PSP Reviews
| Asus Xonar D1 PCI 7.1 Sound Card Review - Testing |
| Written by Munk | ||||||||||||||
Page 3 of 4
For testing we will start off by showing you in video form some of the features of the software. After that we will be seeing how well the card did with gaming, movies, and music. For each section I will be giving a score out of 10 and making a few comparisons to my Creative Fatal1ty Pro Gamer sound card.
Software Walkthrough:
Gaming:
9/10 Even though most game experiences only improve with quality sound, the for front of sound technology is geared toward FPS gaming because no other gaming genres need such a taxing amount of sound rendering to keep up with the fast paced game play. You need to stay on top of your teammates and opponents positions when you are in a fast paced FPS. If you have a poor set of speakers or bad sound card it will be much more difficult to pinpoint where the shots whizzing by your head are coming from. The Creative Fatal1ty has always done an amazing job tracking opponents and team mates but it is time for a new contender and the Xonar d1 did a fantastic job and in my opinion had a much crisper out put then the Fatal1ty. When I switched to headphone mode and tested the fatal1ty headset the Xonars really shined using the echo canceling really brought our crisp precise sounds that the Creative sound card could not achieve.
Movies: 9.5/10 Movies are the number one reason in my opinion to invest in a higher end sound card. When I first used my Creative Fatal1ty to watch a movie it made the experience better by 100 fold. That being said my Creative Sound Card was benched. The Xonar virtual 7.1 experience was incredible the ability to move the virtual speakers in and out as well as where ever I wanted the positioned was impressive. I do regret not being able to test the in a fully 7.1 setting but even my 5.1 system performed very well under the Asus Xonar D1 PCI 7.1 Sound Card’s virtual 7.1 conditions. I am sure a lot has changed for creative since the Fatal1ty X-fi series but this is the only card I had to test against the Xonar so for all intents and purposes the Xonar won hands down. The sounds quality was clean and precise and all of the explosions guns shots and even whispers came out with the most clarity I have ever heard from my pc. When I switched to headphones for the movie both cards performed very well and very pleasing but again the dolby headphone setting and virtual 7.1 rang true again using the Xonar. The Creatives couldn’t keep up when it comes to movies.
Music: 10/10 I used a wide range of genres to test the Xonar and I was impressed with every one. The ability to tweak the virtual room size and echo effects added some amazing listening experience to the listening sessions I enjoyed. I loves all of the concert styled effects but when I switched to directly hi-fi mode the sound was bang on when I switched over to my more quality speaker set the edifier M3300’s I was supremely impressed with the room filling clear sound I enjoyed. Switching to headphones in hi-fi mode was incredible, I went through all of my headphones and IEM’s on my shelf (I have a very extensive collection) and I was impressed every time with the bright trebles and nice bass clarity the Xonar achieves. I consider myself an audiophile so the fact that Xonar uses gold plating for its connectors speaks to my audio soul. Asus has another audio card with specific designs for the audiophile headphone lovers out there, so I cannot wait to try those out. The Xonar is by far the best audio card I have ever used. Let's see the final thought:
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