Remixed audio cards in Windows Vista

Interestingly, two of the most recent additions to the sound card ecosystem use existing audio chips. Asus' new Xonar D2X, for example, is based on a tweaked version of C-Media's Oxygen HD. More interestingly, it comes with a PCI Express interface, finally providing fodder for the scores of empty PCIe x1 slots that dot the enthusiast landscape. On the other side of the fence we have Auzentech's X-Fi Prelude, which is the first third-party card to employ Creative's X-Fi silicon. The Prelude uses a custom board design and upgraded components in an attempt to wring better sound quality from the already impressive X-Fi audio chip.

The Xonar and Prelude both target the high end of the desktop sound card spectrum, so it's only fitting that we face them off against each other in Windows Vista. Read on to see how they fare in a range of gaming, signal quality, and subjective listening tests.