Asus Xonar DS, User Manual

Page 1: ...Xonar DS Audio card User manual ...

Page 2: ...MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IN NO EVENT SHALL ASUS ITS DIRECTORS OFFICERS EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT SPECIAL INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS LOSS OF BUSINESS LOSS OF USE OR DATA INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS AND THE LIKE EVEN IF ASUS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY DEFECT OR ERROR ...

Page 3: ...ard driver 8 5 Connecting speakers and peripherals 9 5 1 Connecting digital speaker systems Home Theater 9 5 2 Connecting stereo headphones 10 5 3 Connecting Analog Speaker Systems 12 5 4 Connecting microphone 17 5 5 Connecting Line In audio sources 18 6 Xonar Audio Center 19 6 1 Xonar Audio Center GUI 19 6 2 Main Setting 21 6 3 Mixer Volume 27 6 4 Effects 30 6 5 Karaoke 32 6 6 FlexBass 34 6 7 Sma...

Page 4: ...ing measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help Canadian Department of Communications Statement This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio ...

Page 5: ... To avoid short circuits keep paper clips screws and staples away from connectors sockets and circuitry Avoid dust humidity and temperature extremes Do not place the product in any area where it may become wet Place the product on a stable surface If you encounter technical problems with the product contact a qualified service technician or your retailer Trademarks Xonar and ASUS logo are trademar...

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Page 7: ...le slot for the audio card Microsoft Windows Vista 32 64bit XP 32 64bit MCE2005 Intel Pentium 4 1 4 GHz or AMD Athlon 1400 CPU or faster CPU 256 MB or above DRAM system memory 60 MB available HDD space for driver installation package CD ROM drive or DVD ROM drive for software installation High quality headphones powered analog speakers or a Dolby Digital or DTS decoder to enjoy the ultra high fide...

Page 8: ...ader for HDMI audio output Front Panel Audio Header Intel HDA front panel compatible and supports HP jack detection and automatically switch audio output from back panel to front Driver Features Operation System Windows Vista XP 32 64bit MCE2005 DTS Technologies DTS Connect DTS Interactive Encoder and DTS Neo PC for both XP and Vista DTS Interactive encodes any 3D gaming audio into true to live 5 ...

Page 9: ...line Karaoke or online DJ applications FlexBassTM Professional Bass Management Enhancement system Xear 3DTM Virtual Speaker Shifter Adjustable virtual 7 1 speaker positioning Other Effects 10 band Equalier 27 Environment Effects 3D Gaming Sound Engines APIs Vista DirectSound3D GX 2 5 EAX 2 0 1 0 DirectSound HW DirectSound SW A3D 1 0 OpenAL generic modes 128 3D sounds processing capability XP Direc...

Page 10: ... ASUS Xonar DS 2 Xonar DS card layout 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 Audio ports ...

Page 11: ...ter subwoofer input on 5 1 6 1 7 1 powered analog speakers 5 Rear back Surround Out port Connects to the Back Surround input on 6 1 7 1 powered analog speakers 5 S PDIF Out port Optical TOSLINK digital output port Connects to external digital decoder or digital speaker systems Home Theater systems AV receivers for outputting digital audio including PCM DTS Digital DTS WMA Pro etc 6 Front panel aud...

Page 12: ... the monitor and all other peripheral devices connected to your computer 2 Unplug the computer power cord from your computer and power outlet 3 Touch the metal back or side panel of the computer to avoid static electricity 4 Remove the chassis cover 5 Remove the metal bracket from an available PCI slot for the Xonar DS audio card 6 Carefully insert the audio card into the PCI slot Ensure the audio...

Page 13: ...V tuner card to the Aux In header of the Xonar DS card For optimum TV audio quality Xonar DS uses ADC recording to digitize the signal and loops it back to DAC playback Select Aux In as the recording source in the Xonar DS Center s recording mixer and enable the monitoring button to pass this signal to the audio output Using this setup you can even turn on sound effects such as Pro Logic IIx to ex...

Page 14: ...ard turn on your computer Windows automatically detects the audio card and searches for device drivers When prompted for the drivers click Cancel 2 Insert the support CD into the optical drive If Autorun is enabled in your system the setup starts automatically If not run setup exe from your support CD 3 Follow the onscreen instructions to finish the installation The version and content of the supp...

