Asus Xonar DSK 7.1 PCI Express 1.0 Sound Card

Title : Asus Xonar DSK 7.1 PCI Express 1.0 Sound Card
ASIN : B007PTJNBQ
Description : ASUS XONAR DSX PCIE 10 RET 90YAA0P00UAN0BZ Components Sound Cards
Features :

• Interface Type:PCI Express x1
• Form Factor:Internal
• Height:6.44 cm
• Weight:560 g
• Depth:16.764 cm

List Price : £41.99
Price : £39.96
Saved Price : £2.03

category: Products
brand: ASUS
Item Page Detail URL : link
Rating : 5.0
Review : Great budget sound card
This card replaced a Terratec DMX Fire, which was at its time considered an audiophile audio card as I did not have any free PCI slots after my computer upgrade. The installation was a breeze in Windows 7 64 bit edition, if took the advice of downloading the drivers directly from Asus instead of using the packaged CD.

Generally what sets the audio cards from Asus apart from onboard sound and the current offerings from Creative is the use of very high quality analogue/digital converters and opamps. While the Xonar DX or D2 have better DA-converters at 118 dB instead of 108 dB, it is doubtful that in most application one can hear a difference as the signal-to-noise ratio of CDs due to their quantization error is only 96.3 dB. Other difference to the Xonar DX is that only the front panel connector has a headphone amplifier, thus the back panel connectors are only really useful if they are connected to an Hi-Fi amplifier or active speakers.

Regarding the sound, I...