Asus Xonar U7 MKII 7.1 USB sound card with headphone amplifier, 192kHz/24-bit HD sound, 114dB SNR

So we have a sound card that can do 7.1, has headphone support, has true 44.1 output without resampling and various game modes. What more can you ask? Well apparently a few of the sound modes from the Mk 1 are missing but as I never used those I'm not missing them. This does what 99% of people want a sound card to do and will be better than most onboard sound (unless you have an expensive laptop or motherboard as the realtek chips are quite impressive these days).Other pros include a volume control, this controls the windows volume and is not an internal gain amp but as long as windows is mixing at 24 bits (which it pretty much always is) digital volume is better and leads to less channel imbalance. I find this the most useful feature as its easy to adjust the volume quickly without fiddling with the mouse or awkward keyboard controls. Its not set to a particular volume and is more like a mouse wheel which can be used to set the volume up and down .There is also a setting to change the internal gain with headphones (high, medium and low) which will change the actual analogue amplification and combined with digital gives the best of both worlds.This version (MKII) works out the box with Windows 10 without the need to download drivers so its plug in and play with whatever PC you choose. It even worked on my android tablets (although had to change to usb 1 mode for KitKat).Output impedance for headphones is around 18-20 ohms which is fine even for low impedance cans (I use 32 ohm) . Yes there is some frequency boosts and attenuations but they're pretty minor in real world listening and your headphones frequency response is many times more colourful (not flat) for this to be any problem for anyone with human ears. Subjectively it sounds great too but measurements can be found online for those who need them and those look great too so sound quality is not an issue here.The previous version of this (which I own) has served its purpose well for the last two and a half years without issue. It did have driver issues (especially with windows 10) and apparently had a sudden death issue which required some pretty extreme fixes (look up flashing blue light fixes). Asus has pretty much addressed all these in the current version so I see no reason to hold back on one of these.

well, if you have a decent Motherboard, then this product might seem like not worth the investment,unless you want to use the 7.1 for a home cinema setup , for gaming is provides a quite a comprehensive rang of tools that help you immerse in the game , power wise they are not the best, my Asus Rog Maximus hero X deliver better 32bit /197khz and drives 600 Ohm ( as per Spec sheet), so used this Xonar with my new DT990 Pro and i can see clearly that my Motherboard delivers exactly the same power and clarity , for all that 7.1 surround thing it can be easily simulated ( yes it is not real ) by a Dolby atom software 16£BUT i might encounter some static issues when using my Motherboard but Asus stated they have proper shielding for their Audio Chip .so to be honest, buy this if you have crappy onboard sound,and want some 7.1 simulation ( get a proper headphone not a gaming headset) otherwise stick to your on board Chip is you have one of the latest 2017+ Motherboards

Amazon are censoring me by telling you that this device is no longer supported on Windows 11. I bought this from Amazon years and Asus have dropped support. Don't buy this, it's EOL and shouldn't be sold.

Speakers: Yamaha HS8 (stereo, pair)Sound: For something so small, and so cheap, the sound quality is absolutely mind bending!Volume: I can drive my speakers loud enough to make the room shake, and there still isn't any distortion at all! :')Software: Very intuitive and easy to use! EQ works really well.Appearance: It looks really elegant.Value: Let's keep it real here - things can get really expensive really quickly in the world of audio. At this price point, the U7 Mk2 is an absolute must buy!

Excellent product.Sadly it’s plug and play for Mac , full station for windows.Cycles between functions easily, have used this down to 15Hz with a sinusoidal oscillator with high fidelity. Frequency range as describedExcellent for gaming as well and pairs well with high quality headphones.

This is a discernible improvement over my laptop's built in Realtek soundcard. This sports the CS4398 DAC which is really good. The headphone amp output is rated for headphones up to 150 Ohms which should be enough for most pro-sumer setups - I have the DT770 80s to go with this.If you're an audiophile you already know that this is not a professional amp to power your high impedance cans; but could still be very useful as a DAC.It works out of the box with Linux (tested with 4.18) without fiddling with drivers (usb 2 audio class). It gets recognized as the Asus u7 MKII instantly.Pressing the main knob switches between speakers and headphone output. When the headphones are unplugged the speaker output takes over by default. You will need an amp for the speakers of course.Overall very good, and an improvement in sound in every way.

Could not get the latest available driver from ASUS working on latest Windows 10 (20H2). Asus states on their site that they are aware of the issue and that they will release a driver update in late Dec. 2020 but until then, the product is not fully functional on Windows 10 with the currently latest 20H2 update.I could also not get 5.1 sound sources to properly play on a 2 speaker setup. Media Player classic would need custom 6 to 2 channel remapping to get OK sound output. Certain other applications would not output any sound at all. Maybe the latest driver from Asus would fix that but I didnt want to wait to find out. Got it returned for a refund. I would expect a much faster response from Asus as soon as they identified issues with the drivers to keep their customers happy.