Page 15: ...gital cable connection can carry high quality DTS digital audio from any of your PC audio sources to any digital speakers or AV Receivers with DTS 5 1 decoding capabilities You can also use a coaxial cable for a S PDIF connection Just plug the coaxial RCA male connector to the S PDIF Out combo jack and connect the other end into the coaxial S PDIF input on your decoder No Item Description 1 Optica...

Page 16: ...o headphones 5 2 1 Connecting Stereo Headphones Headphone Out No Item Description 1 Front Out Headphone Jack The Front Out jack has a built in high quality amplifier to drive headphones Connect your stereo headphones directly to this jack ...

Page 17: ... Front Out Connect the front channel 3 5mm plug of your 5 1 headphones into this jack 2 Side Surround Out Connect the surround channel 3 5mm plug of your 5 1 headphone into this jack 3 Center Subwoofer Out Connect the Center Bass channel 3 5mm plug of your 5 1 headphone into this jack ...

Page 18: ...h the mini jack to RCA cable 2 Side Surround Out Connects to the left surround and right surround input ports of the analog amplifier with the mini jack to RCA cable 3 Center Subwoofer Connects to the Center and subwoofer input ports of the analog amplifier with the mini jack to RCA cable 4 Back Surround Out Connects to the left back and right back input ports of the analog amplifier with the mini...

Page 19: ...13 ASUS Xonar DS 5 3 2 Connecting 2 2 1 channel speakers No Item Description 1 Front Out Headphone Jack Connect the 2 2 1 speaker set s 3 5mm plug into this Front Out jack 1 2 Speakers 2 1 Speakers 1 ...

Page 20: ...akers No Item Description 1 Front Out Connects to the Front input port of the 4 4 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 2 Side Surround Out Connects to the Surround input port of the 4 4 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 1 2 1 2 4 Speakers 4 1 Speakers ...

Page 21: ...t Connects to the Front input port of the 5 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 2 Side Surround Out Connects to the Surround input port of the 5 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 3 Center Subwoofer Connects to the Center Subwoofer input port of the 5 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 5 1 Speakers 6 1 Speakers ...

Page 22: ...Surround Out Connects to the Surround input port of the 6 1 7 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 3 Center Subwoofer Connects to the Center Subwoofer input port of the 6 1 7 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 4 Back Surround Out Connects to the Back Surround input port of the 6 1 7 1 speakers with the mini jack cable 7 1 Speakers 1 2 3 4 ...

Page 23: ...escription 1 Microphone Input Jack Connect the microphone s 3 5mm plug into this Mic In jack for voice communication recording or karaoke 2 Headphone Jack The Front Out jack has a built in high quality amplifier to drive headphones Connect your stereo headphones directly to this jack ...

Page 24: ...em Description 1 Line Input Jack Connect the 3 5mm plug of the CD MP3 Player or any other Line level analog audio sources into this Line In jack for sound recording or real time Dolby sound processing through the Monitoring path See the Mixer section of the driver guide ...

Page 25: ... not be found in the system tray launch the Xonar Audio Center from the Windows desktop by clicking Start All Programs ASUS Xonar DS Audio Xonar DS Audio Center 2 The Xonar Audio Center is the Graphic User Interface GUI for the Xonar DS driver You can control the functions and features of the Xonar DS driver on the Xonar Audio Center The following picture shows a basic overview of the Xonar Audio ...

Page 26: ... pop up driver s Information window 5 Menu Open Close Clicking this button will move the display area and reveal the configuration area below Clicking it again will move the display area back down 6 Master Volume This rotary knob controls the master playback volume Drag the small circle inside it to change the volume level 7 Mute Button Click this button to mute audio playback it will display a re...

Page 27: ... your playback sources to get the best audio fidelity Even if your setting differs from the audio source s sample rate the Xonar DS engine will do super high fidelity sample rate conversion with a double floating point filter which can reduce total harmonic distortion THD N by 140dB No Item Description 1 Sample Rate Select the sample rate that corresponds to or exceeds that of your playback source...

