Asus Xonar D2 Expert Reviews

Who'd have thunk it? Long considered a dead zone, soundcards are making a resurgence. Driven by an outcry for audio that doesn't sound like a box of snap, crackle, pop every time you access your USB ports, manufacturers are releasing new soundcards ...

Cool LED color-coded ports

Only EAX 2.0 support

We love the card's color-coded LEDs, which let you easily identify the green or red plug. It's definitely easier than squinting to find tiny colored stickers. We were also impressed by the Xonar's high frame rates in our gaming tests, despite its lack ...

It seems like only yesterday when the discrete sound card market appeared to be more or less dead, strangled by a combination of Creative Labs' dominance of the market coupled with ever-improving on-board audio solutions.

With competition in the discrete audio market hotting up considerably in recent times, ASUS have certain picked a challenging period to embark upon a sound card project of their own.  Thankfully, the Xonar D2 has turned out to be a pretty solid ...

We look at what could finally be the sound card to knock Creative off their high horse - ASUS' Xonar D2 fully tested!

To summarise, ASUS has entered the arena of PC audio with an impressive feature laden product that tries to cover a very wide spectrum of audio from recording/mastering, to surround media, to games; which is no mean feat considering the prices of even ...

Sound cards are an essential piece of equipment for the die-hard, extreme gamer. It's all about High Definition sound quality when it comes to playing games. Thanks to Asus, we'll be having some fun with the Asus Xonar D2 sound card. What does the ...

Best known for its motherboards and graphic cards, Asus has now ventured into unknown territory with its first sound card. Sound has become increasingly important to games and PCs employed as home entertainment centres, and companies like Creative ...

There's a wide range of surround options available, including up to 7.1 analogue out, Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker (pseudo-surround from stereo speakers), DTS Connect, and DTS Interactive. The card responded well to both ...

Great audio, but gaming ability hinges on the success of Dolby and DTS

On paper, and from our tests, the Xonar is very capable and the sound signal is as clear as the specifications suggest. However, its usefulness revolves around how important you consider EAX. Asus has a point in that only a handful of titles support ...

The market for discrete sound cards was looking terminal a few years ago, but Creative's X-Fi series, with EAX 5 and a 24-bit Crystalizer enhancement...

For the audiophile, Asus's Xonar D2 has the edge over Creative's X-Fi. However, its effectiveness for games revolves primarily around whether Dolby Digital and DTS Connect become common standards. At the moment, even though ALchemy is very much a work ...

Something feels very, very wrong about acclaiming a sound card for its looks. Isn't that like praising a mouse for its sonic properties, or a power supply for its framerates? No doubt about it though, the Xonar is one fine-looking piece of audio kit.

Sounds greater, Looks better, Kills DRM dead

Silly money, broken in Vista

Over-priced, EAX- and Vista-hobbled, but otherwise it's a shock X-Fi beater

These days, every motherboard has integrated audio, and usually a decent surround chipset. So why would you buy a sound card? This is the question Asus' Xonar D2 must answer, especially as it costs well over ?100. Possible responses include better ...

Great audio, but gaming ability hinges on the success of Dolby and DTS

Asus takes on Creative with this well featured quality sound card.

If you're after a basic home theatre card, there are cheaper options that give decent results, such as the Aureon 7.1 PCI previously reviewed. Similarly, I wouldn't recommend the card for gaming since with only EAX 2, it offers nothing that any other ...