Amazing increase over on-board sound (and my old Audigy SE). My speakers (Z-5500) and headphones (Senn 595's) have far clearer sound and what seems to be more bass! Everything is just clear as day.

ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card Review Featuring Manufacturers Part#: XONAR DX Price: Click here to compare prices Availability: In Stores Now Product Page: XONAR DX Warranty: 1yr. Manufacturers The current soundcard landscape offers many options to the PC audio enthusiast.

Price point; Overall impressive sound; GX 2.0

Generic Opamps; Small bundle; No DTS features; Some minor sound issues

I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that sound cards have started getting interesting again after years of a boring one horse race. It wasn't too long ago when we looked at the – the PCI-Express x1 version of the original D2.

Last year Asus released the first model of its Xonar series or sound cards, the Xonar D2. The taiwanese company continued the line up last February with the introduction of the Xonar DX.

From my testing, it's clear to see that ASUS' Xonar DX pushes the performance envelope for a value-oriented card, offering most but not all of the performance of the audiophile-quality Xonar D2 and D2X cards – call it Xonar Lite, if you will.

Superb clarity and fidelity; Great performance for music and movies; Low-profile design provides flexibility; Affordable

Hit-or-miss gaming performance; Requires external power supply

Just a few years ago, if someone said that integrated audio would deliver great performance with many of the features of a full-blown add-in card, it might have raised an eyebrow or two.  Today, however, thanks to vastly improved integrated technologies, today's integrated audio solutions are often

Very Good Audio Reproduction; Excellent surround-sound and spatial positioning performance; Good Gaming Performance; EAX 5.0 Support

Limited CPU off-load benefits; Skimpy Documentation; Lite Retail Bundle