[Alydon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif I never said the card was inferior to the Prelude, What I mean is the Forte is not the new flagship model. This is a supplemeatry card to the Prelude meant for those that need SFF or PCI-E. The Forte sounds amazing based on my tests to this point.

Hey Dude... Have you had a chance to compare this thing to any other sound cards? If so, I'm sure you can guess the next words that are about to come out of my mouth...

..How does this thing compare to the Essence STX..?

Or any of the other cards the two of us have heard for that matter (Prelude, Xonar D2, HDAV)?

 

[floydloyd]

With respect to the PCI-E slots, I have the Forte right next to my 8800GT with no problems whatsoever. The more I listen the better I feel about my decision to go with this card. Going from on-board to this card opens up a new dimension to the games and the music is good enough that I'm listening more at the PC.

 

[43st]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif I never said the card was inferior to the Prelude, What I mean is the Forte is not the new flagship model. This is a supplemeatry card to the Prelude meant for those that need SFF or PCI-E. The Forte sounds amazing based on my tests to this point.

Oh no

, I didn't mean that you said the Prelude was inferior. I meant that outside comments and 'word on the street' was implying the Forte was a lessor card. I'm sorry for the confusion. I did compare the specs. on the Auzen site and the Forte and HomeTheater are identical, less the HDMI.. The Prelude is a slight touch better than both with the range and freq. response but it seems by only a slight bit. It might be the difference between the older X-fi chip and the new, not sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by floydloyd /img/forum/go_quote.gif With respect to the PCI-E slots, I have the Forte right next to my 8800GT with no problems whatsoever. The more I listen the better I feel about my decision to go with this card. Going from on-board to this card opens up a new dimension to the games and the music is good enough that I'm listening more at the PC.

Last night I moved mine to furthest away PCI-e slot, it was like an 16x so it was a bit strange plugging a 4x into it. I get the same bus noise as before, which I'm not really surprised by. This is a very low tone and difficult to hear if you have the volume at a normal or low setting.

I'm going to keep an ear on it and maybe tweak the BIOS a bit. I'm still very happy with the card, and the ability to use CMSS-3d headphone thru the S/pdif!

 

[Bonthouse]

What powersupply do you have? A higher quality PSU will provide cleaner power and thus cleaner sound.

 

[43st]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonthouse /img/forum/go_quote.gif What powersupply do you have? A higher quality PSU will provide cleaner power and thus cleaner sound.

Seasonic S12 either 550 or 650 (can't remember)... so the quality should be sufficient unless it's malfunctioning, but I have no sign of that.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 43st /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh no , I didn't mean that you said the Prelude was inferior. I meant that outside comments and 'word on the street' was implying the Forte was a lessor card. I'm sorry for the confusion. I did compare the specs. on the Auzen site and the Forte and HomeTheater are identical, less the HDMI.. The Prelude is a slight touch better than both with the range and freq. response but it seems by only a slight bit. It might be the difference between the older X-fi chip and the new, not sure. Last night I moved mine to furthest away PCI-e slot, it was like an 16x so it was a bit strange plugging a 4x into it. I get the same bus noise as before, which I'm not really surprised by. This is a very low tone and difficult to hear if you have the volume at a normal or low setting. I'm going to keep an ear on it and maybe tweak the BIOS a bit. I'm still very happy with the card, and the ability to use CMSS-3d headphone thru the S/pdif!

It varies form the PRelude in this way, as the Prelude is said to NOT be able to pass DSP effects of anytype through the S/Pdif output. The Forte' has this ability which is great. I have been testing this card for the last little while and I am impressed with it so far.

 

[DeViTTo]

I have had this card for about a week and it is very good, but as with any sound card you do seem to get audible hiss in back ground when no sound is generated. mainly noticable with headphones.

What I have found using a V-DAC to Headline2 bypasses this audible hiss alltogether, and although I wanted XFI effects if I run the optical out the hiss is still there.
At the moment I have just the DAC and Headline 2 in loop and although xfi effects are missing using a miles directional driver in game I much prefer the quiet when no sound is generated.

I can't make up my mind to sell this card or keep it. The step up DAC and AMP is way above, but so is the expense. this sound card is the best I have owned though it does everything it is supposed to do with excellent sound.

