reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
W
ho’d have thunk it? Long consid-
ered a dead zone, soundcards
are making a resurgence. Driven
by an outcry for audio that doesn’t sound
like a box of snap, crackle, pop every time
you access your USB ports, manufacturers
are releasing new soundcards that surpass
the free audio that comes with your moth-
erboard. This month, we test an Auzentech
card that uses a Creative Labs chip and
Asus’s new entry into PC audio.
—GORDON MAH UNGAUZENTECH X-FI
PRELUDE 7.1
It used to be that if you wanted the latest
Creative audio chip in your PC, there was
only one way to get it: buy a Sound Blaster
soundcard. That changes with Auzentech’s
X-Fi Prelude 7.1 card.
The Prelude packs Creative’s top-endX-Fi DSP along with
64MB of XRAM.
Auzentech doesn’t
stop with the vaunted
X-Fi; the card also
sports higher-spec’d
digital audio convert-
ers and includes both
SPDIF and optical
I/O ports. An added
bonus is the inclusion
of a standard AC97
header that allows you to plug in your
case’s front-panel jack. Finally!
In a listening test using 24-bit/96kHz
audio samples, two editors compared the
Prelude to Asus’s Xonar D2 and both pre-
ferred Auzentech’s card.
In gaming, the X-Fi Prelude repre-
sented well. Its scores were in line with
a Creative X-Fi’s, albeit slightly slower.
What’s really important, though, is the
Prelude’s full support for all of Creative’s
proprietary EAX technologies.ASUS XONAR D2
Asus tries to hide the origins of the Xonar
D2, but it’s the same CMedia Oxygen HD
8788 audio processor (or a slightly tailored
one) that’s featured in several other vendors’soundcards; still, the Xonar D2 features
the best implementation of this proc. The
Xonar also uses very good Brown Burr
DACs to achieve a 118dB signal-to-noise
ratio, which is slightly lower than the
Prelude’s 123dB rating. Most people prob-
ably won’t hear the difference, but we still
give the Prelude the edge over the Xonar
card. One editor also felt that the Xonar D2
was a bit too bright with some jazz tracks.
Despite this, both listeners gave the card
high marks.
We love the card’s color-coded LEDs,
which let you easily identify the green or
red plug. It’s defi nitely easier than squint-
ing to fi nd tiny colored stickers. We were
also impressed by the Xonar’s high frame
rates in our gaming tests, despite its lack
of a DSP.
Keep in mind, this card supports only
EAX 2, while Creative has reached EAX- Of course, everything above EAX 2 is
proprietary, so Asus couldn’t support EAX
5 without a lot of reverse engineering or a
license. As you’d expect, game-audio ren-
dering is quite good on the Xonar, but not
as good as the Prelude with its full EAX
support.
While the Xonar has an edge in home-
theater use due to its real-time Dolby
Digital encoding, the Prelude excels at
gaming and general PC use.
Soundcards Are Back!
Your ears deserve better than onboard audio
$200, http://www.asus.comASUS XONAR D2TOM PETTY
Cool LED color-coded
ports.PETTICOAT JUNCTION^8
Only EAX 2.0 support.X-FI PRELUDE 7.1
ANALOG MODEX0NAR D2
ANALOG MODEX0NAR D2 DOLBY
DIGITAL LIVE X-FI FATAL1TYBest scores are bolded. Our test bed is a Windows XP Pro machine using a Core 2 Quad CPU, 2GB of DDR2/800 Corsair RAM, an EVGA 680i SLI motherboard, an
EVGA GeForce 8800GTX, and a Western Digital 150GB Raptor.FEAR SOFTWARE MIXING (FPS) 262 248 249 256
FEAR SOFTWARE MIXING
WITH ADVANCED EAX ON (FPS) 257 242 259 250
FEAR SOFTWARE MIXING
WITH ADVANCED EAX OFF (FPS) 254 N/A N/A 252
3DMARK03 0 SOUND (FPS) 114 114 118 117
3DMARK03 24 SOUND (FPS) 104 108 104 106
3DMARK03 60 SOUND (FPS) 94 102 96 98BENCHMARKS
$200, http://www.auzentech.comAUZENTECH X-FI PRELUDE 7.1HEARING
X-Fi and HD Audio headers
on the card.SMELLING^9
Must use Auzentech-provided
X-Fi drivers.Don’t rub your eyes, Creative Labs is
licensing its famous X-Fi to Auzentech.A sleek shield covers the electronics in Asus’s new Xonar D2.74 MAXIMUMPC | APR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com