Product ReviewsAuzenTech X-MERIDIAN 7.1 2G PCI 7.1 Sound Card Oxygen HD Dolby Digital Live DTS Connect XEAR3D
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With 9 User Reviews
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 Rating: Review Date: 08/03/12  |
Cons: Software LOOKS like win 97 (drivers straight from cmedia so oh well)nothing so far
Pros: Really Crisp sound with ample bass and mid. especially with DFX plugin |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/23/12 |
Cons: Software didnt work but you have to download the latest one on the website
Pros: My ears are exploding like a boss!! really really good sound card Comment:
overall sound card has really good quality sound on it. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/21/12 |
Cons: None
Pros: Great sound, great hardware. great software. Perfect installation. Comment:
This is the best sound card I've ever used.I selected this card mainly for it's digital audio input so I can feed it digital audio from a dvd player and a satellite reciever. I was happy to find I can add a second digital audio input by installing their Auzen X-Tension card for around 40 clams which is great considering the sale price of the main card on sale(thank you ncix) and avoid the need for an external switch.The included software is excellent.The installation was a piece of cake.This was installed in an LGA775 running xp service pack 2. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/21/12 |
Cons: Not PCIe. C-media driver control panel is dated and not as good as the Creative "Mode Switcher".
Pros: Incredible sound for the price, simple and stable ASIO driver that eliminates need for C-Media control panel, swappable OP amps Comment:
This card is very well built with a beautiful board layout, higher quality capacitors throughout, swappable op-amps and identical circuit paths for all four stereo pairs. Installation is simple, but then again the C-Media control panel is antiquated and hasn't been improved that much in over 10 years (!). For ASIO users this is a non-issue. Sound quality is above pretty much everything else I've heard in this price point including various X-fi cards and M-Audio Revolution cards. Onboard sound and cheaper 7.1 channel cards cannot touch this product. I use this card for a multi-channel audio application that is very specific, so unfortuantely I can't comment on whether or not it would be optimum for home theatre or gaming. But if you want 8 channels of prestine ASIO then this card might be for you. There is no "digital loopback" in this cards ASIO driver, so if you ever needed to use ASIO4ALL to get multiclient ASIO applications to work in your setup, do not get this card soley to eliminate this problem. The stock 55322DD op amps sound very bright and forward in the midrange when compared to the sound of stock M-Audio and X-fi cards. This improves with time from either OP amp burn in or just getting used to the new sound, I can't say which one - likely more of the latter.All in all, this card represents a very very good effort by the guys at Auzentech and is a very high value for the dollar. It's a five *at this price point*. There are cards that can meet or beat this unit in sound quality and features but you're looking at spending twice as much - or even into the thousand dollar range in professional products.Sound quality for 2-channel listening should knock most people's socks off and is comparable to quality mid-fi and some higher end sources.Overall: Recommended. If you know in advance this card has the features you want/need, sound quality will be a non-issue - aka excellent. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/07/12 |
Cons: Slightly difficult to use software
Pros: Great card so farNo staticEasy to use optionsImproved audio tremendously Comment:
A so far awesome sound card, however being pci, it can be hard to find a slot to install sometimes, especially in a SLI/CF system or a mini-atx board. One of the great things about this card is it allows for a input from other devices so as to output that sound. AKA, I can transfer sound from my playstation 3 (using the optical audio cord included) and make the sound come out from my computer speakers. Theoretically, when I get my Razer Tiamat, I should be able to use it with my PS3 indirectly even though they are not directly compatible. So even though the sound card is only rated 2/5 stars for games. I seem to find that it vastly improves my sound on games with my regular speakers and allows for bypass of specific compatibility. As said before, download the drivers from the website and DO NOT install the ones on the CD, even though they work, they are not up to date and the updated drivers will cause you to have to restart a few more times. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/27/11 |
Cons:
I have not use this sound card yet, so i can't say any thing about its weaknesses.
