Asus Xonar U1, User Manual

Page 1: ...Xonar U1 External USB Audio Station User s manual R ...

Page 2: ...RCHANTABILITY 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 IN...

Page 3: ... Reinstalling Software 7 5 Connecting Speakers and Peripherals 9 5 1 Connecting Digital Speaker Systems Home Theater 9 5 2 Connecting speakers 10 5 3 Connecting headphone microphone 11 5 4 Connecting Line In Audio Sources 12 6 Xonar U1 Driver Guide 13 6 1 Introduction to the Xonar U1 Audio Center GUI 13 6 2 Main Setting 15 6 3 Mixer Volume 23 6 4 Effects 26 6 5 Karaoke Magic Voice 28 6 6 Mic Array...

Page 4: ...iv Contents 8 Troubleshooting and FAQs 39 Troubleshooting 39 FAQ 42 ...

Page 5: ...nce to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving ant...

Page 6: ...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 trademarks of ASUSTek Computer Inc Dolby and Dolby Digital Live Dolby Pro ...

Page 7: ...patible PC with one USB1 1 or higher compatible port for the USB audio device Microsoft Windows Vista XP 32 64bit MCE2005 Intel Pentium 4 1 4GHz or AMD Athlon 1400 CPU or faster CPU 256 MB 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 decoder to ...

Page 8: ...itch by pushing volume knob LED indicator Red light Mute Blue light HiFi mode Flashing blue light User mode Driver Features Operation System Windows Vista XP 32 64bit Dolby Technologies Dolby Headphone Dolby Virtual Speaker Dolby Pro Logic IIx Dolby Digital Live Smart Volume Normalizer Normalizes the volume of all audio sources into a constant level Xear 3D Virtual Speaker Shifter Virtual 7 1 spea...

Page 9: ... Speaker w Pro Logic II and Smart Volume Normalization processing Windows Media Player 10 or above is required Audio Performance Output Signal to Noise Ratio silence A Weighted 100dB Output Dynamic Range 60dB A Weighted 96dB Cross talk 10Kohms 1KHz 104dB Frequency Response 1dB 48KHz 20Hz to 20KHz Output Input Full Scale Voltage 1 2 Vrms 1 1 Vrms Accessories S PDIF optical adaptor 1 2 channel verti...

Page 10: ... Output jack Connect your headphones or 2 2 1 channel speakers to this jack For multi channel speaker systems connects to the front left right input on the powered speakers S PDIF Output jack Optical S PDIF output jack Connects to an external digital decoder or digital speaker systems Home Theater systems AV receivers for outputting digital audio including PCM Dolby Digital WMA Pro etc 3 Volume kn...

Page 11: ... ASUS Xonar U1 3 Installing the Xonar Hardware 3 1 Installing Xonar U1 Connect the USB connector to any USB 2 0 port on your notebook or PC as the following drawing shows ...

Page 12: ...or DVD ROM drive If Windows AutoPlay mode is enabled for your CD ROM drive the CD starts running automatically If it doesn t start the installation double click the setup exe icon located on the CD ROM 3 Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation Please read the END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT in the process and make sure you understand and accept it before you continue the inst...

Page 13: ...Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation After the installation is complete click Finish 4 3 Uninstalling or Reinstalling Software 4 3 1 Uninstalling Software 1 Select the corresponding uninstallation program under the All Programs section of the Start menu Otherwise you ll need to use the Windows control panel for uninstallation as follows ...

Page 14: ...the Add Remove or Change Remove button 6 In the InstallShield Wizard dialog box select the Remove option 7 Restart your computer when prompted 4 3 2 Reinstalling Software 1 Before you reinstall any software it s recommended to uninstall the existing software first 2 After you finish the uninstallation of the software please follow the installation process again to reinstall the same or updated sof...

Page 15: ...round bit streams This makes playback through your home theater system possible creating an immersive and impressive cinema surround sound experience A single digital cable connection can carry high quality Dolby Digital audio from any of your PC audio sources to any digital speakers or AV Receivers with Dolby Digital decoding capabilities No Item Description 1 Optical adaptor Plug the optical TOS...

Page 16: ...Xonar U1 5 2 Connecting speakers 5 2 1 Connecting 2 2 1 Channel Speakers No Item Description 1 Headphone Jack Connect the 2 2 1 speaker set s 3 5mm plug into this Headphone jack 2 Speakers 2 1 Speakers 1 R R 1 ...

