PCI Express: PCI Express™ (PCIe) is a serial bus standard that provides a higher throughput than the older, parallel PCI bus standard. Unlike PCI Express™ sound cards built with PCI processors adapted for the PCIe slot, the X-Fi™ Forte is built around Creative Labs' PCI Express™ processor. As a native-PCI Express™ sound card, the X-Fi™ Forte can take full advantage of the higher-throughput of the PCIe bus.

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:

• Low Profile Audio Card
• Developed around Creative X-Fi Native PCI Express audio processor
• Support for Dolby Digital Live for Microsoft Windows® 7, Windows Vista® and Windows XP®
• Support for DTS Neo:PC & DTS Interactive on Microsoft Windows Vista® and Windows® 7
  ( DTS™ for Win 7 and Vista via Download)
• Low-profile and standard-profile brackets included.
• Headphone Amplifier
• Microphone Pre-Amp

Key Features

• Low Profile Audio Card
• Developed around Creative X-Fi Native PCI Express audio processor
• Support for Dolby Digital Live for Microsoft Windows® 7, Windows Vista® and Windows XP®
• Support for DTS Neo:PC & DTS Interactive on Microsoft Windows Vista® and Windows® 7
  ( DTS™ for Win 7 and Vista via Download)
• Low-profile and standard-profile brackets included.
• Headphone Amplifier
• Microphone Pre-Amp

Minimum System Requirements

• Intel® Pentium® 4 1.6 GHz or AMD® Athlon XP 2000+ processor (Pentium 4 2.2 GHz, AMD AthlonTM XP 2400+ processor or faster recommended)
• Intel, AMD or 100% compatible motherboard
• Microsoft® Windows® 7 32/64-bit, Windows Vista® 64-bit with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista 32-bit with SP1, Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005 or Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
• 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM for Windows Vista)
• 600 MB of free hard disk space
• Available PCI Express® (x1, x4, x8 or x16) slot
• CD or DVD ROM

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 75Ω 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 16Ω ~ 600Ω headphone or earphone. Also, can be used, when configuring a Stereo system, not using the Analog I/O cable, as an Front Line Output.

Note If you connect a Passive Speaker (with lower than 16Ω) to this Headphone output, it can cause this audio card to not function correctly.

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
3.5mm(1/8”) mini phone jack (Pink color label: ‘MIC IN’): Connect Stereo/mono unbalanced condenser microphone and input, record audio from the MIC through the audio card. Also, connect to Balanced Dynamic Microphone through the jumper setting of this audio board.

Line input connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Blue color label: ‘LINE IN’): Connect CD player, MP3 player from their headphone output or line output, and input/record audio through this audio card.

Front Line output connector
3.5mm (1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Lime color label: ‘FRONT’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or AV Amplifier’s “Front”.

Rear output connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Black color label: ‘REAR’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or  AV Amplifier’s Rear. Connectiowheabove 4-channel system is needed.

Center/Woofer output connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Orange color label: ‘C/SW’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or AV Amplifier’s Center/Woofer. Connectiowheabove 5.1 channel system is needed.

Side output connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Gray color label: ‘SIDE’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or AV Amplifier’ Side. Connection to 7.1 channel system is needed.

X-Fi™ Forte Connections

X-Fi Forte Connections (above). Click image to enlarge.

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.

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.

See also: Tech Notes tab.

Microphone Pre-Amplifier

Microphone signal level is very small, and thus weak in relation to external noise. Therefore, most professional microphones used a Balanced Connection system.

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.
  
• When in “STEREO” Mode, it is possible to use Mono Multimedia Condenser microphone and Multimedia Stereo microphone. The Left and Right channel sound will be mixed when input.
  

See also: Tech Notes tab.

