Auzen X-fi Forte 7.1 thread

Hey guys, The questions and comments on this newly released cards seen to be coming up now so let's keep all the information and experiences with the Forte 7.1 here. This way, people looking for informaiton on this new gaming card can find it easily.

So, Lets get your opinions from the current owners or questions fomr the perspective buyers.


Personally, I have been testing this new card for a while and it sounds very good for games and is a fast hardware soundcard.

 

Hey ROBSCIX. I ordered this card after your recomendations. My computer will be ready in a week or two. So I totally support this thread and looking forward to any feedback on this product. Hopr to post my opinion about this card very soon too.

 

Let us know your thoughts and opinions on the hardware/software once you have had a chance to test it out.

 

Will do. Actually I already have one question. I will connect this card to my home theather reciever. I bought 4 m fiberoptic cable for this. When I looked at the discription on the card I noticed that it has only ditital coax output. Howether it comes with the little adapter that fits to the little hole beside digital coax output. So I can connect my fiber optic cable through this adapter. In terms of sound quality should I go and buy 4 m digital coax cable or it will be the same sound quality through the other output with the adapter for fiber optic. Thank you.

 

There should be no noticable difference. We can argue about noise inductance etc. For most applications, they will be the same. They are just relaying bits to the receiver, there is really no difference in this sense. Your current cable should be fine.

 

Thanks a lot. Cannot wait to post my first review on guru.

 

Had this card for just over a week now, upgraded from an onboard soundmax and i'm blown away by it. I'm hearing things in music and games that i didn't notice before, listening to some Beethoven was an almost overwhelming experience
Seemed to have gained a few FPS in some games as well. The only thing i have to complain about is that when i have my HD555 headphones plugged into the headphone out and my z5500s through the optical connection it recognizes the headphones are plugged in and shuts off my speakers but, if i change to speakes in the control panel and leave my headphones plugged in it plays sound through both speakers and phones. So basically i have to plug and unplug my headphones, not a huge deal as i just need an extension cable to be closer to where i sit so i can plug my phones in there instead of the back of the computer.
Am i doing something wrong? I would have thought you'd be able to do this via the control panel?

Anyway it's a small issue compaired to how great the card is, which i highly recommend

 

Have you tried analog output to your Z-5500's? The Forte 7.1 will have a higher quality DAC and analog conenction should give you better sound quality then digital using your system. This may be why your also having the issue with the muting.

 

Congts on your new card. Still waiting for mine. Let me ask you. Did you install drivers that came with the disc or you downloaded latest from auzen site.

 

Thanks for the quick response Just tested with the analogue connection and yeah the same thing happens although this time the the speakers aren't muted at all when i change to headphones the sound plays through both (it's a bit annoying as i can hear the headphones when i'm not wearing them). Like i said with the optical when i change to headphones it does mute the speakers but changing back to speakers it plays sounds through both.

I agree with analogue sounding better in most cases eg 'Miles Davis - Kinda Blue' sounds weird via optical but then i love the clarity of optical for classical music and DVDs. Put Lord of the Rings on to test and ended up watching the whole movie again just because it sounded so new
Can i leave both analogue and optical plugged into my z-5500? Or will this cause interferance?

BTW i used the drivers from the Auzen site seemed to work straight away (apart from the muting thing).

 

Maybe I am mistaken but I think there is no way around about inconvenients that you have when you plug in your headphones and your speakers are muted. The whole idea of headphones output is that when you plug in your headphones you will not bother people around you with different sounds from the speakers system you have. The same idea when you plug in your headphones to designated headphones outputs on tv or any other audio systems the speakers are muted. I am talking about outputs that have little picture of headphones beside them. But if you connect your headphones through the regular audio output you will get sound from both speakers and headphones. But maybe there is something I do not know about. Sorry for mistakes. English is my second language.

 

Yeah you misunderstood me i'm afraid mate (i wasn't very clear) it's the other way around When i plug my headphones into the headphone out the speakers don't mute and i can't mute the headphones while i'm listening to the speakers so i have to unplug my headphones from the back of my PC (have the optimize for headphones check box and mute speakers automatically enabled). Must be a bug i guess?

Like i said it's not a huge issue going to get a headphone extension cord so i can plug and unplug my phones into near where i sit and the just manually mute the speakers but i would prefer to have as few connections as possible

 

Sorry, could not help. Let us know if you find a solution.

 

@Beez, sounds like a bug, are you using the latest version of drivers form Auzen site?
If you find any bugs that you can faithfully reproduce every time. Send in the informaiton to Auzentech. They cannot fix what they do not know about.

 

On my prelude I found, that if I do use DDL via optical and have my headphones plugged in at the same time, all I have to do is change the main volume in windows to 0%, which basically mutes analog but not digital. If I want to mute digital I just use the mute button on my Sony Receiver's remote.

 

Ok thanks ROBSCIX, i'll contact support tomorrow.

Pretty sure i'm using the latest drivers. I downloaded Auzen X-Fi Forte Driver Version 1.0, Release Date: 02/20/2009 from their website and used that to install the card instead of the drivers on the CD it came with. Also before install i removed all traces of the old soundmax card and disabled any onboard audio features in my bios. I'm also using Vista x64 if that makes any difference.

 

Hey ROBSCIX. Congratulations on youtr new post. I finally got my computer with Auzen X-Fi forte 7.1 sound card. I have a question. Really hope you can help me. As I mention before I wanted to use my SONY Home theatre receiver for surround sound in games. You suggested me this card. But I am not sure if I am using it right. This card has DTS encoding for fiber optic output. So if in control panel I leave in encoding menu DTS off I can hear sound in my speakers and LCD screen on the reciever shows signal PCM 48. And the sound is not surround. When i clicked in control panel DTS encoding on my reciever shows me on little screen "DTS-3/2.1" But i do not hear any sound from the speakers at all. When I start games no sound from the speakers. Do you have any suggestions what I am doing wrong.
And yeah. I did the disc that came with the card. I downloaded new driver for this card fron Ausen site.
Thank you very much in advance.

 

Make sure your using the latest drivers. What do you have the Vista audio control panel set to? Many set this incorrectly and it messes up the cards encoder features.

 

I just finished the review for the Forte 7.1 and I also added a section on opamps and tested a few in the Forte for those interested. Forte 7.1 Review

 

Hey. ROBSCIX. Thank you very much for your reply. After your review about this card everything became more clear. I think I figure out what I was supposed to do. I am still doing some experiments and maybe later I will have more question. But for now I can tell it is amazing card. The sound quality is super. I highly recomend this card.