Hardware Asus Xonar D2

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/09/03/asus_xonar_d2/1

Asus has hit the sound card market with all guns blazing, but should the mighty Creative start sweating as another computing behemoth lands the heavyweight Xonar D2 into the PC audio market?

 

First!


Edit: But seriously. Good review. I remember being interested about this a while back. In the end though, since I'm no audiophile, integrated hd audio is fine for me.

 

The Midi Inputs are a surprise to me.

 

I second that! Linux user here, I don't care/need/have support for EAX or any Dolby stuff
Any1 knows if NV will launch a SoundStorm again?

 

Microsoft are trying to rid themselves of the red ring of death, and ASUS are trying to display it with arms wide open.

 

I think there is no more inventions and performance inmprovement to gain with any soundcards/onboard audio since about 5 years ago. In fact there is nothing improved/changed/different. They all perform the same, all have the same features and options. the 0,0004 % difference is not going to be heard by anyones ears. (not on pc speakers anyway) You can only see visual differences on the computergenerated graphs. (see! brand B is better then brand A, it has a 0,000001% higher spike in loudness graph) It is just gimmicks, kitch whatever you want to namen it. Like; orange/green/bloo glowing cards, gamer-names branding and the useless "plug-led-indicators" for your wirings, because you setup your speakers and let it be there for years unless you change a mobo, or are moving your gear to a new house whatever. But then its still useless, because why would you move stuff around in the absolute dark, hitting your head against anything under you desk, tripping over your officechair or some lost footpeddals from your racing steer...

 

THIS IS THE Best sound card I ever saw! **** Creative cards.. WOW I want one. DAM, Thanks so much.

 

Hmmm, not everything it was billed to be, maybe the encoding will be faster on the D3 version!?

Not entirely sure what to go for now, Bindi, from what you have said, it is a good allround card, but the Sondigio (sorry if the spelling is wrong) one sounds like it is just as good, but half the price (from what I have found after the googeling).

Am I to take it that the Creative offerings are not worth it at all?

As a casual gamer I am more concerned about movie and music quality, the games I just need to hear it and not get distorted, and from that view the Xonar sounds pretty good, but is there a better option for less? Because this looks pretty solid

 

that asus card is really pimp.... and those leds in the back really help

 

spdif was specificly designed for cheap fiber connections and 75ohm phono cable. Oxygen free cables are a scam, they have never been shown to be any better than non oxygen free cables (it's claimed that oxygen free is better as patches of copper oxide form diodes inside the cable and so the cable has a different impedance for one phase of the ac signal to the other producing distortion but this is complete BS). The included cables should be fine, most of the time spdif works without proper 75ohm cable anyway.
Regardless spdif is more of a consumer digital audio standard, the clock is derived from the data stream (to save money by just using two stand wire) and as such it's quite common to have the reciving device sensing the signalking level at the wrong time and thus getting incorrect data (thus distortion). I2S is a better standarrd and is what is used between cdplayer transports and their DAC's but I don't see any consumer cards with this connection standard (probobly because it would use the entire back plate up).

 

btw does this thing have linux support?

 

I hope so.

 

that 0,000001% percent can actually make a difference when you're outputting mixes at 2900 watts

the midi is good, and I might get one because of that (more ASIO outputs! )

 

I have been looking around for a decent sound card that "LOOKS" good.. hehe.. might install one of these in the HTPC ... might not also.

Kewl review.

 

Not yet, but I've just spoken to Asus and the guy believed it was in the pipeline.

 

I couldn't seem to tell from the pics and text. Where do you plug in the optical spdif?

Secondly: Does this board output surround over spdif optical? Did you test it with a surround reciever?

Thanks

 

I don't have a surround receiver but it does support it as well as Dolby Live and DTS:Connect.

The RCA jacks are dual jack with optical, the adapter for a Toslink is supplied in the box.

 

After I am doing reading the reviews on this soundcard and if everything is GOOD, you better believe that I will be ordering it as soon as I get some money in my hand. The hell with creative. they god some serious problems over there.

Thx for the Review!

P.S. Fusion

 

Those backlit jacks are amazing, setting up under a LAN desk and at home is a pain in the arse!

 

no pci-e version?