Product ReviewsAuzenTech Forte Low Profile PCI-E 7.1 Sound Card PCI-E Dolby Digital Live Headphone AMP
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29%
42%
17%
4%
8%
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With 24 User Reviews
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 Rating: Review Date: 03/12/12  |
Cons: Software is a little bit complex
Pros: Silent back ground, don't hear any noise. Has enough power to drive many headphones. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/18/12 |
Cons: Works as advertised
Pros: Nice sounding card Comment:
Had this card in my PC and it works great compared to the onboard audio of my Rampage Formula motherboard (which was no slouch I might add). I had a Creative X-Fi Music in my old PC, but didn't move it over to my new computer (from 2008). The Auzentech gave me back the 24-bit Crystalyzer and surround sound upcoversion, and I do love that for my music. I have this unit connected via analog to my 6ch input on a Kenwood 5.1 receiver (around 10 years old), 2 pairs of Polk Audio M10 speakers mounted to my ceiling and an old 8 inch Soundstage subwoofer. In my computer room, the music sounds much better and games sound great. I can't say if I'm getting any extra FPS in my games or not, but I definitely have better sounding audio and I've been enjoying the card. Great purchase. |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/21/11 |
Cons: n/a
Pros: clear, crisp detail Comment:
If you have a nice speaker and/ or headphone I really recommend this card. It turns everything around after I install it on my computer. With the optical input, musics sound so much different than before. The speakers are fully utilized the sound is so crisp, clear, detail and rich and the bass is also perform much better. Sound card do improve the audio performance on your computer, you have to own it to have the experience, it's really not something someone else can tell you. And if you are looking for a sound card, skip the low end one because it's nothing better than the on board. I really recommend this card. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/29/11 |
Cons: Control panel is flaky, very slow...Software sux, but hardware is great
Pros: Love it.... It sounds really good. Comment:
This is a truly amazing card, you get all the benefits of a EAX product, but without supporting creative.You can also upgrade the opamp and go full out with audio quality... Personally the stock opamp is great though..Using with a pair of Sennheiser pc360's and Im very happy. |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/24/11 |
Cons: Reliability has been low for me
Pros: DD LIVE and DTS Connect, Headphone amp sounds incredible, lot of options Comment:
So I bought this soundcard based on its feature-set, and my extremely positive experience with the Auzentech X-Plosion 7.1 card. It really is a great product, but after about 13 months the card had died. I contacted support not expecting much as I was out of the 1 year warranty, but to my surprise, they asked me to send it back so they could replace it. I got a new card back from them with all the cables (so now i've got two optical cables) and it seems like they revised the model by adding a heatsink and some other minor changes. The replacement card worked great for about 5 months until I recently died again (fails to get recognized properly in windows) after sending a support to email, they responded and told me that they were sending me a new card, without even requesting me to send mine back. While I can't vouch for the reliability of the card, Auzentech has done right by me. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/29/11 |
Cons: -Electrical defects in design causing the analog outputs to be contaminated by high-frequency noise*-Some driver issues-Long-term durability low due to most possibly the lack of a proper heat dissipation solution for the Creative APU chip and/or other components*-Unstable customer support from Auzentech*Note that these problems seem to be addressed by Auzentech’s Rev. 1.2 of this card, which should be what everyone is purchasing now. It has some sort of new material for the bracket (which should be black or gray in color), and a heat sink attached to the APU chip. Pictures of the new revision are shown on Forte’s product page on the Auzentech official site.
