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What makes the Xonar D2 different from most other popular boards!

Introduction

First announced and seen at CeBit 2007 the Xonar D2 has been in development for some time now, and its finally come to the market!  But is it really enough to stand up against most other soundboards, and also!  Why would you choose to purchase this soundcard when most motherboards come with onboard sound!

Asus are well known for their long line of popular and great quality motherboard as well as other PC components but can they really pull it off with this sound card!  Find out more with our full review inside!

To begin with the sleek and sexy design of the Xonar black metal case is awesome!  It would be a perfect tool for any case modder building a pc which looks nice inside and out!  With a speaker design cut into the top it really is quite an impressive piece of work and I haven’t started with what it sounds like yet! When Asus announced this project we were all curious with what the results would be especially with Creative being a main competitor!  But asus aren’t messing around the card looks and feels like it means business!

Upon opening the Xonar D2 box you are greeted with a wealth of additions bundled inside the box!  You are given Three! Stereo mini jacks to twin phono to connect the analogue out.  Also an optical cable adapter as the card utilizes S/PSIF with most audio outs!  Other goodies included a MIDI bracket and adaptor cable, 4 3.5mm RCA cables and of course the start guides and manual! 

A heap of software also comes included you are given, Power DVD 7 DVD player, which you can use to achieve full results from this card while watching your favourite DVDs!  Ableton Live 6 is added also along with 'Valuable Cakewalk' which provides you with Sonar, Dimension, and Project 5 sound tools!  It would have been nice to have some kind of audio mixing too!  But Asus have been more than generous with this bundle!

Standard options and effects are added by Dolby surround in the XONAR D2 audio centre, it comes mixed with a vast and interesting collection of effects to enhance your sound quality however you want!  Even though this is added on most budget cards no card would be good without this kind of content!  It can also achieve 7.1 analogue out with the 7.1 virtual speaker shifter!  For music makers and developers it offers great ASIO support, this will allow the card to provide a quick and accurate responsiveness for music applications!  I mean what’s worse than off-timing music!