Details and Specifications
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Let’s take a look at the specifications for the Xonar U7, shall we? They are very good for and audio device, but just about what you’d expect for an external device free from the electrically noisy environment inside your computer.
Cut ‘n paste from ASUS’s website:
USB cable x 1. Driver CD x 1. User manual x 1. OS Compatibility. ASUS Xonar U7 review test and benchmarks. The U7 offers 24-bit/192KHz recording and playback with 114dB SNR, S/PDIF output, 7.1. Jan 15, 2014 For those interested, the Xonar U7 does work on OSX – we tested with a Mac Pro Desktop with dual Xeon’s and 64GB of memory. We were able to enjoy 24 bit 192khz high definition audio tracks. Jul 12, 2019 Asus Xonar U7 USB2. Oh, we liked them, too. It is loaded with features, offering 7. But, you can use it with any headset of your choice. This means Asus Xonar U7 get both a dedicated headphone amp and microphone input, in a nice external USB powered package with some impressive specifications. The U7 also has a knob. ASUS XONAR U7 MKII USB. Xonar U7 engineering overcomes the space and power supply limitations of other external USB-based audio devices to offer precise and immersive 7.1-channel surround. Sound processing uses 192kHz/24-bit fidelity for true high definition output, maintaining consistent quality across all surround channels.
First off, this is fairly impressive specifications for a sound card powered off of 5 volts, 500mw of USB power. Now that I think about it, the U7 has specifications that are better than a lot of discreet enthusiast sound cards. Huh.
Aug 08, 2016 Just installed the new Windows 10 update (1607 14393.10) and my Xonar U7 isn't recognized anymore. Tried reinstalling drivers but the Xonar software says it 'can't find any device.' Maybe a driver update will come soon but just checking if anyone else has the same problem and/or has a workaround.EDIT. Well I got it working by plugging it into an external USB hub.
Same as it ever was, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is the primary metric for audio measurement. It doesn’t mean something will sound good, but a good indicator of overall sound quality. The Xonar U7 uses a Cirrus Logic CS4398 2-channel DAC for the headphone output that boasts a meaty 114dB of SNR, which after listening to it, I tend to believe the U7 is achieving close to that number. The other important measurement is the THD+N, which is basically everything else that comes out of the circuits other than what went into it. At 0.0006% THD+N, the Xonar U7 is very clean. A well-trained human ear can discern THD down to about 0.005%, so the Xonar U7 is well below what few humans can hear.
No specification I could find on the microphone analog-to-digital converter, short of tearing it apart (for science), but testing proved the U7 also has high quality ADC.
Connecting up the Xonar U7 requires a free USB port. Do try to use a USB 2.0 port or above. The USB 1.1 is rumored to not work so well. There are two types of USB for audio, regular and asynchronous, with the latter being the most preferred type for audio. Since ASUS didn’t make any noise in the fact chit about asynchronous USB with the U7, I can assume that it uses regular USB. Of course it’s not that easy, there’s also USB Audio Class 2, which the Xonar U7 most certainly is, and guarantees audio up to 32-bits/384KHz. Hey, keep your eyes open, and don’t click away to porn.
Anyway, at the heart of the the Xonar U7 beats a C-Media 6632A Sound Processor. This is not the average USB audio chip that we typically find in headsets, or even sound cards that support the driverless USB Audio Class 1. The 6632A supports USB Audio Class 2, which means it does need a driver, but it also means it has a good bit more horsepower for DSP effects, 7.1 channel surround, 24bit/192KHz sampling rates, and specifications on all things audio are much tighter. This is a good thing.
With the added horsepower of the 6632A DSP, the Dolby Home Theatre v4 suite of technologies is supported. These aim to solve some ‘common’ problems with audio such as encoding stereo sources to surround sound, normalizing volumes, and increasing intelligibility of the voice range. It reminds me of Creative’s Crystallizer technology from years ago. This also brings up a whole articles’ worth of HRTF, Dolby versus DTS, and other home theatre topics, but I’ll concede to not paying too much attention in the age of Netflix and Youtube where sound quality is just about good enough for most folks. This is what Dolby is trying to fix. It is my opinion that adding algorithms on the output side of audio is a noble fight, but not the best way to go about it. Using computing power to fix audio problems during decoding will just never be as good as fixing audio quality during recoding and mixing. Part of the problem is that the bit rates for surround sound is pretty low, 24-bit/48KHz for DVD, and for streaming, bitrates for audio can be much, much lower.
