In some regards the D2X represents the rather pathetic state of the soundcard industry as a whole – we’ve had PCI-Express for nearly four years now and the only performance card worth buying on the interface has to use a bridge chip. At least Asus has got off its backside and done something about it.

As for the Xonar D2X itself, I still prefer not to use any of the extra Dolby or DTS features and leave the core audio sounding as good as it should – and it certainly sounds excellent. But because I prefer to have the audio sounding as it was intended without the use of any Dolby or DTS ‘features’, a lot of this extra value is lost on me. I really wish Asus would launch a no-frills card that sounded just as good – without having to pay for the DTS and Dolby licences or extra OEM software included in the bundle – it would work out far cheaper.



Link: Bit Tech