ASUS Xonar DG

Advantages: Very high quality sound
Price
Equalizer in the drivers
Connector for the front panel of the system unit

Disadvantages: Sometimes it does not automatically detect the connection of headphones on the front panel (can be switched manually through its own software)

Comment: It was before this Creative SB Live! 5.1, the sound is good, but ASUS Xonar is much better and cleaner, in many music tracks, there were sounds that were previously unheard, or heard with distortion.
The driver immediately downloaded from the ASUS website, there were no problems with installing under Win7 x64.
The ideal sound card for little money (took for 1170r.)

Advantages: Price
Sound
Form factor
this is ASUS))

Disadvantages: Curved native drivers

Comment: I use this card for sound recording for about two years. I write vocals, guitars, synthesizers. Record is clean, no noise, noise, clicks or delays. This became possible after installing the UNi Xonar 1794 v1.41 driver in which the ASIO part of the Xonar D2 card driver is embedded. If anyone is interested, in PM I will describe the process in more detail. The result is messing with the drivers - great sound for 3 kopecks!

Advantages: For me, the main advantage is the availability of optical output, especially for such a small price.
Sound quality with acoustics Logitech z906 quite satisfied.

Disadvantages: Driver curves! Even with the latest ones downloaded from the site of the asus, the system periodically began to issue a blue screen of death.

Comment: After installing the ASUS Xonar DG sound card, blue screens periodically began to appear, an hour or two after the operating system was loaded. Error codes were different: REFERENCE_BY_POINTER, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Up to this point, everything works gorgeous, the sound is transmitted through optics and by analogy. The latest drivers from the asus site, the BIOS updated to the latest version, the built-in realtek sound in the BIOS has been disabled.
The problem was solved by third-party UNi drivers for the entire Xonar line. Everything works smoothly with them, the quality and functionality is the same. http://brainbit.wordpress.com/category/uni-xonar/

Advantages: Price. Convenience.

Disadvantages: For my purposes, no

Comment: I chose a card to connect the receiver to the computer. Because Res old (Onkyo 601) HDMI ports are not there. Therefore, I decided that it would be optimal to connect via optics. This card has a Toslink connector. Kupilkabel for 1700 rubles (10 meters), without any problems connected res, which is located on the other side of the room. In general, I got what I wanted. Rece is set to automatically recognize the incoming signal. Everything works fabulously. If you mess up the same thing - buy boldly.

Advantages: I purchased this card due to the fact that there is really no sound on the regular realtek, there is no sound at all: even adjust the equalizer, volume though, something else - it sounds disgusting anyway.
So: I took this card instead of the “empty” realtek and turned out to be more than satisfied with my purchase:
The acoustics on the Asus-e began to play completely differently: the sound became bright, rich, clear, crumbly and at the same time powerful, all frequencies appeared.
-Bass became much stronger, clearer, the sub played as it should.
- And, finally, the parameter relating directly to the settings, I was also very pleased, because there is a mass of them, starting from the equalizer and ending with the frequency of channel separation, setting the type of speakers, surround sound modes, etc., the extra volume is also an interesting fact. The card is excellent: you can set everything as you want, as a real gourmet can demand, which is also worth a lot. It has everything you need to listen to as well as music, as well as movies and games, and everything is in excellent quality and with excellent power, I am very pleased.
And again: I do not agree with the above comment that there is no particular difference between the sound of the embedded realtek card and the Asus xonar card; There is a difference, and it is huge, realtek is not worth it.

PS: "Asusovtsy" great, their quality is always on top. Honestly, I was even somewhat surprised, did not expect such an effect, because the price seemed to me painfully low, but I was very pleasantly pleased. Half a year has passed, no problems and bickering, everything works.

Disadvantages: Of the shortcomings should be noted curves of firewood, setting which, you understand that this is a complete "bullshit", and the card really does not work with them. It is not clear why to give a bundled semi-working driver. In general, this with sound cards often happens, which is strange.
Well, therefore, what I would advise in the first place to make those who buy this card is to download the driver from the official asus website, and then complete ok and no problems. This is exactly what I did, after which I just enjoy listening.

Comment: The conclusion is: an excellent, high-quality sound card, allowing you to enjoy sound effects in full, and even for such I will not be afraid of the word "ridiculous" price, because the quality is excellent. Take, you will not regret. And if you have good acoustics, then triple well.