X-Fi Forte PCI Express Sound Card Images
(Click images to enlarge)

X-Fi™ Forte Board: Low Profile Bracket

X-Fi™ Forte Board: Standard Bracket

X-Fi™ Forte Board: Analog I/O Cable

X-Fi™ Forte FP_Audio Connector

X-Fi™ Forte Close-ups

Dimensions
Board	Length: 176.900 mm (6.964 inches) Height: 56.155 mm (2.211 inches)
Interface Core
Audio Processor	Creative 20K2 PCI Express audio processor X-RAM 64M bytes of DDR-SDRAM for audio processing
PC Interface	PCI Express 1.1 Compliant Interface
Supported audio resolution and sampling rate	16/24-bit / up to 192kHz (Stereo playback) 16/24-bit / up to 96.0khz (Multi channel playback) 16/24-bit / up to 96kHz (Recording)
API Supports	WDM, ASIO2.0 EAX® 5.0, Direct Sound®, Direct Sound 3D®, OpenAL
Supported Operating Systems	Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Microsoft® Windows XP™
Analog Audio
Level	3.0Vrms, +12.0dBu max, deviatio+/- 0.1dB
Dynamic Range	109.0 dB A-weighted (1kHz @ -60dBFS, 24-bit/48kHz) for Analog outputs 98.0 dB A-weighted (1kHz @ -60dBFS, 24-bit/48kHz) for Analog inputs
Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise	115.0 dB A-weighted (1kHz @ -60dBFS, 24-bit/48kHz) for Stereo analog outputs 109.0 dB A-weighted (1kHz @ -60dBFS, 24-bit/48kHz) for Multi channel analog outputs
Frequency Response	10Hz to 22kHz, +/- 0.02 dB @ 48kHz 10Hz to 42kHz, +/- 0.02 dB @ 96kHz 10Hz to 94kHz, +/- 3dB @ 192kHz, Stereo
Impedance	Headphone load impedance 16Ω ~ 600Ω Line output impedance 330Ω Line/Aux input impedance 10KΩ
Microphone	Support Stereo and Balanced Mode
Connectivity
Analog Multi I/O Cable (D-SUB)	4 x 1/8" Stereo mini phone jack for Line outputs 1 x 1/8" TRS mini phone jack for MIC input 1 x 1/8" Stereo mini phone jack for Line input
Headphone	1 x 1/8" Stereo mini Phone jack for Headphone output
Front Audio	1 x 10-pin(5x2) Front audio header with Intel® HD Audio Compatible
Digital I/O	1 x RCA/TOSLINK Combo jack for S/PDIF transmission 1 x 2-piS/PDIF input connector
Extension	Creative proprietary AND_EXT, DID_EXE connector for X-Fi I/O driver

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 75Ω 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 16Ω ~ 600Ω headphone or earphone. Also, can be used, when configuring a Stereo system, not using the Analog I/O cable, as an Front Line Output.

Note If you connect a Passive Speaker (with lower than 16Ω) to this Headphone output, it can cause this audio card to not function correctly.

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
3.5mm(1/8”) mini phone jack (Pink color label: ‘MIC IN’): Connect Stereo/mono unbalanced condenser microphone and input, record audio from the MIC through the audio card. Also, connect to Balanced Dynamic Microphone through the jumper setting of this audio board.

Line input connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Blue color label: ‘LINE IN’): Connect CD player, MP3 player from their headphone output or line output, and input/record audio through this audio card.

Front Line output connector
3.5mm (1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Lime color label: ‘FRONT’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or AV Amplifier’s “Front”.

Rear output connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Black color label: ‘REAR’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or  AV Amplifier’s Rear. Connectiowheabove 4-channel system is needed.

Center/Woofer output connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Orange color label: ‘C/SW’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or AV Amplifier’s Center/Woofer. Connectiowheabove 5.1 channel system is needed.

Side output connector
3.5mm(1/8”) stereo mini-phone jack (Gray color label: ‘SIDE’): Connect Active multichannel speaker or AV Amplifier’ Side. Connection to 7.1 channel system is needed.

X-Fi™ Forte Connections

X-Fi Forte Connections (above). Click image to enlarge.