Pros: -A capable all-around card as described already and a lot by other reviewers Comment:
As my 2 years old Forte ultimately went out of service a few days ago, I think it’s time to write a review on this much hyped product. Overall, my experience with it has been mixed (hence the 3-star rating). Its good sides are talked about a lot and I agree with everything people said about the card sound-wise. I mainly paired it with my HD595’s for music, games and movies and the performance of this card is mostly enjoyable. For details on the good sides of this card, please refer to other reviews.However, the Forte is far from near-perfect as what the average rating seems to suggest. For those of you who like to gather a lot of information before buying a product, you probably have already noticed some of Forte’s widespread and non-widespread problems that people have been talking about. I don’t know if I am just too unfortunate or not, but I think I have encountered most, if not all of these problems during my 2 year experience with the Forte.Let’s start with the analog contamination (high-frequency noise) problem. We all know that sound cards tend to have such problem since they are installed in a PC which is prone to all sort of interferences, but the extent of this problem with the Forte is somewhat out-of-control and experience ruining. When there are no hardware activities, the noise is there; more activity = more complex noise in even louder volume. This effect is especially pronounced in resource demanding gaming sessions. Later, I found out that if I turn on VSync to limit my GPU usage, I would get a lot less noises in games, and that helped a bunch in saving my overall experience. But as I said before, even if there is little hardware activity, the noise is still there and can be frustrating when no sound or quiet music is being played. For comparison, the sound card which I use now has crystal clear analog output in the same environment, so the problem is indeed with the electrical design of the Forte.Some people have been trying to isolate this problem to a particular part of this card and apply ghetto fixes to it, with some claiming that they have fixed the problem by taping the bracket of this card. I have also tried this myself, and was actually able to eliminate the noise coming from certain types of activities. But a large part of the noise remains and there is no substantial improvement.Then comes the driver related issues. I had experience with all driver versions except the very first one, and all the problems listed below are persistent and never addressed. Of course, these problems seem to affect all X-Fi based cards which use the Creative drivers, so Creative is the main one to blame here, not Auzentech. A very, very annoying problem is when there are audio-related programs running, changing sound mode is all but impossible, without any warning message given. (On a side note here, you have three modes to select from to suit different usage scenarios, being Audio Creation Mode for music playing and sound producing, Entertainment Mode for movies and Game Mode for games) But the most annoying part is not there yet: for some programs (i.e. flash player plugin for web browsers), switching modes when they are running will result in a hard crash (for Win 7 x64 driver only, with the XP version there is no crash). In two years I have constantly made this “mistake” and had to cold reboot each time. Other problems include the sound distortion which occurs randomly during the usage of certain audio applications (mostly MIDI related), and a problem involving headphone out jack unable to output sound if the system is booted without anything plugged in this jack. Although both problems can be solved upon changing mode and resetting everything to default or a reboot if the former doesn’t work, it’s still a hassle.Forte is my first premium sound card (at 100$+ I think the word premium would fit), and by buying this card, I wanted to invest in a one-time improvement to the sound department of my computer which will last at least a few iterations of upgrades. Honestly, I have never expected that it could die in a mere 2 years, due to most likely overheating of the APU chip and some other components. When I first bought this card, I recognized that PCI-E sound cards’ awkward positioning on the MB, often very close to graphic cards, can contribute to overheating, and proceeded with adding a 120mm fan on the side panel of my Antec 900 to provide extra cool air for my expansion cards. But after all, it didn’t save my Forte from starting to die this March. Pulsating, extremely loud noise started to produce out of nowhere after prolonged video playing and gaming. These noises can be low or mid frequency in nature, but are always loud to the level that ears start to feel uncomfortable very quickly. After a few days of ear pain, I refrained from playing games for long periods and reinforced ventilation by adjusting fan speeds across the chassis, as well as moved the card to a lower slot. The situation was improved, and the noises are gone for 3 months. At some point I actually started to believe that the damage might be cured, until a few days ago the noises visited again, declaring along the final death of my Forte.At this point, I think that the APU used on the Forte, the Creative CA20K2, simply isn’t the type of chip that can be left alone. It’s powerful, and at the same time it needs a working thermal solution. Since Auzentech already added a heat sink on top of it in their new revision of the Forte, new buyers shouldn’t need to worry about