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Product Descriptions
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Sound: With a D/A converter of 120dB level, high end audio components, and an analog design tuned for peak performance, the X-Fi™ Forte is designed to provide the best audio possible for Music, Games and Movies. End-users can further tune the audio via the replaceable OPAMP for the front audio (L/R). Headphone & Microphone Amplifiers: X-Fi Forte includes an Integrated Headphone Amplifier and Microphone Pre-Amplifier. You can now listen to your Hi-Fi Headphone and use your professional Mic on your desktop PC, as well as enjoying audiophile-quality audio. Performance: By using the latest Creative native PCI express chipset, the Auzentech X-Fi™ Forte provides high performance audio processing on-board while freeing system resources for other tasks. With 64MB X-Ram, it processes complicated 3D sound effects with ease. Security: The PCI-Express independent data transfer structure provides secure performance, important because audio requires continuous-secure data processing. Key Features:
Key Features
Minimum System Requirements
Rear Panel
Rear Panel Brackets The X-Fi™ Forte includes two rear panel brackets, a Standard bracket and a Low Profile bracket. Use the appropriate bracket for your PC. Digital Output RCA/TOSLINK Combo Jack: Can connect to external DAC, AV Receiver, and Decoder through a 75© Coaxial cable or optical mini cable. Can play S/PDIF Stereo PCM and Dolby Digital AC-3, DTS bit-stream content. Headphone Output 3.5mm(1/8 ”) stereo mini-phone jack: Includes an independent Headphone amp and can activate an impedance 16© ~ 600© headphone or earphone. Also, can be used, when configuring a Stereo system, not using the Analog I/O cable, as an Front Line Output. Analog I/O Multi Connector D-SUB 15 pin connector: Connect the Analog I/O cable bundled in this package and use for Mic input, Line input and 8-channel line output Jack. See also: How to Change the Rear Bracket Analog I/O Cable
MIC input connector Line input connector Front Line output connector Rear output connector Center/Woofer output connector Side output connector Headphone Amplifier
The Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 Headphone Jack uses an independent Headphone Amplifier. It is not there to simply to provide an additional output. It is there to provide a listening experience limited only by the quality of your headphones.
See also: Tech Notes tab. Microphone Pre-Amplifier
When in “BALANCE” mode, the Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 supports professional Balanced Microphones (configured using on-board jumper; see image). The MIC Pre-Amplifier has a very low E.I.N and over -60 dB CMRR (Common Mode Rejection Ratio).
See also: Tech Notes tab. X-Fi Forte PCI Express Sound Card Images X-Fi™ Forte Box
X-Fi™ Forte Board: Low Profile Bracket
X-Fi™ Forte Board: Standard Bracket
X-Fi™ Forte Board: Analog I/O Cable
X-Fi™ Forte Close-ups
Rear Panel
Rear Panel Brackets The X-Fi™ Forte includes two rear panel brackets, a Standard bracket and a Low Profile bracket. Use the appropriate bracket for your PC. Digital Output RCA/TOSLINK Combo Jack: Can connect to external DAC, AV Receiver, and Decoder through a 75© Coaxial cable or optical mini cable. Can play S/PDIF Stereo PCM and Dolby Digital AC-3, DTS bit-stream content. Headphone Output 3.5mm(1/8 ”) stereo mini-phone jack: Includes an independent Headphone amp and can activate an impedance 16© ~ 600© headphone or earphone. Also, can be used, when configuring a Stereo system, not using the Analog I/O cable, as an Front Line Output. Analog I/O Multi Connector D-SUB 15 pin connector: Connect the Analog I/O cable bundled in this package and use for Mic input, Line input and 8-channel line output Jack. See also: How to Change the Rear Bracket Analog I/O Cable
MIC input connector Line input connector Front Line output connector Rear output connector Center/Woofer output connector Side output connector Package Contents
Specificatons subject to change without notice. Headphone Amplifier
The Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 Headphone Jack uses an independent Headphone Amplifier. It is not there to simply to provide an additional output. It is there to provide a listening experience limited only by the quality of your headphones. Common thinking has it that you can get good sound by connecting your headphone to line output. The Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 headphone amplifier is not there just to amplify the sound, but to lower the output impedance and improve Damping and drive capability. We can consider the headphone as a small speaker, and thus complicated physics and electronics factors are all adapted in the headphone. Therefore, if the amp output driver capability is weak—even if you pump up the volume—the sound will be powerless, have wide/low sound, high sounds that lack clarity, and distortion. You can see the difference of having the Headphone output jack and Line out (FRONT) output with the Headphone.
