14 DAY TRIAL // There's something to say about audio cards: they are mostly the same in how clear and loud they produce the sound, which is why most people don't buy them, settling for the integrated audio of motherboards instead.
Every once in a while, however, hardware makers risk by launching a sound board. Creative is known for this, and now ASUS is trying its hand.
The new product is called ASUS ROG (Republic of Gamers) Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 PCI Express gaming sound card.
It is one of the few that use the Texas Instruments TPA6120A2 headphone amplifier processor with 600ohm (superior sound clarity) and also gets Dolby Home Theater V4 audio enhancement, plus GX 3.0 game audio engine.
The card has 118dB signal-to-noise ratio too, as well as DTS UltraPC II surround sound.
The C-Media CMI 8888 processor is most likely the IC (integrated circuit) at the heart of it all.
Then there is the high-fidelity PCM1796 digital-to-analog converter, which allows for the aforementioned signal-to-noise ratio.
Most important though are the EMI (electromagnetic) shield and exclusive Asus Hyper Grounding technology, which reduce the adverse effects of electromagnetic interference present in all desktop PCs.
With Hyper Grounding, all the hardware is held by a multi-layer PCB (printed circuit board) with high-quality power supply.
With electrical noise thus muted, the audio turns out cleaner and less distorted. Something that audiophiles will love.
“ROG Command technology effectively reduces up to 50% of environmental noise,” ASUS writes on the product page.
Finally, the new DTS UltraPC II audio technology is supported, for equally good sound during games, Internet telephones, and movie watching.
ASUS Phoebus ROG has a price of $200 / 153-200 EUR and, thanks to the cooler, looks much like ROG graphics cards. Xonar Phoebus Solo should cost a similar amount. The product page of the item is available on the official website, at the other end of this link here.