Page 17: ...Microphone Input Jack Connect the microphone s 3 5mm plug into this Mic In jack for voice communication recording or karaoke Connecting headphone R 1 2 Connecting Microphone Array Microphone R 1 No Item Description 1 Microphone Input Jack Connect the microphone s 3 5mm plug into this Mic In jack for voice communication recording or karaoke ...

Page 18: ...this Line In Microphone jack for sound recording or real time Dolby sound processing through the Monitoring path See the Mixer section of the driver guide R 1 To use the bundled array microphone When using the bundled array microphone make sure that you position your mouth to the correct side of the microphone as the following picture shows Otherwise the microphone may not receive your voice well ...

Page 19: ... open the Xonar Audio Center utility If the icon could not be found in the system tray go to the Windows Control Panel and double click the Xonar U1 Audio Center icon 2 The Xonar U1 Audio Center is the Graphic User Interface GUI for the Xonar U1 driver You can control the functions and features of the Xonar U1 driver on the Audio Center The following picture shows a basic overview of the Xonar U1 ...

Page 20: ... circle inside it to change the volume level 4 SVN Button Click this button to enable the Smart Volume Normalization feature for constant volume from all playback sources It will display a blue light when enabled 5 Mute Button Click this button to mute audio playback it will display a red light when playback is muted 6 DSP Mode These 4 buttons give access to quick sound effects combinations for Mu...

Page 21: ...AC and S PDIF digital interface will output The Xonar U1 audio card can support sample rates up to 48KHz Even if your setting differs from the audio source s sample rate the Xonar U1 engine will do super high fidelity sample rate conversion with a double floating point filter No Item Description 1 Sample Rate The Xonar U1 supports sample rates up to 48KHz 1 ...

Page 22: ...nd does the proper 3D Dolby sound processing accordingly Select the correct speaker Headphone type for your connected speakers Headphone 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 note the Speaker Test function is not available on Windows Vista due to a limitation in...

Page 23: ...high quality Dolby Digital 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 two formats PCM Pulse Code Modulation which is a typical raw audio data format Dolby Digital Live real time 5 1ch encod...

Page 24: ...e you play 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 ...

Page 25: ...ach speaker or listener to a different relative position virtually using only your mouse The Xonar U1 audio station 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 increase volume move speakers cl...

Page 26: ...e right window to the Pro Logic IIx page for manual adjustments 2 Music Mode Music mode is the default mode for regular music playback In this mode you can adjust the Center Width and Dimension parameters 3 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 ri...

Page 27: ...d reduce listener fatigue from long listening over headphones No Item Description 1 Dolby Headphone enable disable Click this check box to enable Dolby Headphone Clicking the text bar will switch the right window to Dolby Headphone page for manual adjusting 2 DH1 Dolby Headphone DH provides three room filters that may be used with any type of audio They differ in the sense of the spatial dimension...

Page 28: ...d listening experience from any high quality stereo source No Item Description 1 Dolby Virtual Speaker enable disable Click this check box to enable Dolby Virtual Speaker Clicking the text bar will switch the right window to a Dolby Virtual Speaker page for manual adjusting 2 Reference Mode Dolby Virtual Speaker provides two modes of virtualization The first is Reference mode which virtualizes the...

Page 29: ...lider including WAVE All digital audio sources except MIDI files SW Software Synthesizer control the playback volume of the MIDI files CD CD ROM playback CD DA volume control LEFT RIGHT the volume control for each speaker channel Note Windows Vista does not support WAVE Synthesizer and CD Player volume controls 3 Mute Unmute button Click this button to mute or unmute the audio channel 4 Volume Sli...

Page 30: ...aker outputs The audio will be mixed into the streams you are playing out from your PC and all DSP effects will be applied to the source too A typical benefit is to apply Dolby Pro Logic IIx 7 1 ch spreading for your TV audio CD MP3 or stereo game console audio from Wii Xbox PS2 PS3 PSP etc To apply Dolby Virtual Speaker is suitable for two speaker environment 4 Recording Selector button Click thi...

Page 31: ...olume drag up to increase the recording volume The tool tip reveals the percentage number from 1 to 100 in terms of the full scale level 6 Left Right Balance This horizontal slider controls the volume between the left and right channels 7 Reset Reset all volume controls to the default settings ...

