Posted on Monday, 16th April 2007 by Jimmy Auw

It’s unusual to see Creative allows their competitor to use their chipset, but they just did that! My friend contacted me and informed a new product from Auzentech (Auzen), the X-Fi Prelude 7.1. Yes, it’s an Auzentech’s card but with X-Fi chipset.

Here’s the full release from Auzentech:

Auzen X-FI™ Prelude 7.1 Coming Soon

Santa Clara, CA -April 16, 2007: Auzentech, Inc. (www.auzentech.com), developer of the world’s first Dolby® Digital Live and DTS® Connect PCI sound card, announces today a new sound card series based on the Creative X-FI™ chipset.

The Auzen X-FI™ Prelude 7.1 is scheduled for release near the end of May 2007. It will fully support EAX 5.0 and have the same expandability as the Auzen X-Meridian™ 7.1. Support for Dolby® Digital Live real time encoding for Vista is scheduled for Q4 of this year.
The Auzen X-Fi™ Prelude marks the first time Creative has permitted a third-party soundcard vendor to use the Creative X-FI™ chipset in its own soundcard design.

“By building a soundcard based upon Creative’s high-quality X-Fi™ chipset, we are fulfilling one of the most common feature requests from our customers,” said Stephane Bae, President of Auzentech, Inc. “When you’re playing games, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude soundcard will output the best 3D audio and latest EAX® effects. And when you’re listening to music or watching movies, you’ll enjoy an audiophile-quality experience.”

“We’re excited to provide Auzentech with our award-winning X-Fi audio chipset and technology to provide an outstanding audio experience for Auzentech’s customers,” said Steve Erickson, VP of audio for Creative.

I have used their X-Mystique card (Dolby Digital Encoding enabled card). Not bad, but also not very special. Auzentech used to use DIP socket for their op-amp (easy to mod). They also have released their DTS Encoding enabled card, but I no longer interested (anyway, I can’t get them in my country). But this time, the X-Fi Prelude 7.1 should be very exciting. EAX 5.0 and DD Encoding enabled card? What else? Just expect they will use the finest D/A and op-amp.


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