Asus has a couple of new soundcards

Most people are more than happy with their integrated audio but for those who desire a bit more Asus is preparing a new set of Xonar sound cards. This includes the new Xonar HDAV (in Standard and Deluxe versions), the more basic Xonar StereoX which only features stereo sound and microphone input and the Xonar D1 which is a PCI version of the Xonar DX.

Asus says that in the June-July timeframe, it will launch what it claims is the only solution that will let you output 7.1 channel high-definition audio from the likes of Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master HD with a full bandwidth HDMI 1.3 over HDMI (with HDCP) or LPCM. The Asus Xonar HDAV is going to be (hyped up as) the king of kings when it comes to home theatre PC audio. In fact, the Xonar engineering team claim that it’ll easily beat soundcards even from the likes of industry giant Onkyo – that’s a pretty big claim to make, so we’ll have to see how it stands up over time.

Pictured below is the Asus Xonar HDAV Deluxe, this card features an additional card to output full 192KHz 7.1 channel LPCM audio from the extra six RCA jacks.



You can check out the full lineup at Bit Tech. The Xonar D1 will be available this month while the Xonar HDAV and Xonar StereoX will be available in June or July.