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

[amirm]

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.)

The hardware is compatible. It is just that I can't test it with my analyzer without ASIO support. For some reason ASIO4ALL doesn't work with it natively requiring their driver. Once installed, that in turn forces the 16 bit so we are damned if we do, damned if we don't.

Actual use without the driver should be fine.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Just extracted the drivers. Hope this helps:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jta6t3kerxtqtml/AAActXVZWdp1VtU0KlzT0KBza

Edit: From Asus Xonar U7 MKII driver version 1.1.17 dated 2017/07/19.

 

[zermak]

That should help (I get a series of uXX file with 7-Zip when extracting the exe, what have you used? If I may ask, or I'll just google it for future use ) and I hope Amir can give it a try again ahah I know I am pedant sometime.

 

[audio_tony]

@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.

I already tried this when I suggested it to @amirm earlier in the thread. It works with the U7 MK1 driver, but not the MK II driver.

I even tried different command line options for the self extracting .exe file, but to no avail.

 

[audio_tony]

Just extracted the drivers. Hope this helps:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jta6t3kerxtqtml/AAActXVZWdp1VtU0KlzT0KBza

Good job - what did you use to extract them? I tried all my usual tools but none worked.

 

[daftcombo]

Is it a generality for a DAC that, when plugged for the first time and working under Win 10, one shouldn't bother, or simply should't, install drivers?

 

[edechamps]

Unless you're after a specific features that only the manufacturer's drivers can provide, you'll likely to be better off sticking to the built-in Windows driver. It's just less risky. Microsoft is much better at writing reliable drivers for their own OS than most hardware manufacturers.

 

[amirm]

Just extracted the drivers. Hope this helps:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jta6t3kerxtqtml/AAActXVZWdp1VtU0KlzT0KBza

These are for Mark II?

 

[trl]

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.)

Schiit is still using CM6632A and not the AX version, so Windows 10 is fine; same applies for the U7 first version which works fine under Win10. AFAIK the AX version is fully compatible with native DSD, and gets continuous support from the C-Media manufacturer. Schiit developed their own drivers because C-Media stopped software developing fro this chip.

 

[jazzendapus]

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

Please let's not.
A very cheap, possibly very well performing multichannel DAC is a very interesting product that shouldn't be neglected just because of software hassle. Those things can practically replace Pre/Pros. Just try to figure out what the issue is.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Please let's not.
A very cheap, possibly very well performing multichannel DAC is a very interesting product that shouldn't be neglected just because of software hassle. Those things can practically replace Pre/Pros. Just try to figure out what the issue is.

It's proven by many of my friends that both u7 mki and mkii work flawlessly.
If you want to play safe, get the mki version. Hardware is basically the same. If you face some issue with u7 you can ask me or trl for solutions. We both have u7.

 

[graz_lag]

It's proven by many of my friends that both u7 mki and mkii work flawlessly.
If you want to play safe, get the mki version. Hardware is basically the same. If you face some issue with u7 you can ask me or trl for solutions. We both have u7.

My son's U7 MKII works flawlessly with W10 as well.

 

[letsgoo]

I once owned this for 2.5 years. I was really disappointed that after 2.5 year(warranty is 2 years), this didn't start and just blinked the blue LED and cliking. The short solution was pull out the usb cable and put a usb cable which was connected to a usb power. I tried it on various pcs so it was not a undervoltage problem of my pc. Also you can find so many reviews with this problems on amazon...

 

[amirm]

Please let's not.
A very cheap, possibly very well performing multichannel DAC is a very interesting product that shouldn't be neglected just because of software hassle. Those things can practically replace Pre/Pros. Just try to figure out what the issue is.

That comment was regarding personal remarks back and forth. Not about the topic of the review.

 

[infinitesymphony]

These are for Mark II?

Yes, those are the extracted v1.1.17 drivers for the Asus Xonar U7 MKII. I edited the post to add this info for clarification.

That should help (I get a series of uXX file with 7-Zip when extracting the exe, what have you used? If I may ask, or I'll just google it for future use ) and I hope Amir can give it a try again ahah I know I am pedant sometime.

Good job - what did you use to extract them? I tried all my usual tools but none worked.

Here is the rundown of my method. Inside the ZIP file is an EXE, and inside the EXE are a number of files labeled 0, u0, u1... This is a bundle produced by the WiX toolset. Editing file 0 revealed an XML file with a BurnManifest containing the relative paths to the driver files. I started a regular install using the EXE, waited until the step when it asked for the hardware (I don't own the hardware so it failed at that step), left the warning dialog box open and performed a search using a folder name from one of the paths listed in the XML (*ASUSTeKcomputer*) and discovered the files were temporarily located in "C:\ProgramData\Package Cache" inside of an alphanumeric string folder. You may need to enter this path into Explorer manually in order to navigate to it even with 'Show hidden files, folders, and drives' enabled. Then I copied the drivers out of this folder.

 

[Juventas]

It appears this is the best ADC performance you've measured for a device under $300? Any suggestions what might be better in this budget range? I'm thinking of trying a Focusrite 2i2.

 

[audio_tony]

It appears this is the best ADC performance you've measured for a device under $300? Any suggestions what might be better in this budget range? I'm thinking of trying a Focusrite 2i2.

I have a FocusRite Scarlett 2i2 (rev 2) and it's very good - to a point - the ADC THD and noise varies quite widely according to input levels.
I documented this over on DIYAudio a while back.
If you're just wanting to use it for recording audio it's recommended.
If you want to use it for audio measurements, then look elsewhere.
Here's the post.

 

[infinitesymphony]

I have a FocusRite Scarlett 2i2 (rev 2) and it's very good - to a point - the ADC THD and noise varies quite widely according to input levels.
I documented this over on DIYAudio a while back.
If you're just wanting to use it for recording audio it's recommended.
If you want to use it for audio measurements, then look elsewhere.
Here's the post.

On that note someone else's poll thread on ASR alerted me to the new Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen ($110 retail). Wonder what's inside as they seem to be allowing trickle-down of some Clarett features like the Air preamp circuits.

For those of you using the 3.5mm surround outputs on the ASUS Xonar U7 MKII, what are you plugging them into?

 

[JohnYang1997]

focusrite is much more versatile in input voltage range.

 

[audio_tony]

focusrite is much more versatile in input voltage range.

I would agree with that, but like I said in my previous post, it depends what you want to use it for.

The driver latency is low too.