Xonar Xense Soundcard Preview

Xonar Xense Soundcard Preview

There has been a lot of fanfare surrounding this card.  Although it seems there are some pictures of a static model from a recent hardware show, the Guru3D Audio Lab wanted to wait until the design was solidified and we could have a listen and look over a working card ourselves.

Today we have a new engineering sample of the Xonar Xense 7.1 soundcard to look over in this small one page preview. So without further delay let’s get to it:

The Xonar Xense 7.1 Soundcard

Click on the thumbnails for normal photo's btw -- here we can have a look at this card, so new it still has the scratch wrap on the shielding.  We can see from this picture it has its roots in the Essence line of soundcards sporting some design ideas featured on those cards.  Let’s have a look under the shielding and see what we have:

We can see this card does have many design features from the popular Essence line up.  However, there are also a few differences here.  The headphones output section is completely separate from the 7.1 output stage.  We can also see that while the headphones output allows precision tuning using higher quality opamps, the 7.1 output have hardwired opamps.

The card has the familiar Molex power input and clean up circuitry.  We can also see the brass Faraday shield between the sensitive analog circuits and power input sections.

Some of you may have thought this card was sporting HDMI based on the lower DVI type connector.  However, this card features a 7.1 break out cable.

The Drivers - the driver for the Xense features quite a few changes from the rest of the Xonar family. Let’s have a quick look.

We see a different color scheme but we also have new presets for gaming enthusiasts.  Since ASUS is aiming this card at the gamer market they have added presets for two different popular gaming genres.  We have setting for FPS (First Person Shooter) and Racing titles.  These presets change EQ, reverb and Dolby headphone settings.  We also have the similar gain subpanel seen on the Essence line up but we have the addition of a tuned Sennheiser PC 350 “Xense” Edition setting.  According to the information available Sennheiser spent some time tuning this setting to the perfect gain for these modified phones.  Let’s have a look at the cards specifications:

Specifications

Audio Performance

• Signal to Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 118dB for Front channels
• Frequency response <10Hz to 46 KHz (-3dB)
• Headphone Impedance Optimized for 32~600 Ohm

Processor /Interface

• Audio Processor ASUS AV100 (Max. 192 KHz/24bit)
• 24-bit DAC Texas Instruments PCM1796 for Front-Out
• Cirrus-Logic CS4362A for other 6 channels
• Headphone Amplifier Texas Instruments 6120A2
• Bus Compatibility PCI Express X1

Analog Playback/Recording

• Resolution Max 192 Khz/24 bit
• S/Pdif Digital Output Max 192Khz /24 bit

Driver features

• Dolby:  Dolby® Digital Live, Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Virtual Speaker, Dolby® Pro-Logic II
• GX 2.5: Enable latest EAX 5.0 gaming audio
• More:  SmartVolume, Acoustic Echo Cancellation, Karaoke Functions, FlexBass
• ASIO 2.0: 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @16/24bit

Sennheiser PC350 Xense Edition Headphones

These Gaming headphones are bundled with the new Xense and both components have been tuned to produce the best audio from both.  Let’s have a quick look:

Information suggests that these vary from the normal Sennheiser PC350’s as they have been tuned to better match the Xense’s sonic output.

Sennheiser PC350 Xense Edition Headset

• Cable length: 3m (9.8 feet)
• Connector Plugs: 2X 6.3 mm
• Speaker type: Dynamic, 38mm, Nd magnet
• Frequency Response: 10-26,000Hz
• Impedance: 150 ohm
• Distortion: Less than 0.1%
• Microphone Frequency Response: 50 -16,000Hz
• Pickup pattern: Noise Cancelling
• Sensitivity: -38dBV at 94dBSPL

 Quick impressions and opinions

Well we don’t want to spoil our upcoming review but we would like to give you enough information to tide you over.  Without getting too deep into listening impressions let just say this card does not disappoint.  We performed some listening tests with different genres of music and while ASUS says this card is aimed at gamers, it does not play when it comes to sound quality for any task.  The sonic response is very balanced, musical and full of the toe tap factor. 

Written Listening to the: Xonar Xense Audio Set -- Stay tuned for our full review…