Auzentech X-Fi Prelude retail box
(above)

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard
View from above, with Toslink-to-mini optical adapters installed (lower left of image).
(above)

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard
View from above without Toslink-to-mini optical adapters d (lower left of image).
(above)

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard
View from top.
(above)

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard
View from bottom.
(above)

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard
Connectors at the back of your PC.
See specifications for details and additional connections.
(above)

Features

• Overview
• Gaming Mode
• Entertainment Mode
• Audio Creation Mode
• Hardware
• Additional Features via Driver

Overview

• 24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 96kHz sample rate
• 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 96kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output
• 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources at 192kHz to stereo output
• 16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates:32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz
• ASIO 2.0 support at 16-bit/44.1kHz, 16-bit/48kHz, 24-bit/44.1kHz 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/96kHz with direct monitoring.
• Enhanced SoundFont support of up to 24-bit resolution
• 64MB of X-RAM
• Rear panel connectors for MIC, line input, channel line output, S/PDIF input and output
• Front panel connectors for MIC input and headphone
• On-board connectors for AUX and digital extension header
• Swappable OPAMP Socket (Front L/R only). Auzen OPAMPs.
• Software and drivers
  
  

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Gaming Mode
Enjoy the ultimate gaming performance and maximum realism.

Battle in a 3D soundscape
Bullets whiz past your head. Explosions shake the room. Take your games to the next level with EAX® ADVANCED HD™ sound effects.
X-Fi CMSS-3D delivers an amazingly realistic surround sound experience with headphones
Know exactly where your enemies are whether you're using headphones or speakers.           
Boost game audio performance even further
Free up system memory and improve your audio quality and performance in games such as Battlefield 2, Prey, Quake 4, Doom 3 and others that take advantage of X-RAM.
X-Fi Crystalizerâ„¢ automatically Upgrades existing games for extreme realism
Experience gaming audio that sounds more dynamic and realistic than you could ever imagine!

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Entertainment Mode
X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer and CMSS-3D will transform your PC to a complete DIgital Entertainment system and Home Theatre PC.

X-Fi CMSS-3D delivers an amazingly realistic surround sound experience with headphones
X-Fi CMSS-3D technology expands your stereo MP3s and digital movies into surround sound over multichannel speakers, stereo speakers or even headphones. Voices are centered in front of you and ambient sounds are moved all around you.
X-Fi Crystalizerâ„¢ restores vibrance to music and movie audio
X-Fi Crystalizer technology restores the detail and vibrance to your compressed music and movies. All the highs and lows are intelligently enhanced so you'll hear everything in crystal clarity.

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Audio Creation Mode
Utilizing the Creative X-Fi audio processor, you'll get the most advanced features and effects of any audio processor for music and audio creation delivering pristine audio playback quality.

Advanced Features and Effects for Music and Audio Creation
Auzen X-Fi Prelude supports up to eight different 24-bit hardware effects, unprecedented hardware synthesis capabilities, 24-bit SoundFont sampling, and 3D MIDI recording.
Lowest Latency ASIO Recording
Experience the most precise audio recording capabilities in any class with ASIO recording that has latency as low as one millisecond with zero CPU load.

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Hardware
Better Circuit Board. Better Audio.™

The Auzen X-Fi Prelude is a one-of-a-kind circuit board designed by Auzentech's engineers, leaders in the fields of analog and digital audio. Assembled with superior components, the board includes Auzentech-only innovations such as user-upgradable Operational Amplifiers, combo-ports that support both coaxial and optical connectors, and more.

