Asus XONAR D1 - Sound Card - Low Profile, User Manual

Page 1: ...Xonar D1 Audio card User manual ...

Page 2: ... OF 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 ER...

Page 3: ...r card 14 4 Installing Software 15 5 Connecting Speakers and Peripherals 16 5 1 Connecting Digital Speaker Systems Home Theater 16 5 2 Connecting Headphones 17 5 3 Connecting Analog Speaker Systems 19 5 4 Connecting Microphone 24 5 5 Connecting Line In Audio Sources 24 6 Xonar D1 Driver Guide 25 6 1 Introduction to the Xonar D1 Audio Center GUI 25 6 2 Main Setting 27 6 3 Mixer Volume 35 6 4 Effect...

Page 4: ...ve 50 When Using Sonar LE 51 7 RMAA Test Guide 54 7 1 Setting Up Xonar D1 Audio Card 54 7 2 Configuration and Test with RMAA 57 7 3 RMAA Testing Results 62 8 RightMark Audio Analyzer test 63 9 Troubleshooting and FAQs 68 Troubleshooting 68 FAQs 70 ...

Page 5: ...terference 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 receiv...

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

Page 7: ...ements One PCI compatible slot for the audio card 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 digital speakers with Dolby Digital decoder to enjoy th...

Page 8: ...ith Line In Mic In jack supports 192KHz 24bit Driver Features Operation System Windows Vista 32 64bit XP 32 64bit MCE2005 Dolby Digital Live Dolby Digital Live encodes any audio signal on PC in real time to Dolby Digital AC3 5 1 surround sounds to your home theater environment through one single S PDIF connection Dolby Headphone Dolby Headphone technology allows users to listen to music watch movi...

Page 9: ...evel and also enhances your 3D sound listening range and advantages in gaming Karaoke Functions Music Key Shifting and Microphone Echo effects like professional Karaoke machine FlexBassTM Professional Bass Management Enhancement system Xear 3DTM Virtual Speaker Shifter Virtual 7 1 speaker positioning Other Effects 10 band Equalier 27 Environment Effects 3D Gaming Sound Engines APIs DirectSound3D G...

Page 10: ...10 ASUS Xonar D1 1 2 3 4 5 2 Hardware overview Xonar D1 layout 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 ...

Page 11: ...cts to the front left right input on the powered speakers 3 Side Surround Output jack Connects to the surround channel input on 4 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 powered analog speakers 4 Center Subwoofer Output jack Connects to the front center subwoofer input on 5 1 6 1 7 1 powered analog speakers 5 Rear back Surround Output Jack Connects to the Back Surround input on 6 1 7 1 powered analog speakers 6 Front pan...

Page 12: ...ts from one unused PCI slot for the audio card 3 2 Installing the audio card 1 Face the bracket of the Xonar D1 audio card toward the back panel of your computer and insert the audio card gently into an available PCI Express slot Make sure it s completely inserted into the PCI Express slot Warning Do not force the audio card into the slot Make sure that the gold pins of the card s PCI Express conn...

Page 13: ...1 Install a graphics card with HDMI output support 2 Using the bundled S PDIF cable connect one end to the 3 pin S PDIF Out header on the Xonar D1 audio card and connect the other end to the 2 pin S PDIF In header on the graphics card S PDIF cable Graphics card Xonar D1 ...

Page 14: ...x In header of the audio card as shown in the figure below For optimum TV audio quality Xonar uses ADC recording to digitize the signal and loops it back to DAC playback Please select Aux In as the recording source in the Xonar Audio 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 Logi...

Page 15: ...pport 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 instructions on the screen to complete the installation Read the END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT in the process and make sure you understand and accept it before you continue the installation When the installation finishes you may be prompted to rest...

Page 16: ... theater system possible creating an immersive and impressive cinema surround sound experience A single digital cable connection can carry high quality Dolby Digital digital audio from any of your PC audio sources to any digital speakers or AV Receivers with Dolby Digital decoding capabilities 1 2 No Item Description 1 Optical adapter Plug the optical TOSLINK adapter into the S PDIF Out connector ...

Page 17: ...ting Headphones 5 2 1 Connecting Stereo Headphones 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 1 ...

Page 18: ... 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 19: ...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 20: ...20 ASUS Xonar D1 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 21: ...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 22: ...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 23: ...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 24: ...mm plug into this Mic In jack for voice communication recording or karaoke 1 No Item 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 1 ...

Page 25: ... 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 D1 Audio Center icon 2 The Xonar D1 Audio Center is the Graphic User Interface GUI for the Xonar D1 driver You can control the functions and features of the Xonar D1 driver on the Audio Center The following picture shows a basic overview of the Xonar D1 ...

Page 26: ...ll 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 ...

Page 27: ...ur playback sources to get the best audio fidelity Even if your setting differs from the audio source s sample rate the Xonar D1 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 Please select the sample rate that corresponds to or exceeds that of your playback so...

Page 28: ... 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 note the Speaker Test function is not available on Windows Vista due to a limitation in its audio stack 3 Speaker Swap Clicking this button will pop up an advanced setting window to allow yo...

