The Auzentech X-Fi Prelude is the first ever sound card to be produced by a third-party company using a Creative sound processor. When Auzentech and Creative announced that the first of the two would get access to the X-Fi circuitry we were both glad and a bit surprised. The card would not only use one of the most powerful audio processor available in retail channels, but also sport additional features which previous cards based on the X-Fi chip did not, such as support for Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive. Alas, the Auzentech engineers were not given enough time to have these features ready for the release. People will have to wait for a weeks before these features will become available through future driver and software updates.
Since the sound card is based on the X-Fi circuit it features all of the advantages of a normal Creative sound card (EAX and hardware-accelerated DSP), but as Auzentech has been very careful with selecting both opamps (operational amplifiers), DACs (Digital-to-Analog-Converter) and ADCs (Analog-to-Digital-converter) the X-Fi Prelude also sports an overall higher audio quality.
When Auzentech then adds additional features as the digital audio support, things are getting close to perfect. Even if we will have to wait for a little longer before being able to actually use these features.
Until then we’ve gathered a few reviews of the new sound card that shold give you a hint of what it is capable of;
:: HardwareCanucks :: EliteBastards :: XSReviews ::
