[RamGuy]

My Auzentech Prelude has just been declared defective, which means I can freely choose between these options:

1: Receive a new Prelude card
2: Get a Auzentech Forte as a replacement for the Prelude
3: Wait for the Auzentech Home Theatre HD to hit the market and receive that one as a replacement
4: Get a Asus Xonar D2X or D2 as a replacement for the Prelude


The audio card will power my Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 speakers (analogue only) speaker set-up, along with me using the digital input for my Xbox360 Elite.

I'm mostly listening to music and playing games like Battle for Middle Earth II, Saints Row 2, Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Effect etc..


So which one would be the better pick?
Does the Forte or Home Theatre HD provide anything superior to the Prelude when it comes to analogue use only?

Currently I'm using the Xonar D2X as a temporally card I'm borrowing from work, and I was really impressed by it! The audio sounded much more richer and warm compared to the somewhat more flat and boring Prelude, and it was really easy to deal with and set-up! The drawback was the DS3D GX2.5 feature not working as good as advertised, making the overall audio quality while gaming not as good as the Prelude.


Which one of those four card would you pick?

 

[apatN]

Auzentech, Inc. Sound Cards. Audio You Can Believe In. World First soundcards for Music, HTPC, and Gaming. There is basically all the information you need.
But if you liked the Xonar better.. Why not get it instead?

 

[Alydon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RamGuy /img/forum/go_quote.gif My Auzentech Prelude has just been declared defective, which means I can freely choose between these options: 1: Receive a new Prelude card 2: Get a Auzentech Forte as a replacement for the Prelude 3: Wait for the Auzentech Home Theatre HD to hit the market and receive that one as a replacement 4: Get a Asus Xonar D2X or D2 as a replacement for the Prelude ... Which one of those four card would you pick?

5. None of the above.

In your position I'd buy the Asus Xonar HDAV Deluxe instead. It's about the same price as the D2X and has the same beautiful warm sonic signature, but it takes the sound quality one step further in terms of bass response, definition, soundstage, and overall clarity. It also has upgradeable opamps for you to improve the sound quality even more. The Deluxe version also has a daughter card for 7.1 analog audio outputs.

The only downside is the DS3D GX2.5 issues in some games that you've already mentioned. And the fact the that daughter card will use an extra slot in your case.

 

[obobskivich]

alydon, care to provide some actual proof of your claims?

honestly to the OP, if the Prelude is being received replaced under warranty (as Auzen should, assuming its under warranty), why not take your warranty replaced card?

 

[Alydon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif alydon, care to provide some actual proof of your claims? honestly to the OP, if the Prelude is being received replaced under warranty (as Auzen should, assuming its under warranty), why not take your warranty replaced card?

My "proof" is just my own ears. I have simultaneously owned the Prelude, Xonar D2, and HDAV1.3, and was able to a/b/c them in the same PC for about a month (they ran quite happily side-by-side-by-side

). The HDAV was simply a better sounding card, not just "different" like the D2 and Prelude were different from each other, where each card sounded better than the other in one aspect or another.

Compared to the D2, the HDAV had more detail, air, better texture, deeper and more impactful bass, a larger and deeper soundsatge, and more focused imaging. The differences were not night and day, but they were easily detectable. From a pure sound perspective there was nothing that the D2 could do that the HDAV didn't do as well or better (DISCLAIMER: for 2-channel audio, on my system, to my ears, YMMV, etc).

And yes, I know that the D2 and D2x are different cards, so I'm making the assumption that the Molex connector and PCI-E bus for the D2X won't improve its sound to the point of making it equal/better than the HDAV.

 

[twhtpclover]

yeah. I'm with Alydon
I think Xonar HDAV1.3 will suit your needs best...

 

[RamGuy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif alydon, care to provide some actual proof of your claims? honestly to the OP, if the Prelude is being received replaced under warranty (as Auzen should, assuming its under warranty), why not take your warranty replaced card?

Because Auzentech have confirmed that my issue with the Prelude card is somewhat existing with more or less every Prelude card..

Quote:

yeah. I'm with Alydon I think Xonar HDAV1.3 will suit your needs best...

