Anyone that tells you one sound card is as good as another doesn’t know what they are talking about. A sound card how ever is the ideal gimmick item if you were going to make a shoddy product and try to get big bucks for it because a large majority of users wouldn’t notice a difference at first listen. It isn’t until you use a product day in day out for at least a week that you get a feel for it then when you are shown a better or worse product you can pick out the differences. The Asus Xonar D1 PCI 7.1 Sound Card is no gimmick I am very impressed with the amount of effort the people at Asus put into this product and it shows through with the quality software and sound quality it achieves.

I think it is safe to say I don’t have to ask the question I normally do of whether I recommend this product or not. The review speaks for itself if you are in the market for a sound card….scratch that if you don’t have anything over integrated audio you ARE or at  least should be in the market for a high end sound card and my personal suggestion would be one of the Xonar series cards from Asus.

Pros:

• Price
• Quality
• Software
• Front Panel Input
• HDMI Compatible
• Virtual 7.1
• Virtual Room Size and Environment Effects
• Low Profile Adapter
• Gold Plated Connectors

Cons:

• I Would Personally Wish it had a Front Panel  Drive Bay Panel Like Higher End X-fi Products.