Goodbye X-Fi, Hello Xonar.

MadMan007 · Jul 2, 2007

$200 is the MSRP iirc.

It's nice to see some competition to Creative but tbh this is probably just a stock or maybe semi-customized Cmedia chip. Unless they really went all out with a custom chip to handle a lot more voices it probably won't have the sound processing power of an X-Fi, and even then might still not have the gaming abilities of an X-Fi and be limited to EAX 2.0. For a semi-gaming type of card without 'the best' gaming abilities I'd probably pick an Auzentech they use top class components.

The Auzentech X-fi based card looks more interesting to me for around the same price. Afaik it won't be made in PCIe 1x though :-/

or at least not for a long time.

The_Jizzler · Jul 2, 2007

"We got the know that Xonar D2 series is using ADI (Analog Devices Inc.) sound chip and ASUS is the exclusive vendor currently. More details later."

are these some rockin new sound chip?

MadMan007 · Jul 3, 2007

Oops I missed that. Who knows if it's new? We'll find out in reviews. Surely it leverages some of ADI's previous designs, but with the caveat of 'true final judgment needs real product reviews' unless something crazy is revealed I still stand by my previous statement about X-fi's for gaming and Auzentechs for high-quality audio use. Perhaps the Asus will be on par with the Auzentechs but Creative stlil owns the gaming market, for good or bad.

AngelfireUk83 · Jul 4, 2007

There is supposed to be a sound card from ASUS that uses the 1x PCI-E ports on todays motherboards but nothing new yet about. Also there's some company doing ethernet cards as well to use the same port anyways it's looks very sleek and stylish I'll be holding back then until i find out the price.

Hope it's got good support from ASUS and dosn't have problems with chipset compatibility.

Jod · Aug 1, 2007

AFAIK, there's no onboard hardware DSP, right? That means it will never replace an X-Fi, Audigy, etc. EAX enabled games like BF, F.E.A.R., and G.R.A.W. 2 will take a nasty little performance hit and you'll be missing out on all the little nuances that come from a good EAX game.

Auzentech will have its X-Fi + good opamp/dac/etc and will hopefully finish our quest for good audio and a gaming chip.

joesaiditstrue · Aug 2, 2007

price is supposed to be $179.99 USD, according to the inquirer

Viol8ted · Aug 16, 2007

Sweet looking. I might hold out as I was looking at the x-fi gammer pro card.

Sir Barton · Aug 16, 2007

maxio098ui said:
it's not the first card with a emi shielding i think that was the razer barracuda and that card was already 189$

AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1 HiFi is the first card to use EMI shielding. Too bad they dont sell it here in the States...its one awesome card. Has real RCA outs, SPDIF, and upgradeable opamps.

MadMatt2600 · Aug 17, 2007

Any word on when the Xonar comes out. I've been watching this thing since June.

AngelfireUk83 · Aug 17, 2007

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=11

There already out here in the UK £118 about £125 with delivery for inland Uk I am expecting Creative to maybe drop prices on it's X-FI if this Xonar takes flight.

vixro · Aug 20, 2007

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=xonar&um=1&sa=N&tab=wf

MadMatt2600 · Aug 28, 2007

I am so lovin it. I just finished installing it and am breathless. Forget class tomorrow all I wanna do is play games and listen to music. I never thought a sound card could make this big of a difference. :clap:

golfking222 · Aug 28, 2007

Looks good, but sadly there are so many games that run better or smoother while on an X-Fi just because of Creative's control of the sound card market. Kind of makes me angry when most games will work fine with either ATI or Nvidia or even some other video card, while games like Battlefield 2 don't let set the sound renderer to hardware rather than software with my Razer AC-1.

Termitenator · Aug 28, 2007

golfking222 said:
while games like Battlefield 2 don't let set the sound renderer to hardware rather than software with my Razer AC-1.

You are not getting it right. If there WAS HARDWARE that could process EAX HD on your sound card the game would allow it, the problem is Razer AC-1 has no such hardware. Neither does Xonar.

Creative is the only company that seems to care about hardware audio accelaration. Especially under Vista, where this has been scrapped by default.

Fortunately there is OpenAL. If a games uses OpenAL all the effects can be rendered in audio hardware under Vista - provided there is such hardware.

I have to say I like Xonar LEDs in the jack out- and inputs
but why they dropped ball on EAX HD is beyond me. If a little known company Auzentech could licence EAX HD from Creative - why was that too hard for Asus?

Btw. the slides put together on vr-zone are rather primitive propaganda. I'd rather trust the INQ - if I had to trust sb's else ears anyway.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41326

phantasm · Aug 28, 2007

Looks nice. I love the lighted jacks. Although i'm partial to my X-Fi Fatality. :beer:

>HyperlogiK< · Aug 28, 2007

Termitenator said:
why they dropped ball on EAX HD is beyond me.

QFT, this is a nice card for media setups, but for serious gamers I think the X-Fi is still the only option.

germanjulian · Aug 28, 2007

nice card... so any issues under Vista... might get one since my X-Fi inputs are already dodgy and I loose audio and I need to wiggle my cables sometimes (sight)

germanjulian · Aug 29, 2007

I will get it tomorrow...

reboot · Aug 30, 2007

when is the pci-e model out?

Is the pci-e better then the pci in any way?

germanjulian · Aug 31, 2007

god knows but its the first pci-e ever soundcard... i would wait until all the problems have been sorted out

Goodbye X-Fi, Hello Xonar.

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