ASUS Launches the Xonar D-KARAX Sound Card

[Cristian_25H]

ASUS today announced Xonar D-KARAX, a professional-grade sound card designed for singing enthusiasts that like to sing and share their songs online.

Designed by leading music-industry engineers, Xonar D-KARAX helps eager amateur singers shape their voice and indulge in the latest trend of sharing personal songs online. Xonar D-KARAX is a PCI-Express sound card offers 96KHz/24-bit playback, real-time audio processing, 7.1 audio and a 106dB SNR (signal-to-noise ratio). Singers can apply and hear audio effects in real-time with no playback lag, a sophisticated feature previously the preserve of professional recording studios.





Professional quality, professional effects, pure simplicity
ASUS Xonar D-KARAX is stuffed with studio-grade vocal effects that help aspiring singers immerse themselves in a professional performance environment. The clear and simple user interface lets users set up and start singing in just three simple steps, while studio-grade sound effects help singers sound like stars. Vocal effects such as high- and low-pass filters, voice equalization, dynamic boost, reverb and compression can be applied with a single mouse click, along with ready-made master profiles tuned by music engineers to suit different music genres.

No lag and no noise
A hardware-based Cirrus Logic CS47028C DSP (digital-signal processor) means Xonar D-KARAX has extremely low microphone latency, so the singer's voice stays in perfect time with the backing track. By comparison, sound cards that lack a hardware DSP can introduce input lag of up to 500ms.

Xonar D-KARAX also benefits from exclusive ASUS Hyper Grounding technology with a multi-layer PCB (printed-circuit board) that eliminates noise by separating the power supply and digital signals from sensitive analog signals.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[progste]

oh please Asus, stop fooling around, this is nowhere near a professional recording sound card, for that you are much better off with an external device from m-audio or similar products

this one does not even have full-size jack or XLR ghosting connectors

 

[PLAfiller]

oh please Asus, stop fooling around, this is nowhere near a professional recording sound card, for that you are much better off with an external device from m-audio or similar products

this one does not even have full-size jack or XLR ghosting connectors

I don't think it's targeted to that type professionals you refer to. They say "singing enthusiasts", I interpret it like for people that are pondering or starting a singing career or having a hobby in it, that are not willing to pay big bucks for real professional equipment. I didn't see a price though.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

As someone who has owned an STX and D2X - Both premium sound cards made by Asus, I wish their driver support was as good as their press releases.

They seem to be able to hype anything to the point where i literally drop my pants and start furiously masturbating unfortunately only to find out theres no happy ending....

I wont buy another of their sound products for a long time to come.

 

[arterius2]

this is a karaoke sound card, mainly aimed at the Asian market.

 

[progste]

I don't think it's targeted to that type professionals you refer to. They say "singing enthusiasts", I interpret it like for people that are pondering or starting a singing career or having a hobby in it, that are not willing to pay big bucks for real professional equipment. I didn't see a price though.

that is exactly the demographic I'm referring to, you won't get good reocrdings with this, either with an instrument or voice, but you could spend something between 100-150€ and have a much better result

 

[KainXS]

oh please Asus, stop fooling around, this is nowhere near a professional recording sound card, for that you are much better off with an external device from m-audio or similar products

this one does not even have full-size jack or XLR ghosting connectors

exactly, I have an M-Audio external that I bought years ago thats better than this, this is just I don't know because most people who would be uninformed enough to buy it won't know about it anyway.

 

[Doc41]

My X-FI is better than this

but seriously, integrated audio is getting better and better and some mobos even have some creative chips in them, IMO they don't have to make such a "variety" of soundcards it's just a waste of money

 

[WaroDaBeast]

My X-FI is better than this

but seriously, integrated audio is getting better and better and some mobos even have some creative chips in them, IMO they don't have to make such a "variety" of soundcards it's just a waste of money

I agree that integrated audio has gotten a lot better over the years. That said, I would take the whole "integrated Creative chips" with a grain of salt, as it has been shown that said integrated chips were none other than Realtek chips with Creative software.

 

[Doc41]

I would take the whole "integrated Creative chips" with a grain of salt, as it has been shown that said integrated chips were none other than Realtek chips with Creative software.

Doesn't this make it a plus for Realtek , I’ve seen "well heard" what a pro grade amp sounds like ( at least I think I do) as my cousin has an avid mbox, so I can somewhat tell some difference in audio quality and tbh no sound card pre 2010 comes even close.
On another topic what happened to cmedia audio chips? Back in the day they were the best integrated chips IMO maybe even better than Realtek

 

[WaroDaBeast]

Doesn't this make it a plus for Realtek , I’ve seen "well heard" what a pro grade amp sounds like ( at least I think I do) as my cousin has an avid mbox, so I can somewhat tell some difference in audio quality and tbh no sound card pre 2010 comes even close.
On another topic what happened to cmedia audio chips? Back in the day they were the best integrated chips IMO maybe even better than Realtek

Well, C-media is still around. It's in virtually, if not all Asus Xonar soundcards, for instance. I've seen other brands use C-media chips as well, but I can't seem to recall their names.