this problem. Owners of the old Forte should consider adding a heat sink to it before permanent damage results, that is, when the dreaded noises start to appear.Finally, let’s talk about Auzentech’s CS. Their reputation isn’t exactly good, as you might have already discovered in reading other reviews. However, I would like to describe it as “unstable” rather than plain bad. The reason is that back in March, when I first opened a support ticket for a RMA, I got replies very quickly including a RMA number. However, due to various reasons (noises disappeared after adjustments mentioned above, extra cost for out-of-warranty item, etc.), I did not send out the card in the end. A few days ago, when the card is finally and completely dead, I updated my ticket (which is still open) with questions regarding details involved in the RMA process (for extra assurance that I won’t get my card back completely untouched like someone else whose story I read on a forum) and asking for a new RMA number. Even as the website showed that my updated ticket “will be reviewed shortly”, the message is ignored thereafter.In conclusion, the Forte is a sound card with a lot of potentials, but there are simply too many blemishes that keep it from delivering a truly excellent and satisfying experience. Also, the quality of Auzentech’s CS leaves a lot to be desired. From my observation, there are a lot of, maybe too much praises for the Forte, and I hope my review (or story, whatever you want to call it) can serve as a complementary to your knowledge about this product and maybe help you make the decision. I’m really glad that you had the patience to read such a long text that I have written here.Oh yeah, I compiled this list of tips for current/prospective owners of the Forte. Hope this will be of use to you. :D1. Don’t forget to register on Auzentech’s official site right after you purchased the card to get one year of extended warranty (so you have two years in total). I made the mistake of not doing this.2. Owners of the old Forte: please be careful. It’s absolutely the best to install a heat sink on the Creative CA20K2 if you stress this card often and continuously (even watching YouTube with CMSS-3D on counts too, the faux-surround is surprisingly resource demanding). Once the noises appear, there are some permanent damages done. On a side note here, the surface area of the chip appears to be 19x19mm.3. It seems that the card cools better when installed lower than the graphic card than being sandwiched between the graphic card and the CPU cooler.4. When contacting Auzentech for anything, don’t only try one way. Open a ticket, and send emails at the same time. Phone calls are said to be not very effective, but try it nonetheless. There is CS at Auzentech, contrary to what an angered customer might say, it’s just “unstable”.5. On a second thought, maybe I didn’t tape perfectly the bracket. So I still consider the ghetto fix worth trying as it fixed the problem for a lot of people. Maybe you can even paint some insulating material on it if you have the resource available. This review was modfied by poster @ 06-29-11 04:52 PM |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/25/11 |
Cons: Crash my computer , weird buzz noise sometimes(not quiet ones, BIG BUZZ)
Pros: Okay Sound quality Comment:
The driver they come with is weird and the softwrae is kinda hard to use as there is a lot of weird stuff going onWhen i first installed it, i plugged my studio monitor speakers for Digital and headphone to headphone amp and it gave me this HUGE buzz noise which i had to turn all my speakers off then it fixed itself for the headphone, but speaker never worked... only headphone works. So i was like fine, im fine with headphones only for gaming and music but then i realized this big problem, i start crashing out of nowhere and it doenst even restart my comp, the whole screen goes black out and i have to press the power button to power it off. Im gonna return this product to the store and never buy any soundcards again. The sound quality is okay, but it is not extraordinarily great, in fact it is quite close to the EVGA 780i motherboard onboard sound. |
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Rating: Review Date: 05/07/11 |
Cons: - drivers sometimes glitch aster system goes in safe-mode
Pros: - excellent build quality- splendid sound- quite compact Comment:
Hands down, this is one of the best cards you can get at the moment, especially for headphone users. The fake surround through the my PC360 sounds quite good. My speakers are a bit on the cheapo side, but even with them (old CL Inspire P7800) there's still a pretty audible improvement over onboard sound.There's one sole negative I can think of, and it's an issue that I've had only trice during the almost two months I've owned the card. I often leave my PC on for prolonged time, and, of course, it goes in power saving mode. What happens is that after a wake up a few times the sound would be distorted. This is fixable by simply switching mode in the card's control panel. Still it's something that Auzen/Creative could labour to correct. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/21/11 |
Cons: Random buzzing robotic noise (seems to appear when card comes out of idle). Apparently a known problem with Forte cards (all over official forums). After researching, it seems not even Auzentech know what's going on. Suggested problem solution is reset through Auzentech control panel (which not always works). I would probably be happy with this solution if this was 1995. Sigh, this could have worked so well.
