Review and Measurements of Asus Xonar U7 MKII ADC/DAC/HP

[JohnYang1997]

Please just post some screenshots. It must be settings in driver control panel. 24bit needs to be set in the control panel. I have more than 5 friends with u7 and u7mii. And i just ask one of them with mkii no issue with driver. Just set 24bit and turn off the dynamic/eq in the control panel.

 

[audio_tony]

Why? It should work perfectly fine just setup the panel correctly it should be all good. I have friedns with asus u7 mkii without any issue. I used to recommend these u7 u7mkii a lot. Never heard of driver issues.

Sometimes one only wants the bare minimum, and then use the sound applet in control panel to manage the sound settings.

I personally don't need the fancy gui etc. etc. when all I want to do is use the sound card for measurements, and to perhaps play the odd track now and then.

EDIT: Surely this is why sites like UniXonar became so popular? Because a lot of people only want a simple driver installation?

http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

 

[JohnYang1997]

Sometimes one only wants the bare minimum, and then use the sound applet in control panel to manage the sound settings.

I personally don't need the fancy gui etc. etc. when all I want to do is use the sound card for measurements, and to perhaps play the odd track now and then.

The driver itself won't work. The settings must be accessed in the control panel. If you can look into the api or the driver and see what it's doing when using those settings go ahead. But I only find that to be asking for problems and complications.

 

[graz_lag]

A motherboard blow up? Got any image? Seems facinating, I've never personally heard of such a thing during normal computer operation.

He was probably referring to faulty capacitors with bulging tops, or transistors may also blown and you hear some nasty pops ...

 

[zermak]

I can't. In addition to 16 bit thing, it is also limiting playback to stereo. There is no multi-channel in their app drop down config.

Without their driver, they expose two interfaces. I tried them both but I could not get output from the other ports.

I see and could you possibly install the UniXonar drivers and see if you get all the outs please? And maybe give this drivers a shot with the AP? The UniXonar driver installer has a "clean install" option which should remove all of the Asus crap or at least try to.
Thank you

EDIT: nevermind. I didn't check the notes and sadly the U7 models are not supported by the UniXonar drivers.

 

[audio_tony]

I see and could you possibly install the UniXonar drivers and see if you get all the outs please? And maybe give this drivers a shot with the AP? The UniXonar driver installer has a "clean install" option which should remove all of the Asus crap or at least try to.
Thank you

UniXonar doesn't support the U7.

From their site:

The following cards won’t work and will not be supported with UNi Xonar drivers: ASUS Xonar U1, Xonar U3, Xonar U5, Xonar U7, Xonar AE 7.1, Xonar SE, Xonar EssenceOne, Xonar Essence STU, ROG Xonar Phoebus, ROG Thunderbolt and Xonar D-Kara; ASUS Strix Raid and Strix Soar. The reason is these cards have different audio chipsets with different base drivers than the classic Xonar cards.

 

[trl]

I'm using U7 as ADC and it measures way much better. Amir, could you please inject 1KHz sinewaves @1V RMS from an audio generator and re-test it? The ADC is way better, so your U7 mkii is either distorting because of a higher than 1.3V RMS or there's a drivers error.

L.E.: I see that those 2 devices are not sharing the same driver, because they are using different USB transport: C-Media 6632A vs. C-Media 6632AX .

 

[zermak]

UniXonar doesn't support the U7.

From their site:

Oh my bad... I just wanted some measurements from the other outputs.
@amirm nevermind then. I'll also edit my post.

 

[amirm]

Please just post some screenshots. It must be settings in driver control panel. 24bit needs to be set in the control panel.

There is a setting in their control panel. But it only shows 16 bit. There is a setting for sampling rate. But it only shows 44.1/48. There is a setting for stereo versus multi-channel. But it only shows stereo.

Windows control panel shows the same as far as those settings.

As soon as I uninstall their package, Windows then correctly shows bit depths to 24 bits and sample rates to 192 kHz. There is no question that the package is is causing the problem. They say they just updated it a few days ago so perhaps this is a new problem.

I have done the install/uninstall three times. I went to file a support ticket but they don't even show audio products as an option! And without, you can't file a claim. If you lie and say it is some other component, then it wants to know the model number and serial number of that device!

Really, I am done with this. I have packed it away and moved to testing something else.

The unit is available for sale if someone wants it.

 

[amirm]

The ADC is way better, so your U7 mkii is either distorting because of a higher than 1.3V RMS or there's a drivers error.

I ran a level sweep against the ADC which I forgot to post:

So you can see the best case scenario of 93 dB which is close to 16 bit performance. Until the driver issue is resolved to produce 24 bit data, these limitations will be there.

 

[edechamps]

I'm using a Xonar U7 (not MkII) right now. I'm using it in USB Audio Class 2 mode using the standard Microsoft USB driver on Windows 10, completely bypassing all the Asus driver crap. Works like a charm. I'm using it in 5.1 mode and all sample rates and bit depths are available.

 

[amirm]

OK guys. Let's move on....

 

[Ron Texas]

Nothing like crapware to make your day.

 

[infinitesymphony]

What DAC chip(s) does the Xonar U7 MKII use for the other channels? Typically in these setups the best chip is on the main stereo pair.

 

[graz_lag]

What DAC chip(s) does the Xonar U7 MKII use for the other channels? Typically in these setups the best chip is on the main stereo pair.

As from ASUS specs :
Main Chipset (Audio processor): CMedia CMI6632AX High-performance sound processor (Max. 192KHz/24-bit)
D-A converter (digital sources): 1 x Cirrus CS4398 (120dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24-bit), 1 x Cirrus CS4362 (114dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24-bit)
A-D converter (analog input): 1x Cirrus CS5361 (114dB SNR, Max. 192kHz/24-bit)

 

[trl]

Cirrus Logic CS4398 - for stereo RCA
Cirrus Logic CS4362 - for multichannel jacks

Taken from: https://www.asus.com/Sound-Cards/Xonar-U7-MKII/specifications/.

 

[Biblob]

From most replies it seems I would better be off buying the first gen U7, rather than purchase the U7 II.

 

[graz_lag]

That is totally strange as the main reason for which ASUS upgraded the U7 into the MKII was in order to resolve the compatibility issue with W10 due to the C-Media 6632A chip. The newer 6632AX should offer no compatibility issue with W10, on paper at least.
(Oh my son is an avid ASUS sound card fanboi - I follow his comments & exchanges with other PC gamers in his circle.)

 

[SegaCD]

There is only one .exe download link unfortunately. So no way to just get the driver. I think the driver is the problem anyway as Windows also thinks post installation that it only supports 16 bit at 44.1/48kHz.

@amirm, I realize you moved on but just an FYI. Many installer executables can be decompressed like a ZIP using a program such as 7-Zip (Right click>7-Zip>Extract Files...). Sometimes this can expose the raw driver .ini files. I'm too lazy to download the driver and check if it works for this guy, but if you're ever curious in the future, now you know.

 

[amirm]

@amirm, I realize you moved on but just an FYI. Many installer executables can be decompressed like a ZIP using a program such as 7-Zip (Right click>7-Zip>Extract Files...). Sometimes this can expose the raw driver .ini files. I'm too lazy to download the driver and check if it works for this guy, but if you're ever curious in the future, now you know.

What is in the zip file is the single .exe: