ASUS Xonar SE 5.1 PCIe gaming sound card with 192kHz/24-bit hi-res audio and 116dB SNR

I recently bought a new soundbar as we use our PC's for internet radio, TV, movies and gaming. Silly me I didn't check if analogue connections for an input were provided. I tried it out on bluetooth but there was a slight lag on the sound, nothing much but still there. A soundcard with TV optical out was needed.This arrived a day after I ordered it. Plugged this into a Windows 11 PC, no drivers were needed.From settings/sound changed the output to SPDIF Interface and this instantly worked. Good sound quality coupled with a good sound bar and so easy to set up.Cheers.

Ok, I have a dac, an E50 from Topping and it is good but also quite expensive. This is my first proper sound card, the Asus Zonar SE. My PC is an HP Prodesk 400 G6 small form factor running Windows 11 23H2. The card arrived on time with the excellent service from Amazon. I swapped the full height bracket for the half height and popped it into the PCIE16 slot in the PC. Plugged in the Optical cable which is why I bought this card and connected it to my Marantz PM6007 amplifier. Reconnected everything else and downloaded the software from Asus, installed the driver. Everything was up and running in seconds with no compatibility issues whatsoever! From there I went into Spotify and started playing some tracks. Sound quality...very acceptable indeed, nice and clean signal from the optical connection. Any comparison to the Topping E50 DAC is pointless as I would still have to run the optical through the E50 to get to the amp so any comparison would be between the amps built in dac which is a lower grade chip compared to the E50. That said, the sound direct from the sound card to the amp via the PM6007 built in dac is very good, good enough to set and forget and not even bother with the E50 except for maybe very special listening sessions. Personally speaking I would rather just skip the external dac and go down this route with the sound card with direct connectivity to the amp. I know this is a gaming card but I will be using this mostly for music which makes me think that there really is a bit of a space in the market here for dedicated music soundcards that with a few tweaks to the caps, resistors and chips and maybe a full digital interface option too would negate the need for further outlay for a external dac also more half height choices would be beneficial as at the moment there really are not many at all. While RealTek may have squashed the Soundcard for a time I think there is a market for more dedicated soundcards than ever before especially where music is concerned. In conclusion its a great soundcard from Asus and pairing this with a decent modern amp with digital connections will having you bopping quicker than might expect. Definitely keeping mine!

I have used this sound card for at least 15 years now, I have owned several in that time period through upgrading PC's etc. It outputs good quality sound.Easy to use, good value for money.Highly recommended.

I bought this to replace my Xonar DX as it's 10 years old now. Hopefully this will serve my audio needs for just as long. I can't really discern any noticeable difference in quality from the previous card, maybe slightly more low end and definition. I only gave it 4 stars as there are much better cards out there, but for me it's a definite 5 star card for my needs.I'm pleased to find that ASIO mode 16/24 bits is available for this card - something that isn't mentioned on the product details here and is a must for software synthesizer to achieve low latency when using a MIDI keyboard.The Audio Center software is a bit more complicated than my previous model with lots more options, and a modern GUI. The default volume level is a bit too low for me, even at 100% but can be boosted via the Speakers/Volume Control sub menu by enabling "Xear Audio Brilliant" I was glad to find that. To record "what you hear", Stereo Mix is the only option here, previously on the Xonar DX software version there was also the option to record using Wave, probably doesn't make any difference in quality.Had a quick test in my DAW and audio processing applications, all is fine after a bit of tinkering with input/out devices and drivers. Please bear in mind, I'm using audio software that is more than 10 years old, in some cases older than 20 years. Works fine in Linux, amplification settings are slightly different.Overall, very happy with this product.

Easy to use and install. Good quality, in my case additional bracket (swappable) for small computer case was a must.Really thoughtful to include it.

I brought this to enable a SPDIF option on my PC/media server so I can run an optical out to a separate set-up that connects some wireless headphones. I haven't tested this soundcard other than the optical out.I have a lot of music sampled at 88.2kHz and176.4kHz and this isn't supported by this card. This music can resampled via software to 96kHz or 192kHz but I would have preferred to leave up-sampling to the DAC.Unfortunately, many companies don't provide SPDIF specs in their manuals or on their websites so I took a punt on this card and was a bit disappointed.NOTE: to achieve 192kHz via optical you will require a 192kHz capable cable. Not all cables are made to the higher 192kHz specifications which is close to the limit for optical and will only offer you stereo if they do. I do have a cable that transmit a 192kHz, for which the output appeared to be working on the computer but as no sound was coming out, I suspect there might be some dust or damage to the cable but I can't confirm that 192kHz was working via optical.