ASUS Xonar AE

Advantages: Headphone sound, 7: 1, amplifier, price, software, appearance

Disadvantages: Not yet found

Comment: If you are new to the sound card market and choose the first purchase, this is a review for you, because I myself was just recently like you. I was lucky to buy this sound card and I have never regretted it. If you have good headphones, then you need to purchase a sound card, then we will start from this model. The difference with the installation really feels, despite the fact that my mother seems to have a good audio chip, which Gigabyte is positioning as hi-res. But this chip is far from the sound card. He swung my 65 ohm Cloud Alpha (as I thought), but with this sound card I discovered their new horizons. The sound is cleaner, wider and sharper. But it is clear to the fool that building is about nothing. What I liked more: 7: 1 in games when using headphones. Yes, this is not a full-fledged seven-channel sound, but positioning is ten times better. The same Watch Dogs, Origins began to play for me with new colors. The main thing is not to use the same mode everywhere, maybe not everyone will like to crawl into the software every time, switch from gaming to music and back, but believe me, it's worth it. The difference will be heard even by the deaf. By the way, the sound recording is excellent, and in the discord or Skype it will be heard just fine. In general, I can recommend this card for purchase, and if you read a review with the question "discrete or stay on the insert", then the answer is discrete. But if you do not have the extra 4 thousand, you can dig up, limiting the use of good wood, such as Dolby access, it also pumps through the sound

Advantages: Sound, the new panel driver Sonic Studio, does not fonit, does not click the relay.
Cinema, music, games on 5.1, great. Many ready-made profiles.

Disadvantages: No connection on the front panel, price.

Comment: Moved from Asus XONAR D1 to AE. (There is no PCI in the new motherboard)
Do not lose channels like on D1, new drivers on the site under Windows 10.

Advantages: It is a fairly new DAC company ESS ES9023, such even in the famous Chinese store can be found only on very expensive devices. The sound quality gives the card very decent for its price, I liked the program for setting up the sound on a floppy disk.

Disadvantages: all the minor flaws, some kind of quiet clicks are audible when switching modes and even when switching from the modes, headphones-speakers can hang, so it's better to initially listen to one thing.

Comment: I had a built-in Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec card, and the mid-priced headphones I purchased at 16 did not sound at all in it, the lengthy agony of finding a decent, inexpensive solution led me to this card, and its purchase did not disappoint me. I will give some tips on setting up. I have a mother ASRock Z97 OC Formula, in BIOS I have a car mode selected by the sound card, so I didn’t change anything if you don’t have a car, then you need to disable the built-in card in manual mode, then you need to delete all profiles and firewood sound and install new ones; only the ASUS settings should remain in the sound settings profile as in the screenshot http://prntscr.com/grqig9Otherwise, the program for setting up the sound that comes on the disc in the kit will not work. I suffered a little with tuning the sound, but when I tuned it, it's just a fairy tale guys, decent bass decent upper normal midrange volume knob less than half in headphones. I emphasize this is certainly not an audiophile sound, but for its price range is more than worthy. My headphones are A4Tech Bloody M660

Advantages: Simple, good, understandable software.
The sound is really more transparent and crisp than in any Realtek codec. And just a little better than modern embedded gaming solutions.
Excellent positioning in virtual 7.1. What a surprise. This met only a couple of times on the Corsair Void and expensive Plantronics RIG.
The card can make even lousy tweeters play if you delve into the settings.
There are no pisses, clicks, overtones and backgrounds. At the first couple stunned interlocutors in CSGO. Finally he began to hear the real voices of the people and not the bubnez.

Disadvantages: If you are the owner of ASUS Xonar DG, DGX, DSX and DX, then the purchase of this card will be a waste of money. You will not find anything new.
Price.

Comment: The card is suitable for those who have not yet understood or begins that the built-in map is full of "G", those who have the old "SB Live!".
I have Philips SHL3300 / 28 (quite simple and adequate ears) at 32 ohms, it is stated that the card can pump ears up to 150 ohms, i.e. the volume margin should be decent, but something I did not feel at all that. The sound is undoubtedly excellent, but so that the ears howl - no. Even on my old SB Live! 5.1 - there were all sorts of preamps and other functions (even though they are software).
In general, the card suits me, maybe I got such a strange copy, maybe there are some nuances in the drivers or Windows 10 adds its 5 kopecks. I do not know, I will use another month and then I will correct my final opinion, and so far 4 points.

Advantages: sound

Disadvantages: bad friends with win10 and nvidia pascal gtx 1050,60,70,80 video cards
But there is a fix, with it the sound latency did not rise more than 270

Comment: Who pushes sound when multitasking
reinstall the nvidea / amd driver (it is better to leave the version which is updated by windows itself)
1.Disable built-in realteck
2.In your PC's BIOS, disable HPET - High Precision Event Timer, high precision event timer
3. energy saving states C-states, select the value “Disabled”.