More about Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 Headphone Amp
This Headphone Amplifier does not use a normal amplifier chip (IC). Instead, it uses a proprietary Auzentech-designed dedicated Headphone Amplifier. Based on the OP-AMP, it has eight (8) high-end discrete transistors (buffer Class-AB type) in the headphone driver stage. This Headphone Amplifier can support up to 100mW/channel output (power), and thus you can connect any type of headphone and hear the audio you desire (compared to the line-out configuration, which supports only up to 7mW/channel). The Headphone Amplifier provides the precision of an OPAMP with a superior audio specification, while at the same time providing powerful damping and driving capability, and more dynamic sound and stability in all frequency ranges.ý Microphone Pre-Amp
When in “BALANCE” mode, the Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 supports professional Balanced Microphones (configured using on-board jumper; see image). The MIC Pre-Amplifier has a very low E.I.N and over -60 dB CMRR (Common Mode Rejection Ratio).
It is possible to connect a Balanced dynamic MIC or Powered Balanced condenser MIC. Most MIC cable will use 1/4” Phone jack, and thus will need a converter to be able to use these MICs.
Balanced / Unbalanced MicrophoneUnbalanced Transfer
Balanced Transfer
Two Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs)
X-Fi™ Forte has two Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs), a Wolfson WM 8775SEDS and a Wolfson WM8782S, used as follows:
With two ADCs, you can use two input ports independently. For example, you can use Front Panel Microphone Input and Rear Line Input simultaneously, and perform mixing or recording. With two ADCs, X-Fi™ Forte is designed for Microsoft® Vista. In Vista there is a separate driver for each input jack (Microphone Driver, Line-In Driver, and so on). Pointing Ground Design™In Audio circuit design, ground is the reference point of the signal and, thus, is very important. Star grounding, one of the best power amplifier schemes and considered the "base" for Hi-fi amplifier design, not only applies to Power Amplifiers. We have applied a similar technology in the Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1. Called the Pointing Ground Design™, this system greatly reduces noise and distortion in the circuitry. In contrast, Auzentech's proprietary Pointing Ground Design™ shares one point for the DAC, OP-AMP, Power supply and to the output jack, stopping noise from interfering with the signal, outputting a signal with much less distortion. 
Balanced Power Generation System
The Balanced Power Generation System simultaneously generates Positive and Negative Power from two power generators. It uses a higher frequency than the audible audio zone to propagate power, and is filtered using balanced filtering, and therefore the output is not affected by switching noise. The uniqueness of this system is that that it synchronizes the +/- power. Therefore, ripple coming from the Negative supply will provide feedback to the Positive Generator. The noise or ripple generated from one side would be reflected negatively or positively to the other side, and thus would not affect OPAMP output related to power supply.
Audio PerformanceAs with other sound cards, the quality of the Line-in is lower in the Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 than the quality of line-out. Therefore, one cannot simply test Line-in to line-out using a loop back test to draw conclusions regarding sound card quality. Usually RMAA Testing is done through Loop-back test (Line in – Line out), and thus it cannot be better than the ADC spec (102dB). In our testing, if the testing is similar to the "Line input," we conclude this test was performed successfully. Below is Additional information on our testing: Frequency response: When performing RMAA testing, it can show "Very Good" although the current result is "Excellent." The reason for this is because in 15 kHz, the level can fall a bit. This is intentional because the sound card is targeting the "Hi-Fi" market. The DAC filter, for example, is tuned for "Hi-Fi." THD, %: When looking at the result, the Front channel´s Dynamic range is 116.0 dB, but the THD,% is 0.0012. On the contrary, Multi-channel output´s Dynamic range is 112.8 dB, but the THD,% is 0.0006 which is better than the Front. However, the chip spec is 0.001% and thus not causing issues. The Front channel uses a DIP type OP-AMP and capacitor, and thus will show a higher number on the THD. Also, in the Hi-Fi market, a card with a lower THD would produce a sound that can become too "flat." Front Channel Output Testing chain: Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 Front Output – Measurement system Input
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You can see from this graph that when connecting the Headphone amplifier, the output is stable output in all frequency ranges. When connecting the headphone to the line output as do standard soundcards, however, the output is unstable due to the headphone impedance curve.
