Home Theaters

Auzentech, makers of a full line of quality sound cards, and mentioned in this column as a great choice for Home Theater PC sound, has produced another sure winner for those who eschew onboard sound for higher quality.

though the pics of the X-Fi HT 7.1 are not available yet, this is the X-Plosion 7.1 Cinema, which shows the great layouts that Auzentech uses, along with ultra high quality individual components.

same card as above, note the gold plated connections - better any time sound is traveling in the analog domain.

Called the X-Fi Home Theater 7.1, the card features a PCI-Express x1 interface, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. It accepts video from either an internal or external connection, mixes it with digital audio, and then outputs the combined video and audio through a single HDMI 1.3 port. (If you remember earlier mentions of the HDMI spec, you know that there were problems with some of the full feature set of the HDMI spec not being implemented before revision 1.3.) The PCIe interface will free up a PCI slot for something else, and give some microATX motherboard users a solution in crowded spaces.

nVidia fans will be excited, as the company is teaming up with nVidia to deliver ‘ultimate in audio and visual entertainment.’ The audio card will include a port, for use with nVidia video cards, to allow all the proper audio and video signals to pass through the HDMI connection.

The HomeTheater 7.1 features Dolby Digital and DTS encoding for a single-cable connection to home theater systems, however, this is much more than simply a card for home theater enthusiasts. The card uses the PCI Express-optimized X-Fi processor (yes, the one from Creative - Auzentech has taken this route before - it uses a Creative main processor and surrounds it with higher quality components than those found on the native Creative solution), to deliver accelerated audio for better game performance too, and with EAX 5.0 effects and 3D positional audio it’s going to be a favorite of hardcore gamers and PC enthusiasts. Another bonus will be the fact that Auzentech either writes its own, or tweaks existing drivers, both of which are preferable to what comes from Creative with their cards.

Since the card is not yet available, the pricing has not yet been set, but a good guess would be in the realm of $200 - pricey for many, but nothing compared to what some games pay for triple and quad SLI setups. One difference will be that the sound quality, and the drivers included, will make a huge difference for anyone who chooses to get out the green to buy one. The release date is quoted as September.

Save your pennies!

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Technorati Tags: Auzentech - X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 - ultimate quality components - superb drivers - EAX 5.0 - 3D Positional Audio