ASUS Announces STRIX Series Sound Cards

[btarunr]

ASUS today announced Strix Raid DLX, Strix Raid Pro, and Strix Soar, gaming sound cards that deliver sensational, high-definition 192kHz/24-bit audio, 7.1-channel surround-sound, and Perfect Voice noise-cancellation technology for incredible gaming experiences.

Strix Raid DLX is a premium soundcard built with high-end components to satisfy gamers who demand the ultimate audio performance. Strix Raid DLX features an ESS SABRE9016 digital-to-analog converter (DAC) - the world's highest performance 32-bit and 24-bit audio DAC - to deliver rich, immersive, and clear sound with an incredible 124dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Designed for enthusiast gamers, Strix Raid Pro and Strix Soar come with the high-performance ESS SABRE9006A DAC for pure, full-sounding audio with an impressive 116dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Low-dropout (LDO) regulators and Hi-Fi-grade Nichicon FineGold, Nichicon Muse, and German WIMA capacitors ensure optimized power delivery.



Strix Raid DLX, Strix Raid Pro, and Strix Soar each have a built-in 600-ohm headphone amplifier to drive a wide range of headphones and deliver clear, detailed sound with deep, tight bass.

Instant in-game audio adjustment with Raid Mode
Strix Raid Mode lets gamers with Strix Raid DLX and Strix Raid Pro sound cards save their favorite audio adjustments into custom presets that they can instantly turn on or off with the dedicated Raid button on the included soundcard audio control box. This powerful feature ensures gamers will never miss a single moment of gaming action by having to pause their game and open software to adjust their audio settings. The audio control box also has a convenient control knob that lets users adjust the volume and the Raid Mode intensity level, while also doubling as an output-selector button to switch between headphones and speakers.

Simple audio configuration with Sonic Studio
Strix Raid DLX, Strix Raid Pro, and Strix Soar sound cards come with Sonic Studio, the next-generation sound utility from ASUS that provides gamers complete control over their sound card's audio features. It features a beautiful, intuitive interface that groups a wide range of audio-adjustment functions together logically, making Sonic Studio both powerful and easy to use. Unlike typical audio utilities with multi-screen interfaces that make configuration complicated and time-consuming, Sonic Studio has an elegant all-in-one view that puts all the necessary controls on a single screen to make adjustments fast and easy for users.

The Sonic Studio interface groups key audio controls together based on function, making features easy to find and configuration error-free. The Audio Enhancement group features tools for fine-grained audio control, including an equalizer for adjusting the gain of specific frequencies, Bass Boost for deeper, more pronounced bass, Voice Clarity for making speech stand out more prominently in games and movies, and Compressor to adjust audio dynamic range. The Tuning group lets headphone listeners enable virtual surround-sound and configure the spaciousness of the effect using virtual adjustments of speaker placement and reverb. Finally, the Mic tuning group contains microphone configuration tools and features the Perfect Voice control. Designed for multiplayer gaming where communicating with teammates is especially important, Perfect Voice reduces background noise - such as keyboard and mouse clicks as well as people talking nearby - in speech signals to ensure clear, in-game voice communication.

Sonic Studio also includes controls for Sonic Radar Pro, a unique feature that precisely maps in-game sounds - such as footsteps and gunshots - and displays them on an on-screen overlay, so gamers can pinpoint their enemies for a competitive advantage in first-person shooters.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[deemon]

Yes, yes, very nice, but what about now making actual drivers for your existsing soundcards for Windows 10?
(so we don't have to hack windows 8.1 drivers to work on windows 10 ... which works btw:

)

 

[RCoon]

All well and good bringing out new sound cards, but that's no use when they haven't updated their drivers in literally years for Xonar users...

Creative and Asus are both as bad as each other in terms of drivers. I still have to reset my audio to stereo from 5.1 in Windows 10. These mystical "August" drivers still haven't arrived yet.

 

[RejZoR]

They look nice and have nice specs, but EVERYONE is missing the point. All the bits and Hertzes with super duper capacitors are meaningless if 3D positioning engine is shite (and I bet they are still using the same C-Media audio chip as on Xonar ST/STX cards). And for the most part, it is shite. That's why Creative cards blew away any competition, because their 3D positioning was the best and still is the best. Slightly less since EAX isn't being used anymore, but I've seen the dramatic change when adjusting Surround slider for stereo audio in SBX panel.

Sonic Radar Pro improves things a bit, but I wonder for how much...

Also, pathetic driver support. Had Xonar STX and in all the time I had it they introduced 2 updates which made things worse, not better. When wanted to ask them what's going on I realized their support webpage doesn't erven have Soundcards/Audio category. I don't know how much it changed but their soundcard support is absolute garbage.

 

[rtwjunkie]

They look nice and have nice specs, but EVERYONE is missing the point. All the bits and Hertzes with super duper capacitors are meaningless if 3D positioning engine is shite (and I bet they are still using the same C-Media audio chip as on Xonar ST/STX cards). And for the most part, it is shite. That's why Creative cards blew away any competition, because their 3D positioning was the best and still is the best. Slightly less since EAX isn't being used anymore, but I've seen the dramatic change when adjusting Surround slider for stereo audio in SBX panel.

