Page 5 - Subjective Listening and Conclusion
My Dell Inspiron 6400 hooked up to the home theater system via optical out through the Asus Xonar U1.
As I mentioned in my Asus Xonar D2 review, subjective listening is always an interesting part of reviews. The reason of its subjectiveness can extend beyond because pulling the objectiveness out of this subjective aspect is very hard. Typically, I see results from 95% of audio reviews stating how (Insert whether it is a headphone, speaker, sound card, MP3 player, or something related to audio output)'s the bass is so awesome, it shook the house so much that I had to get my house's structural integrity checked and the midrange is so awesomely clear that it sounds the person is really in the room, I swear someone touched me on my shoulder during that time, as well as the treble is so freakin awesome it's so high yet natural the percussion instruments sounds soooooo fantastic. While there are undeniable truths to these observations, personally I feel that there are things beyond this. But regardless I'll try to express my feel on this subjective matter to the best of my capabilities.
Using the Asus Xonar U1 drivers for Windows Vista, and like the overall tendency of sound output as compared to the Asus Xonar D2, the Asus Xonar U1 sounds very neutral. While the output is not necessarily as clean as its internal component counterpart, there is a lot of detail related to the midrange -- precise, pretty distinct, and encompasses an output with a wide range of detail within the midrange segment. There's no real emphasis of any specific frequency bias that makes it a very neutral sounding audio device, as mentioned earlier -- almost to the point that it misses deep, clean bass and sharp, wet sounding treble. Like the Asus Xonar D2, the Asus Xonar U1 does not respond to equalizer changes very well. Because the Asus Xonar U1 is also designed for use with headphones and similar applications in addition to regular speaker output, this would be quite a limitation since there's no dedicated components to push forth the relatively unprocessed audio for users who prefers punchy sounding music. The sound is generally good, but there's little flexibility available for customizing the way the user wants it to sound.
While soundstaging performance is pretty decent, what I am trying to get as is that gaming may be a limitation since a lot of the time games will require more of the highs and lows rather than midrange -- on the positive side, the Asus Xonar D2 does support a handful of technologies such as EAX2 and OpenAL. But I would see that most users buying the Asus Xonar U1 probably are more interested in music audio performance rather than gaming audio performance.
As far as headphone tests go, personally I found the Asus Xonar U1's signal to noise ratio not as good as I might've expected. Despite the rated 90dB SNR and its metal enclosure for blocking out electromagnetic interference, plugging in the V-MODA Vibe earphones shows that some background hissing can be clearly heard on the Xonar U1 -- whether it is on speaker mode or headphone mode. This has been confirmed with Asus as well.
Being that, the Asus Xonar U1 still offers a lot out of the package -- with Dolby Digital Live and DTS:Interactive features, along with the optical out, the Asus Xonar U1 sure did bridge the gap between my laptop and home theater system -- primarily due to the fact that it now adds a digital output to my laptop -- a huge plus. If by any reason why I wanted the Asus Xonar U1, this is one of my biggest factors. By all means, the Asus Xonar U1 performs a heck of a lot better, and offers a truckload more features, than integrated sound on virtually all laptops in the market today.
The Asus Xonar U1 packs quite a bit out of such a small package. Excellent external design, complete with a couple of home theater technologies -- as well as an optical digital out, with the flexibility of using it with headphones or speakers on the analog segment -- the Asus Xonar U1 surely looks excellent on paper. However, one thing that I was not a big fan of the Asus Xonar U1 that I have on hand comes down to the earphone performance. The slight background hiss is one if you have sensitive enough earphones (Most IEMs would reflect this), while the second is the Xonar U1's lack of ability to respond to dynamic equalizer changes. Its detailed, emphasized midrange is sure excellent; unfortunately if you want to pump up the bass or treble to your preference, the Asus Xonar U1 will not help you in this area. The Asus Xonar U1 is a great product in many aspects, especially in such a small package to go with laptops and other portable applications. But like the Asus Xonar D2, it's great primarily for home theater applications, such as hooking up to your 'big system'. Unfortunately, other than that it's not as favorable as its strongest point -- especially when it comes to noise-sensitive earphones. One thing for sure though, is that the Asus Xonar U1 is still probably one of the most well rounded sound solutions for mobile computing!
Special thanks to Eric over at Asus for making this review possible.
APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that aren't likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.1/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
The Asus Xonar U1 is a well designed external audio device, with an abundance of features. Our unit has background noise issues with sensitive earphones, but other than that the Asus Xonar U1 is a well rounded sound package for mobile computing.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Specifications, Bundle
2. A Closer Look - Hardware
3. A Closer Look - Software
4. RightMark Audio Analyzer 16-bit/48 kHz
5. Subjective Listening and Conclusion