Package Contents

	Board	AUZEN X-Fi™ FORTE 7.1 Board
	Documentation	Quick Start Guide
	Accessories	1 x Optical TOSLINK to TOSLINK cable, (6.6 feet / 2 meter) 1 x Analog Multi I/O cable (D-Sub) 1 x Optical adaptor 1 x Full size bracket
	Software	Installation CD Sound Font Bank Manager Creative MediaSource 5 Organizer Creative MediaSource 5 Player

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.

• In the Low Frequency chart, compare Line output (Left) and Headphone output (Right). With Headphone amplifier Output, the output is the original square wave. With line output, the lack of damping means that the amplifier cannot restrain Headphone unit vibration, creating resonance.
• In the High Frequency chart, compare the Line Output (Left) and Headphone Output (Right). With Line Output, notice the development of “overshoot” and severe distortion due to the lack of the wave’s “driving speed.”

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.

More about Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 Headphone Amp

The Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 has a separate Headphone Output Circuitry. This is implemented for the Rear Panel and Front Panel headphone outputs of your PC.

This Headphone Amplifier does not use a normal amplifier chip (IC). Instead, it uses a proprietary Auzentech-designed dedicated Headphone Amplifier. Based on the OPAMP, 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.

Microphone Pre-Amp

Microphone signal level is very small, and thus weak in relation to external noise. Therefore, most professional microphones used a Balanced Connection system.

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).

Connection to the Balanced Microphone

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.

Connection to a Multimedia Microphone

When in “STEREO” Mode, it is possible to use Mono Multimedia Condenser microphone and Multimedia Stereo microphone. The Left and Right channel sound will be mixed when input.

Balanced / Unbalanced Microphone

Unbalanced Transfer

As the diagram shows above, the Microphone connection needs Signal Line and Ground Line; this is called Unbalanced Transfer. When using Unbalanced Transfer, there is no way eliminate external noise from the Signal Line; HUM or RF Noise will be amplified through the amp, together with the original signal.

Balanced Transfer

Balanced transfer uses Phase Reverse to eliminate noises other than the original sound expected, for professional-quality MIC input.

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:

• WM8775SEDS: Rear Microphone, Line Input, Aux Input.
• WM8782S: Front Panel Microphone.

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.

A sound card ground layer is separated by analog ground, but is susceptible to a variety of noise from the motherboard. Most sound cards use multi-layer PCB, and each component has a different ground. Therefore, from the point at which the sound is generated (DAC) to the final output, there will be a long path. The noise in the ground-layer is then output through this long path.

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

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. this and other Auzentech PCI-Express Soundcards, we developed the "Balanced Power Generation System" to provide high quality Dual Power to the Analog circuitry and Operational Amplifier (OPAMP).

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.

Balanced Power Generation System´ structure

Audio Performance

As 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
Sampling mode: 24-bit, 48 kHz

Summary

General performance: Excellent

Frequency response

Noise level

Dynamic range

THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)

Intermodulation distortion

Stereo crosstalk

 

 

IMD (swept tones)

 

Multichannel Output

Testing chain: Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 FrontOutput – Measurement system Input.
Sampling mode: 24-bit, 48 kHz

Summary

General performance: Excellent

Frequency response

Noise level

 

Dynamic range

 

THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)

Intermodulation distortion

Stereo crosstalk

IMD (swept tones)

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™  ( DTS™ for Win 7 and Vista via Download)
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™ (Not available on Windows XP®)

DTS Interactive™ ( DTS™ for Win 7 and Vista via Download)
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 connection (via coaxial or optical) to your DTS enabled surround sound system. (Not available on Windows XP®)

DTS Neo:PC™ ( DTS™ for Win 7 and Vista via Download)
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. (Not available on Windows XP®)

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.

Warranty

• Auzentech Warranty Coverage
• Plus+1 Extension: One Year Additional Warranty Coverage for Qualified Registered Customers

Upgrades

• X-Fi I/O Drive: Compatible with X-Fi I/O Drive Upgrade Kit
• OPAMPs: Operational Amplifier Upgrade-ready