The only problem is the fact that Xonar HDAV1.3 can't output 7.1 analogue, for that I need the Deluxe edition which is (at least here in Norway) twice the price of the Prelude and Xonar D2X? And I'm not really sure if the HDAV1.3 Deluxe is really worth twice as much as the Prelude / D2X?

 

[genclaymore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif alydon, care to provide some actual proof of your claims? honestly to the OP, if the Prelude is being received replaced under warranty (as Auzen should, assuming its under warranty), why not take your warranty replaced card?

Actually hes right, I owned a prelude my self, after selling my prelude and grabbing a HDAV13. It was the first thing I notice Then putting my OPA627au in was also totally diffent prolly because of the I/A's on the card it self. also Robiscx also knows. As I org was gona trade up to Auzen HD card til they said it would prolly be 100 towards the trade up to it. I looked at them like there was crazy and sold it instead.

Only thing I dont agree with is the issues. with DSGX2.5 as I haven had a game which gave me issues with it.

About the replacement, i would do that also for another prelude. I actually had to send my first prelude in because those plastic spdif adaptor some how broke without me knowing. Til I went to use my Z5500s in digital. They in up sending me a brand new card. Unless you worried that they gonna send you a used card.

 

[RamGuy]

I haven't had any "issues" with the DS3D GX 2.5 either on my Xonar D2X card, but it sure lacks some compatibility as I'm not able to tick the EAX option in none of the games I currently got installed.

I mostly play Battle for Middle Earth, Battle for Middle Earth II and BFME2: Rise of the Witch King, and when trying to tick the EAX option the game just claims my audio card does not support EAX.

This is quite odd as I was actually able to tick with with my older Audigy 2 ZS, which (if I'm not mistaken) only got EAX2.0? I know for sure that BFME2 supports EAX3, but even though my older Audigy 2 card didn't support EAX3.0 and just EAX2.0 I was at least able to tick the EAX option, and then get the EAX2.0 features?

But with the Xonar D2X I'm not able to tick it at all? Despite the fact that the Xonar cards got native EAX2.0 support? I guess this makes the game lack EAX2.0 features as well and not just the EAX3.0.


So you would consider the HDAV1.3 Deluxe a solid investment over the D2X?

 

[sonci]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alydon /img/forum/go_quote.gif My "proof" is just my own ears. I have simultaneously owned the Prelude, Xonar D2, and HDAV1.3, and was able to a/b/c them in the same PC for about a month (they ran quite happily side-by-side-by-side ). The HDAV was simply a better sounding card, not just "different" like the D2 and Prelude were different from each other, where each card sounded better than the other in one aspect or another. Compared to the D2, the HDAV had more detail, air, better texture, deeper and more impactful bass, a larger and deeper soundsatge, and more focused imaging. The differences were not night and day, but they were easily detectable. From a pure sound perspective there was nothing that the D2 could do that the HDAV didn't do as well or better (DISCLAIMER: for 2-channel audio, on my system, to my ears, YMMV, etc). And yes, I know that the D2 and D2x are different cards, so I'm making the assumption that the Molex connector and PCI-E bus for the D2X won't improve its sound to the point of making it equal/better than the HDAV.

There are few people complaining about the HDAV, at Newegg.
How is driver support?

 

[genclaymore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RamGuy /img/forum/go_quote.gif I haven't had any "issues" with the DS3D GX 2.5 either on my Xonar D2X card, but it sure lacks some compatibility as I'm not able to tick the EAX option in none of the games I currently got installed. I mostly play Battle for Middle Earth, Battle for Middle Earth II and BFME2: Rise of the Witch King, and when trying to tick the EAX option the game just claims my audio card does not support EAX. This is quite odd as I was actually able to tick with with my older Audigy 2 ZS, which (if I'm not mistaken) only got EAX2.0? I know for sure that BFME2 supports EAX3, but even though my older Audigy 2 card didn't support EAX3.0 and just EAX2.0 I was at least able to tick the EAX option, and then get the EAX2.0 features? But with the Xonar D2X I'm not able to tick it at all? Despite the fact that the Xonar cards got native EAX2.0 support? I guess this makes the game lack EAX2.0 features as well and not just the EAX3.0. So you would consider the HDAV1.3 Deluxe a solid investment over the D2X?

