The Auzen Prelude 7.1 Thread. - Page 2

The driver only corrects the 4 gig memory problem with windows. It adds no other features.

Any word on the date for DDL? Or does Q4 really mean January?

Thanks,
Sean

I wonder if the Creative X-Fi CA20K audio processor is powerfull enough to decode the HD audio bitstreams..

Will the new driver that is coming very soon allow us to add delay per channel?
I'm kinda surprised that a sound card at this price point and performance lacks a basic capability such as delay...

Rich,

I'm pretty sure that the HDMI add-on board will also work fine with the X-Meridian.

I have no information about that.

Here is what I got from Auzentech:


- Rich

This image popped up from Auzentech support at one point in time...you'll notice the label "X-Meridian or X-Fi Prelude" where the sound card box is. I believe the X-Meridian has sufficient quality hardware to support the hi-res audio formats, and LPCM 5.1 shouldn't require any kind of decoding. Auzentech is also making this promise on their website:
However, that doesn't mean that someone won't screw this up for us. But for now I'm going to keep dreaming that everything will work out ok for the X-Meridian owners.

So right now this card won't even do DDL?

Correct...right now it only has the same functions as a vanilla X-fi.

The Analog output of the X-Meridian was higher than the standard. Does the Prelude use standard voltages?

- Rich

Anyone find out how this part actually works, considering SPDIF supposedly didn't have enough bandwidth for TrueHD and DTS-MA?

"Optical / Coaxial COMBO Port
The SPDIF Output port has 25mbps bandwidth and supports DTS-
HD/DolbyTrue HD. It is possible to shift between Optical and Coaxial in this port."

You would need a receiver that can take this SPDIF. I believe they are none out currently that can do this.

The bandwidth is certainly there to pass it. The problem is both the sender and the receiver have to understand what is being sent.

The SPDIF specs limit what can be understood, but this does not limit manufacturers from making it do more.

If AVR manufacturers added in the capability to understand it over SPDIF, and the card sends it over SPDIF, then all is good. I doubt they will, though, since HDMI is here.

I was going to use BlueGears or Creative Labs branded card.. but after seeing this its like getting best of both worlds...

I plan on using this card as my "receiver" and pre-amp, DSP and have it go stright into an amp thats either a 7.1 amp or (4) Crown pro-audio amps...

Anyone have this card setup like that?

I do. Or at least until I receive the Integra DTC 9.8 pre-amp processor I have on order.

I'm quite disappointed in the drivers lacking in my opinion, a number of key functions.

For example, you can only define the cross over frequency for all speakers, not for each speaker individually and there is no configuration for speaker delay (or distance) at all.

Hopefully these shortcomings will be corrected with upgraded drivers, but I am still amazed these essential functions where not in the drivers from the beginning. After all this card is marketed as being excellent in the analog domain.

My old HTPC uses a M-audio Delta 410 card and that card has excellent base management and delay configuration options.

/Anders

there's an app which someone wrote to take the ouput of an X-FI and pipe it through an X-Meridian.... could this work with the bass-managed 410 output being piped into your Prelude???

No, many of the Intel G33/G35 with onboard HDMI (like the ASUS P5E-VM HDMI) can also output 5.1 or 7.1 LPCM. Check some of the other threads for more info.

F

That is interesting. I will give it a look.

- Rich

Like this:

-slap the 410 card in the box
-install 410 drivers
-direct output from i.e. PowerDVD Ultra to the 410
-have this app magically direct the output of the 410 to the prelude
-prelude outputs the audio to the power amp

Is that really possible?

One of the reasons I retired the 410 was the lack of Vista drivers, so I'm not sure if I could even use that card.

Any chance to remove the "Creative" requirement to fit the above scenario ??

I pretty much pasted the text from my earlier post in a support ticket with Auzentech. This is the reply I got:


No word on delay...

seperate delay's are in the THX console.... hopefully they will enable this in future releases....

I should get my Prelude today. Probably install it over the weekend.

- Rich

Well the THX cert. is not necessary by any means, however having a functional distance/delay setting for each speaker on the analog outputs is essential, especially if you're going to hype the analog outs as the way to go with the card. To be honest, the lack of this makes the card laughable as an HTPC solution. I really want to use this card, but unless this materializes, I guess I will have to look for something else. Coupled with the lack of functional DDLive/DTSconnect drivers, how exactly do they expect serious HT users to make use of this card? Or is the idea that all HTPC users are using $300 computer speakers and won't notice the difference anyway?

It would be nice to adjust the sound levels for each speaker. I am highly skeptical of distance adjustments for the following reasons:

- It is about 1ms per foot. When was the last time you noticed a sync problem or delay talking to someone across the room

- I never really noticed or heard anyone complain about the sound in different seats in the same theater.

In most cases, this is just a me too issue. Sound levels for each speaker is far more important.

That said, after sending me a bogus tracking number and reshipping, I finally received my Prelude. I am very pleased with this board. I like it much better than the X-Meridian and the X-FI XtremeMusic even though I had put LM4562s in both. The X-Meridian was tougher and more dynamic but a bit digital, there was something about the midrange that I did not care for. The XtremeMusic had better balance but did not have the dynamics and bass control.

The Prelude is great. Very clean, dynamic, and controlled. It is not quite a match for my Onkyo Pro 885 preamp, but hey, that cost my 7 times as much

All operations perform similar to my XTremeMusic but with cleaner fuller sound.
Great Card!!

- Rich