Asus has established itself as a player in the high rollers' hi-fi lounge with Xonar soundcards like the Xense, D2 and mighty Essence ST. Although still relatively new to the audio game, it can look old timers like Creative and Auzentech in the face without shame.

A long while ago when PCs were still very much something that was relegated to offices, they were able to produce a beep and that was the limit of the aural experience.

With 177 different awards to date for the Xonar line-up, it's time to find out if that figure is going any higher today as we welcome the Xonar DG into our war room.

There seems to be a growing interest in gaming headsets recently. Neoseeker has had a few requests for reviews of such gear in the past few months alone; prior to that we basically had no headset articles! First, we looked at the innovator Psyko 5.1 Surround headset .

Do you really need a discrete sound card? Simple question, and we've taken a look at Asus' new Xonar Xense and DG sound cards to...

After reading some very good reviews of dedicated sound card online, I decided to ditch my mobo integrated sound for this. Unfortunately, I've noticed a much higher noise floor with this card.

Added features

Poor Sound Quality

Asus' Xonar line continues its impressive lineup with the Xonar DG, proving to be an exceptional value at $30. It does a good job providing richer, fuller sound over speakers, but the built-in headphone amp is where this card really excels.

BUY.com sent me a used card (all of the packaging was opened) but I decided to install anyway. Used the included drivers as well as the Win7 drivers from the ASUS website. Two bluescreens later I am returning the product.

The Xonar DG is a remarkably inexpensive half-height PCI sound card, but it isn't cheap and nasty. With 5.1 analogue surround sound, the obligatory optical S/PDIF output and variable impedance settings so that you can optimise the card's analogue stereo output for various types of headphones, it has...

Do not hesitate to upgrade your on-board audio to this ASUS Xonar DG. Even with a $300+ mother boards, you are still stuck with Realtek or Cirrus Logic audio chipsets which can not outdo a good quality ASUS Xonar or Creative X-Fi card.

Quality and Price

Interface and digital out