News Asus soundcard launches, gets a name

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06/08/asus_zonar_d2_at_computex_2007/1

COMPUTEX 2007: The Asus Xonar D2 now features a few more lights, and a lot more product details. We grabbed some pics of the final product, its box and the low down of what goes on inside.

 

"The Xonar D2 should be sampling within weeks, and you can be sure that bit-tech is down on the list for one of the first off the production line to let you all know what the real deal is."



It's about time someone serious gets into the sound card market, Creative , as much as I like their products, has been alone for way too long now

 

thx, I think the 21 hour days are starting to catch up with me and Rich - we can all have a good long sleep after today though

 

Gimme, Gimme I want one, I really want one That would be such a cool sound card

 

99 percent of the time, throwing LEDs on this stuff is just pointless and stupid. But this is brilliant. I can't tell you how many times i've been plugging stuff in behind my desk, in the dark.

iwantiwantiwantiwant

 

Sweet, sounds cool (bad pun sorry)

 

Does this thing have a fan on it? It looks like it does from the picture

Sam

 

Just noticed another typo, Tim/Rich, sorry

I think it should be "Ableton Live" rather than "Alberton Live" in the list of included software packages.

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I've got to wonder how much all the extra software packages add to the price..

The die-hard music-production/audio enthusiasts will probably stick to their dedicated systems like the external M-Audio Firewire cards and Digidesign MBox, while those added extras are mostly useless for the typical gamer who wants the Asus card for game-audio, aside from some "LOL listen! I made myself sound like a chipmunk!!" dabbling.

Not so sure about the LEDs, myself, either - Their choice of orange might help them stand out, but it'd also clash badly with a lot of existing schemes for owners with a discerning eye.

The inclusion of the EMI shield is definitely appealing, as it gives one of the major advantages of an external card without taking up the extra space on your desk, but does the average gamer or HTPC entusiast even notice the noise from EMI?

If there are details here that I've missed, please let me know, but I can't really figure out who this card is really aimed at. It seems to me to be a jack of all trades, but I suppose the 'master' bit can't be tested until it's in the review labs.

If it functions as an entry-level 'pro' soundcard for recording, and includes the named software packages, then it might offer a good bundle for someone who wants to get into that area, but I'd still recommend people to get a 'real' recording card and just choose a single software package to start out with unless the Asus bundle offers an extremely competitive price..

 

I'm definitely picking one up, regardless of price. I do a little bit of DJing (mostly uni parties) using my comp, and I hope the ASIO support on this is a little less finicky on this than on the creative X-Fi.

besides, with what I do, the more ASIO channels the better

the LEDs will help when it comes to setup, and in answer to the EMI interference, when you have a few powerful speakers hooked up pumping out dance music and it suddenly crackles from EMI, its quite noticeable.

given what happened a couple weeks ago, this will be my primary output card as soon as I can get one.

 

are you going to use it in your media server ? You better check if the linux drivers (if there are any) are good

 

no, I use the beast for the DJ work (also gets comp modding some attention when people ask about it)

 

Nope, it's just the design of the EMI shielding.

A combination of long days and being sick as a dog yesterday makes Bindi easily confused I've seen so many products and so many names now my heads about to pop.

 

It's a good job you didn't see the bunnies last night... something else might have popped

 

roffles. I can only assume you mean my blood pressure.

 

ahhh it's 10 am in tapei , right ? That's why you guys are posting. Im usually all alone at this time of the night (joke all you want about the double meaning of the last sentence)

 

As long as they invade Creative's turf, I'm game

 

I think the 'non-professional multi i/o' soundcards (onboard or outboard) have really no need for improvement. All have 5.1 tor 7.1 outputs and dedicated digital out in coax or optical way. Soundwise there is also no need to improve on. Especialy if you use the optical/coaxial out running to a good dedicated suround amplifier with some good speakers.

All the ratio cliams and goldplates outputs are needless (crap really) if and when connected to some cheap plastic pc suround sets. And i think ALL are crap. (but that is personal)

I could go on about comparing a 20 gram soundcart to a 25kilo dedicated amplifier and 20gram plastic speakers agains 45kilo speakers. But i wont...

 

there must be competition in the sound card market against Creative and the opponent has arrived...... ASUS!!!!!!

 

I want to see a company build a super sound card that could handlebetween 9.1 to 15.1 surround sound you know closer to an actual theater

 

Anyone has any info on what is gona be the price of the two cards and when they are gona put it out in the market. I am building a new system right now and I don't want to put another Creative Sound Card in there. There Drivers are horrible when it comes to VISTA.