Auzentech Forte 7.1 – Dead... To Be Resurrected?

[R31Nismoid]

Hey all.

Just thought i'd update on my soundcard.... Auzentech Forte 7.1

It has been an awesome soundcard, despite the hatred for Creative labs drivers i've remarkably had no issues with them and the setup has perform flawlessly even after updates etc. The UI was also good with their software.

However my card... she died last night captain...

It basically makes a epically loud helicopter noise through the headphones (so loud it'll hurt ears). Mine was a Rev 1.2 card (with extra heatsinks etc) so it was the good board. The Rev 1.0 ones were known to fail quite quickly after doing some snooping around the net and forums.

The issue after doing some reading sounds like the interchangeable onboard OAMP failing. So i think it can be repaired as a mate of mine is good with a soldering iron and it's a simple 8 pin replacement job with an OAMP and a adaptor slot. So I'll post up either way how it goes as the OAMP i wanna use will be an upgrade over factory so should improve the card (for a $25 part, seems worth the effort).

Honestly for the money i reckon the sound card was some of the best PC money I've spent as combined with the Sennheiser 555 headphones, the sound was absolutely mint. Mine has lasted 4 years so not "too" bad however it really shouldn't have died realistically.

In the mean time i went and lashed out on a ASUS Xonar STX, will give it a whirl over the weekend and report back as if i fix the Auzentech card, it'll go into my media PC

[25GTT]

yep id be keen to know the difference. I am in the market for a xonar, prob just the DX though which is only about $95

[Madaz]

Ive always just cheaped out in the sound department

would it be benifitial for cheaper sennheisers like the HD212pro and HD280pro?

EDIT

great review of the Xonar DX

[R31Nismoid]

Depends on the resistance of the headphones themselves.

The Senn 555s (595, 558, 598) and higher all benefit greatly from having an amp'd socket powering them and sound 100x better when plugged in.

Perhaps have a bit of a google and see if it'll offer any benefit. If they do then I'd certainly reccommend it as i do watch a few movies through headphones (given i cannot run my huge stereo @ 4am in an apartment lol), so it's a setup i get to use/appreciate pretty often.

[Madaz]

What people should realise is that most music is optimised for listening on a stereo system and not headphones. A search for "binaural music" will yield samples that show how music should be sampled for headphones. Anyways, the HD-280 Pros also have 64 Ohms of resistance so an amplifier isn't needed.

but im guessing their test system was a home stereo not a PC

EDIT

a quick search shows for the HD555

Nominal impedance - 50 Ω

[R31Nismoid]

Ye probably not thinking PC Gamer/Music listening as opposed to proper amplified stereo. I've got a big mumma Marantz amp for that home stereo duties, the card simply processes the sound in that instance and does no driving.

But i can certainly tell you the difference was night & day when i put the soundcard in initially as opposed to using onboard.

When i was doing reading people did say you "dont need one", but there are "benefits to be gained" by having one. So ye, probably no point for yours by the sound of it

[Madaz]

yeah that video review i posted has a few good things to say about the DX sound quality, SNR hearing footsteps behing you

also i get this weird anomaly watching WMC sometimes its a sound thing like maybe the onboard is overheating not sure

[R31Nismoid]

Oh missed the edit. at work anyway, cant watch it anyway

It could be electro interference or something dude? I noticed if i have my soundcard too close to the GPU it would sometimes "buzz", moved it another slot down and was fine.