Pros: I have not use this sound card yet, so i can't say any thing about its Strengths. but i will say this lay out look good and the card look well billet. Comment:
The good news is, that i got this sound card in 4 days, and to me that is fast. NCIX Rocks man. from my view the card look pretty good. the box that the card came in was o.k. No damming to the box, or the box that the sound card came in. Wye i have not test the sound card yet, Check it out, i am waiting for 3 Amplifier i have on order, i am going big!! on this one, I am a big PC gamer, specially i watch nuff Movie and lissn to nuff Music. So I ope this is the sound-card.On the box, it Rate Movies 4-stars, Music 4-stars and Pc games 2-stars. games rating is only 2, too that is not good, i think EAX on this sound card is 1.0 to 2.0no big lost to me, i will make the auzentech X-MERIDIAN 7.1 2G make the judge of that. I am thinking to upgrade the OP AMP on the card. So has soon as i get my amps i will rite a new revue, on the sound quality |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/14/11 |
Cons:
Cannot enter pass-through mode via Oxygen console.
Pros: Sound Quality. Many sound tailoring options. Replaceable opamps. Comment:
I'm very pleased with the performance of this card. The sound quality is fantastic! There are many options in the Oxygen console to tailor the sound to your listening preference. I was very surprised with the sound quality of the "Virtual 7.1 Surround" option. I am also very impressed with the DTS Interactive (on-the-fly) codec - I like it better than Dolby Digital (I'd never heard or used it before purchasing this card). I like that you can upgrade all the opamps (not just the front channels as with most cards). I also like that this card has 7.1 analog outputs. The only (minor) thing I don't like is that you cannot enter pass-through mode via the Oxygen console. I highly recommend this sound card!!! |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/12/11 |
Cons:
- BIGGEST CONS... no headphone amp WTF!?! They say it's their flagship product and that it's the best for music/movies but they dare to remove one of the most important features... who cares of the line input, I would have prefered 100x more my headphone amp.- No X-Ram for OpenAL games thought it prolly won't decrease performance more than 2-3fps with today's cpu.- The software looks ugly compare to the one of Creative but the features inside are as good if not even better.- Would had been good to write the version of the stock opamps but they didn't even think of doing it (-_-)
Pros: - Cost a little less than the Creative X-Fi HD and 30$ less than the Asus STX and at least unlike the 2 others it can do multi-channel analog. What's the point of buying a high-end soundcard if you can only do stereo and can't use ur expensive 5.1 hometheater?! Sucks thought that I bought it during boxing day at 140$ to see it once at 130$ 2 weeks later.- The sound quality is above anything I've heard and even better than the Auzentech Forte I had. Most importantly all opamps on this card are upgradeable without any soldering so once you upgrade them the sound quality will be for sure above any card on the market! Comment:
I bought this soundcard since I wanted the ultimate sound quality for my computer. I'm using a (Harman Kardon AVR-1600) receiver with (KEF KHT-3005SE) speakers I've bought here ~380 days ago at only 1000$. Of course this soundcard is overkill if you're using sub-200$ speakers but if you have something great then you will hear it's full potential. If I compare it to my Auzentech Forte, the only cons is that I lose my lovely headphone amp but since I rarely play with headphone it's not a deal breaker though it's still a shame at Auzen.Who cares also about being limited to EAX 2.0 instead of 5.0? It's only marketing bs since EAX isn't used since Vista came out so all games are now using either property software engine such as Bad Company 2 or else OpenAL. However with the possibility of swapping all opamps the increase of quality is beyond belief. For only 105$ shipped, the well known guy (ROBSCIX) from Guru3d's forum will build me 4 replacement opamps so I get even better clartiy on all my 5 channels and even better bass on my subwoofer's channel! I just can't wait to try it in a few days. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/15/11 |
Cons:
Poor bundled software
Pros: Excellent Sound, fairly compact Comment:
This is a good sound card, replacing my Creative XFI xtreme audio card that just up and died. Sounds great.The bundled software was crap and could not install. I had to download from the net, and then no problem. A little finicky setting up the different sound configurations, but not too bad.I would definitely recommend this card. |
Coming from an Creative extreme x-fi gamer sound card, this thing blows it out of the water. Amazing sound, my logitech speakers are ALIVE now. I'm just a casual gamer who listens to music often.The surround sound that the meridian projects is AMAZING. I am mainly a speaker user so I opted to get the meridian. Music and movies sound surreal and immersive, while in games i can finally hear all the different sounds that never existed before!Driver support for win7 has no problems at all; all those driver rumours are all for vista and xp os users.Overall, I am extremely satisfied with this purchase. Best product I've bought in terms of "feeling its worth"If you're looking to upgrade from onboard/old sound cards, and mainly like to use 5.1/7.1 speakers, hands down the meridian is the way to go.