ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card

Pros: So far I've had zero problems with this card and the drivers supplied by Asus with Win7 64. Gives sound a needed boost verses the integrated one on my mobo. Well worth the price. It is best before installing to disable the onboard sound in the bios.

Cons: There is a click to it when booting. Nothing major, or should be a show stopper.

Pros: Incredible sound in comparison to my old external sound card (which was decent in it's own right) and MILES beyond onboard sound.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I didn't have any of the problems other people had. I'll leave the order of what I did here in case it makes any difference (but maybe I just got lucky.)

- Turn off, unplug, and open up PC.
- Plug sound card into PCIE x1 Slot.
- Plug in power adapter into the molex of the PSU and sound card. Just be careful with it because it's a little touchy.
- Turn on computer, put in disc, install drivers. Make the soundcard the default sound output, restart computer.

Everything worked just fine for me, but a few programs made me manually chance speaker output to the card.

Pros: Good for the price! Great for Music!

Cons: For some, it does need an external power adapter and makes a clicking sound when booting up computer. Not a con to me.

Other Thoughts: Bought this card for mostly music (192khz 24 bit). I'm eventually going to get a higher-end card or external DAC but needed something now. I definitely perfer over Creative SB Recon3D for music. Works great with my 2.0 Sound setup. I'm not really sure how it works for games but I'm sure it's fine. Also, I used drivers from Asus website for my Windows 7 64 bit. Works great!

Pros: Where to start. First, I have owned just about every major variant of sound card since the days of the original Sound Blaster 8 bit ISA. I have since owned C-Media based cards, the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Sound Blaster X-Fi, Auzentech X-Fi Forte, not to mention another variation of THIS card, the Xonar DSX, plus my most recent try...the Sound Blaster Z. So, you could say I have had some experience. I am not a true audiophile, but I am picky about my sound, and I am a FPS gamer. When looking for a sound card, you are left with a lot of choices. Depending on what you want, your choice might be easy. Or, in my case, difficult. I want it all. I want a mode where I can listen to my Trance/Techno/Dance in stereo with no sound processing so my Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers can put out the sound they were meant to, and I want the ability to have 3D sound over headphones. Oh, and I want it with awesome sound quality and rock stable drivers for $100 or less.

Don't ask much, do I?

In my quest, I FINALLY found what I am looking for. I thought I had it with the Sound Blaster Z, and nearly so....except for the Z driver issues, such as cut-off Windows start-up sounds and more instability than I care for, plus a slow driver interface. Creative will NEVER truly get it right. I gave them chance after chance after chance.

Enter the Xonar DX. What, you ask, separates it from the DSX and DGX? Why did I not keep that DSX? Simple...the DSX and DGX don't meet my requirements. The DGX does not have the sound quality I demand. The DSX cannot do virtual 3D positioning over analog (eg, headphones)...it requires it to be done via digital out. The DX meets my demands, but lacks a dedicated amplified headphone out port. I had to make one trade-off in that respect, but it was worth it. I now have SPECTACULAR 2.1 audio over my Klipsch speakers...as good or better than the Sound Blaster Z. I now have very good 3D positional audio, using Dolby Headphone. I have a Hi-Fi mode (like the Creative Sound Blaster Z "Stereo Direct") where there is no sound processing going on at all...just nice clean 24bit/192KHz piped out.

I now have one more thing...rock solid drivers that are fast.

Here are the enumerated pros, after having used this card for about two weeks:

1. Extremely high quality hardware. All solid capacitors. Neutral high quality DACs, with some real bass behind them.
2. Stable drivers, and I mean STABLE.
3. Awesome sound, as close to audiophile-level for the money.
4. Tons of digital in and out options with basically every Dolby Digital technology supported, which I don't use currently.
5. Highly configurable driver interface.
6. Bundled RightMark Audio Analyzer utility comes with the card, and using a 3.5mm loopback cable (not included) you can measuring sound quality like the professionals do.
7. Reasonable pricing, considering it is $20 cheaper than the Sound Blaster Z base card and is more stable.

Cons: Every sound solution is going to have a con. Some of the cons are going to be related to what it COULD NOT give you, and perhaps what it DID NOT give you yet was promised.

I can say with all sincerity that everything ASUS promised they delivered upon. I discovered no operational annoyances related to how the card was designed or how the drivers are written.

However, having freshly come from the Sound Blaster Z card, I do have some comparison-based feature cons that I wish the Xonar DX would come with.

1. No dedicated amplified headphone out port. You have the choice of unplugging your speaker system, which requires giving your computer the old reach around or using the FP header. I opted for the FP header, with trepidation, since I was sure I would get a drop in sound quality...I did not fortunately. But you might. Depends on your case, EMI, and other factors you might not even have control over.
2. NO JACK SENSING AT ALL. Plug in the device, and then you will need to know how to use the driver interface to configure it for PROPER use. Not a huge deal, since jack sensing sometimes does not work right anyway, but this is still a con. There is a longer learning curve. Perhaps this is good...it will teach people to read about their hardware more...

