Auzentech X-Fi Prelude

[b1lk1]

The cards do not physically support it, it is done in drivers and software. Creative cards could do this but they choose not to. Honestly, I would avoid anything build with Creative parts since I find C-Media based cards are far better at everything that matters in the real world.

Most everything is done at the driver level for ALL soundcards. Even C-Media cards are running DDL/DTS on a driver/software level. It is just a matter of how well each company does.

Finally, EAX needs to die anyways since it is a monopolistic implementation of a sound scheme that in my ears never worked very well anyways. Normal surround sound is just as good, again in my ears.

 

[Unregistered]

Well, first of all, I would like to congratuate the reviewer for the unbiased point of view.

I like the input and it states precisely what the card delivered at launch (promisses). I do not own one yet, but eventually I will because for me EAX do make a difference and besides that, a thing that I want most is the F/P audio support, wich Creative doesn't offer to us, trying to push that ridiculous I/O driver gamers didn't ever needed.

I think people got angry with the reviewer because they were anxiously waiting for some new yet compatible with Creative Technology. In fact this has been a dream shared for many "A Cretive chip with drivers made from someone else" and for our despair, this is not the case, since the drivers continue to be made by Creative, just tweaked by Auzen.

Could you update the review using the new drivers to se "if" things improved after almost 1 year?

 

[madmat]

I'm on my way to work at the moment but I'll give my further impressions after I get home in the morning.

 

[Unregistered]

I'm on my way to work at the moment but I'll give my further impressions after I get home in the morning.

WOW! That's excellent news. Personally I hope drivers must be better by now, and with almost all functionality delivered (DTS NEO on BETA), will be a great overview of your previous experience .... tough it's only my hope ...

 

[madmat]

Well, I'm on my way to work, again, and when I had wanted to post my further impressions we were having a server issue. Tomorrow I'll be helping out with getting a friend of mine moved (he hit a semi load of steel doing 80) but I'll try to get something up ASAP.

 

[madmat]

Ok, here are my thoughts on the X-Fi Prelude as it stands today... I haven't been able to test the DTS/DDL outputting capabilities of the new drivers as I still don't have a device to test it with. The whole "register your card to get a DDL key" change has turned me even further off to the card. Why weren't the prior cards subject to this? You can still get their C-Media based drivers without the need to dig out your serial number, why make the owners of the high end uber card jump through hoops?

Now, I am happy to report that DTS decoding does work in Vista. Unlike XP you can watch a movie and listen to the DTS soundtrack via the analog outs on the sound card. For XP this function is still broken. Why?

The Alchemy software wasn't working correctly as of the last driver rollout (I am not sure about the current drivers, I don't feel like tearing the card out to get the serial key) as I'd setup my OpenAL games in Alchemy, enable OpenAL in the games and be greeted by no sound whatsoever.

All things considered I still hold that buying a Creative card instead would constitue a more satisfying experience for the user. Creative cards can update the drivers without registering for keys, the Alchemy drivers work and new drivers are available sooner than Auzentech as there's no need to try and hammer any round pegs into square holes so to speak.

When the X-Fi Prelude first came out I equated it to buying a Ferrari that shipped without a transmission. Instead you got a note saying "Don't worry, it's coming soon." Yeah, you can sit in your shiny new toy and go "vroom, vroom" but it's not what it should be and now they've given the owners a third party three speed auto that may or may not mate up to the engine.

This monster needs a full on six speed with paddle shifters and it's still not there.

 

[Unregistered]

Ok ... that registration nonsense that you are complaining has a name ... DANIELK. This guy managed to hack x-fi prelude drivers with DDL to work with Creative X-FI cards ... so, If you had the luck to download this driver before Creative had reacted against that iniative and forced danielK to make his drivers unavailable, then you probably have a Creative X-FI with DDL capabilities, and Audigy with Alchemy for free as well.

After that incident, Auzen has punished their customers by implementing this registration process, to protect their license agreement with Dolby Labs and Creative. There is an open letter about this in their site...

Putting that asside, it's very sad that you were unable to run Alchemy properly ...

 

[madmat]

Well, I've seen lots of other problems that have cropped up for other users prior to my writing the brief update. Things like DDL stopping after opening the console, others with the sound quitting after stopping games and others with similar issues to mine. I don't lay it on Auzen's doorstep as a hardware issue, it's more of an issue with the drivers. It's akin to trying to use a driver meant for something that's kind of the same but still pretty different for a piece of hardware it wasn't written to support. It might work, sort of, but it won't be right. The X-Fi Prelude drivers just aren't right for the card. IMHO I think that they need to write drivers FOR that card and not try to re-write drivers to make them work with that card and they don't seem to get that.

Stop trying to hammer that square peg into the round hole and make a freaking round peg already. There's a saying, "work smart, not hard" and that's the whole problem, they're working hard on adapting the Creative drivers over to their card instead of working smart and making their very own drivers for their card.

Creative drivers are buggy on Creative designed and built cards. Putting them on someone else's hardware just exacerbates the problem. For now it's third party drivers FTL.