ASUS Xonar DX

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Asus put the Xonar on a diet for this latest DX version, dropping plenty of weight to squeeze it onto a low-profile card that retails for half the price of the more expensive D2X model. Some of the original Xonar's flashier features didn't survive, including its generous cable bundle and LED-backlit ports. DTS Interactive encoding isn't supported by the DX, either, and you'll have to settle for Cirrus Logic DACs instead of Burr Browns.

Despite these changes, the DX lives up to the performance standard set by its predecessor. The card's sound quality is nothing short of exceptional, and more impressively, it was indistinguishable from that of the Xonar D2X in both blind listening tests and in RightMark Audio Analyzer's objective measure of signal quality. Gaming performance is good, too, which isn't really a surprise considering that all the Xonars share the same audio chip. The combination of Windows Vista and multi-core processor seems to have largely blunted the appeal of hardware acceleration for positional 3D audio, and Asus' DirectSound 3D GX does an admirable job of emulating EAX 5.0 effects that have long been restricted to Creative's audio chips.

So Asus may have cut some of the fat from the Xonar for this new DX derivative, but they haven't gone too far. The soul of the Xonar remains intact, and with the DX's street price sitting at just $90, it's more attainable than ever. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest the Xonar DX offers the best combination of features, performance, and value of any desktop PC sound card on the market. It's no wonder, then, that we've given it our Editor's Choice award.