chipset is still present...

The chipset on thr card is CL's yes.
I doubt you would have a full set of drivers like what you would find on a CL built card. Most likley some smaller modded driver as the features set is more limited.

For instance the Prelude and Forte use modified CL drivers but they are not quite the same when used.

Maybe look around and see if you can find some owners of this card.

 

[Rancidm]

I e-mailed Audiotrak and they said the processor is the CA0110 which (i believe) is the same processor in the Extreme Audio.

So this card is pretty much out of the question.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Why?..because of the drivers or because the card does not have hardware DSP?

 

[Rancidm]

Because it doesn't have a hardware DSP. The only reason to go x-fi is pretty much the hardware DSP, without that it doesn't hold much appeal.

 

[ear8dmg]

Dunno. Creative have pretty good ASIO drivers. I'd consider it for general audio if the price was low enough and the analogue quality is good. Same with the recent Auzentech card based on the CA0110.

Absolutely would not bother for a gaming PC though.