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(More customer reviews)Recently, I was looking for a PCI Express sound card because I wanted better audio than what onboard motherboard audio could provide. I found this card getting rave reviews, better than Creative's own X-Fi cards, so I decided to buy one of these. I've found it to be a fairly nice sound card.
Technical comparisons of this card that I've found online show that it's better than Creative's own X-Fi cards on practically all points. Perhaps most importantly, this card has a better signal-to-noise ratio, which translates to clearer audio.
- Pros:
The sound quality is great and is a noticeable improvement over onboard audio.
Support for 64-bit versions of Windows (including XP x64 and Vista 64-bit) is there, and the software is not lacking.
The card supports EAX 5.0 in hardware, which is good for gaming, although some have noted that this is less important in Windows Vista.
Another nice thing is that Auzentech says this card is compatible with Creative's 3.5" X-Fi front I/O panel designed for the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series.
- Cons:
The card is longer than average, and its length prevents it from being installed in certain slots on certain motherboards. If your motherboard has any tall components behind the PCI Express expansion slots, this card may not fit there.
The low-profile design also means that not all the ports are directly on the back of the card. You need to plug in the included I/O adapter to give you the plugs for speakers, mic, line-in, etc. I worry that the I/O adapter may be prone to problems (i.e., wire shielding may wear down), and if it's lost, it may be difficult to get a replacement.
If you want to switch the rear bracket, pliers will be needed, in addition to a screwdriver. Pliers are needed to unscrew the screws used for the I/O connector.
Although the card has a digital output, it doesn't appear to have a digital input. In another review I read, someone mentioned being able to order a part from Auzentech that plugs into the card that provides a digital input.
Also, although the card includes a hardware MIDI synthesizer, the card doesn't provide any MIDI ports.
Linux support is not very good yet. The only Linux driver seems to be Creative's own X-Fi driver, available as source code. I use Ubuntu Linux 9.04, and even after downloading and installing Creative's driver, I still had no sound in Ubuntu. Obviously there's still more work to do there.
- Other thoughts & info:
My card came with the full-height rear bracket already installed, which is what I would have had to do anyway. The half-height bracket was included with my card.
After I installed the card, the audio quality actually sounded worse than my motherboard's audio, but only at first. Music sounded a little distorted, but that stopped, and now it sounds great. I'm not sure what was happening there, but it appears it was a fluke. From the reviews, I'd have a hard time believing the hardware is bad. Perhaps any quality issues will improve with driver updates.
I emailed Auzentech tech support to ask them if this card will work with Creative's upgraded X-Fi panel (the 5.25" version that includes more ports), and they said it will not.
The X-Fi chip supports 3 modes (switchable using the software): Entertainment mode, game mode, and audio creation mode. They say that in each mode, they say the X-Fi is optimized for that particular task. The software control panel also has different options for each mode.
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