EDIT: I remember now. There's HT Omega that uses C-media chips as well.

 

[arterius2]

I agree that integrated audio has gotten a lot better over the years. That said, I would take the whole "integrated Creative chips" with a grain of salt, as it has been shown that said integrated chips were none other than Realtek chips with Creative software.

this?

 

[micropage7]

it reminds me of audigy design

 

[WaroDaBeast]

this?

Err... I'm not sure if that's photoshopped and you're mocking me, or if you're providing the discussion with evidence.

What I said about integrated audio chips not being Creative, I did because you can install their software on motherboards that don't have the X-Fi sticker. I even tried it on mine, out of curiosity, and it worked.

 

[H82LUZ73]

Also the chips built into your GPU Like AMD,Nvidia Use the same realtek chips ASUS use for the Creative XFI 2 onboards Asus just never puts the the TRue HD or Blu Ray HD on them unless you buy there pcie sonar hd cards

 

[erocker]

Just imagine how many bad versions of "Don't Stop Believing" will be sung through this card. GAH! D:

 

[Easy Rhino]

It's for noobs to practice the ancient Japanese art of Karaoke

 

[arterius2]

Err... I'm not sure if that's photoshopped and you're mocking me, or if you're providing the discussion with evidence.

What I said about integrated audio chips not being Creative, I did because you can install their software on motherboards that don't have the X-Fi sticker. I even tried it on mine, out of curiosity, and it worked.

they are photos taken of Asus Crosshair IV/V motherboard's audio chip, with and without the stickers removed. A little research goes a long way before accusing someone of mockery.

these images were taken from this review site: http://www.itfiles.ro/2011/06/asus-...rat-in-republic-of-gamers-pentru-bulldozer/2/
http://www.itfiles.ro/2011/06/asus-...rat-in-republic-of-gamers-pentru-bulldozer/2/
scroll down and you would see more shots of the realtek chip underneath the supremefx sticker, it was pretty much common knowledge that they were using creative software over the realtek chip, surprised that you were the one who brought this up but wouldn't acknowledge it later.

 

[KainXS]

it reminds me of audigy design

how so

 

[WaroDaBeast]

they are photos taken of Asus Crosshair IV/V motherboard's audio chip, with and without the stickers removed. A little research goes a long way before accusing someone of mockery.

these images were taken from this review site: http://www.itfiles.ro/2011/06/asus-...rat-in-republic-of-gamers-pentru-bulldozer/2/
scroll down and you would see more shots of the realtek chip underneath the supremefx sticker, it was pretty much common knowledge that they were using creative software over the realtek chip, surprised that you were the one who brought this up but wouldn't acknowledge it later.

Look, I'm sorry I accused you of mockery. The thing is, I did do some research, but found no pictures like the one you attached. To be honest, the whole thing looks out of place. The lighting, for instance. Hell, even the sticker itself looks weird.

So, that led me to think you were challenging my claims. As the only immediate evidence I possess is the fact the software is installable on Realtek hardware, I used the aforementioned as my argument -- I didn't feel like doing research to prove my point. It's a matter of effort rather than acknoledgement. So yeah, call me lazy all you want.

Anyhow, I hope you didn't take it too badly. I really didn't mean to be rude or anything. I guess I get challenged so often (both on Internet forums and in real life) that I tend to assume a lot that people try to challenge my claims.

About this being common knowledge... I don't really know if that's pertinent or not. I mean, you'll find the most fervent defenders of this or that brand on every forum out there (I'm not telling you you're that kinda person, just that some people will throw a tantrum at whatever negative comment you make on their favorite brand). That's why I usually ignore that parameter and just go with hard evidence.

Wow, that was a long reply. I think this warrants a summary.

tl;dr: Apologies for accusing you, that pic just looked too weird!

 

[arterius2]

tl;dr: Apologies for accusing you, that pic just looked too weird!

no worries mate, agree the sticker does look too shiny

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Asus that's just sad, an add-in board without SPDIF-OUT? Even amateurs should have that option.

 

[arterius2]

Asus that's just sad, an add-in board without SPDIF-OUT? Even amateurs should have that option.

once again, as already mentioned numerous times, this is a karaoke card aimed at the Asian market. However, most ASUS sound cards do provide SPDIF via one of the audio jacks. that said, I've never met any karaoke singer who actually knows what the heck SPDIF is.

 

[Depth]

Asus, could you pleeeeease offer an updated driver for my Xonar D2X?
While you're off getting rich I'm stuck using 3rd party drivers.