MaximumPC 2007 04

reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

66 MAXIMUMPC april 2007 april 2007 MAXIMUMPC 67

A

nd you thought the soundcard was

dead? OK, maybe it’s been beaten

black-and-blue, thrown out of the

ring, and had a folding chair smashed over

its head, but it just keeps coming back for

more—like Indiana Jones.

But just between you, me, and the 8800

GTX card, the soundcard is still far superior

to anything we’ve ever heard mounted on

a motherboard. This month, we look at two

very different interpretations of the same chip

and a cheaper version of an already good

soundcard, so sit back and listen, Dr. Jones.

—Gordon Mah UnG

aUzentech aUzen

X-Meridian 7.1

Soundcards, like videocards, tend to have

cookie-cutter designs; products that use

the same chipsets look virtually the same.

That wasn’t the approach Auzentech

took when it put down the traces for its

Auzen X-Meridian 7.1 card. Auzentech

says it carefully crafted a custom PCB

and added components to get the best

possible audio from the card, which is

based on C-Media’s top-shelf CMI8788

Oxygen HD “audio processor.” We believe

it, too. The board’s traces, layout, and

components are vastly different than

those of the Razer AC-1 soundcard, which

also uses the CMI 8788

Oxygen HD chip.

Optical SPDIF lovers

will appreciate separate

input and output ports,

and we particularly dig

the industry-standard

front-panel header. Unlike Creative’s

cards, which force you to build a cus-

tom harness for front audio jacks, the

Auzentech card allows you to just plug

your case’s audio connector into the card

and voilà, your front headphone jacks

work. But the unique feature of the card

is its upgradeable operational amplifiers.

Op-amps can have great sway over the

flavor and timbre of the analog sound that

pumps out of your card. This board comes

with a stock set of AUK S4580P op-amps,

which can be popped out and replaced

with different ones.

Sound good? Mostly. While we appre-

ciate many of the loving touches taken

with the card, we did hear slight distortion

during our close listening tests using 24-

bit material and Etymotic Research ER-4

earbuds. The transience occurred only

when listening at very high levels, and for

the most part, our subjective taste tests

found the X-Meridian to be the equal of

the Razer AC-1, which claims a 117dB

signal-to-noise ratio. That’s a bit better

than the 115dB SNR of the X-Meridian

card. SNR isn’t everything, though. We

actually found Creative’s X-Fi card to

have more low-end response.

The X-Meridian’s biggest weakness,

however, is in gaming. Using the latest

drivers from Auzentech, the card consis-

tently performed more slowly than the

other two cards we reviewed. While

the frame-rate hit isn’t fatal, we would

look to the other products for gaming

needs. The X-Meridian 7.1 is probably

best left to home media center work.

With its real-time Dolby Digital encoding

capability, dual optical ports, and

upgradeable op-amps, the card’s real

forte is home theater.

Soundcard-a-Palooza

Tired of hearing data move across your USB bus thanks to your

onboard audio? These three soundcards will bring a smile to your ears

auzentech’s commendable X-Meridian 7.1 sports user-

replaceable amplifiers and a front-panel audio header.

$200, http://www.auzentech.com

auzentech auzen x-meRidian 7.1

stevie wonder

Replaceable op-amps, FP

Audio headers.

steve case^6

Oddly slower than the Barracuda

AC-1, which uses the same chip and drivers.

Works only with five-volt PCI.

X-Meridian 7.1 BarracUda ac-1 X-Fi XtreMeGaMer Fatal1ty Pro series

Best scores are bolded. Our killer rig consisted of an Athlon 64 FX-60, 2GB of DDR400, 400GB 7,200rpm, and a GeForce 7950 GX2 running Windows XP Professional.

benchMarks

FEAR 5.1 min (Fps) 66    68  76

FEAR 5.1 Avg (Fps) 140   141     154

FEAR 5.1 mAx (Fps) 276   282     308

FEAR Dolby DigitAl livE min (Fps) 52     59 N/A

FEAR Dolby DigitAl livE Avg (Fps) 113    126 N/A

FEAR Dolby DigitAl livE mAx (Fps) 226    247 N/A

3DmARk03 2.1 0 souRcEs (Fps) 81.5    85.7 85.5

3DmARk03 2.1 24 souRcEs (Fps) 72.7   75.1    77.1

3DmARk03 2.1 60 souRcEs (Fps) 64.4   73.3 71.1

3DmARk03 DDl 0 souRcEs (Fps) 82.1    85 N/A

3DmARk03 DDl 24 souRcEs (Fps) 64.7   77 N/A

3DmARk03 DDl 60 souRcEs (Fps) 62.7   71.4 N/A