Advantages: great sound, the satellites of the microlab x15 satellites sounded completely different, (previously used integrated realtek), a huge number of different settings, surprised bass appeared, the subwoofer is at zero (only from -6 to 6 units), and the walls are already vibrating. as for software, everything is simple and intuitive, there is official support for Win7

Disadvantages: driver curves on the boot disk, it is better to immediately download from off.sayta.

Comment: An excellent replacement for integrated cards, on inexpensive audio systems, there is immediately a significant difference in sound, the sound becomes cleaner, the satellites come to life, extraneous noise and interference disappear, and the bass becomes softer and at the same time more powerful, so the card is definitely worth the money.

Advantages: + The sound is much better (compare with the built-in): Softer, deeper, clearer, more voluminous, more saturated. It used to be somehow flat.
+ In the game, I hear where someone fumbles, top left, right, and I can now determine at what distance. And if your headphones are well isolate external sounds and if you put the sound a little louder, you can completely immerse yourself in the game (f. Dolby HeadPhone. The sound is good even on the Genius G500V, and on the Sennheiser CX 300-II there is nothing to say)
+ Headphone amplifier for the front panel (I have 32 Ohms, as with others I do not know)
+ Normal software off. site asus for Win7 (32bit). All you need is there.
+ SVEN 5.1 acoustics has played in a new way, now I look at films where it is more interesting. Deep bass, "extended", comes not from one place, but throughout the room at once.
+ Fun voice changing feature. All the fun :-) (in order for f. To work, you need to add the program to the list. The list will immediately display skype and MSN Messager and select the desired type of change: Female, Male, Cartoon, MONSTER)
+ f. cleaning voices in games (at first did not understand why the voices of players in COD6 began to clearly hear ... then I remembered that I put a checkbox in front of this f. :-))
+ BOX !!! Sound card in the BOX !!! + bar for low profile systemists.
+ YEAR warranty.

Disadvantages: - The first 10-15 minutes of stinks by the Chinese, then nothing, it is airing and everything is fine.
- I can not make sound from the front panel on Ubuntu, no off. drivers for linux

Comment: For an ordinary PC user who doesn’t like the built-in PC, a very good replacement option. It justifies its price.

Advantages: 1 Excellent value for money.
2 Good software Xonar Audio Center with convenient management of a bunch of DSP effects. Technology Dolby Headphone.
3 Optical S / PDIF and headphone amplifier.
4 Low profile bar included.

Disadvantages: 1 The site claims support for the ASIO sound card driver, but could not get it to work. Most likely the new version of the drivers will fix this.

Comment: ASUS started producing sound cards of the Xonar series from expensive models, and finally Xonar came to a completely low-end segment. I have always liked the Xonar series because new models are obtained not just by cloning, as happens with Creative, and ASUS adds its own zest to each new model. For the D1, it was the top-end Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC on the front channel, for the DS it was a replaceable op amp. So DG got its "flavor" in the form of a headphone amplifier, it is of course simple and will interest only those who just like to listen to music louder, but still the presence of even such an amplifier in a budget product, but like the release TOSLINK make DG a unique offer.
As for the sound quality, DG is undoubtedly better than embedded cards, it is better for my taste and of its competitors from Creative in the form of Audigy SE and Xtreme Audio, but naturally it does not reach the older Xonar models.
Xonar DG is an excellent choice for replacing integrated sound, can also be used in HTPC (low profile bar included). The card fully justifies its price.

Advantages: First of all, this is of course the sound quality!
price, low profile system level bar, optics, headphone amplifier with high impedance

Disadvantages: until revealed

Comment: The detail of the sound, after six months of using the built-in sound, is simply amazing! Excellent otigryvaet hf, and the bass is very saturated. For the price it’s just the best option for music / movies / games.

Advantages: The sound is very good, detailed high frequencies, rich bass, the difference with the built-in sound can be heard even on inexpensive headphones.
Included is a bar for low profile systemists.
Very good drivers, used to use the sound card sb0400, there the drivers included in the kit were curves and when setting the volume above the average there was quite a strong noise, here everything is perfectly clean in this regard.

Disadvantages: Despite the fact that the specifications indicate that you can listen to music on headphones 32-150 Ohm, on high-impedance headphones (64 ohms or more) you do not listen to music at full volume.
The DRV601 amplifier chip is designed for low-impedance headphones.

Comment: I think that such a sound card is great for acoustics up to $ 250-300.