It?s HERE! We originally heard about the release date for Auzentech?s X-Meridian waaay back in June. A card based on a new chipset, the Oxygen HD from C-Media, and some very high-end AKM digital parts capable of running in 24 bits and 192 KHz resolution. I was pretty excited, and reading the buzz in the forums, quite a lot of people were too. After some months, finally, a mysterious box arrived early November. It turned out to be a sassy black and orange box from Auzentech! So let me just end all the speculation right here and now: the X-Meridian is the best sound card we?ve ever tested. There are some performance issues to be aware of, but in terms of raw sound quality, it is top notch. While it is lacking in a software bundle, the X-Meridian has some stable, low footprint drivers, EAX 2.0, ASIO, packs a rich set of encoding options, and offers everything but a kitchen sink for a home theater setup.

Guru of 3D