Page 29: ...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 Note Ensure that you enable S PDIF output when using the S PDIF out header onboard 2 S PDIF Output Formats Functions This pull down menu allows you to select one of the following four formats PCM Pulse Code Modulation which is a typical raw audio data forma...

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: ...each speaker or listener to a different relative position virtually using only your mouse The Xonar D1 audio 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 increase volume move speakers clos...

Page 32: ...t 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 right si...

Page 33: ...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 34: ...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 35: ...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 36: ...ernal audio devices WAVE recording from digital wave audio you are playing on PC Note Windows Vista doesn t support WAVE recording 3 Monitoring button Click this button to monitor and loopback recording audio to outputs PC speakers Therefore the recording volume will influence the monitoring signals from speaker outputs The audio will be mixed into the streams you are playing out from your PC and ...

Page 37: ...ag this slider down to decrease the recording volume 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 8 Microphone In Advanced Setting Click this button to open...

Page 38: ...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 39: ... 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 40: ...he music and symphony for karaoke No Item Description 1 On Off 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 Checkbox to enable or disable the vocal cancellation function and adjust the voice cancellation level from 0 to 100 100 wi...

Page 41: ... Large speaker option Select the speaker type that you connected If your speaker type cannot perform low frequency signals bass please select Small speaker type and Xonar D1 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 Common cheap PC s 2 channel speakers are usually small type speakers Please re...

Page 42: ...se omni direction electret microphone with 40dB sensitivity 4 The microphone is more than 30cm far from PC s speakers fix the distance and do NOT turn your speakers too loud 5 Put your microphone 20 30cm away from you fix the distance and do NOT speak too close or too loud into the microphone to avoid signal clipping and distortion Enable microphone boost on Xonar D1 audio center mixer to get prop...

Page 43: ...ecome 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 No Item Description 1 AEC Click AEC function page 2 Enable AEC Click the checkbox to enable AEC function A alert message will pop up This message implies the speaker configuration will ...

Page 44: ... 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 0dB Full scale 10 dB Music 1 Music 2 SVN Off SVN On T 1 3 2 ...

Page 45: ...HD 5 0 games on both XP and Vista It provides the best compatibility with existing DirectX games GX2 0 also adds innovative VocalFX voice effects for existing EAX games or VOIP applications Besides the abundant sound effects described above the Xonar D1 also provides quick Digital Sound Processing modes which are configured for typical applications including Music Movies and Games over different o...

Page 46: ...g 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 6 10 VocalFX VocalFX is an innovative voice processing technology to let your voice get into the realistic game landscape VoiceEX or to emulate the background scenes in online chat ChatEX It also allows you to change your ...

Page 47: ... application into VOIP application List 4 ChatEX It emulates different background environment effects when you chat online 5 Magic Voice Changes your voice pitch to different types for disguising your real voice or just for fun in online chatting For 3D Games 1 Check the check box of VoiceEX and Local VoiceEX 2 Make sure you and your team member can talk each other in the game For VOIP 1 Press App...

Page 48: ...48 ASUS Xonar D1 3 Look for the application s location and Open it 4 Your VOIP application has been added into list ...

Page 49: ...ick 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 messsage pop up next time ...

Page 50: ...d an ASIO2 compatible driver for application programs that have ASIO or ASIO2 output ASIO can ensure lower latency during playback and recording on PCs which is very important for professional music creation and editing The Xonar D1 package also provides Ableton Live and Sonar LE audio editing software which all support ASIO output The setup reference is described below When Using Ableton Live 2 5...

Page 51: ...ASIO as the driver type WDM and MME are other Windows driver types 3 Audio Device Step 3 is to choose ASUS Xonar D1 ASIO as the Audio Device 4 Hardware Setup Step 4 is to click the Hardware Setup to configure the Bit depth 16 24bit and latency 1ms 300ms 5 Sample Rate Step 5 is to select the sample rate from 44 1 48 96 192KHz When Using Sonar LE 1 ...

Page 52: ...52 ASUS Xonar D1 2 3 4 5 7 ...

Page 53: ...ram next time 3 Playback Timing Master After step 2 Sonar LE will display 4 output drivers ASUS Xonar D1 ASIO Out 00 06 Make sure you are using 00 or another one 4 Recording Timing Master After step 2 Sonar LE will display 1 input driver ASUS Xonar D1 ASIO In 00 Make sure you are using it 5 Sample Rate Step 5 is to select the default file sample rate 44 1 48 96 or 192KHz for your Sonar project 6 A...

Page 54: ...ms The following provides a step by step loop back test guide for your Xonar D1 audio card 7 1 Setting Up Xonar D1 Audio Card Open the Xonar D1 Audio Center Use the settings below 1 Select the sample rate you will be using with RMAA here we set 48KHz for testing 48KHz 24bit signals 2 Set analog output to 2 speaker mode to get rid of any channel processing over RMAA stereo signals in the driver 3 T...