I actually did after I sold my prelude I was actually looking at the D2X, then Waited til the HDAV1.3 started selling. Granted I ended up with the non deluxe ver.

But I actualy considered the HDAV1.3 deluxe over the D2X.

sonci as for those people that complaining, most of them are either complaining about the HDMI in Steaming issues with the video and or the 24p issues, or something that isnt up to asus HD-dvd steaming issues.

Ramguy you try having the program run in winxp compabilty and the seeing if you can ticked it and then turning the compabilty off. I just remembered I had to do that for guild wars once, Then some odd reason I didnt have to do it again when I installed Guild wars again. It was pretty much the only game I had to do something like that. So it was just the game not detecting it right.

With NWN2 I was able to pick eax3 then one day it faded away from the list, I know I did something once to make it appear once again. But I think that just a game ini issue or the game being annoying and not listing eax3.0. As I remember changing something in its ini to make it pickable again.

 

[RamGuy]

I will try out that WinXP compatibility trick, will also take a look into the ini files of the game and see if I can find some strings to modify.

I will consider the Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe if that price isn't too high, seems like you both find the HDAV1.3 superior to both the Prelude / Forte and the Xonar D2X? So I guess it will be the best pick for my 7.1 analogue usage? Might also consider adding some OPA627AU oamps if you recommend that?

 

[genclaymore]

Yes I sure do granted with me using the prelude forever when I had it I thought going crazy as I didnt expect it. As for the op-amps you may have to listen to some and see what you like as you might not even like the opa627's.Remember if you do the OPA627/637 needs you will need two and use a dip socket with two sockets on it to install them. I think that i spelled it right.

I dont think the ini will do any thing, i just dont remember what I did for nwn2 eax3 to pop back up.I sure the compatibility would work for those that dont let you tick the box since as I said before had to do that for guild wars the first time.

Yea the deluxe for your 7.1 analog needs, I think zipzoomfly has it cheaper then newegg.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by genclaymore /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually hes right, I owned a prelude my self, after selling my prelude and grabbing a HDAV13

in other words you're saying he's factually correct, in an objective manner, as in publisable text-book fact, simply because of a difference in user perception?

WRONG.

@ op, if you don't like the Prelude, still get the replacement (if its free, why are you even having this discussion, just sell the damn thing off when you get it back, you'd seriously tell them no, and piss $160 down the drain like that?)

 

[genclaymore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif in other words you're saying he's factually correct, in an objective manner, as in publisable text-book fact, simply because of a difference in user perception? WRONG. @ op, if you don't like the Prelude, still get the replacement (if its free, why are you even having this discussion, just sell the damn thing off when you get it back, you'd seriously tell them no, and piss $160 down the drain like that?)

No I saying hes right as in HDAV being better then the prelude in sound quailty, Then I said I dont agree with him with the major issues of the drivers. Now your trying to turn my words around into something you can use to throw at me. Even Robscix will also say the same thing. As he owned both prelude and the HDAV besides the STX.

I will say this as a fact the HDAV is better then the prelude in Sound quailty, but the only reason one would want the prelude over the HDAV if you want actually eax3-5 and not emulation of it. Because I said my self I owned the prelude and when I made the switch. I heard what he heard.

Then I said for the OPA627AU that he might not like the Opa627au which i had when i had the prelude. Even the normal LMA4562 on the card dont sound the same as it did on the prelude. as I didnt put my opa627au right away. as it made me think It had a diffent op-amp in it. Turns out it was the same lma4562 op-amp the prelude had just outputting better quailty on the HDAV13.

Op you might in up liking the OPA637au over the OPA627AU vice ver thats what I was saying that you may have to try those two before getting any to replace the LMA4562 on the card.

edit @op I wasnt telling you to not get the rma, I was saying to get the rma then ebay the card. I hope you wasnt gonna let the dead card sit there and you run out and buy another card.