View Full Version : Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 Review
V. Slayer
11-20-06, 11:54 PM
I have just posted a review of the Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 sound card.
Check it out, and post any feedback here.
Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 sound card (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/auzentech_xmeridian/index.shtml)
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/auzentech_xmeridian/auzen.gif (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/auzentech_xmeridian/index.shtml)
"ratty old mp3s" :D
Great review Brian!
Pixelsmack
11-21-06, 01:29 AM
Good review. A point that I felt needed some additional highlighting.
As Creative detailed last week, OpenAL is extremely important if gamers switching to Vista want to continue enjoying D3D and EAX in their games. Whether it's DSound3D, EAX 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.
The only way around Vista's new sound implementation is via OpenAL. Otherwise any game you have will default to plain-o, 2-channel with no FX. Even if you have OpenAL the game needs to support OpenAL. That list is short right now, but with so many games about to be crippled I am sure patches will start soon. So this card's lack of OpenAL in it's driver, considering how much else it does, is somewhat baffling with Vista around the corner.
You did mention that their site marks this as a dividing-line, though. Maybe this is their last "hurrah" into conventional HAL audio?
tweaked
11-21-06, 02:51 AM
Good review. A point that I felt needed some additional highlighting.
As Creative detailed last week, OpenAL is extremely important if gamers switching to Vista want to continue enjoying D3D and EAX in their games. Whether it's DSound3D, EAX 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.
The only way around Vista's new sound implementation is via OpenAL. Otherwise any game you have will default to plain-o, 2-channel with no FX. Even if you have OpenAL the game needs to support OpenAL. That list is short right now, but with so many games about to be crippled I am sure patches will start soon. So this card's lack of OpenAL in it's driver, considering how much else it does, is somewhat baffling with Vista around the corner.
You did mention that their site marks this as a dividing-line, though. Maybe this is their last "hurrah" into conventional HAL audio?
you beat me to it.
lack of OpenAL support should be a deal breaker for anyone looking to use this card for longer than a year. (at this point i expect the pressure to be on for gamers to switch to vista for dx10 games)
It's a piece of crap CMedia chipset, I'm guessing the reviewer has never heard a SB X-Fi card or was given some sort of kickback to hype the card. There's no way any CMedia product could come close the an X-Fi, in ease of use, compatibility or not to mention sound quality or half the cost of a card with a codec chip on it. Just how many motherboards come out now with a cmedia codec on them? Some tried it for a bit but no longer don't you think that should tell you something? I don't even think PCChips uses them anymore and that's truly a sad comment on their quality.
V. Slayer
11-21-06, 10:24 AM
you beat me to it.
lack of OpenAL support should be a deal breaker for anyone looking to use this card for longer than a year. (at this point i expect the pressure to be on for gamers to switch to vista for dx10 games)
A lot of people will point this out, but most people on this board have an upgrade cycle of less than a year. This card is definitely a viable solution for a gaming rig running current software. I hope to see a newer card from Auzentech with OpenAL support, and I think the X-Meridian is their card leading into that. As for now, this card absolutely rocks.
nekrosoft13
11-21-06, 10:40 AM
i really wanted to buy x-meridian, but considering i will be switching to vista in less then two months, Hell NO, i'm not buying a sound card that will be good for 2 months.
cschueths
11-21-06, 12:11 PM
It's a piece of crap CMedia chipset, I'm guessing the reviewer has never heard a SB X-Fi card or was given some sort of kickback to hype the card. There's no way any CMedia product could come close the an X-Fi, in ease of use, compatibility or not to mention sound quality or half the cost of a card with a codec chip on it. Just how many motherboards come out now with a cmedia codec on them? Some tried it for a bit but no longer don't you think that should tell you something? I don't even think PCChips uses them anymore and that's truly a sad comment on their quality.
X-Fi lacks DDL/DTS-Connect capability. The digital-out on the X-Fi is only 2 channels- this card supports digital 5.1 over optical or coaxial with hardware decoding (DTS Connect on my Z-5500 has amazing clarity). X-Fi only supports DD and DTS pass-through (for DVDs)- it doesn't actually encode it. This was a reason why I ditched the X-Fi and went with an X-Meridian.