National LM4562NA High Performance Audio OPAMP
The LM4562 from the NATIONAL combines extremely low voltage noise density (2.7nV/ √ ^Hz) with vanishingly low THD+N (0.00003%) to satisfy demanding audiophiles.
TI OPA2134 SoundPlus™ High Performance Audio OPAMP
The OPA134 series are ultra-low distortion, low noise operational amplifiers fully specified for audio applications. A true FET input stage was incorporated to provide superior sound quality and speed for exceptional audio performance.
Swappable OPAMP Socket (Front L/R only)
OPAMP IC can be easily replaced with another one. The swappable dual DIP type Operational Amplifier(OPAMP) provides convenient do-it-yourself upgrade for ultimate analog sound quality and color.
Optical / Coaxial COMBO Port
It is possible to shift between Optical and Coaxial in this port. Optical cable can be connected with the TOSLINK adaptor (included with soundcard).
AKM AK4396VF DAC
The AK4396 is a high performance stereo DAC for 24bit 120dB stereo, 96kHz sampling rate, DSD Input, ultra-low out-of-band noise, 180mW, digital attenuator manufactured by Asahi Kasei Micro systems.
AKM AK5394AVS ADC
The AK5394A is a 24bit, 96kHz sampling 2ch A/D Converter for professional digital audio systems. The modulator uses the new advanced multi-bit architecture and achieves 123dB dynamic range and wide bandwidth with superior distortion characteristics.
Solid Condenser for maximum durability & stability
The solid capacitor has been adopted to provide higher durability and stability than usual condensers, and to stabilize the electric power source.



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Additional Features via Driver Updates

We are making the following features available via driver updates. The X-Fi Prelude 7.1 soundcard is hardware-ready for these features.

Dolby® Digital Live
Enjoy audio from your PC or game console through your home theater with Dolby® Digital Live. A real-time encoding technology, Dolby Digital Live converts any audio signal into a Dolby Digital bitstream for transport and playback through a home theater system. With it, your PC or game console can be hooked up to your Dolby Digital-equipped audio/video receiver or digital speaker system via a single digital connection, eliminating the confusion of multiple cables and ensuring the integrity of the audio signal. Note: The following Dolby® technologies will not be supported on the X-Fi Prelude 7.1 due to feature overlap: Dolby® Pro Logic® IIX, Dolby® Virtual Speaker, and Dolby® Headphone.
Dolby® Digital Live for XP & Vista available as of April 25, 2008. See Downloads

DTS® Interactive
DTS® Interactive provides a single cable connection, either coaxial or optical, to your DTS-enabled surround sound system. An Auzentech sound card that supports DTS Interactive will re-encode your stereo or multi-channel audio sources into a DTS audio signal and send it to any DTS enabled system. The receiving system could be powered PC multi-channel speakers, an Audio Visual surround receiver, or any other surround sound decoder. The installation process is simple and avoids analog cable clutter. Source files may have as few as two- and as many as 5.1-channels before being up-sampled.
DTS® Interactive for Vista available as of July 1, 2008. See Downloads
Related FAQ: Why only Vista?

DTS NEO:PCâ„¢
DTS NEO:PC™ is an up-mix component of DTS Connect® that allows multi-channel output from two-channel sources. It can be combined with DTS Interactive™ to send the signal to your audio visual receiver.
Available now for Windows Vista

Creativeâ„¢ ALchemy
Alchemy is an ongoing project that supports only a limited, but growing, number of PC games. It is necessary because prior to Windows Vista, the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) enabled DirectSound and DirectSound3D technologies to play advanced audio effects. Many games have used these technologies for dynamic audio, but those same games sound flat when played in Vista. For newer releases, OpenAL has become the favorite technology. But what about the old games? That's where ALchemy comes in: ALchemy translates the legacy DirectSound calls into OpenAL, and then passes control over to your soundcard driver. The result is full hardware accelerated 3D Audio and EAX support, just as the developers intended. Even in Windows Vista.
Creative ALchemy for X-Fi Prelude and Windows Vista available. See Downloads

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Specifications

Key Components

• Creative X-Fi CA20K audio processor
• One AKM AK-5394 super high performance 96kHz 24-bit ADC for analog input
• Four AKM AK-4396 96kHz 24-bit advanced multi-bit DAC for analog output
• 64Mbytes of memory for audio processing
• High fidelity audio OPAMPs for analog input and output (TI OPA2134)
• Front L/R output OPAMP is replaceable by end-user (National LM4562NA)
• Dual mode S/PDIF receiver and transmitter

Audio Performance (Rated Output @ 5Vrms, Typical Value)