I want to mention nVidia’s well loved SoundStorm on the nForce2 chipset. It could do DDL encoding on the fly, a feature that was novel at the time (2002-ish), and since it was included with the chipset, very inexpensive. It was a killer feature. Then nVidia killed it because the licensing fees were becoming too expensive. Yes, the price of success. Nowadays, you’re hit or miss for surround encoding, some on-board audio chips support it, and some discreet audio cards support it. It depends on who got the best deal for the algorithms from Dolby. Well, good news everyone, the Xonar U7 does support DDL.
One feature that isn’t listed is the headphone amplifier. The amplifier has adjustable gain settings (see the Driver section) that will help boost the volume of low sensitivity headphones. The AKG K701 headphones, for example, are around 62 Ohm at 1KHz, which means they are a little less loud than other headphones at the same level. Most headphones and headsets are around 32 Ohm, and of course, most home speakers are around 8 Ohm. The U7 will handle headphones up to 150 Ohms.
Generic postscript printer driver mac os x 10 13 download. In conclusion, the Xonar U7 are very well specified and already much better than what you’d get with on-board sound. The only downside I can find is the lack of a 6.3mm (¼”) headphone output jack. Let’s move on to the photos.
Now we get to talk about drivers, oh yes. I’ve been running Windows Server 2008 R2 as my desktop OS for many years now. My day job has me using WS2K8 all day, so it’s a natural choice for my home workstation. It hasn’t proven to be a problem only with rare exception of some Asus products, and the Xonar U7 is one of them. After a short Google-fu and hacking of dll’s, the freshly downloaded drivers installed without any problem.
I mentioned earlier in the Specifications section that the Xonar U7 is a USB Audio Class 2 sound card. Password protect usb drive mac os x. Most USB sound devices are plug-n-play, no driver needed. This is the USB Audio Class 1 device specification. But if you want more features from your audio device, thou must install drivers for USB Audio Class 2 specs.
There are two systray icons, one for the U7 and another for the Dolby HTv4 effects.
The Xonar U7 comes with a lot of driver, both C-Media drivers, Xear effects, and the Dolby HTv4 drivers. https://newcities774.weebly.com/lexmark-x1100-driver-mac-os-x-107.html.
The U7 control panel is very clean and simple, and the orange and black color scheme is pleasing. I like the simplicity, even if it feels a little too simple. It took a while to find where certain settings were, like sample rate and headphone gain settings, but easy to change when I did find them.
Interesting to note that ASUS uses dB to express volume level. This example shows a comfortable listening level. 0 decibels would be full power, which I get to in the listening page ahead, but the U7 can play quite loud.
Also, the Mic-in settings, probably most important if you're gaming with a headset.
For the microphone input, decibels are also used, but it represents gain on the signal coming from the microphone, which in this case is about 1,000. This setting was the best in terms of volume for in-game and recording using the ASUS Orion Pro headset.
The U7 control panel has extra settings that the Dolby v4 control panel doesn't have, but are similar. Music, movie, and several game modes accessed through the top bar, along with the ASIO control panel applet. Honestly, the inclusion of ASIO surprised me, but it ensures the Xonar U7 is a capable workhorse.
Right-mouse clicking gets you into more settings, such as the Xear effects, and a link to the Dolby control panel. Since I'm using headphones, the gain settings page is where it's at.
Asus Xonar U7 Usb Sound Card
The Dolby control panel is similar, simplicity, until you find the detail pages.
From here the Dolby v4 gives you access to all the new software features, including Volume Leveler, Dialogue Enhancer, and Surround Virtualizer (Dolby Headphone). Each of the presets have their own equalizer settings, and you can create custom profiles. I almost always listen with equalizer off, but I did play around with it for you, dear reader. In case you're wondering, yes, Dolby Headphone is still present under the Surround Virtualizer. It's a bit odd to have surround virtualization with real in-room speakers (Built-in Speakers), since that's what it mimics, the sound of a room.
Xonar U7 Driver
The Dolby systray icon has a quick mode, too. Nice.
Asus Xonar U7 Mac Os X Drivers
So there we have it. The U7's control panel is fully featured, but the Dolby HTv4 control panel manages to simplify functions even more and better. The downside is that since they're not bound together in a single applet, it's easy to get confused as to which effect is working and where. Minor things, really, but worth a note. Windows' own control panel actually manages to contain all the features and effects of both panels, albeit without all the eyecandy.
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The big thing is that the drivers were very stable, nary a crash anywhere, and were always snappy loading up. All this build-up, let's get to how the U7 works in games and listening.
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