ASUS Xonar U7 Echelon Edition Review

Initially we ran into a problem getting the driver to install on our Windows 7 64 bit operating system.

The setup would fail, highlighting ‘A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file'. After this message was highlighted, the driver install would remind us to ensure the switch was set in USB 2.0 mode. It was.

We decided to try setting the Windows 7 operating system date from January 2014 to January 2013 and low and behold, the driver installed perfectly fine. After the driver installed we set the time back to January 2014. We tested this on 3 machines and they all failed unless the system date was set to 2013. We reported this issue to ASUS and will update this review if we get updated information from them. To test the gaming capabilities of the Xonar U7 we are using several gaming headsets in our labs.

We used our Kitguru Test rig, kindly built by PCSPECIALIST. If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page.

After the initial headaches of getting the driver to install on Windows 7 64 bit, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted with Sonic Studio Pro. There is no doubt in my mind that the development team spent some time getting the interface to look great while ensuring it isn't too cluttered.

The software is equipped with a wealth of audio effects which can be disabled completely, depending on your tastes and partnering equipment. Most of these are self explanatory.

Sonic radar allows for visual representations of positioning. Ideal if you are gaming and trying to locate the source of gunfire or similar. Cool gimmick or not, I would recommend a dual monitor configuration to have it running alongside the game.

Sonic Radar has a generic button at the bottom, along with some key games, such as Black Ops. Radar selection styles are available underneath that panel. A separate settings panel for Sonic Radar allows for graph readouts in either standard ‘Radar' format or ‘Geometric'.


The images above were taken when I was playing various games, such as Call Of Duty. The ‘Radar' representation highlights audio locations and the longer the radar graph section, the louder the audio in the respective location is.

I was impressed with the overall quality of the Xonar U7 Echelon Edition through the various Gaming headsets we used from Corsair and Turtle Beach – titles such as Tomb Raider, SkyRim and Call of Duty delivered very memorable experiences. Tomb Raider in particular stood out for me and we found that many of the special effects settings didn't really add that much to the experience.

Call Of Duty Black Ops was extremely enjoyable – the combination of ASUS Xonar U7 and gaming headphones left me in no doubt that surround sound gaming can greatly enhance a game, especially as you get immersed into listening out for gunfire and ambient noises in all directions.

For those interested, the Xonar U7 does work on OSX – we tested with a Mac Pro Desktop with dual Xeon's and 64GB of memory. We were able to enjoy 24 bit 192khz high definition audio tracks through our headphones. Sadly however, this is driverless, so you are unable to play with all of the ASUS audio tweaks. The main dial on top of the unit, can be used to control volume on OSX Mavericks however, which is a bonus.

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