I have used this card in a few customer builds. They have all been more than satisfied. In the 50 dollar price range, this is the upgrade to get when going from onboard audio. This card is certainly not audiophile grade, but is more than enough for the average user wanting better than onboard.

Sound quality for price; and ability to upgrade opamp section

None

A notable difference compared to the onboard sound. Like other have mentioned, download the drivers from the Asus website and installation will be a breeze.

Perfect card if you want multichannel audio and don't want plethora of cables running around your PC. With DTS Connect which this card supports you can enable all of this via a single, thin optical cable. Great buy at this price.

I've been using creative soundcards for the past 10 years and thought time for a change after I was not pleased with their last fatality1 card. As soon as I plugged this baby in, the sound was way way different.

The reason for five stars is simple; I'm comparing it to the only other sound card I've ever had, which is none. The difference between the onboard/ integrated audio and the Xonar DS is not really comparable.

Pretty good price; I guess

I have no idea

FANTASTIC! The sound quality is MUCH better then the standard motherboard sound, its also very easy to upgrade the opamp (my preference LME49720HA) Also its very cheap! You cant go wrong, same hardware as the Xonar DX with less options.

Very pleased with sound quality: significant improvement on onboard sound output. Works well with a Behringer pre-amp for digitising vinyl. Installation cd not much use (no WIndows 7 recognition.

Sounds fantastic, high fidelity mode disables every sound effect for true audio replication, swappable output operation amplifiers. GUI could be cleaner and more intuitive (I had to Google some of its button functions).

A PCI sound card that we really like? It'll be an ISA graphics card next, if we're not careful

Low profile design; A truly affordable upgrade; Proper 3D sound for games

No Dolby Digital

Good sound card for the price.

Great for gaming

Some audio distortions on some mp3s