I just bought a
Prelude, and I decided to write a honest review of it before every single paid off review site on the net gives it a 10/10, when it clearly isn't.
I get tired of reading good reviews of bad sound cards, its simply not honest reporting when a card has major issues and they are not addressed or ignored.
First, my opinion of past creative cards:
Audigy2zs:
not truly 24 bit and claims it is. -
The features do not require manual switching to use. +
There is a linux driver, and the kx project. +
Regular creative drivers are fairly decent. +
X-FI:
24 bit +
horrible drivers -
installs AOL shortcuts, and numerous garbage services and startups, even in the basic driver. -
No linux driver -
horrible components -
horrible support/customer service -
beta drivers are time limited and deactivate themselves -
mode switcher: you have to manually switch your card each time before gaming or listening to music. -
interesting new things and recommended software:
real time ac3 encoder, works with regular creative cards.
KX Audio Driver Page
General Discussion - DriverHeaven.net
intelliremote:
best way to use the creative remote.
Melloware : Intelliremote 2.0
X-fi Mode Changer:
easiest way to switch modes, since creative certainly didn't consider user convenience.
X-Fi Mode Changer
History aside, heres what I think of the Prelude:
Sound is noticeably better, or at least different than the x-fi. +
3d sound in games is better. +
(although that could partly be the 64mb)
Lower volume sound effects in games are easier to hear and come in cleaner.
My old x-fi xtreme music seemed to not like lower volume effects and seemed to clip them out.
It wasn't noticeable clipping, it just didn't seem to play as many low volume effects.
Interesting note:
card is picked up as a "Auzen X-FI Prelude 7.1" and has its own driver.
I don't know if the regular creative driver will install, since it automatically overwrote my newer driver with the prelude driver.
Basically, if this card has driver lock in, you're screwed if you need to install creative's beta driver, or use creative software.
There is also a constant blinking green led on the card, it annoys me.
Initially I thought, "WTF something is wrong here!", but closer inspection revealed the light to not be a warning led on the mainboard, but a useless, distracting led on the soundcard.
Bad things:
Missing features.
You know those features Auzen is trying to sell this card on?
Well you don't get them.
More precisely, they don't have it, and you have to wait for them.
Software.
You get less than the regular X-FI, I kid you not.
The X-FI has 3 rows of tabs in the standard audio console, the prelude has 2.
I don't know which tabs were left out specifically, but I know things are missing.
All the standard software extras that you get with the X-FI are also NOT on the cd, its just the driver.
Since the Prelude is not detected as a X-FI, I don't think it is even possible to use the original X-FI software, since creative uses hardware detection.
No Backwards compatibility.
The Prelude has an extension port the same size as the X-FI, but they proprietized it for their "X-Tension" din by adding extra pins in the middle.
That pretty much means my 100$ creative external bay doesn't work.
Conclusion:
If you already have a X-FI and its extras, do NOT buy this card.
Mod it yourself using the guides on the internet to improve the sound quality.
If you don't have a X-FI, and are looking for something basic for twice the price, and don't care about missing features, and lock in driver support, all for the sake of quality, then you might want to consider this card.
Edit:
These cards seem to have sold out rather quickly.
Auzen is taking pre-orders for its next production run.
I am trying to find if there is a way to jury rig my drive bay to work, if not maybe this card will fetch a good price on eBay, considering availability.
X-FI Prelude: A Honest Review. 