• Signal-to-Noise Ratio (20kHz Low-pass filter, A-Weighted)
• Stereo Output : 120dB (part spec)
• Front and Rear Channels : 120dB (part spec)
• Center : 120dB (part spec)
• Subwoofer and Side Channels : 120dB (part spec)
• Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (-3dBFS, A-weighted) : 0.001% - part spec
• Frequency Response (+/-0.01dB, 24-bit/44.1kHz input ) : 20khz (part spec)
• Frequency Response (+/-0.01dB, 24-bit/96kHz input ) : 43.5 khz (part spec)
• 16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates: 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz
• Maximum number of 3D Voices: 128
  

IO Connectors

• One 3.5mm MIC input connector in rear panel
• One 3.5mm line input connector in rear panel
• One 4-pin AUX connector on board
• Four 3.5mm 8 channel line output connectors in rear panel (FL/FR/C/SW/RL/RR/RSL/RSR)
• One S/PDIF combo input connector in rear panel for receiving either coaxial or optical digital
• One S/PDIF combo output connector in rear panel for transmitting either coaxial or optical digital
• One 10-1pin front panel connector on board for MIC input and headphone: more
• One 40-pin digital extension header on board to support AD-Link and other digital functionality

Swappable OPAMPs

• All Auzen soundcards support swappable OPAMP sockets for OPAMP upgrades.

S/W and drivers

• Creative X-Fi Driver

Compatibility

Hardware Compatibility issues.

• Auzen X-Tension DIN: Limited Compatibility
• Midi In, Midi Out, and SPDIF Out: Compatible
• Mic In, SPDIF In, DIN: Not Compatible
  Please read the X-Tension DIN Installation Manual for the X-Fi Prelude before purchasing the X-Tension DIN on the .Soundcard User Manuals Page
  See related announcement.

Minimum System Requirements

• Microsoft® Windows Vistaâ„¢ or Windows XP (Service Pack 2, x64 or Media Center Edition)
• 1GHz Intel® Pentium® III
• 256 MB RAM (512MB for Windows Vista)
• 600 MB of free hard disk space
• Available PCI 2.1 slot

Downloads

The following downloads are available for the X-Fi Prelude.
Click the link to visit the applicable download page.

Software

• X-Fi Prelude Driver
  The X-Fi Prelude soundcard drivers are coming soon to the driver page.
  Soundcard Driver Download Page
  
• Creative ALchemy Software for X-Fi Prelude
  Creative ALchemy software for Vista is available in the X-Fi Prelude download section.
  Soundcard Driver Download Page

Documents

• X-Fi Prelude Manual
  The most recent version of the user manual, in PDF format. Multiple languages.
  Soundcard User Manuals Page
• X-Fi Prelude Driver Installation Manual
  The X-Fi Prelude Driver Installation Manual is available on the Manuals page.
  Soundcard User Manuals Page
• X-Tension DIN Installation Manual for the X-Fi Prelude
  How to connect the X-Tension DIN to the Auzen X-Fi Prelude soundcard.
  Soundcard User Manuals Page
• ALchemy DDL Manual for X-Fi Prelude RC-4 Driver
  The Creative ALchemy "Quickstart" guide is included with the software download, or may be downloaded separately from the Manuals page.
  Soundcard User Manuals Page
  
  

Accessories

TOSLINK Combo Adaptor
1 SET (2 each).

Buy Online
S/PDIF TOSLINK Optical Digital Cable
10 feet / 3 meter.

Buy Online

Availability

The X-Fi Prelude is available now.

Production Run 2 ( Available for purchase now.)

• Schedule: Production began week of October 15, 2007.
  
• Ordering: Order through the  Auzentech Online Store or visit one of our global retailers.

(Updated 11/02/07)

Production Run 1 ( Auzentech inventory sold out. Check below retailers.)

• Date available for sale: August 29, 2007
  
  Where to buy:
  - US: Newegg and the Auzentech online store.
  - Canada:NCIX.
  - Europe: Retailers in several European countries (starting the first week of Sept).

 

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