The X-Fi doesn't stand up to this card in the sound quality department. Compatibility? At least Auzentech's drivers worked the first time around. Creative's support sucked in comparison- my X-Fi kept popping, even after changing the PCI latency. The lack of OpenAL in the X-Meridian is disconcerting, but there is hope (http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=2024009&postcount=1049).
EAX 3/4/5 was nice, but overrated, and I traded it in for better quality sound.
Btw, Dolby headphone is pretty good, but my old ($20) sony headphones are crap. Maybe I should invest in some good sennheisers?
Monolyth
11-21-06, 12:13 PM
Great review! The lack of OpenAL is all that's missing from this card. Hopefully they will release a similar product with support for it. All in all though it's nice to see more vendors catering to headphone users.
It's a piece of crap CMedia chipset, I'm guessing the reviewer has never heard a SB X-Fi card or was given some sort of kickback to hype the card. There's no way any CMedia product could come close the an X-Fi, in ease of use, compatibility or not to mention sound quality or half the cost of a card with a codec chip on it. Just how many motherboards come out now with a cmedia codec on them? Some tried it for a bit but no longer don't you think that should tell you something? I don't even think PCChips uses them anymore and that's truly a sad comment on their quality.
The Turtle Beach - Santa Cruz was based on a CMedia chip, and it was the easiest and most trouble free card I've ever owned.
jimbobhickville
11-21-06, 12:55 PM
I think any thread on Auzentech cards is incomplete without pointing out the utter disregard for fixing problems with their software. Each time a new card comes out, they totally abandon their previous card. If you don't believe me, take a look at their drivers section. They're all beta drivers, that have been beta for months, and no updates are forthcoming. As a disappointed owner of their previous generation card, I feel obligated to drill a hole in the hype.
I hope they correct this and update the drivers for their older cards, but I somehow doubt it will happen. The sound is great in some games, but Battlefield 2 has issues (sounds like a skipping record sometimes) and Half-Life 2 sounds like you're in a cave. Music and DVDs sound sweet, though. And having everything in Dolby Digital is very nice.
Let's face it, the Auzentech cards are onboard sound cards + Dolby Digital Live. That's the only real selling point, and while it is nice, it doesn't make up for the lack of quality in the drivers, nor the lack of basic features like front-panel audio connectors (which I see they've now corrected).
nekrosoft13
11-21-06, 12:59 PM
I think any thread on Auzentech cards is incomplete without pointing out the utter disregard for fixing problems with their software. Each time a new card comes out, they totally abandon their previous card. If you don't believe me, take a look at their drivers section. They're all beta drivers, that have been beta for months, and no updates are forthcoming. As a disappointed owner of their previous generation card, I feel obligated to drill a hole in the hype.
I hope they correct this and update the drivers for their older cards, but I somehow doubt it will happen. The sound is great in some games, but Battlefield 2 has issues (sounds like a skipping record sometimes) and Half-Life 2 sounds like you're in a cave. Music and DVDs sound sweet, though. And having everything in Dolby Digital is very nice.
Let's face it, the Auzentech cards are onboard sound cards + Dolby Digital Live. That's the only real selling point, and while it is nice, it doesn't make up for the lack of quality in the drivers, nor the lack of basic features like front-panel audio connectors (which I see they've now corrected).
Auzentech drivers support is horrible, even more horrible then creative. But thats not entirelly their fault, those drivers are made by C-Media.
Does this card need Service pack 2 to work? Everytime I install service pack 2, I get internet connection problems and bsods.
Pixelsmack
12-11-06, 02:44 AM
Creative does have a DTS-Live option with their DTS-610 product. It converts whatever audio you feed it to DTS 5.1. Obviously feeding it a 5.1 signal makes the best use of it.
You take analog 5.1 output from your Creative card or other and feed it into the box and then out to your stereo. So you can get the latest EAX in a 5.1 streamed format.
