Asus Xonar DX
8. Comparison tests 16bit
An important question would be, how well Asus Xonar DX stands against its older brother (Xonar D2) and of course compared with an on-board sound card. For all tests we used the external recording modes for both Asus Xonar D2 and SoundMax HD Audio sound cards (3.5mm jack male-to-male).
| Comparison Test Results | |||
| Testing 16bit/44.10KHz | Asus Xonar D2 | Asus Xonar DX | SoundMAX HD Audio |
| Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: | +0.05, -0.04 | +0.03, -0.03 | +0.26, -0.07 |
| Noise level, dB (A): | -96.3 | -96.7 | -88.8 |
| Dynamic range, dB (A): | 96.5 | 95.6 | 87.4 |
| THD, %: | 0.0005 | 0.0019 | 0.0092 |
| IMD + Noise, %: | 0.0042 | 0.0052 | 0.047 |
| Stereo crosstalk, dB: | -97.3 | -97.0 | -88.9 |
At 44.1KHz, the Asus Xonar DX performs very well with low noise levels and high dynamic range. However the Xonar D2 has clearly less THD% and IMD+Noise levels.
| Testing 16bit/48.0KHz | Asus Xonar D2 | Asus Xonar DX | SoundMAX HD Audio |
| Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: | +0.06, -0.04 | +0.03, -0.03 |
+0.11, -0.03 |
| Noise level, dB (A): | -97.0 | -97.4 |
-88.7 |
| Dynamic range, dB (A): | 97.0 | 96.1 |
87.7 |
| THD, %: | 0.0006 | 0.0024 |
0.0092 |
| IMD + Noise, %: | 0.0039 | 0.0049 | 0.015 |
| Stereo crosstalk, dB: | -96.8 | -97.3 | -87.7 |
| Testing 16bit/96.0KHz | Asus Xonar D2 | Asus Xonar DX | SoundMAX HD Audio |
| Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: | +0.07, -0.05 | +0.03, -0.04 | +0.02, -0.06 |
| Noise level, dB (A): | -99.7 | -100.0 | -88.8 |
| Dynamic range, dB (A): | 100.1 | 98.2 | 87.7 |
| THD, %: | 0.0008 | 0.0023 | 0.0091 |
| IMD + Noise, %: | 0.0028 | 0.0039 | 0.014 |
| Stereo crosstalk, dB: | -98.8 | -97.8 | -85.4 |
| Testing 16bit/192.0KHz | Asus Xonar D2 | Asus Xonar DX | SoundMAX HD Audio |
| Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB: | +0.08, -0.05 | +0.04, -0.05 | +0.04, -0.17 |
| Noise level, dB (A): | -103.0 | -102.8 | -89.0 |
| Dynamic range, dB (A): | 103.0 | 99.8 | 87.8 |
| THD, %: | 0.0013 | 0.0021 | 0.0092 |
| IMD + Noise, %: | 0.0023 | 0.0032 | 0.014 |
| Stereo crosstalk, dB: | -99.9 | -100.2 | -84.1 |
Concluding the comparison tests, we can see that the higher- priced Asus Xonar D2 offers less output noise and slightly higher dynamic range compared to Xonar DX series. Of course both cards perform much better than an on-board sound card.