Pros: Great clear sound (I am coming from Audigy 2zs), and of course totally beats built-in Realtek. However, this card has a substantial design problem (either Creative drivers or a manufacturing issue). Comment:
Awesome, but horrible card. Do not buy, save your ears and nerves. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/08/11 |
Cons: I find none, Prefection!
Pros: Sound Quality!Many Headphone features!LOUD! My old on-board sound was dull and quiet this SO LOUD ON 32%Music, 1000% increase in enjoyment! Comment:
Got my card 2 days ago and love it so much, can hear footsteps clear as day, the simulation of 7.1 on headphones does its job very well, gaming and listening to music is a blast! |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/25/11 |
Cons: static, driver updates
Pros: Sound, pci-e Comment:
Cant recommend for others, works as advertised, but having a well known problem were i get static in the sound and have to change bit rates to fix(could be fixed with a driver update since it caused by the driver 'disagreeing' with another. There hasn't been a driver update in a long time and im seriously doubting the longevity of the devise in a future os. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/14/11 |
Cons: - Size (potentially, dependant upon your board)- DB-15 connector (potentially, dependant upon your preference / setup)
Pros: - Great sound- Dolby Digital Live / DTS capability- Low Profile (if needed)- Replacable OPAMPS Comment:
I recently purchased this card as I wanted to upgrade from my xtrememusic card, and I had a need for optical out. This is a terrific card, and the included DDL/DTS capability with the latest drivers is great! Creative charges extra for the DDL/DTS software pack last I heard.I'm using this card on Razer Mako 2.1's (analog) and Turtle Beach X41 headphones (optical). I can't speak for the analog surround quality of the card, nor the headphone amp, but for what I'm using it for it's great! I have heard that the headphone amp on this card is very effective and powerful, I know of 2 HD555 users who have their volume set to just 18% as a result.I haven't had any issues with the drivers yet, and it's nice that they come with an automode switcher if you switch a lot between gaming/music etc. The driver menu and effects menu are quick to get to (from the taskbar) and EAX5.0 and Alchemy support are present. I'm also using Creative's ASIO plug in along with Foobar2000 and music sounds excellent.For anyone that plans to use multiple outputs like me, I haven’t had any issues using both analog (2.1 speakers) and optical (headphones) at the same time. This card comes with an optical adapter and cable, and my new card (2011 restock) also included a heatsink which I didn’t see on any of the previous reviews I read online. I assume this was added to help with some heat issues some users were experiencing. It’s worth mentioning that depending upon the layout of your motherboard you may have issues fitting this card in a pci-e 1x slot as this is a fairly long card (nearly 7”) due to its low profile. I had to switch my memory modules over to the next available banks in order to make room for this card. My other pci-e 1x slot was directly under my 5850 (which would have blocked fan airflow) and when I tried this card in my pci-e 8x slot my 16x video card reduced its pci-e lanes to 8x. My motherboard supports 1 16x video card or crossfire at 8x/8x, so again these may just be issues with my particular board model (Asus P5Q pro) but I felt it worth mentioning.Overall a terrific card so far that I’d recommend to anyone who games primarily and is looking to refresh their audio experience. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/27/11 |
Cons:
*high failure rate (see below)
Pros: small, great reviews Comment:
*The X-Fi Forte had to be slightly altered; I below the design was causing a high number of heat failures.Auzentech just informed me the modified card begins shipping again at the start of February, 2011.Returns should wait until then.(I would NOT deal with Auzentech again. I had to get NCIX to help me contact them as they didn't respond to my Support Ticket, e-mails, and the RMA PDF would not work for me. Never again.) |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/28/10 |
Cons:
Durability / build qualityBad customer support
Pros: Sound Quality Comment:
I will never buy an auzentech product again.Their customer support is non-existant and if i plan on investing my money into a solid product I believe I deserve to at least be acknowledged that I am having a problem.It's been a week since I've submitted a support request and I have heard nothing from them at all. My 1 year warranty is almost up but at this point I'm going to probably just buy the competitor's product just to never have to speak to this awful company about their product. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/10/10 |
Cons:
uses pci-e x1, found it to be RIGHT in front of my video card, not very good.