But really, post Vista, Creative DESPERATELY needs to make their next soundcard do DTS 5.1 Live out or DD 5.1 Live onboard. Or even better so as to be all encompassing, 7.1 to 10.1. ;)
V. Slayer
12-11-06, 11:29 PM
Does this card need Service pack 2 to work? Everytime I install service pack 2, I get internet connection problems and bsods.
According to the manual, the OS requirements for the X-Meridian are: Microsoft Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 SP3 / XP SP1 / Server 2003 SP1 / XP Media Center Edition 2005 / XP x64 Edition.
I have this card working under XP SP2 without any issues.
CaptNKILL
12-14-06, 05:59 AM
According to the manual, the OS requirements for the X-Meridian are: Microsoft Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 SP3 / XP SP1 / Server 2003 SP1 / XP Media Center Edition 2005 / XP x64 Edition.
I have this card working under XP SP2 without any issues.
The SP1 requirement is a minimum, meaning it works on SP1 and SP2 but it might not work on standard windows XP.
nekrosoft13
01-11-07, 07:15 PM
more bad news
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=27&limit=1&limitstart=4
Looking at the graphs a 10 FPS drop is recorded in UT2004 when experiencing a 5% increase in CPU utilization using the Auzentech over the X-Fi. A 2% increase in CPU utilization using the Auzentech over the Realtek sound shows negligible difference in FPS in UT2004.
As the reviewer noted this makes little difference when upping the resolutions in real world gaming as the CPU utilization is less affected. It does show that the Auzentech does use more CPU cycles when the GPU is less stressed at a resolution of 640x480.
Gnaddel
01-28-07, 06:05 PM
Even more bad news...
This card still isn't available in Germany, where is globalisation if you need it? :headexplode:
http://www.auzentech.com/site/support/FAQ.php#compatibility
First rev of the Vista driver has been released for 32-bit. 64-bit is "coming soon". OpenAL is still a future feature.
you beat me to it.
lack of OpenAL support should be a deal breaker for anyone looking to use this card for longer than a year. (at this point i expect the pressure to be on for gamers to switch to vista for dx10 games)
agreed.
C-Media need to support OpenAL, moreover they need to hardware accelerate OpenAL in future products rather than getting the driver to pass the load to the CPU.
nekrosoft13
03-01-07, 09:08 AM
agreed.
C-Media need to support OpenAL, moreover they need to hardware accelerate OpenAL in future products rather than getting the driver to pass the load to the CPU.
true, second deal breaker for me, also is no support for directsound to openAL converter aka Alchemy like product.
I called Auzentech and e-mailed c-media, got the same answer from both places. they will not provide any wrapper to translate directsound to openal in vista.
true, second deal breaker for me, also is no support for directsound to openAL converter aka Alchemy like product.
I called Auzentech and e-mailed c-media, got the same answer from both places. they will not provide any wrapper to translate directsound to openal in vista.
Keep in mind that Alchemy only works on select cards. Most of Creative's products are in the same boat. Now, c-media is being driven by its customers to implement OpenAL support. This is a big deal to companies like Auzentech.
We'll see how it develops, but yes, like most things bleeding edge, Vista support is lacking.
CaptNKILL
03-01-07, 11:27 AM
Keep in mind that Alchemy only works on select cards. Most of Creative's products are in the same boat. Now, c-media is being driven by its customers to implement OpenAL support. This is a big deal to companies like Auzentech.
We'll see how it develops, but yes, like most things bleeding edge, Vista support is lacking.
My brother has been stuck with a practically useless Vista installation for a few months now because Auzentech hasn't released a 64bit driver for the X-Plosion.
He's a bit irritated, to say the least...
My brother has been stuck with a practically useless Vista installation for a few months now because Auzentech hasn't released a 64bit driver for the X-Plosion.
He's a bit irritated, to say the least...
Did he not know about the driver situation before hand? Why did he go Vista?
Just curious why people are upset after installing Vista when they did not have drivers goin in...
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