ASUS Xonar D2 Sound Card and U1 USB Audio Station Reviews

Performance Tests (cont’d)

Testing both of these sounds cards in 16-bit and 24-bit environments gave us a good overview of the range available with these products. While the Xonar D2 and X-Fi Premium were pretty much neck-in-neck in every benchmark, we were most impressed with the performance we received from the Xonar U1. The U1’s frequency response results were sub par compared to the D2 and X-Fi Premium, but this compact sound solution hung tough and kept pace with the high-end cards in the other areas we evaluated.

While the U1’s numbers were pretty consistent throughout most of our tests, the Xonar D2 seemed to be at its best during the 24-bit benchmarks. The card’s stereo crosstalk and dynamic range results during the 24-bit, 96 kHz tests let the D2 flex its muscles a bit and pull ahead of the U1 and X-Fi Premium. The D2’s frequency response numbers weren’t where we like to see them during our 24-96 kHz tests, but these results were pretty close to the X-Fi. In fact, the difference in performance between these two sound cards shouldn’t be noticeable at all to users who purchase these respective cards.

Overall, each of these cards was able to showcase the entire range of their abilities from 16-bit sound all the way to 24-bit sound.