Customer Reviews

Auzentech HDa X Plosion 7.1 Dts Connect

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If your plan is to connect your computer to a surround sound system and enjoy the full power your system supports, then this sound card is far superior to anything from Creative Slobs.

The HDA X-Plosion replaced my CL Audigy SoundBlaster card, which I sold, because through the digital connection, the Creative Labs card is incapable, unassisted by additional hardware, of supporting anything other than a 2.1 speaker system, despite advertising (falsely) to the contrary!

With the HDA X-Plosion, I got every speaker in my system and the subwoofer playing via a digital coaxial connection and did not need to buy more hardware to do so, AND as a bonus, it was Dolby Digital Live. And this is accomplished while playing MP3s.

The sound card would get a perfect 5 stars and eternal gratitude IF my favorite game worked without a hitch, but alas, "The Age of the Titans" malfunctions with this sound card. Certain sounds will repeat hundreds of times, a very annoying bug. None of the updates that Auzentech has released have fixed this bug, either.
I feel that the card should have been tested more thoroughly with games, but perhaps Auzentech is hamstrung by a small budget. At any rate I am willing to sacrifice some of my gaming experience for a superb MP3 experience.

Well I was really excited about this card, all the reviews I read gave it glowing recommendations. I recieved it and installed it in my HTPC. Unfortunatley I had static and fuzz during playback on any format - mpg avi mp3, etc.. I contacted Auzentech via their website - they dont offer phone support, the FAQ is very slim, only 2 or 3 troubleshooting tips. I opened a ticket with their online ticket system and waited 9 days with no response. I emailed their feedback asking what the deal was and finally got a response, however, the response was addressed to someone with a different name and the troubleshooting they suggested was for Nforce 4 when I clearly indicated I have a NF2 board. The next day I got another response apologizing for the name mix up and advising me there are known issues for NF2 as well as NF4 boards and suggesting I install the latest drivers from their website (that was the first thing I did before contacting them). I tried reinstalling the drivers and asking for more support, I recieved no more responses from their troubleshooting and the drivers did not help (as I suspected since I already tried that) I tried troubleshooting everything I could think of, updated drivers for the chipset, the soundcard, the video card, tried different TOSlink cables as well as analog and nothing has helped. Since I cannot get any help from Auzentech I plan on RMA'ing this board today.
Overall I am very unsatisfied with the company itself, I took a chance on a small company with this purchase and it burned me. I was really looking forward to DTS sound from my HTPC but I guess I will just have to go back to Creative...
If you buy this card and it works for you, great, if it doesnt, dont bother with the support, just RMA it asap.

***Update***
After RMA'ing the card and installing the second one I noticed the static was still there. After long months of troubleshooting/reinstalling the OS, I finally unplugged my WebCam. Problem solved. After all the headache I went through it made me laugh that the solution was that easy. Don't expect Auzentech support to tell you to unplug your peripherals though, they were pretty dang unhelpful - the only suggestion I got was to update the drivers. They eventually did come through for me with the RMA but it took about 6 emails until the president of the company finally emailed me back.
So if you have any similar problems to mine, make sure you have no other peripherals plugged in. I am not sure what about the webcam caused the problem (maybe the mic on it?) but the card works great now. I might have changed my rating but unfortunatley it looks like those 2 stars are set in stone.