 

[Uroboros]

I got the card as well recently. SO far my biggest gripe (and it's a big one) is that they advertise an headphone jack on the backplate of the card but plugging a headphone in there doesn't mute the output from the I/O port. Kind of defeats the purpose using a pair of headphones if sound still comes out of your speaker.

Yes supposedly plugging in headphones into the case-front jacks will mute the speakers output; but that's not the best source you want to be plugging your headphones into.

The card sounds good but that's got to be the dumbest design idea out there. The two OLDER Audiotrack Prodigy cards I have both have a dedicated headphone jack in the back and let you switch between outputs through the software. I can have my speakers and headphone amp plugged in at the same time and switch between the two. I was really hoping to be able to do the same with this card. But unless they can fix it in software; I guess not.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alydon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey Dude... Have you had a chance to compare this thing to any other sound cards? If so, I'm sure you can guess the next words that are about to come out of my mouth... ..How does this thing compare to the Essence STX..? Or any of the other cards the two of us have heard for that matter (Prelude, Xonar D2, HDAV)?

Sure, the Forte' has a great musical sound to it. This card is meant for a very different user then the STX. I have been enjoying listening to it.

I am in the process of reviewing this card so...

 

[sonci]

ROBSCIX
I'm considering buying a new multichannel card to replace my old xFi, I dont mind that much about pure stereo sound quality because I use an external DAC on another PC, I want smth good for movies and a bit of gaming.
I was considering Asus, Omega and Auzentech.
The Xonar HD seems interesting, but does it worth the price if I'm not going to use any Blue Ray? I mean is it better in SQ than the D2X?
Should I wait for the new Auzentech, or the Asus can do fine in gaming (i'm not a heavy gamer though,)

 

[ROBSCIX]

@Sonci
That is up to you. You can PM me if you want so this thread will stay on topic.

 

[MadMan007]

For those looking at specs one thing to note is that Auznetech often quotes 'parts spec' of, say, an opamp, which might not necessarily equate to specs in use. Maybe other manufacturers do this too without saying it though.

Also starting with Vista the way drivers work is much different, Windows 7 will be the same. EAX effects are not able to be done directly in hardware, this was done to prevent audio driver problems from crashing the whole OS. They require a software wrapper layer, ALchemy for X-Fi based cards, which translates OpenAL function calls from the OS Direct3D to EAX effects for the sound card. (Asus' DS3D GX for Xonars is similar) This method works fine in theory but it requires that the wrapper be programmed for a given game and that's where it falls apart, on the ALchemy webpage the list of supported games is weak to say the least. I've had a similar experience (although the cause isn't quite the same - it';s because the Xonar isn't always recognized as EAX compatible) with an Asus Xonar DX where enabling EAX effects greater than 2.0 doesn't work in many games, and many games only have EAX y/n without an EAX version option. What that all means moving forward is once you're off XP having an X-Fi based card won't mean much as far as games go.

 

[ROBSCIX]

That is incorrect, OpenAL games are processed natively through hardware on Vista. Nothing was ever changed in regards to OpenAL which is still hardware based.

You have it a bit backwards based on your post.
Alchemy patches the older direct sound based games to use OpenAL which is fully hardware accelerated in the Vista OS. The X-fi based cards still have great value in Vista as OpenAL needs no additions nor patching and is nativley supported through the X-fi processor. ALchemy works for many games that need the patching. I guess it all depends on the games you play but OpenAL games work in Vista just as they did in XP with full hardware acceleration of all in game effects.

 

[xoaphexox]

Have you tried simply taking an antistatic bag and putting your soundcard in it, then cutting out a hole for the pins so you can plug it back in to the motherboard?

This should eliminate any EMI/RFI that may be causing your problem.

Bad pic, not mine, but to illustrate the idea: http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/1...pshieldfs4.jpg

 

[Morb]

I'm checking this card out as well for replacing my x-fi.

On the site it states the following:

3.5mm(1/8 ”) stereo mini-phone jack: Includes an independent Headphone amp and can activate an impedance 16Ω ~ 600Ω headphone or earphone

Would this mean i shouldn't use my Little Dot I+ anymore? As apparently it can even power over 300 impedance??

Also, it's a low profile card. I have a big tower... so... is it any use for me to go for the Forte instead of the prelude? Does a low profile card have any disadvantages towards a normal profile card?