| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Consumer Electronics |
| Founder(s) | Stephane Bae |
| Headquarters |
Silicon Valley, California[1], United States of America United States, Japan, South Korea[1] |
| Key people | Stephane Bae, (President) |
| Products | Multimedia, IT, Consumer electronics |
Auzentech is a Korean computer hardware manufacturer, specialized in high-definition audio equipment, and in particular PC sound cards.
Auzentech has its origins in March 2005, when under the company name HDA (HiTeC Digital Audio)[2], they launched the X-Mystique 7.1, the first consumer add-in sound card to feature Dolby Digital Live. Being HDA initially a manufacturer only, their products were commercialized worldwide by a network of local distributors, which included BlueGears as their vendor in the United States.[3][4][5]
Then in 2006, the company took distribution into their own hands, ceasing relations with BlueGears, and subsequently changing their brand name to Auzen (a name which originates from "Audio" and "Zen")[4] and their company name to Auzentech.[6]
From then on, the company has continued to incorporate new sound cards into their lineup, set out to compete in a market dominated by Creative Labs[7], seeking to provide enthusiast features not present in Creative's cards, such as realtime multichannel audio encoding and built-in TOSLINK connections[8] which enables users to have multichannel realtime audio (like that originating in PC games) over a single digital line, instead of the previously unavoidable three analog lines running from the PC to the speakers. Also present in all Auzentech sound cards are user-replaceable OPAMPs[9], which offer the possibility to further improve the out-of-the-box quality of analog outputs.
Eventually, expansion led to the broadening of their scope to other types of equipment, such as speakers, microphones and PC cases among others.
In newer cards, Auzentech has switched from the C-Media audio processors used in their earlier cards, to the X-Fi audio DSP, licensed from their competitor, Creative Labs.
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