Auzentech X-Fi Prelude

Zitat

Auzentech
X-Fi Prelude 7.1

We've been excitedly waiting for the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude to hit retail for a few months now and finally, here it is. However, I'm going to have to start our summing up with a simple fact - This board won't be gaining any awards from Elite Bastards just yet.

The reasoning behind that should really be pretty obvious - Until we get hold of drivers with support for at least Dolby Digital Live support (and preferably DTS Interactive too), we simply can't call the Prelude a finished product. These two pieces of functionality are the cornerstone of what sets Auzentech's offering aside from the rest of the field, so we'll be reserving our final judgement until those options are working and (we hope) working well. That isn't a criticism of Auzentech in any shape or form, it's a simple fact, and needless to say we'll be revisiting this board further down the line once all of the necessary functionality (including a supported version of ALchemy for enabling EAX in games) is available to give it another once over.

Putting that to one side, Auzentech have certainly done a predictably good job as far as designing the X-Fi Prelude is concerned, taking Creative Labs' chip and matching it with high quality components and an impressive PCB design to wring every last drop of audio quality out of it. While this isn't always enough to best Auzentech's own X-Meridian in every discipline, it does make the X-Fi Prelude the best sounding part on the market overall. If you're an audiophile looking for top-notch analogue audio quality, the X-Fi Prelude has it in spades, and with the ability to replace the front speaker OPAMP with a better part to improve things even further to boot. Couple this with the environmental audio capabilities of the X-Fi (which we've always bemoaned the lack of in C-Media sporting parts) and some of the other bells and whistles which might interest some, and you have what promises to be quite simply an almost perfect all-round package.