Between all these soundcards which one would you recommend and why?

HT OMEGA CLARO Plus+ 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Express Interface Sound Card

AuzenTech Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Creative 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series

Or is it hands down Creative the Winner?

for what purpose?

Gaming? Movies? Music?

I'd probably go with the Creative for gaming, but depending on what the application is, the recommendation may vary.

Heya,

Creative is far from the `hands down' winner. It depends what you want to do with the soundcard. Creative has fixed their driver issues, so if you're in Vista, it's a lot easier now with them. They have good cards for gaming. If you're not using it as a primary gaming card, honestly, you do not need to ever put a Creative card in your rig. Get something with better quality audio. The Asus & the Auzentech would be my choices over the Creative for that. For gaming though, the Creative's drivers (since they're finally good) for Vista are simply better at the moment.

Very best,

if you need a card for recording, look into m-audio's products.

This is to be used for a home theater system to be used for multiple zones throughout the house for one being for a coffee shop, other for downstairs work space, and other for upstairs for living space, and also for outdoor listening. Gaming, not at all likely. These people asked me what I should do about a house with 7500 sq feet per floor, and also what would be a good receiver for powering all the stereo channels, and what type of wall or in wall speakers will provide adequate sound throughout the place?

Also they want it all to be controlled remotely so they don't have to go to the unit to change music, and or watch movies in thier living space. How would this be done, and about how much could this be done for achieving good quality sound?

Creative makes "Jack-of-All-Trades, Master-of-One" ...and that "Master-of-One" is gaming. You've got to spend $200-$300 on their Elite Pro to get audiophile level equipment from them...and you can get better (or as good) sound for less from Auzentech and Asus in the Prelude, X-Plosion, or Xonar.

To be honest, though, right now, in my opinion, Creative doesn't just have working drivers in Vista, they have the BEST drivers in Vista. It took them a long time to get there and they lost a lot of customers on the way. Some loyal, some not.

Home Theater? I'd recommend the Asus Xonar. Its drivers are solid if not as user friendly as Creative's. Sound? The Asus Xonar sounds splendid. Period. So, if you can forgive their user interface and focus on the quality of the hardware and the sound you'd be best to go with the Xonar.

Of course, if you're hooking it up to any kind of PC speakers, including the popular Logitech Z-5500's don't bother spending the money on the Xonar. You won't hear what you're paying for, IMO.

You'll need at least an entry level receiver and speakers capable of reasonably reproducing the full audio range, including the often left-out midrange.

So, if you've got PC speakers of any sort just get a still-very-good Creative X-Fi (Extreme Gamer, Titanium, etc.), you'll have good sound and very usable drivers in any contemporary flavor of Windows.

...and if you're running any flavor of digital output from your PC, the quality of the sound of the soundcard is ...irrelevant as another DAC is turning it into what you'll end up hearing. The Creative cards are still nice here in that you can pump out their great audio effects digitally and use your receiver/DAC/Pre-Amp to render the sound into analog, which is what, of course, you need it to be.

My .02 cents.