Asus Xense Review

Introduction and Technical Specs

Published: 26th August 2010 | Source: ASUS | Price: £189.99 | Author: Bryan Waters

Asus Xense Review

Introduction

Soundcards have come a long way from the early days. Once the ability to create MIDI music was absolutely mind-blowing. Then Creative and Turtle Beach released soundcards that really did enable sound, as we'd expect it.

This new technology quickly caused an explosion in the soundcard market with everyone and their granny releasing stereo soundcards. These were quickly supplanted by 5.1 soundcards but still the market showed no signs of relenting. Choice was almost too great, especially at a time when drivers still weren't always utilising the DirectSound API.

Like most emerging technologies though, quickly the pretenders died off and one or two models were left standing proud. With soundcards this was Creative and their Sound Blaster. For a long while it was pretty much the only choice which gave benefits to the consumer as nearly all software was compatible, but like any monopoly had the drawback that development almost stopped. Driver updates became infrequent until finally Windows Vista left thousands with a soundcard that did anything but produce sound.

This opening in the market was swiftly filled by Asus with their Xonar range of soundcards. Bringing fresh ideas and regular driver updates it blew away all the cobwebs that had accumilated in the soundcard marketplace.

The Xonar model range expanded quickly and now runs from a basic model all the way up to HiFi quality options. With more and more gamers using headphones as the PC has moved from the bedroom to the lounge, Asus have paired their Xonar technology with a headset from the daddies of headphones, Sennheiser, to bring us the Xonar Xense with PC350 headset in a single package. That's what we'll be looking at today.

Technical Specifications

Popping over to the Asus website to grab the technical specifications it's clearly a big list thanks to the voluminous technology crammed into the Xense.

Audio Performance	Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 118 dB Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 118 dB Output THD+N at 1kHz: 0.00039% (-108dB) for Front channel of Line-out Input THD+N at 1kHz: 0.0003% (-110dB) for Line-in Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz input): <10Hz to 46KHz Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage 2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p)
Bus Compatibility	PCI Express: PCI Express Rev.1.0a specification compatible. Maximum full 2.5Gbps bandwidth per direction and optimized latency for high-definition audio processing. Compatible with X1, X4, X8, X1 6 PCI Express slots.
Main Chipset	Audio Processor: ASUS AV100 High-Definition Sound Processor (Max. 192kHz/24bit)) 24-bit D-A Converter of Digital Sources: Texas Instruments PCM17961 for Front-Out (123dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24bit); Cirrus-Logic CS4362A1 for other 6 channels (114dB SNR, Max.192kHz/24bit) 24-bit A-D Converter for Analog Inputs: Cirrus-Logic CS5381 x 1 (120dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24bit) High Fidelity Headphone Amplifier: Texas Instruments 6120A2*1 (120dB SNR, -117dB THD+N @ Vcc+-12V, RL=600Ω, f=1kHz)
Sample Rate and Resolution	Analog Playback Sample Rate and Resolution: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16/24bit Analog Recording Sample Rate and Resolution: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16/24bit S/PDIF Digital Output: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16/24bit, Dolby Digital ASIO 2.0 Driver Support: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @16/24bit with very low latency
I/O Ports	Analog Output Jack: 6.30mm jack1 (Headphone out); 7.1ch analog output (via bundled audio splitter cable) Analog Input Jack:* 6.30mm jack 1 (Shared by Line-In/Mic-In) Other line-level analog input (for CD-IN/TV Tuner):* Aux-In (4-pin header on the card) Digital S/PDIF Output: High-bandwidth Coaxial/TOS-Link combo port supports 192KHz/24bit Front-Panel Header: Shared by Headphone out / 2 channels out / Microphone in
Driver Features	Operation System: Windows 7/Vista/XP/MCE2005 Dolby® Technologies: Dolby® Digital Live, Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Virtual Speaker, Dolby® Pro-Logic II Smart Volume Normalizer™: Normalizes the volume of all audio sources into a constant level and also enhances your 3D sound listening range and advantages in gaming Xear 3D™ Virtual Speaker Shifter: Virtual 7.1 speaker positioning FlexBass™: Professional Bass Management/Enhancement system Other Effects: 10-band Equalizer/27 Environment Effects 3D Sound Engines/APIs: DirectSound3D® GX 2.0 & 1.0, EAX®2.0&1.0, DirectSound® HW, DirectSound SW, OpenAL generic modes, 128 3D sounds processing capability DS3D GX2.5: GX 2.5 supports EAX gaming sound effects and Di rectSound 3D hardware enhanced functions for more games on Windows XP/Vista/7. (DirectX/DirectSound 3D compatible)
Accessories	1 x S/PDIF optical adaptors 1 x 6.3mm to 3.5mm stereo adapter 1 x 7.1 channel audio splitter cable 1 x Driver CD 1 x Quick Start Guide

And for the Sennheiser PC350 Headset

Cable length	3m (9.8 feet)
Connector plugs	2 x 6.3mm
Speaker type	Dynamic, 38mm, Nd magnet
Frequency response	10 – 26,000Hz
Impedance	150Ω
Distortion	less than 0.1%
Frequency response	50 – 16,000Hz
Pick-up pattern	Noise canceling
Sensitivity	-38dBV at 94dBSPL

As you can see the specifications for the card are very similar to the excellent Xonar D2X which isn't a great surprise considering how popular the Xonar D2X is with websites and consumers, and that the price of a D2X + Sennheiser 350 is very similar to this single package.