ASUS Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity 7.1 PCI Sound Card

The ASUS Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity 7.1 sound card came with promise of being the best sound card in its class, but best is broad sweaping statment that we'll steer clear of in general.  It’s certainly priced at the upper end of cards in its class but does boast excellent SNR performance.  However, saying it’s the best depends on its intended use from an end user's perspective.  For a prosumer class card, the ASUS Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity 7.1 Sound Card has a lot to offer, and serious audiophiles may find its feature set robust, with little drawback. 

However, from a average user looking for a solid sound card for music, movies and gaming perspective, the ASUS Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity 7.1 Sound Card may a bit overkill.  Synthetic performance testing demonstrated the performance and accuracy differences between integrated audio and the Xonar D2 without question.  We just don't see a glaring reason to suggest the average user take the leap from a good integrated sound processing solution to a high quality PCI sound card like the Xonar.  We did note in our subjective segment that the Xonar D2 offered superior performance especially in gaming scenarios, but integrated Realtek HD Audio wasn't too far off the mark versus the Xonar card.  Not to mention that the Realtek solution comes built into a motherboard with minimal CPU utilization or increase in cost.  Where the ASUS Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity 7.1 Sound Card fits in, is with users looking for a bit more out of their total sound solution.  For any user looking for advanced features and the ability to connect to a broad range of external components, the Asus Xonar D2 and its retail bundle should bring a lot to the table for the audiophile or surround sound aficionado that can justify the added expense.