Page 32: ...D 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 Option 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 33: ... Equalizer Options There are 12 available equalizer patterns Click one to apply it 2 User Defined You can click this button to apply your own defined parameters saved in the pull down menu 3 Equalier Slider Adjust the gain for each band 30 16KHz 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 34: ...ble on Windows Vista No Item Description 1 On Off The switch to turn on or off the functions on this page 2 Mic Effect On Off Check the box to enable or disable mic effects including Microphone Echo for voice or Magic Voice for changing your voice s sound 3 Mic Echo Select the Mic Echo function and adjust the gain for echo signals 30 16KHz 4 Magic Voice Select Magic Voice and choose a mode from 5 ...

Page 35: ... 6 Mic Array It can reduce environmental background sounds and noises as well as keeping your front side voice input as clean as possible No Item Description 1 On Off Check the box to enable or disable array microphone 1 ...

Page 36: ... 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 higher volume music 1 it will become quieter 0dB Full s...

Page 37: ...ined blue when active 2 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 3 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 1 3 2 ...

Page 38: ...ble the function after the games Besides the abundant sound effects described above the Xonar U1 also provides quick Digital Sound Processing modes which are configured for typical applications including Music Movies and Games over different output speaker types In addition Xonar U1 also offers a Hi Fi mode for hi fidelity playback without any effect processing to keep the original audio fidelity ...

Page 39: ...rectX DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista 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 3 Music Mode This mode is set for Music playback 4 Movie Mode This mode is set for DVD Movie playback 5 Game Mode This mode is set for Games ...

Page 40: ...20Kbps data rates Windows Media Player 9 or later version and MP3 WMA codecs are required Supports transformation speed up to a maximum of 40 times of the normal playback speed High Speed mode The maximum speed is just for your reference because it s related to your PC s performance and the sound effects you choose to add Before you use PMP Lite software make sure the following items have been com...

Page 41: ...ersion 2 PMP Music page This page will display the converted music files saved in the PMP Music folder 3 Software Update This button is used to check online for upgrades to the PMP software and download it for upgrade make sure your computer is connected to the Internet before you click the button 1 2 3 ...

Page 42: ... path is locked and refers to C Documents and Settings My Documents My Music 2 Others The default path refers to C Documents and Settings My Documents My Music but can be designated to other folder by clicking In the right side of the window you will see all of the music files from the selected folders that can be converted by PMP Lite You can select all or click each check box to choose which fil...

Page 43: ... virtual surround effect for stereo speakers 3 Destination This tab allows you to choose to save converted music to the default PMP Music folder or to Other folder by clicking 3 Convert Stop The final step is to click the button to start Converting Clicking this button again while PMP Lite is converting files will stop the process Please note that the audio card will suspend operation while PMP Li...

Page 44: ...data rate and DH ie Dolby Headphone or DVS ie Dolby Virtual Speaker if the effect is applied For example Original file name ABCD mp3 Converted file name ABCD_192K_DH mp3 meaning the data rate is 192Kbps with Dolby Headphone post processing applied No Item Description 1 PMP Music page This page shows the converted music library stored in the PMP Music folder 2 Music Information This window will dis...

Page 45: ...n installed in your PC 4 PMP Lite will also need an MP3 encoder installed to encode music into MP3 format If you don t have it yet the PMP Lite installer will provide a guide message to download a free MP3 encoder I couldn t find the Xonar U1 Audio Center Instructions 1 Make sure you have installed the driver 2 Find the Xonar U1 Audio Center icon in the system tray on the bottom right hand corner ...

Page 46: ...ut Instructions 1 Ensure that you have enabled S PDIF output in the Audio Center GUI Main page 2 Ensure that you are connecting the correct S PDIF output jack on the card to the decoder s AV receiver S PDIF input jack 3 You may need to select the correct input and mode of your decoder or AV receiver For Dolby Digital Live you may have to double check that the AV receiver is in that decoding mode I...

Page 47: ...dio playback device by using the WaveCyclic miniport driver 2 For more detail information refer to http support microsoft com kb 936225 en us Xonar U1 audio center or the driver did not run up when i plugged U1 into the USB port Instructions 1 If you installed a beta driver you need to make sure you have plugged U1 into the originally connected USB port when you installed the driver With a Microso...

Page 48: ...lization technology for regular stereo headphones and speakers Q4 Will PCM sound output through S PDIF be just 2 channels even with different analog output channels Answer The S PDIF protocol specification IEC 60958 can only carry 2 channel PCM data or non PCM AC3 data So when a user selects PCM output for S PDIF the Xonar U1 will always deliver 2 channel PCM data through the S PDIF output port Fo...