Microphone signal level is very small, and thus weak in relation to external noise. Therefore, most professional microphones used a Balanced Connection system. 
The Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 has a separate Headphone Output Circuitry. This is implemented for the front panel Headphone Output, and for the front panel Line Output. 
Quality power is a challenge in the PCI-Express interface, especially because the analog audio circuitry needs a Dual Supply. As the PCI-Express does not supply Negative power, the card needs to generate it. General-purpose sound cards use an inverter for the negative supply. In such a scenario, the negative and positive powers are different and affect the power supply. For the Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1, we developed the "Balanced Power Generation System" to provide high quality Dual Power to the Analog circuitry and Operational Amplifier (OPAMP).
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Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: |
+0.01, -0.12 |
Excellent |
|
Noise level, dB (A): |
-116.2 |
Excellent |
|
Dynamic range, dB (A): |
116.0 |
Excellent |
|
THD, %: |
0.0011 |
Excellent |
|
IMD + Noise, %: |
0.0019 |
Excellent |
|
Stereo crosstalk, dB: |
-109.7 |
Excellent |
|
IMD at 10 kHz, %: |
0.0054 |
Excellent |
General performance: Excellent
Frequency response
Frequency range |
Response |
|
From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB |
-0.31, +0.01 |
|
From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB |
-0.12, +0.01 |
Noise level
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
RMS power, dB: |
-114.3 |
-113.9 |
|
RMS power (A-weighted), dB: |
-116.2 |
-115.9 |
|
Peak level, dB FS: |
-77.4 |
-77.5 |
|
DC offset, %: |
-0.00 |
-0.00 |
Dynamic range
|
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
Dynamic range, dB: |
+114.9 |
+114.6 |
|
Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB: |
+116.0 |
+116.0 |
|
DC offset, %: |
-0.00 |
0.00 |
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
|
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
THD, %: |
0.0011 |
0.0013 |
|
THD + Noise, %: |
0.0016 |
0.0017 |
|
THD + Noise (A-weighted), %: |
0.0018 |
0.0020 |
Intermodulation distortion
|
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
IMD + Noise, %: |
0.0019 |
0.0020 |
|
IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %: |
0.0016 |
0.0016 |
Stereo crosstalk
Parameter |
L <- R |
L -> R |
|
Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB: |
-111 |
-110 |
|
Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB: |
-108 |
-109 |
|
Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB: |
-89 |
-88 |
IMD (swept tones)
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %: |
0.0036 |
0.0037 |
|
IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %: |
0.0054 |
0.0054 |
|
IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %: |
0.0073 |
0.0074 |
Multichannel Output
Testing chain: Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 FrontOutput – Measurement system Input.
