Pros: - Optical Output that doesn't interfere with my primary speaker setup - Excellent Sound Quality - Works in Win 7 64-bit - Great price for a Card with DTS Encoding

Cons: - Lack of Dolby Digital output (not an issue for me, but might be for some)

Overall Review: My computer is upstairs in my Den with a 2.1 channel speaker set and also connected to my HT downstairs with a set of z-5500's. Quick change in the Xonar software and I can swap on the fly between the two outputs. Ran a 25' Optical Cable to the HT, set the Xonar Audio Center to SPDIF - DTS Interactive 6-channel with HiFi enabled. Works perfect. Just make sure that the audio playback device is the Xonar speakers and not SPDIF output or it will only transmit 2 channels. Tested a few AVIs/MKVs and Games. Everything seems to be separated into the proper speaker channels.

Pros: What is so good about this card is that for the price of $54 you get high quality sound from using this card. I used this card in combination with a pair of $100 5.1 surround sound Logitech speakers and it improved the sound quality so much that the speakers sound like they are a lot more expensive. It takes a little playing around with the playback mixer, flex bass, and to adjust the decibel sliders for each sound effect under effects, but once you have it right it sounds amazing.

Cons: None

Overall Review: The greatest part about this card is that a little chip on the board called in OP AMP with metal legs that is seated in a cartridge slot can be replaced with any OP AMP chip you want to improve sound quality even more since this chip determines the sound output. I did this and noticed a much clearer sound. Also as for some reviews that have had problems with using this in Windows 7, it works perfect in Windows 7 I have been using windows 7 for over a year with this card and have had no problems at all. Also just to help inform a potential buyer even buyer and to keep false claims from leaning them towards not purchasing this, I saw reviews stating that OCZ solid state drives were being corrupted from installing this card, I also have a OCZ SSD and have no problems at all, and there is no way a sound card could corrupt a solid state drive because a add in hardware component cannot cause interference or corruption to another object if it is not directly linked to it. I hope this review helped to inform more people who were possibly thinking about buying this product. Also do not use the cd that comes with the drivers for the card, usually they cause problems so I went to Asus' website to download the newest drivers.

Pros: Just wanted to help out anyone installing this card in Windows 7. 1) Download the latest drivers from Asus' website--do not use the driver CD! 2) Use a program like 7-zip/Winrar to extract the rar file. 3) When I ran the setup it didn't install correctly. Just sat there for 30 min or so and said the card was not detected. So instead of running setup, try this: 4) My Computer, right click->Properties->Device Manager->Sound, video, and game controllers. 5) Right click on Asus Xonar DS->Update Driver Software->Browse my computer for driver software. 6) Point it to the ASUS download directory and let it find the driver. 7) Enjoy your new sound card.

Cons: Driver software didn't install correctly.

Pros: Nice card with quality components. The ability to swap out certain audio components on the card may appeal to some. Front panel pins on the soundcard match right up with the plug from the case.

Cons: If you using this in a Windows 7 64 bit (and it may affect 32 bit as well), do NOT use the included drivers on the cd. Go to the asus website and download the latest. Why? Upon installing the cd version of the drivers, it caused my Windows installation to throw up error messages like "Explorer.exe execution failed" or something to that effect. A reboot to safe mode to uninstall the drivers fixed that situation. The newer drivers did not cause the "Explorer.exe execution failed" error message. Your best bet for the driver CD is to use it as a coaster.

Pros: I’m not a gamer, so this review is for listing to music. I use Klipsch ProMedia speakers that sounded rather flat using the onboard Realtek chip. In the past I’ve used Turtle Beach sound cards on other systems and knew they gave better sound that the onboard chips so I decided to look for a newer card that had support for Windows 7. I picked the Xoner DS because it fit my price range, was PCI which was the only slot I had available and used the new ASUS AV200 chip. It turned out to be a nice card. It has really good sound and opens up the ProMedia speakers well. I’m really liking it a lot.