Other cons:

1. Driver interface (feature-wise) has a learning curve, which really does require you read the manual. Don't assume you will get the most from this card by simply pressing one of the preset-mode buttons. You won't.
2. Card requires a older floppy drive style power supply connection. Apparently the 75W the PCI-E interface supplies is not enough. You must exercise care and caution inserting the connector...do not force it in or out. Insert and remove at a 45 deg angle! This is how the connector was designed and had folks below read their Quick Start Guides they would not have a power connection issue or broken card. The card comes with the required floppy connector to 4-pin MOLEX adapter. I highly recommend plugging in the floppy connector on the card FIRST before you seat the card in the PCI-E slot just to be sure you don't accidentally force it and bend or break something.

None of the cons here are deal breakers. Most of it is FYI, in fact. Not true cons.

Other Thoughts: My rig:

MSI Z77A-G45 GAMING, v. 17.0 BIOS
Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3-1866 9-9-9-27, 16 GB (4 X 4GB sticks), 1.5V
Core i7-3770K
Corsair H110 water cooler
Samsung 840 Pro SSD, 256 GB as OS/Primary
Samsung 830 SSD, 256GB as secondary gaming-only
EVGA GTX 780 Super Clocked Edition video card
WD Blue 1TB as mass storage
ASUS Xonar DX sound card
ASUS DVD/RW
Seasonic X-Series 650W, Gold Certified modular PSU
Logitech G400
iOne X-Armor Cherry MX Brown mechanical keyboard
Klipsch Promedia 2.1 system and Razor ORCA cans
Viewsonic AH-IPS LED backlit 27" display VX2770Smh
Cooler Master HAF XM case
Windows 7 64 bit OEM SP1

Pros: Great Soundcard, previous rating push me to buy this one, and I don't regret it. Crystal Clear Sound. Oh Wow ! :-D. BF3 walking and shooting sound is so hot !!

Cons: The only thing, is the CD contains old driver. Must go on the site to get the latest driver for Windows 8.

Pros: The sound is quite high quality and plenty of adjustments to suit your individual needs ( once you figure it out) . A good buy overall.

Cons: Instruction manual has something to be desired. Basically it only tells you how to hook it up but does not mention anything else for example how to adjust your speaker and sound settings, attaching to front panel headset connector on the card, etc). A very cut and dry instruction manual where you have to figure out the rest on your own. Took off 1 egg since that issue cost me some time to set up the settings. The power connector is weak and looks to be easy to damage. This issue has been mentioned several times on these reviews.

Other Thoughts: It is definitely worth the $$

Pros: Excellent sound quality. Very clear mids and highs. My Astro A50's literally bounce from the bass. Good software.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: I tried a Soundblaster-z when my Asus card broke from physical damage. The Soundblaster-z had nice sound quality too BUT, the bass and software didn't compare. I had to have another Asus

Pros: Excellent signal to noise
Excellent sound quality
Solid output selection
Software adjustability

Cons: Power plug can be finicky

Other Thoughts: I use my computer to play games, listen to music (FLAC lossless only), and watch movies. My xonar outputs to a vintage 70s pioneer receiver that has been cleaned up internally. The A channel goes to a pair of floor standing three way speakers. The B channel outputs to an adjustable active line level converter to RCA. The RCA output is fed into a vintage 98 PPI powerclass 2150 amplifier which powers a single JL 12w6v2 in a sealed 1.5 cu ft enclosure. The amplifier is fed power by a 650 watt Antec PSU I recapped and modified for 12 volt output (12.2v output under load).

Why did I tell you this? Because I wanted you to know how serious I take audio. With the integrated audio my system sounds okay. The extension on the low end is pretty bad. With the xonar I get sound below 20hz with cone movement down to almost 5 HZ. On the high end I get sparkling clear sound. When listening to properly recorded symphony music I can close my eyes and it honestly feels like I'm there in the crowd. This card absolutely blows away my old soundblaster 5.1 card.

The sound card has given me no issues with compatibility. I'm not a fan of EAX and such though (sounds artificial even with a soundblaster card) but the features performed like they should.

The built in software is solid giving you a good deal of control over the card's output.

An excellent buy and if you have some extra money you might consider getting the more costly asus card for the upgradable op amps and the improved shielding. If you don't have high end equipment then this xonar will cover you fine.

Pros: perfect sound

Cons: error on power supply

Other Thoughts: very happy no more creative sound cards for my

Pros: Of the two times I actually got it to work, sounded great and was a vast improvement over my onboard sound.

Cons: 1. Driver installation was terrible, even with 3rd party Uni Xonar drivers, didn't work. Installer would take 10 minutes, then say the card wasn't found in the system.
2. Got card to install by moving it between the open PCI-e slots. Sound worked briefly, then upon reboot, "driver not digitally signed"
3. Put computer into test mode (I was willing to make this change permanently), and driver signing issue went away, and sound worked again. However, front panel audio never worked with either the HD-Audio connector, or the AC97 conntector. This was the deal breaker.
4. When machine not in test mode, computer won't get to login screen, just shortly after the animated windows logo loads, then black screen, locks up.

Other Thoughts: This card was disappointing from the start. I've built my fair share of machines over the years, and installed many sound cards too. By far, this was the worst experience I have had doing so. Tried many reasonable solutions, and found that ultimately... many other people have the same issues.

**Yes, I connected the 4 pin power cable
**Yes, I used updated drivers from ASUS
**Yes, I tried 3rd party, and all older versions before calling it quits.

Specs:
ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional AM3+ AMD 990FX
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1363-KR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB
Corsair 750W PSU