Creative Labs Zen MP3 Players Sound Blaster Card

The Auzen X-FI™ Prelude 7.1 is scheduled for release near the end of May 2007. It will fully support EAX 5.0 and have the same expandability as the Auzen X-Meridian™ 7.1. Support for Dolby® Digital Live real time encoding for Vista is scheduled for Q4 of this year. The Auzen X-Fi™ Prelude marks the first time Creative has permitted a third-party soundcard vendor to use the Creative X-FI™ chipset in its own soundcard design.

“By building a soundcard based upon Creative's high-quality X-Fi™ chipset, we are fulfilling one of the most common feature requests from our customers,” said Stephane Bae, President of Auzentech, Inc. "When you're playing games, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude soundcard will output the best 3D audio and latest EAX® effects. And when you're listening to music or watching movies, you'll enjoy an audiophile-quality experience."

"We’re excited to provide Auzentech with our award-winning X-Fi audio chipset and technology to provide an outstanding audio experience for Auzentech’s customers,” said Steve Erickson, VP of audio for Creative.

About Auzentech, Inc. AUZENTECH, Inc. is a provider of quality consumer electronics products, which is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA. AUZENTECH developed the World's first Dolby® Digital Live Sound card (X-Mystique 7.1 Gold) and the World's first DTS® Connect Sound Card (X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect) and continues to bring innovative audio products to the market.

Auzentech sound cards always challenge Creative Lab sound cards in features and sound quality. With this, we have seen more licensing and outsourcing efforts done by Creative to expose the X-Fi technology to a wider market. This is great news to Creative shareholders and also to Auzentech’s customers who will be able to enjoy high quality X-Fi sound. Recently, we have seen more news related to X-Fi as compared to Zen MP3 players, not sure if this is Creative Labs new direction to focus back on its core X-Fi soundcard business and slowly getting out of its MP3 business in hope to return back to profitability. However, we still keep our eyes and ears open for any announcements on new ZEN MP3 players.