Pros: High quality soundsheadphone ampdecent pricelow profile Comment:
For the price I believe this is a very high end sound card, the sound is amazing, everything sounds realistic and rich with bass and pitch. If I could buy another sound card today it would def. be this one. It comes with an optical cable too which is great because those alone run $30 at the local store, it's very easy to use and simple to set up but has options for advanced users too. |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/17/10 |
Cons:
- None, this is a SOLID card.
Pros: - Excellent upgrade from onboard audio.- Headphone AMP!!!- Great driver software. Comment:
I have this connected to my Logitech Z5500s via optical and to my Steelseries 5H V2 via the mic jack and headphone AMP plug. This is the first sound card I've owned that does not create problems because I use 2 separate audio devices at the same time. I use my z5500s for everything and I use my 5H V2 for skype, but at night I only use my 5H V2 for everything. It seamlessly switches between them and from 5.1 to 2.1. |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/06/10 |
Cons:
none
Pros: Really good, clean, and clear sound quality. Comment:
This is the first time buying a AuzenTech. I'm usually a "Creative" customer. After doing a lot of research and reviewing specifications I'm very happy with the performance and quality of this card. Software install on my W7 system is seamless. Highly recommended. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/13/10 |
Cons:
Really nothing to say here. Probably the best card I've had thus far.
Pros: - The option to enable a constant DTS bit stream is awesome.- Separation of channels is superb. High quality card. Comment:
First time buying AuzenTech and I'm very happy with the performance and quality of this card. I upgraded from a Creative X-FI 5.1 USB external card and will never ever look back. HUGE improvement in games, including frame rate; this was probably due to removing the external USB card with I'm sure took up huge system resources. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/12/10 |
Cons:
Some reported issues with crackling and hissingBracket may cause unwanted soundsOther issues that don't apply to my situation
Pros: Quality AudioCMSS 3D HeadphonesHeadphone AmpDecent softwareLow ProfileLots of Options Comment:
Currently i'm only using this card with some HD 555 headphones, Windows 7 Home Premium. I haven't tested 5.1 or 7.1 or digital etc.For my purposes it has been generally a good experience. The drivers are a bit stale and i did notice a hiss with the bracket on. I just took the bracket off and the hiss went away. I've noticed a loss of audio and eventual lockup of the system. I'm still trying to locate the issue, i think it has to do with the console being left open. Drivers/Software could use a refresh.Overall the sound quality is fantastic as is the CMSS 3d Headphone settings in games. If you are willing to do a little troubleshooting i'd recommend this card. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/10/10 |
Cons:
- Only Front channel opamp is replaceable and it's the best out of all opamp already on the card so it's very lame for modders. Funny how they let you do it on their lower-end cards such as X-Meridian/Bravura but not their high-end such as Prelude/Forte/HomeTheaterHD- Price could be a little steep.- The speakers don't automaticly mute if you plug the headphone behind the card. It's only for the front connection, very ridiculous and 100% useless then.