Page 28: ...ccordingly Select the correct speaker type for your connected speakers 2 Speaker Test Click this button to show the speaker test window in the right pane Click the play button to test each speaker one by one or click each speaker manually to test 3 HP Advanced Setting Clicking this button will pop up an advanced setting window to allow you to Swap center bass outputs for 5 1 7 1 speaker set ups Sw...

Page 29: ...an immersive and impressive cinema surround sound experience It enables a single digital connection to carry high quality DTS surround audio from your PC to digital speakers and AV Receivers No Item Description 1 S PDIF Out enable disable Click this check box to enable S PDIF output 2 S PDIF Output Formats Functions This pull down menu allows you to select one of the following four formats PCM Pul...

Page 30: ... it Please note that this setting is synchronized with Vista s system speaker configuration and changing the setting during playback will cease the audio playback program You may have to restart the program after the change It s recommended that you close all playing programs before you change the setting No Item Description 1 Audio Channels Here are some typical suggestions MP3 WMA AAC CD VCD 2D ...

Page 31: ... Drag speaker or listener You can drag each speaker or listener to a different relative position virtually using only your mouse The Xonar DS card will process it and virtualize each speaker position in real time The Subwoofer has no directional sounds and hence can be moved only closer or further away 3 Reset Reset all Speaker Shifter settings to the defaults 4 Increase decrease volume Click to i...

Page 32: ...o Logic IIx page for manual adjustments 2 Center Width This parameter is used to set the spread of the center mainly for the vocal signals of songs and music Drag the scroll bar to the left to centralize the vocal signal Drag to the right side to widen the vocal sound range 3 Reset Reset all settings to the defaults 4 Dimension The dimension parameter fades sounds to the front or rear of the liste...

Page 33: ...decrease the volume drag it up to increase the volume The tool tip reveals the percentage number from 1 to 100 in terms of the full scale level 3 Mute button Click this button to mute the audio channel click this button again to restore the audio output 4 Source path name This shows the source name for each volume control slider including WAVE All digital audio sources except MIDI files SW Softwar...

Page 34: ...ws is a one path selector So you can select only one default recording source at a time You may have to restart the recorder program if you switch to a different source Note On Vista some application programs may allow you to select the recording device path in the recording programs themselves 4 Microphone In Advanced Setting Click this button to open the advanced settings for the Microphone In E...

Page 35: ...for your TV audio CD MP3 or stereo game console audio from Wii Xbox PS2 PS3 PSP etc 6 Source path name This shows the source name for each volume control slider including S PDIF In S PDIF digital input source MIC recording from MIC jack Mix Stereo Mix which will record MIC AUX and digital WAVE audio you are playing on PC Aux recording from Aux In for typically TV tuner card audio or other sound so...

Page 36: ... sound sources like music No Item Description 1 Default environments These four buttons activate Bathroom Concert hall Underwater and Music Pub environments respectively 2 More options Clicking this button will apply the environment effect that you select from the pull down menu on the right side There are another 23 options in this menu 3 Environment size There are three size settings for each en...

Page 37: ... equalizer options There are 12 available equalizer patterns Click one to apply it 2 Equalier slider Adjust the gain for each band 30 16KHz 3 User Defined You can click this button to apply your own defined parameters saved in the pull down menu 4 Save name Key in a name for your own User Defined equalizer setting 5 Add save Click this button to save the parameters into User Defined list 6 Delete ...

Page 38: ... symphony for karaoke No Item Description 1 On Off Click the switch to turn on or off the functions on this page 2 Key Shifting Check the box to enable or disable the key shifting feature for music playback from 4 semitones below to 4 semitones above 3 Vocal Cancellation Check the box to enable or disable the vocal cancellation function and adjust the voice cancellation level from 0 to 100 100 wil...

Page 39: ...ccording to your requirement With Mic you will only record audio source from microphone with echo effects but you are able to record all audio sources from Wave Aux and Mic with microphone echo effect Click OK to accept it or Cancel if you want to enable it later Checking Don t remind me again and this message will not show up again ...

Page 40: ...ass page 2 Small Large speaker option Select the speaker type that you connected If your speaker type cannot perform low frequency signals bass select Small speaker type and Xonar DS will filter out the bass signals and send them to the subwoofer channel If those speakers are full range you can select the Large speaker type Note Usually low cost PC s 2 channel speakers are small type speakers Refe...