Sonic Radar Pro improves things a bit, but I wonder for how much...

Also, pathetic driver support. Had Xonar STX and in all the time I had it they introduced 2 updates which made things worse, not better. When wanted to ask them what's going on I realized their support webpage doesn't erven have Soundcards/Audio category. I don't know how much it changed but their soundcard support is absolute garbage.

I've not had any trouble getting working drivers for Xonar cards for W7 and W8.1. Can't speak about earlier, you may be right, but in the last couple years they have driver downloads page for sound cards.

Don't get me wrong, I still prefer Creative because of the sound and better driver support (which is a far cry from their dismal days a few years ago when nothing got updated). It seems the two companies have switched positions slightly.

 

[DeNeDe]

i hope real 7.1 and not driven with drivers.

 

[Ja.KooLit]

Looks like they copied the Creative Soundblaster Zx. Volume control.

 

[deemon]

Looks like they copied the Creative Soundblaster Zx. Volume control.

Was this sarcasm? It's like apple with their retangular shape with rounded corners all over again.

 

[PLAfiller]

I think it needs moar power, something like 2 x 6 pin connectors. I find Creative better though, never had problems with the drivers. Except for the bloatware they include sometimes.

 

[haswrong]

<sarc>ASUS you have failed!!!! i expected the heavenly capacitors right from VATICAN!!!!</sarc>
not interested in your marketing KRAP, release the data sheet and be done with it.

 

[Ruru]

6-pin PCI-e connector on a soundcard, seriously? Well, I'm happy with my SB Recon3D PCIe, since this is similar to SB Z like Vista was to Win7.

Since this is a Strix product, is it silent on idle?

 

[haswrong]

6-pin PCI-e connector on a soundcard, seriously? Well, I'm happy with my SB Recon3D PCIe, since this is similar to SB Z like Vista was to Win7.

Since this is a Strix product, is it silent on idle?

if i reckon, the recon3d chip isnt of spectacular quality. sbz should be qualitatively on a higher level. but regarding the silent mode on strix, thats a very relevant question.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Their driver support is extremely poor... If you decide to buy this; be warned, you might not get drivers in the future which will support your product, most Xonar users are completely screwed at the moment.

Why should we give you more money ASUS, if this is how you treat your customers?

 

[silapakorn]

Again? Even Creative doesn't release internal sound cards this frequent.

 

[TheButcherNL]

All well and good bringing out new sound cards, but that's no use when they haven't updated their drivers in literally years for Xonar users...

Creative and Asus are both as bad as each other in terms of drivers. I still have to reset my audio to stereo from 5.1 in Windows 10. These mystical "August" drivers still haven't arrived yet.

Creative released Windows 10 drivers in August

http://support.creative.com/Product...SET=prodfaq:PRODFAQ_21384,VARSET=CategoryID:1

cyaburg

 

[RejZoR]

Best driver support is still provided by Realtek. Sure it has no fancy fiddly settings like Creative or ASUS, but they release drivers like every 2 months or so. And they don't have uber high end audiophile stuf, they just make a "generic" cheap but still capable audio chip and prvide support for it.

Creative and ASUS use super high end audio chips and they can't provide stupid drivers on time. That's just pathetic. And I kinda get ASUS since they depend on others (though they could slap the authors to work faster), but Creative, Creative makes their very own stuff. Stop being so freaking lazy and properly support people who pay top money just to get good audio and then have lousy driver support. Things improve, but considering we pay like 5€ for the audio chip on motherboards and 100+ € for dedicated soundcards, they could do a better job.

 

[Ruru]

if i reckon, the recon3d chip isnt of spectacular quality. sbz should be qualitatively on a higher level.

But the sound chip is the same Core3D in Recon3D than in SB Z, SB Z is just a newer and better model. But I don't complain since I got this with only 20 euros.

 

[ypsylon]

Their driver support is extremely poor... If you decide to buy this; be warned, you might not get drivers in the future which will support your product, most Xonar users are completely screwed at the moment.

Why should we give you more money ASUS, if this is how you treat your customers?

Couldn't agree more. On X99 vast majority of boards Xonars simply don't work - no matter what driver pack you get. World-wide infamous Asus support. First time in 20 years was forced to use on-board sound and it's terrible experience.

 

[Ferrum Master]

On X99 vast majority of boards Xonars simply don't work

Didn't know that, thanks for the info. The board hates PLX converters I guess... I hate them too actually .

And Creative game me a shocker... They really did give us the driver in time... even for old X-Fi... and it works... yes it has few bugs... but Asus tops the charts with bugs now, they really have problems with sample rate switching and WASAPI

The problem is that Asus itself doesn't write the driver but CMEDIA... soo no wonders there they simply can't answer...