Vista - HT Omega questions

I really getting tired of Creativelabs. I'm currently using a X-Fi XtremeMusic card which is not fully working under Vista64. I refuse to buy a X-Fi2 just to use features that should be enabled in the X-Fi card I already own. Vista has been out long enough for Creativelabs to get their act togther. In a nut shell I'm done with Creativelabs! I've always bought their products but that officially ends now.

I'm looking at HT Omega's cards. I'm a cusual gamer mainly playing EverQuest 2. How does HT Omega's card do for games like EQ2 and is the quality of drivers better than Creativelabs?

I'm just trying to get some user infor before I spend $$$$$ on a new sound card.

I have the HT Omega Claro which uses the 8788HD soundchip. The card does me good in games and music, and the drivers in my opinion are better than Creative's. I personally don't want anything to do with Creative Labs

If you don't want to spend a lot of money on an HT Omega soundcard, and still want a decent HT Omega soundcard, get the HT Omega Striker 7.1, which uses the 8770 chip. The drivers for the Striker 7.1 dated March 2008 come with Vista 32 and Vista 64 drivers.

To me sound on my HT Omega Claro is clearer than it was on a Creative card. If you don't care about EAX definitely get an HT Omega card. I personally don't care about EAX at all, and wouldn't trade my card even if I was offered a lot of money for it.

Like you, I got tired of the Creative Labs games with Vista drivers. I had the dreaded SCP with 4GB RAM or more problem with my X-Fi Platinum. While it sounded great with music, my games were missing that oomph I was used to with EAX 5 and HD (the Claro supports up to EAX 2, I believe). I removed it in favor of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude. No problems, games sound much better.

If you're just a music/movie person, the Claro would probably a better bet. Auzen also releases drivers more frequently than HT Omega. Don't let the date on that Feb. 2008 package fool you. Those drivers were released last year. The Claro is a great card, though, and works perfectly with Vista x64.

Wrong, I have the Febuary 2008 drivers from HT Omega installed for my Claro, and I checked device manager for my card and it shows a date of February 13TH, 2008. In effect the drivers are from this year.

Auzentech's drivers for the X-Meridian are still release canidate drivers, but ever since this business that broke where ASUS has exclusive rights to the 8788HD chip and technologies, it doesn't look too good for Auzentech, HT Omega, Sondigo, and Razer to get anymore driver updates from CMEDIA.

I personally own the Claro, and although the card still works perfectly with the February 2008 drivers, I'm seriously considering getting a Xonar this fall, as it doesn't look too good right now for driver updates for any of the CMEDIA 8788HD cards.

The driver has been repackaged into a single file. There used to be 2 or 3 different files depending on what you needed. The version however (Rev. 5.12.08) is the same as the Claro+ driver revision that I installed when I first installed that card in December of last year.

As for the X-Meridian you are correct. ASUS cornered that chip, effectively making the X-Meridian obsolete. However, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude is built on the EMU2K1 (Creative Labs X-Fi). Auzen has enabled all of the X-Fi features in Vista that Creative Labs won't/can't and gives you a 120dB S/N ratio (CL X-Fi cards are 109dB). Creative Labs is a marketing company that can't see the forest for the trees. The X-Fi is more than capable of running fully featured in Vista x86/x64 but the marketing types want a new money stream and see shiny new Vista (relatively speaking) as a way to sell shiny new sound cards based on the EMU2K2. In fact Auzen has had to start using activation codes to protect against CL X-Fi users trying to use their drivers because they allow Creative Labs X-Fi users to activate the features of their cards in Vista.

As for the Claro, if you have it and you are happy with it, why change it? Vista's sound card driver model is solid. If the driver works now and is feature complete, there is almost no chance it will fail in the future, especially since it doesn't deal with Advanced EAX versions. I believe the the ASUS Xonar is the same, EAX 2 being the highest supported version.

I'm considering doing just that, using my HT Omega Claro until it ultimately croaks and then either gettign the Xonar or using the onboard sound on my motherboard.

I finally broke down and ordered a HT Omega CLARO plus + today from Newegg. My breaking point was Vista locking and all the pops and cracks in EQ2 after I installed Creative's new driver updates.

Great choice. Now say goodbye to those rice krispies.

I got my Claro plus in this week and I must say it blows the X-fi away in sound quality. I've tested it with several types of music and the few games I play. No cracks and pops when I listen to "Maiden" while playing EQ2. No cracks and pops in any of my games.

It took some playing around with the Claro's settings and EQ, but it's well worth the time.

As for me, I'm very happy with this sound card. I'll gladly give up EAX 3/4/5 up and a few FPS for a 100% working product.

The only thing I'm unhappy about is Newegg dropped the price by $20.00 this week after I ordered it. Sigh...