Page 41: ...requency 50 250Hz for LFE low frequency effects signals Xonar DS will filter out the bass signals below the crossover frequency from small speaker channels and forward them to the subwoofer The higher the crossover frequency the more bass signals will be subtracted ...

Page 42: ...sles inherent with sound sources of different loudness It allows you to listen to various content like MP3 TV program DVD video and even games with consistent sound level The following graph shows how different signals 1 2 will become the same level for example 10dB below full scale after you turn on SVN Please note that for lower volume music 2 it will become louder when you turn on SVN and for h...

Page 43: ...ined blue when active 2 SVN blue light When SVN is enabled the master volume knob will be illuminated by a blue light It will be lit red if the volume is muted 3 SVN display When SVN is enabled Smart Volume will be lit up at the bottom of the volume meter and the volume meter will show the level 2 1 3 ...

Page 44: ... DS3D GX technology Before you start EAX and DS3D HW games enable DS3D GX on the Xonar Audio Center and disable the function after the games In addition Xonar DS also offers a Hi Fi mode for hi fidelity playback without any effect processing to keep the original audio fidelity Every time you turn on Hi Fi mode Xonar DS will clear all sound effects It s also recommended to use Hi Fi mode for audio ...

Page 45: ...support EAX and DirectSound 3D Hardware extensions for lots of DirectX DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista and XP 2 Hi Fi Mode This mode is set for Hi Fidelity playback where all effects will be cleared to keep the original digital data and analog output quality as high as possible 2 1 ...

Page 46: ...m Description 1 VoiceEX It produces realistic and dynamic environmental reverberation for your voice in 3D gaming communication 2 Local VoiceEX It produces realistic and dynamic environmental reverberation for your voice in 3D gaming communication You can hear your voice form speakers 3 ChatEX It emulates different background environment effects when you chat online 4 Magic Voice Changes your voic...

Page 47: ...X 2 Make sure you and your team member can talk to each other in the game For VOIP 1 Press App List 2 If you don t see the VOIP application of yours in the list press Add Make sure the Skype and MSN Messenger are the latest version 3 Look for the application s location and Open it ...

Page 48: ...e when you chat online Click the checkbox to enable VocalFX function then a prompt message will pop up This message implies the record device will be set to microphone Make sure the GX function is enabled Click OK to accept it or Cancel if you want to enable it later Check Don t remind me again if you don t want to see this message pop up next time ...

Page 49: ...he system tray go to the Windows Control Panel and double click the Xonar DS Audio Center icon to make it visible in the system tray again 4 After the driver installation is complete it s recommended that you reboot your computer to complete the setup If the icon still doesn t appear please try installing the driver package again I cannot hear any sound from my analog speakers Instructions 1 Xonar...

Page 50: ...the AV receiver is in that decoding mode 4 If you are using 192KHz PCM output please make sure your decoder can support 192KHz decoding Try changing it to 44 1K or 48KHz first I cannot hear audio input Mic Line in AUX etc from my speakers Instructions 1 Go to the mixer recording page in the Audio Center and select the correct input as the recording source If you are using Windows Vista also go to ...

Page 51: ...el speakers Answer The Xonar DS supports DTS Interactive which allow a single digital connection to your AV receiver to carry DTS Digtial Surround audio In addition Xonar DS also provides DTS Neo PC to upmix TV and other music to multi channel surround sound in Home Theater environments Xonar DS also has High Fidelity SNR at 192K 24bit which is the only high quality consumer audio card in the worl...

Page 52: ...ve encoding output from the S PDIF out menu which will allow the Xonar DS to deliver upto 7 1 surround sound for games DVD movies and even stereo music Q8 Why can I hear and record sound from other recording devices when Wave Digital is selected in Record on Vista Answer Different from Windows XP Vista has a multiple devices streams concept in audio structure in which the concept can be categorize...

Page 53: ... fidelity playback This is also usually the behavior that professional audiophiles and musicians prefer If you still want to have the effects you can use some editing software Ableton Live Cakewalk CoolEdit Soundforge etc to convert the sounds into 48KHz files Please note that the frequency meter on Xonar DS Audio Center panel will not take effect either when the playback source is 96KHz or 192KHz...

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