Cons: I’m running Windows 7 Ultra, so I downloaded and installed the latest drivers, ASUS-DS-PCI_DS_091126_7_12_8_1777_W73264. However when I leave the PC running and it goes into sleep/hibernate mode it won’t wake up the next day, the system hangs and I have to reboot the box. Bummer as I run a Windows Home Server system that backs up this PC every night and can’t anymore. It all worked fine until I installed the new sound card and drivers. The only remedy I found was when I’m done working on the PC I have to go into Device Manager and disable the sound card and it doesn’t hang overnight. However the next day I have to re-enable the sound card to use it. Kind of a hassle, but a work-around I guess.

Overall Review: I also had a similar hang in Windows 7 last fall with a video in card. Turned out to be the driver of that card and a new version of the driver was released in late November that fixed it. Now I’m having the same problem with this card. Since the drivers are new, I wonder if that’s the problem also. Hopefully there will be a newer version out that will take care of this one.

Pros: Excellent Sound Quality Uses C-Media CMI8788 chip as a DAC, so it has excellent Linux support, and is also compatible with CMI8788 drivers Makes even low end head phones sound better Full ASIO support, Asus really needs to advertise this. I can use this with Reason 5, 2 channels at 96,000 hz, and a really low buffer, and I'll get 2ms latency, and perfect sound. Switchable OP-AMP S/PDIF support Huge upgrade over Realtek on board sound Front Panel connectors Built in head phone amp Sounds way better with ALSA then the Windows sound in 7 and XP. Excellent quality PCI bracket, it has a nice finish, and is stronger then any other PCI brackets I've ever seen.

Cons: No full size S/PDIF port No solid state capacitors When booting into Windows after using Linux, I have twice got an issue where all sound is super screechy, and this can be fixed by taking the card out, and putting it back in. I've had the card for months though. It doesn't support 5.1 over S/PDIF, just 7.1 or stereo. ASIO drivers don't support 7.1 over S/PDIF (This only affects those who make music, ASIO is used by high end music making software)

Overall Review: With my Realtek Audio and a $15 pair of headphones, I could listen to an MP3, and tell you the bit rate it was encoded at withing 20 kbps, on over 90% of the songs I've heard, but after 220 kbps, I couldn't tell. With this, I can easily tell the difference between 256 and 320 kbps mp3s. I use high end headphones all the time, and when I listened to FLAC rips of some of my favorite music, the excellent quality brought tears to my eyes. I'm a manly man, and this is one of the only things that have made me cry. I never thought the sound could get better then the Realtek sound card, because I never heard any static or distortion, but this just gives music a new level of clarity.

Pros: Great sound, I have some Shure SE530s and things do sound a good bit clearer in the high and low ends now. Really thumpin' bass in games too, I just got done testing it with Borderlands.

Cons: It completely crippled my machine after installing the included drivers on my Windows 7 64 bit machine. Any program that required sound would not load the interface, just sat in memory doing nothing. Sound hangs from crashed games, can't seem to fix without rebooting either which is pretty annoying. The Xonar Audio Center software is pretty barebones, and I couldn't get the voice FX features to work but they're just gimmicks in my case anyway. Not really worth knocking an egg off for.

Overall Review: To fix my issue I mentioned in the cons, I highly recommend Vista/W7 users just visit (ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/PUB/ASUS/Audio_Card/Xonar_DS/) and grab the 2010 updated drivers right off the bat. It makes this card work great immediately with no crippling.

Pros: I thought that the onboard Realtek audio chip sounded good, until I installed the Xonar a couple of hours ago. I no longer like the Realtek because this thing sounds amazing. The sound quality is crystal clear and sounds natural, going through a Pioneer receiver and Klipsch speakers. I am hearing things in the music that I had never heard before, too. Works with Windows 7 64 bit, but not without some degree of difficulty on the install. (See cons)

Cons: Like other people have already mentioned, installing the 64 bit Windows 7 drivers obtained from ASUS's website is a pain. The only thing that worked for me was to boot into safe mode and then install them. They installed in mere seconds and after rebooting, the Xonar card works perfectly. I have not and doubt that I will install any of the software from the CD that came with the card. It works fine as it is.

Overall Review: I find it odd that the "official" Windows 7 64 bit drivers that come from ASUS don't install using the installer, except in Safe Mode. They should mention that on their site. All in all, I am very pleased with the hardware. I gave it five eggs because of the hardware, in spite of the weird drivers.