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We decided to test the Xonar One sound card with both the included headphones with all tasks and a set of Creative Megaworks 5.1 speakers when not gaming as we feel that a large number of users will not use the headset all of the time.
When gaming with the Xense One and the PC 350 headset, the sound performance was nothing short of impressive. Gunshots and explosions were rendered accurately and the sound was well balanced. The virtual surround sound feature in the included software also worked well, allowing effective sound panning in game.
Moving on to audio playback, results with both the headset and speakers were very good. Sure, the headset won’t be preferable for those who listen to bass-heavy music but this is because it is geared towards FPS gaming rather than optimum music playback. We did notice a small amount of distortion in the higher registers but this was only when we cranked up volume to the max.
One of our favourite Blu-Rays for testing movie audio reproduction is the Dark Knight. In the opening sequence, sound panning was effective when the virtual surround sound was enabled and the explosions and gunshots were very realistic. Once again we noticed a slight lack in the bass-registers but this didn’t detract much from the movie experience as a whole.
Expensive, but a quality product. Henry, how does it compare to say a realtek onboard sound card? Id love to know the discernable differences.
IT isnt really that expensive, considering the bundle. sure its not an impulse buy, but most people buying one of these will already know what they want. Asus have stiff competition against turtle and other dedicated companies, but ive heard quite a lot of good things about this sonar. cool name btw, not like some of the names.
Id need to really hear this, I find onboard sound is really good for what I need, and this would get me a new CPU. Wish more stores did live tests with these things, then we could hear for ourselves. hard to justify 200 for a product that might need higher quality partnering hardware than some of us have.
Really like this bundle, been looking for a new sound card for a while as the onboard solutions are crap. There is a big difference trust me !
excellent. its unusual for a company like asus to bundle headphones from another company without rebadging them with their own stickers etc. they will probably sell more this way however as sennheiser have a good rep.
Quality product from Asus. people who bitch about price never buy their motherboard either then, and they are missing out on the finest build quality on the net. bar none. (although MSI are close now).
How compatible is their software? I bought a creative sound card last year and christ, its bloatware city. I had to deinstall half of it. is this the same principle?