Auzentech Prelude and FP Audio questions.

[RyanH]

Ok so I've been using an Auzentech Prelude 7.1 PCI sound card for about a year now with headphones. I had them connected with the basic line out port on the back of the card but now that port has gotten loose so the sound cuts in and out at times. Now I'm trying to just use the front panel header and connect to the port at the front of my case but I have a few questions.

1) Is there any sound quality loss when using a front panel connection FP HD audio or AC97

2) What's the difference between AC97 and HD audio. Is HD audio back wards compatible with AC97?

3) Does my sound card support FP HD audio. The auzentech site says it just supports AC97 FP audio but I'm using a HD audio connector right now and there doesn't seem to be any issue.

 

[obobski]

the AC97/HD thing is just a pinout difference tmk, there is no difference in terms of the wiring or anything like that, and there isn't a quality difference (it doesn't mean one is "high def", it means one is compliant with the AC97 standard, and one is compliant with HDA)

if the card isn't yet a year old, why is it not in the mail back to Auzen for a new one?

 

[RyanH]

From what I've read AC97 is only capable of 96khz 20 bit quality for 2 channel audio and 48 khz 20 quality for multichannel vs 192khz 32 bit quality and 96khz 32 bit quality for the newer Intel HD audio. So yes I was under the assumption that there was a quality difference between the two standards. I can't return the card unfortunately because I've owned it past the 1 year manufacturer warranty.

 

[obobski]

From what I've read AC97 is only capable of 96khz 20 bit quality for 2 channel audio and 48 khz 20 quality for multichannel vs 192khz 32 bit quality and 96khz 32 bit quality for the newer Intel HD audio. So yes I was under the assumption that there was a quality difference between the two standards. I can't return the card unfortunately because I've owned it past the 1 year manufacturer warranty.

this is in terms of the specs for the compliant chipsets, like Intel HDA parts vs AC'97 parts

furthermore, none of that matters because I can guarantee you have nothing sampled at 192khz and nothing with 32-bit depth, and even if you did, the X-Fi could not process it (nothing on the consumer market could, and as far as I know nothing non-proprietary and non-native could process it, and nothing commercially available could package or encode it)

there is no quality difference in terms of "this one sounds better", one is just designed for higher bitrate/depth data to support HD audio containers (like MLP), and besides, the outputs on your Prelude are analog, so its already gone through the D/A stages (which are 24/192 for stereo and 24/96 for multich), and one of the best SRC engines known to man (if not *THE* best)

like I said, its a wire pinout difference, there is no problem with what you've got connected, you aren't losing anything, it doesn't matter, etc

as far as the connector on the card, whats loose about it? either tack it down or get a new one and replace it

 

[RyanH]

Ok I see what you're saying now. For some stupid reason I was thinking there was another conversion going on between the sound card at the front panel connection. I have one last question. All other things identical, why is sound output louder through the front panel audio connector?