Page 55: ...t highest level 0dB This allows you to get realistic output and input quality ratings for the Xonar D1 audio card You should use an external 3 5mm line cable as follows as short as possible to connect the Front Out jack to the Line In jack for loop back testing In that case please select Line In as the recording source on the mixer page 4 3 5mm Line Cable ...

Page 56: ...56 ASUS Xonar D1 5 Click Reset on the playback volume mixer page to keep the volume setting on default 6 Turn the master volume to the MAX level 0dB 5 6 ...

Page 57: ...es as ASUS Xonar D1 Audio 2 Select 24bit and 48KHz for the test signals If you change the format here please remember to go back to set the same sample rate output in the Xonar D1 Audio Center 3 Click Test options button in RMAA and check Analyze noise and distortion only in 20Hz 20KHz range audio in band for human hearing in the General tab 1 2 3 ...

Page 58: ... DirectSound as the Driver Model because Windows MME mode doesn t support high resolution 24bit audio playback and the data may be manipulated by Windows so that the real hardware quality can not be measured properly 5 Click loop back mode test button 4 5 ...

Page 59: ...e level meter will be green 7 If the recording volume level is not high enough please check and make the WAVE and Master Volume have been at the maximum level Instead if the recording volume level is too high please lower the WAVE and Master volumes gradually until the level is ok 6 7 ...

Page 60: ...in the test by clicking the Done button If you cannot get the level to be OK after the previous step click Done anyways and proceed 9 Enter ASUS Xonar D1 Audio in the New slot name and select one Empty slot Then click OK 8 9 ...

Page 61: ...1 ASUS Xonar D1 10 RMAA will pop up the Test results window You can click the Select checkbox and click to Make html report 11 Check and key in the report name options as follows and then click OK 10 11 ...

Page 62: ... and plots in your browser The following report is a sample and you can see how high fidelity and crystal clean the Xonar D1 audio card is for both output and input one of the world s finest sound cards it has higher quality than most CE devices You can also try testing the performance for other sample rates and bit depths with the same procedure ...

Page 63: ...rnal loopback line out line in Sampling mode 24 bit 48 kHz Summary General performance Excellent Frequency response Frequency response from 40 Hz to 15 kHz dB 0 01 0 05 Excellent Noise level dB A 112 7 Excellent Dynamic range dB A 112 6 Excellent THD 0 0006 Excellent IMD Noise 0 0009 Excellent Stereo crosstalk dB 102 4 Excellent IMD at 10 kHz 0 0010 Excellent ...

Page 64: ...64 ASUS Xonar D1 Noise level Dynamic range Parameter Left Right RMS power dB 111 4 112 0 RMS power A weighted dB 112 4 113 0 Peak level dB FS 87 5 88 4 DC offset 0 00 0 00 ...

Page 65: ...oise at 3 dB FS Parameter Left Right Dynamic range dB 111 4 111 8 Dynamic range A weighted dB 112 4 112 8 DC offset 0 00 0 00 Parameter Left Right THD 0 0006 0 0006 THD Noise 0 0008 0 0008 THD Noise A weighted 0 0010 0 0009 ...

Page 66: ...66 ASUS Xonar D1 Intermodulation distortion Stereo crosstalk Parameter Left Right IMD Noise 0 0010 0 0009 IMD Noise A weighted 0 0008 0 0007 ...

Page 67: ... Parameter Left Right Crosstalk at 100 Hz dB 109 107 Crosstalk at 1 KHz dB 101 101 Crosstalk at 10 KHz dB 82 82 Parameter Left Right IMD Noise at 5 KHz 0 0011 0 0011 IMD Noise at 10 KHz 0 0009 0 0009 IMD Noise at 15 KHz 0 0009 0 0009 ...

Page 68: ... open the Xonar D1 Audio Center utility 3 If the icon could not be found in the system tray go to the Windows Control Panel and double click the Xonar D1 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 packa...

Page 69: ...start your applications 5 Please try restart your Windows I can t hear audio input Mic Line in AUX etc from my speakers Instructions 1 Please 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 please also go to system audio control panel to see the current default recording input device is right 2 Please remember t...

Page 70: ... audio 96K 192KHz in hi fidelity playback 2 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 3 Please note that the frequency meter on Xonar D1 Audio Center panel will not take effect either when the playback source is 96KHz or 192KHz sample rate to prevent any processing distortion FAQs Q1 ...

Page 71: ...sions v1 0 DS3D GX 1 0 technology Q5 Why do I need Dolby for PC games Answer 1 Dolby Digital Pro Logic IIx and DTS are available on the latest game consoles like XBOX360 PS3 and Wii Dolby and DTS can provide the best gaming sound experience and compatibility with home theater or TV systems 2 Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker are the best 3D sound positioning spatial modeling and 5 1 channe...

Page 72: ...1 channel surround sounds you can select Dolby Digital Live encoding output from the S PDIF out menu which will allow the Xonar D1 to deliver 5 1 surround sound for games DVD movies and even stereo music Q8 Why is it that while playing audio CD I cannot adjust volume from the path Mixer page Playback CD Answer If you are using the Microsoft Windows Media Player to play audio files you have to chan...