The Xonar is not all it is cracked up to be!

BloodyL

BloodyL

BloodyL

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In here and out there.
It's far from an audiophile card and the control panel is a nightmare, but hey, Asus's Tech support is at least communicative.

This card resamples *everything* it touches (apart from standard 48Khz DVD DTS & Dolby Digital streams) which is a bad thing in my book.

behold (please read from the bottom upwards):

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

My name is Echo and it is my pleasure to help you with your problem today.

As you mentioned, firstly, please change this card to another PC to test.
Secondly, even if your settings differs from the audio source’s sample rate, the Xonar D2X engine will do super high fidelity sample-rate-conversion with a double floating-point filter, which can reduce total harmonic distortion (THD+N) by -140dB. So if the problem still exists, we recommend you contact with your local reseller for check whether the card has any hardware problem.
Thirdly, the S/PDIF protocol specification (IEC-60958) can only carry 2-channel PCM data or non-PCM AC3/DTS data. So, when a user selects PCM output for S/PDIF, the Xonar sound card will always deliver 2 channel PCM data through the S/PDIF output port. For attaining 5.1 channel surround sounds, you can select Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive encoding output from the S/PDIF out menu, which will allow the Xonar D2X to deliver 5.1 surround sound for games, DVD movies, and even stereo music.



If you still have any problem or the problem still exists, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for the support!

Best regards and have a nice day!

Welcome to refer FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for ASUS products in ASUS website: http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Yours sincerely,

Echo_Zhang

ASUS Customer Service Center (China)

---------- Original Message ----------
From : BloodyL
Sent : 2008-6-2 17:41:11
To : "[email protected]"
Subject : Re:Re:<TSD> Audio Cards Xonar D2X [ID=RWTM200805312326519787-171]

[CASEID=WTM20080602162356297]

Hello again Echo,
I have been selecting the correct sample rate for the media I am trying to play in the
control panel (44.1Khz, 2 channel PCM)
44.1Khz DTS audio CD's work by fitting 5.1 surround sound into a standard 2 channel
audio cd stream, they are very sensitive to the audio stream being changed and result
in random noise from the speakers if the stream is altered.
It is evident that either the drivers or the hardware itself is altering the sound stream in
some way.

Please advise further.

Many thanks for your support so far.

BloodyL

---------- Original Message ----------
From:ASUS TSD
To:BloodyL
Date:2008-06-02 10:56:38

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

My name is Echo and it is my pleasure to help you with your problem today.

As you mentioned, please try playing audio CDs and MP3 files with 44.1 KHz to test.
Usually these files are 44.1 KHz, DVD-Video uses 48 KHz, DVD-Audio or other HD
media may contain 96 KHz or 192 KHz high-definition audio content. Please select the
corresponding sample rate for your playback sources to get the best audio fidelity.



If you still have any problem or the problem still exists, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you for the support!

Best regards and have a nice day!

Welcome to refer FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for ASUS products in ASUS
website: http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Yours sincerely,

Echo_Zhang

ASUS Customer Service Center (China)



---------- Original Message ----------
From : BloodyL
Sent : 2008-6-1 0:44:19
To : "[email protected]"
Subject : Re:Re:<TSD> Audio Cards Xonar D2X [ID=RWTM200805311029422767
-937]



[CASEID=WTM200805312326519787]



Hi there Echo,
Thank you for your quick response.

I have followed your instructions and I still cannot get 44.1khz audio to pass through
the Xonar without being affected.
The driver version 81731_RC01_XP_beta is the one I used when I originally installed
the card, I followed your instructions and un-installed that driver and installed the older
81722_LO02_XP driver, this driver is also exhibiting the same behaviour.

I have tried using Windows Waveout, Directsound, Kernel Streaming and ASIO, all
sound transport methods result in bit altered audio through the digital out.

Please advise how to proceed further.

Thank you.

BloodyL


---------- Original Message ----------
From:ASUS TSD
To:BloodyL
Date:2008-05-31 12:33:12

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

My name is Echo and it is my pleasure to help you with your problem today.

