Conclusion
So, after putting up the review, I get another email. It's Hilbert again. Coming to California? No. But he asks what my final verdict is on the Prelude. I'd left the conclusion off for a few days. I don't think I have ever teetered this much on the verge of an Editor's Choice! What you get with Auzentech's X-Fi Prelude is mighty impressive sound card. Auzentech could have called it the X-Fi The One and not have been far from the truth. It is a mighty impressive sound card, the best we've tested in many regards, but you can feel some of the pain of a first run product.
The sore spot in this case are the drivers. Even though the drivers we had for review were stable for both XP and Vista, several features weren't ready, including Dolby Digital and DTS support. While I don't think it hampers gamers too much, it does throw a wrench at a budding home theatrist. The big question is, can Creative deliver drivers quickly enough to take advantage of what Auzen's X-Fi Prelude has to offer? Since Creative has to customize the drivers for Auzentech, we just have to wait and see.
So, while we wait for the drivers to catch up, one thing we can definitely appreciate now is Auzentech's attention to design. Even though the X-Fi Prelude is roughly equal to an X-Fi Fatal1ty featurewise, Auzentech went far beyong it in the engineering of their hardware. Their hardware features are always unique with both optical and coaxial connectors, high-end DAC’s, and the ever present, replaceable op-amps. With the combination of the X-Fi chips and Auzentech's engineering, the X-Fi Prelude has the potential to be the holy grail of sound cards. It can game, and it sounds great.
All that high-end hardware definitely does its job. The X-Fi Prelude measured a fair amount better than the X-Meridian or the X-Fi XtremeMusic with RMAA 6. The two key measurements, THD and IMD, were at least an order of magnitude better than either the X-Fi XtremeMusic or X-Meridian.
Those that were hoping that a trimmed down X-Fi driver would increase performance will be a little disappointed. It didn't perform any better. The good news is that at least it didn't perform any worse. In our gaming and RM3D tests, the X-Fi Prelude performed about the same as a garden variety Creative X-Fi. OpenAL support in Vista was present, even though I could only test one game, World of Warcraft, I can surely report that it works. The real test with the X-Fi Prelude with games is how it sounds in the games. The X-Fi Prelude, with its excellent clarity of sound, produced the best, most immersive sound experience I've had, especially in Bioshock. Well, that's a compliment to both Auzentech and Bioshock.
In critical listening tests, I found the X-Fi Prelude to be just a little too laid back compared to Auzentech's other sound card, the X-Meridian. Towards the end of the listening tests, though, I started to adjust to it, and noticed that the midrange (where the vocals are) is exceptionally clear. The overal detail is still there, but soundstage is a little farther away from your head when listening to it. Being a musician, I still prefer the up-front 'attitude' of the X-Meridian compared to the more relaxed Prelude. Perhaps I could swap op-amps and see what that does.
A prelude is often a piece of music played at the beginning of a much larger piece of music. The audio performance of Auzentech sound cards are without question the best we’ve heard. I have a full sound system full of hand-picked components and I haven’t listened to it in years. This is because the level of fidelity produced by these sound cards is far superior to my home system. In the case of Auzentech's X-Fi Prelude, I can't wait for their next sound card.
Highly Recommended
Stuff That is Always at the End
Special thanks go to Stephane Bae of Auzentech, to Creative Labs for their kind support, and as always Mr. Hilbert Hagedoorn for his patience. And also Jason O'Connell, Mr. Legend himself Alden Jenks, Jeff Fisher, Jan Vierra, and of course Mr. Bubbles.
This review brought to you by the letter Z.
Our moment of zen:
BAM+++
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