ASUS Xonar U1 USB Audio Station

Introduction:

Audio is often the forgotten child of PCs. With the glamour and glitz of multi-core CPUs and high-end video cards dominating the landscape, most users usually settle for the built-in audio offered by most motherboards. And, why not? Often, it's good enough for most purposes and sometimes the additional cost of an add-in soundcard isn't worth it. But what about for people who do want more from their audio solution?

In particular, laptop/notebook users have often been out of luck in this respect. Most laptops do not come with 5.1 outputs (much less 5.1 digital output) and the internal sound options usually aren't upgradeable. Thus, those who have wanted a professional sound option for their laptops have usually be left less-than-satisfied. ASUS wants to change all of that with their new XONAR U1 Audio Station. This USB soundcard aims to provide high quality Dolby Digital audio as well as EAX and DirectSound 3D support for systems where other sound upgrades aren't an option. A slew of other features is also provided - let's see if the Xonar can deliver on all of this.

Specifications:

The Asus Xonar U1 offers a wide range of Dolby technologies, many of which you even find on other add-in soundcards. Besides offering Dolby Digital 5.1 output (through an optical S/PDIF output), the Xonar also offers a wide array of Dolby encoding/transcoding features allowing for the up-conversion of sources to 5.1 or even 7.1 output.

• Full Specifications

Some of the more interesting features include Dolby Digital Live, which allows conversion of a stereo audio source to 5.1 Dolby Digital format; however many other soundcards also offer this. In addition to this, the Xonar allows for simulated 5.1 sound on a stereo setup (such as stereo speakers or headphones) through the use of Dolby Virtual Speaker or Dolby Headphone. Dolby Pro-Logic IIx allows for a stereo or 5.1 source to be upmixed to 6.1 or 7.1 with a choice of effects provided. The Xonar U1 also has support for EAX and DirectSound3D in hardware, making it a viable option for gaming.

An array microphone is also included in the package and is designed to reduce background noise. The Xonar has a mic-in port for this, of course, which supports stereo recording. The Xonar U1 plugs into a USB port and draws all its power from there; output volume can be adjusted on the unit itself.

The Xonar U1 comes professionally packaged, just as Asus products usually come. The design is very professional save for the spelling error in the main title - "Solution" has been misspelled as "Soulution". Normally I'm not big on spelling (not being a good speller myself), but it's right in the product title. Hopefully Asus fixes this. Opening up to box, you're treated to the nicely designed Xonar U1 unit and a few other extras.

The Xonar U1 package.

You can see the control knob.

What's included.

In addition to the audio station itself, you also get an array microphone, an adapter for optical output from the combo connector, a manual, driver CD and demo CD with material highlighting the Dolby technologies in the Xonar.

The Xonar unit itself looks very sleek and professional. The entire top half is a volume control knob that can also be pressed to mute/un-mute the sound; an LED on the top displays the status. Turning the knob produces tactile feedback so that it's not completely smooth and you know when you are effecting a change. Additionally, the housing is made of metal and the entire unit has some weight to it, making it feel quality-made and ensuring it won't be slipping all over the place. (The base is also made of rubber) Overall, the Xonar has a nice minimalist design that's easy to use and will fit in nicely with many desktop and laptop computers.

The Xonar U1.

USB connection.

Weighted rubber base.

The Xonar is quite small as well. It's smaller than a computer mouse and only about as thick as a stack of three playing cards. Furthermore, it requires no additional power source as it draws everything from a USB port on your computer. Thus, it's fairly portable should you wish to carry it around with your laptop. The USB cord even has an integrated velcro cable tie to keep things neat. However, the USB cord is only about 17" in length - this may not be long enough for use with some desktop computers, depending on where the tower is.

Cord only about 17" long.

Input/Output jacks.

Optical adapter and cover.

Looking at the front, you can only see one input and one output jack, both mini-stereo. Seeing as how the specifications state that the Xonar supports 5.1 output, this may not seem possible given the outputs. However, the mini-stereo output jack is a combo port, which not only supports analog stereo, but also optical S/PDIF output through the use of an included adapter. (The adapter converts the jack into TOSLINK port)

This allows you to connect the output of the Xonar to a decoder capable of handling a 5.1 digital audio stream. The downside to this, of course, is that you need to have that decoder; speaker sets that only support analog 5.1 input (that is, with three separate analog stereo connectors) will not work in 5.1 mode with the Xonar unless connected to a decoder first.

Top LED displays status.

Array mic.

Can be bent.

The top of the unit sports a single multi-colour LED. The LED is red (more of a purplish tone) when muted, blue when on and flashes blue when "user features" are enabled - more on that in the installation section. Looking at the included microphone, you can see that it's quite short but uses an array setup that Asus claims will reduce ambient noise by up to 20 dB, so maybe this is why it doesn't have to be too close to your head. The neck is bendable, allowing the mic to be positioned in a certain direction. The base is also rubberized to prevent slipping, but is not weighted so you can't bend the mic too much in one direction or it'll tip over.

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