As you mentioned, please check if both drivers will lead the problem:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/Audio_Card/Drivers/Xonar_D2X_81731_RC01_XP
_beta.zip
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/Audio_Card/Drivers/Xonar_D2X_81722_LO02_XP.z
ip



If you still have any problem or the problem still exists, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you for the support!

Best regards and have a nice day!

Welcome to refer FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for ASUS products in ASUS
website: http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Yours sincerely,

Echo_Zhang

ASUS Customer Service Center (China)



---------- Original Message ----------
From : BloodyL
Sent : 2008-5-31 11:46:58
To : "[email protected]"
Subject : <TSD> Audio Cards Xonar D2X



[CASEID=WTM200805311029422767]



Apply date : 5/31/2008 10:29:42 AM

[Contact Information]
*REMOVED*

[Product Information]
*Product Type : Audio Cards
*Product Model : Xonar D2X
*REMOVED*

*Operating System : WinXP 64bit

[Problem Description]
I cannot send a 44.1khz DTS audio stream out of the SPDIF interface to my sound
system.

I have tried with 48Khz DTS streams from DVDs and they work perfectly, yet somehow
every time I try to send a 44.1Khz stream from my media player to my speakers it
always arrives at the decoder corrupted.

Please advise how to fix this problem.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
 
i can play 44.1khz DTS just fine with mine. it does appear to resample certain things yes, but there is no reason why, when selecting DTS interactive, that your amp shouldnt be able to decode it. i am doing that right now. it isnt bit perfect no, but as the RMAA graphs show, for something that might not be bit perfect, its still up there with the best of the best.

what you can do is make sure the drivers are set to 5.1, that you are using the xonar speakers as the audio output device (not the spdif output, i cant seem to use mine in vista anyway), and select dts interactive as the spdif output. it should work then.


whats wrong with the control panel, specifically?
 
Last edited:
As I posted in another thread, that means that foobar is decoding the stream, sending it to the Xonar which is re-encoding, sending it to the A/V Reciever which then fianlly decodes it again.
DTS is a lossy codec, not an ideal situation really.
I grant it the concession that it can resample to 44.1khz which is a step up from AC97/Auzalia HD Audio which resamples everything to 48Khz which causes a slight pitch/time shift for standard Audio CD / Mp3 audio.

Still, I'm looking for a card that will not touch the stream at all when I need exact audio for music, and surround encoding for gaming.
It's a great shame that the M-AUDIO Revolution 5.1 i used for bit perfect audio not only died a slow death, but also that the WinXP x64 drivers are none existent.
Cheers anyways. :)
 
Last edited:
james.miller said:
what you can do is make sure the drivers are set to 5.1, that you are using the xonar speakers as the audio output device (not the spdif output, i cant seem to use mine in vista anyway), and select dts interactive as the spdif output. it should work then.


whats wrong with the control panel, specifically?
Click to expand...

I've tried pretty much all combinations possible, some work in the context of re-encoding, but none of them set the Xonar to just pass the stream untouched.

Regarding the control panel: I cannot set the speaker distances, because my speakers are not ideally placed the levels from the speakers are unbalanced, even the onboard Realtek HD audio on my Abit AW9D-MAX allows for speaker placement adjustments.
Again, the D2X engine/Control Panel does not adjust the sample rate to match the output, If I play my 192Khz audio when the panel is set to 44.1khz it will not adjust the engine accordingly and will downsample to 44.1khz.
The M-AUDIO Revolution was very flexible with that issue, it'd always change the sample rate to match the audio stream it is being fed.
Oh, and the EQ graphics are very very slow.
 
doesnt your av amp handle the speaker distances, crossovers and phase?

Oh, and the EQ graphics are very very slow.
Click to expand...

you arent going to be happy with any sound card, not if your worried about the eq graphics in the drivers :/
 
Last edited:
lol, the EQ comment made me smile! :)

Yep, the Yamaha can handle those things, however I have a pretty complicated way of working, I set things up depending on where I am and what I'm up to.
Music / Web - I'm up close the the fronts & center
Movies - seating is mid to rear of speaker formation
Late night listening - folded down to mono and output through the rear right speaker only which is near my bed.
I found it easier to modify the settings on the sound card rather than navigate the OSD on the Yamaha!
 
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