Pros: - Low-Profile (Mounted with standard bracket by default)- Really good headphone amp that drives my AKG K702- Support DTS-Connect + DDL to hook up ur receiver.- X-Fi 20K2 for hardware acceleration + X-Ram 64Mb for OpenAL games.- Good software imo.- No crackling at all for me. Comment:
While this card isn't perfect, it's still the best sound card at the moment imo. I had the (Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic) few years ago then upgraded to Auzen Prelude for a few years and since 2 days I sold mine for 130$ shipped and bought here the Forte at 140$ - 30$USD mail rebate so for the little it cost me it was worth it, otherwise it wouldn't had be. |
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Rating: Review Date: 05/03/10 |
Cons:
Very long, didn't quite fit in my P5K-E (touches the ram)
Pros: Great SoundHeadphone AmpGood build qualityUpgradable op ampscomes with coax to optical adapters Comment:
This card is LONG! I had fit issues with my P5K-E; it makes contact with my RAM. Popped a little electrical tape on it and its fine now. Just be aware that this is a long card and may not fit all boards, especially those with funky pci-e 1x placement.Other than the fit the card works great and sounds very good. I replaced an X-FI extreme music with this card. It defiantly sounds better, especially though my Sennheiser HD 555's and it makes my Logitech Z5500 sound fantastic. I also have the prelude in my HTPC and it sounds comparable. Although it’s hard to say as the prelude is connected to my home theatre so it’s kind of apples and oranges. BTW the prelude sounds un freekin real on the home theatre. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/22/10 |
Cons:
-Regular price is too expensive-Sound distortion when the console volume is increased approximately over 65%-Product is often out of stock
Pros: -Excellent sound quality -Low profile-Uses PCI-E-Headphone amp Comment:
I bought this sound card to replace my old Audigy LS sound card because it had some compatibility issues with Windows 7 in 5.1. I didn't expect the Auzentech Forte to improve the sound quality with my Logitech Z-5300 speakers but, amazingly I noticed a clearer higher range and tighter bass sound when listening to music. I couldn't discern any major improvement with gaming.I noticed that default volume that the Forte sound driver sets Windows 7 to is 67%. If I increase the master volume control higher than that it causes a lot of distortion even though the speaker volume is low. Additionally, I looked at the various console settings and I find X-Fi Crystalizer is only good for substandard quality music, otherwise it causes distortions. I personally think that the Crystalizer is just a gimmick that is meant for those feeling lazy to go adjust the equalizer settings themselves. Overall, I recommend this sound card for those who want to upgrade from integrated sound or from very old sound cards for a better listening experience in music, gaming and movies at sale price. The quality of this sound card is undeniable and makes me want to buy better speakers or high-end headphones to enjoy it's full potential. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/18/10 |
Cons:
• speaker auto-mute function is only available when 'phones are plugged in the front-panel jack• buzzing sound through headphones when playing games
Pros: • X-Fi on board• speaker auto-mute function when headphones are plugged in• connectors for your case's front-panel jacks are on the card Comment:
I bought this card to replace my Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum after building a new rig. It was an mATX build, and my video card and heat sink covered the two PCI slots. I needed a PCI-e sound card. The Auzentech Forte looked perfect: half-height card, speaker auto-mute, PCI-e. It was expensive, but the glowing reviews gave me confidence. There is a big issue with the card that apparently will happen if it sits close to your video card in the case. Through headphones, you will always hear this buzzing noise when playing games. During louder momements, you won't notice it, but when things are quieter, you certainly will. There is a thread about it in the Auzentech community forum, which also links to hardforum thread. The customers have had to do things like tape up their card's bracket with electrical tape to reduce interference noise. I guess it's not much to ask customers to do after they've paid $150. Myself, I have experimented with some fixes, and I cannot get the buzzing to go away when my headphones are plugged into the front-panel jack. I now have them plugged into the rear jack, but can no longer auto-mute speakers. This deficiency overshadows any positives with the card, so overall, I am very disappointed. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/21/10 |
Cons: Need adapter to run microphone
Pros: Great sound, amplified headphones, X-Fi support Comment:
I upgraded from a Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer and there is no contest. The Forte is much better. The sound quality is great and I've noticed that sound for music is much better than on the Creative card.I use headphones and I appreciate the separate amplified headphone jack. I wish they did the same for the microphone. I think the analog cable adapter is a great feature, I just wish you didn't have to use it for a mic because if you game and use a headset, you wouldn't need it. |
I experienced a few high end sound cards, but still gave a try of Auzentech Forte. It has enough power to drive my headphones even without a power connection. The sound quality is pretty good at the price range. The software is somewhat slow and not so simple to use.