Sampling mode: 24-bit, 48 kHz
Summary
|
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: |
+0.02, -0.13 |
Excellent |
|
Noise level, dB (A): |
-112.9 |
Excellent |
|
Dynamic range, dB (A): |
112.8 |
Excellent |
|
THD, %: |
0.0006 |
Excellent |
|
IMD + Noise, %: |
0.0016 |
Excellent |
|
Stereo crosstalk, dB: |
-107.9 |
Excellent |
|
IMD at 10 kHz, %: |
0.0052 |
Excellent |
General performance: Excellent
Frequency response
Frequency range |
Response |
|
From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB |
-0.34, +0.02 |
|
From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB |
-0.13, +0.02 |
Noise level
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
RMS power, dB: |
-111.4 |
-111.3 |
|
RMS power (A-weighted), dB: |
-112.9 |
-112.7 |
|
Peak level, dB FS: |
-76.3 |
-76.3 |
|
DC offset, %: |
-0.00 |
-0.00 |
Dynamic range
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
Dynamic range, dB: |
+111.8 |
+111.7 |
|
Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB: |
+112.8 |
+112.8 |
|
DC offset, %: |
-0.00 |
0.00 |
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
THD, %: |
0.0006 |
0.0006 |
|
THD + Noise, %: |
0.0010 |
0.0010 |
|
THD + Noise (A-weighted), %: |
0.0010 |
0.0010 |
Intermodulation distortion
|
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
IMD + Noise, %: |
0.0016 |
0.0016 |
|
IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %: |
0.0013 |
0.0013 |
Stereo crosstalk
Parameter |
L <- R |
L -> R |
|
Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB: |
-110 |
-110 |
|
Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB: |
-106 |
-107 |
|
Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB: |
-87 |
-87 |
IMD (swept tones)
Parameter |
Left |
Right |
|
IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %: |
0.0034 |
0.0034 |
|
IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %: |
0.0050 |
0.0050 |
|
IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %: |
0.0072 |
0.0072 |
Tour
PCI Express: Designed for high speed PCI Express® slots in modern PCs
Dolby® Digital Live
Dolby® Digital Live converse any audio signal (games, music, etc…) into a Dolby® Digital bitstream (48kHz at 640Kbps). Dolby® Digital Live provides a single digital cable connectio(via coaxial or optical) to your Dolby® Digital enabled surround sound system.
DTS Connect™ (for Vista only)
( DTS™ for Vista Available via Downloads)
Turn your PC into action-packed entertainment experience that surrounds you in sound. DTS Connect includes 2 exciting technologies from DTS: DTS Interactive™ and DTS Neo:PC™ (Vista Only)
DTS Interactive™ (for Vista only)
( DTS™ for Vista Available via Downloads)
A real time encoder that takes any LPCM (2 channel or more) and encodes it into DTS® bitstream (48kHz at 1.5Mbps). DTS Interactive™ provides a single digital cable connectio(via coaxial or optical) to your DTS enabled surround sound system. (Vista Only)
DTS Neo:PC™ (for Vista only)
( DTS™ for Vista Available via Downloads)
A up-mix matrix technology that turns any 2 channel audio into 7.1 surround sound. You can turn your stereo audio (WMA, MP3, CD and more!) into a convincing multichannel audio experience. (Vista Only)
EAX® ADVANCED HD 5.0
Bullets whiz past your head. Explosions shake the room. Take your games to the next level with EAX® ADVANCED HD™ sound effects.
64MB X-RAM
Free-up system memory and improve your audio quality and performance igames such as Battlefield 2, Prey, Unreal Tournament 3 and others that take advantage of X-RAM.
FP_AUDIO, AND_EXT, DID_EXT
Support Intel® HD Audio (Standard 10-1 pin Front Panel Audio) and latest Sound Blaster X-Fi™ I/O 3 ½ “ Drive Interface
Hi-Fi OPAMP (with Swappable Socket – Front L/R only)
National OPAMP provide superior sound quality and speed for exceptional audio performance. The swappable dual DIP type Operational Amplifier (OPAMP) provides convenient do-it-yourself upgrade for ultimate analog sound quality and color (Front L/R only)
Hi-End DAC & Audio Components
AKM AK4396VF DAC achieves 120 dB dynamic range performance and low distortion rate of 0.001%. Other hi-end components include Nichicon Bi-Polarized Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor, Metalized Film capacitor used in high-end audio equipment.
Digital Out Combo
Shift between Coaxial (left) and Optical output (right) with the included adaptor.
Headphone Amplifier
Exclusive Hi-Fi headphone amplifier technology.
See Tech Notes tab.
Professional Mic Pre-Amp
Stereo/Balanced mode microphone pre-amplifier for professional microphones.
See Tech Notes tab.
Balanced Power Generation
Balanced Power Generation circuit for Analog dual power supply.
Drivers
- Driver News: Read the latest driver announcements.
- Driver Downloads: Visit the Driver Download Page
Manuals
- Manuals: Visit the Manual Download Page
Instructions
- Frequently Asked Questions: Visit the FAQs Page
- How to Change the Rear Bracket: Follow the instructions.
