Opinion on Asus Xonar U7 and the difference in 10-14 db? also looking for alternative EXTERNAL Sound Cards.

daAmazinFatB0y · Sep 11, 2015

I've currently own a Creative Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1 EXTERNAL sound card.

http://uk.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-omni-surround-5-1

I'm thinking of upgrading.

Need to get External card, family and all that. So I looked at the Asus Xonar U7

https://www.asus.com/uk/Sound/Xonar_U7/

Seems great to me but I need more info before I decide to purchase it.

Creative Omni outputs:
100db

Asus Xonar U7 outputs:
Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) (Front-out) : 114 dB
Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) :
110 dB

I'm not really sure whats the difference between the two but I'm guessing 114 dB is for analog? no idea lol I'm a super noob.

but whether its 14 or 10. How MUCH of a difference is the extra 10 to 14 dB? Is it huge? minor? I hear theirs a difference with even 2dB but i'm not to sure about that.

[strike]Also does this support Dolby Digital Live? I'm hoping someone here that owns it could hopefully confirm this. Its mandatory for me since my system doesn't support analog. [/strike]

EDIT:
I just read a review at Guru3D. It supports DDL lol.

Connection MUST be optical.

I would like to try DTS Connect but I don't think this supports it so I'm open to alternatives that maybe one of you could possibly suggest?

Thanks.

EDIT:

Also I'm on Windows 10. I noticed this doesn't have Windows 10 drivers but I've seen others say they used the Windows 8 drivers and it apparently works flawlessly.

Possible confirmation would be great.

jimmysmitty · Sep 11, 2015

The 114db is the output, meaning that is the top range for what goes out from the card to your speakers.

The 110db is the input meaning the max input that can go into the sound card from say a microphone.

As for optical, normally the sound card is capable of so much but you normally push it to a receiver with optical out which decodes and puts their own levels on the audio. Of course I hope a true audiophile comes in to this thread to verify.

I am wondering, why are you moving from the Omni 5.1? That is a decent external sound card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4M52YX8121

That one is also decent but I can;t check if there are Windows 10 drivers. Creative takes a while but normally gets drivers for most of their products. Personally I don't do anything but a internal sound card due to the fact that they are capable of much higher quality audio.

daAmazinFatB0y · Sep 11, 2015

jimmysmitty :

Creative is good but I would like to upgrade if i could. Im just trying to see is Asus is better or not. If not then I'll just stick with Creative.

theirs no Windows 10 drivers for Asus. I read that the windows 8 drivers work perfectly fine though.

jimmysmitty · Sep 11, 2015

I can't say for sure on Asus. I have used Creative for about 10 years now and have been pretty happy with them but I do know that Asus is typically very good. Their internal cards are normally just as good and sometimes better than Creatives.

For what you have I don't think you will see a difference. The top level Creative does the same SNR of 114db for external cards.

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Opinion on Asus Xonar U7 and the difference in 10-14 db? also looking for alternative EXTERNAL Sound Cards.

daAmazinFatB0y

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jimmysmitty

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daAmazinFatB0y

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jimmysmitty

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