ASUSXONAR SE 5.1 Channel 192kHz/24-bit Hi-Res 116dB SNR PCIe Gaming Sound Card with Windows 10 compatibility

I initiated purchase of a PCI sound card for one reason only: Like most onboard sound cards, the one on my ASUS P8Z77V-LX motherboard generates an annoying "POP" on PC boot that is completely out of character with an otherwise very refined system.The ASUS DG card is inexpensive and supports a front panel connection, so I ordered one.The first one was faulty (not detected in any PCI slot despite care taken to observe anti-static precautions) and replaced without quibble by Amazon. The second one installed flawlessly, first time, having of course first disabled the onboard soundcard via the BIOS utility.My pleasant surprise has been the staggering difference in sound quality both compared to the onboard sound card ("wooden") and also a Creative Soundblaster Audigy card (nothing special) that I used until recently in another PC, in the same location, with the same Creative 5.1 amplifier and speakers. Sure, it is not a patch on high end HiFI kit, but music is surprisingly, well, musical - and enjoyable for it. 5.1 imaging from true surround sound source is also more precise than with the other cards.Very happy.

I bought this card because the sound on my motherboard packed up. I picked this one as all my other gear is Asus.It was easy to install on a spare pci slot and I connected the front panel HD audio panel.The drivers were easy to install on my dual booted XP and Windows 7 64. Just install the card and boot up. Just make sure you disable the on board sound in bios and uninstall all the sound drivers before installation.I was amazed at the power of output and the quality. Through headphones you can simulate 7.1 surround sound and Dolby surround. There are many adjustments you can make in the console.The sound quality is far superior to any on board sound.I can now confirm that this card works fine with Windows 10.

I bought this - being in need of a sound card and this has some ecxellent reviews - all five stars as I can see. But it does have a small problem, now I would expect, old fool that I am, that the default output from a sound card would be switched, depending upon the connected outputs, but no, its not. Now when you read all these 5 star reviews please note they are invariably from those who listen via headphones, and that dear readers is the default setting. If you want your speakers to give you the benefit of your new toy you are going to manually switch from headphone to speaker system every time you switch on or even wake up. Its not the greatest chore in the world you merely merely end up with the Xonar short cut pinned. I did contact Asus and had a bit of a gripe, and was told to get used to it cos thats the way it worked. Now then having got that off my chest let me say that this is a lovely piece of kit the sound is gorgeous both with speakers and headphones, I found it easy to load and set up, apart of course, from its default setting. The job it does is worthy of the 5 stars thrown at it willy nilly, but I don't like the way it does it; so no -I'm not giving it 5 starsMany months have past and at last I've discovered the secret. Took it off the computer; removed the software; refitted but ignored the instructions and used no internal connections -so no front panel and merely reloaded the driver, voila a miracle the sound card now will only operate on the speakers leaving the phones to use the motherboard via the front panel, and it still mutes the card.

You cannot go wrong with this budget sound card. Excellent quality sound, easy to install - the optional low profile bracket is a great addition. Installed this on a Win XP PC I use for running older programs and games. No problems at all. Plus, as with all Asus sound cards, it works flawlessly with Linux. The driver and software installed without issue.The headphone amp is a bonus and the quality though a high end pair of 'phones is excellent.Why pay more? This does all you need for a very sensible price

This sound card is the PCI (older slot) version of the Xonar DGX (PCI-E). As a result, the features are essentially the same, as is performance (bandwidth on PCI shouldn't be an issue).I encountered an issue with the card which I resolved through painfully slow means.The issue was the card being detected as a multimedia sound device (IIRC) via Device Manager but the drivers failing to detect the card. I tried both older and newer versions of the official drivers. Uni's custom drivers also failed to detect the card. Onboard was turned off (this is done via BIOS/UEFI > onboard devices config > realtek/onboard sound disabled) yet the issue remained. Eventually I found the culprit for my problem: Via Device Manager go down to "Sound, video and game controllers" and check if you have AMD's or nVidia's High Definition Audio Device device installed. If it is there proceed to disable it and reboot. Drivers should install fine after that... if you've got the same issue.Many sources suggested reflashing it's eeprom due to corrupted firmware however the hardware/vendor IDs matched so suggestion is for a completely different problem.The card is good value for its cost however, 3 stars for having to piss about with Device Manager. My Xonar DGX never required me to disable HD Audio Devices and was perplexed that I had to do it at all.

I bought this mainly because i wanted to use stereo mix for recording audio from the pc. I did have on-board sound but that got damaged by static when i plugged in my amplifier. Amplifier is now bonded to the pc. I had other cards but had problems wih them. An old creative audigy ls that didnt have stereo mix on win 7 64 bit & an Aureon Terratec 7.1 space. The latter card is a a great card but the stereo mix level on mine was almost non existent.. I was pleasantly surprised by the audio quality & signal to noise ratio. Glad i bought this.