14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS put on its website the latest audio card it designed, the Xonar HDAV 1.3, the first such product to come with HDMI ports. Although the company made no official announcements in what concerns the card, the fact that it can be seen on the company's site is more than enough to catch the customers' eye.
[admark=1]ASUS has not been very clear with the information it published with the card, yet the technical specifications of Xonar HDAV 1.3 look impressive. Since the latest graphics cards feature audio over HDMI, the targeted consumer area includes users who do not have such a graphics board. Even so, some might consider purchasing a new GPU as a cheaper and simpler solution.
The company designed the new Xonar HDAV 1.3 with the capability of mixing an audio stream with full 96 or 192kHz Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support to the HDMI signal, and also included the Splendid HD technology. According to ASUS, the latter "increases color performance and enhances edges for a more brilliant, crisper image, such as better visual contrast without flickering issues, and much vivid color than reality."
The card comes with swappable OPAMPs, while the Deluxe version also features support for the OPAMPs on the HDAV H6 extension board. Asus has included all the quality components (like the Burr-Brown DA converters) on the card, which may prove its value when non-HD sourced material is played, but that depends on the performance of the Splendid HD chip when it comes to scaling and improving the video quality.
ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre for Blu-ray playback is included in the shipping package. The card also comes with a bundle consisting of a DVI to HDMI cable, two 3.5mm to TOSLINK S/PDIF adaptors (to be plugged into the RCA jacks for optical in and out) and a 3.5mm to RCA adaptor cable. An additional 3.5mm to RCA cable for full 7.1-channel analog output is shipped with the Deluxe version.