ASUS Xonar U7 Echelon Edition Review

1. Introduction2. ASUS Xonar U7 Echelon Edition3. ASUS Xonar U7 Echelon Edition (Super High Res Gallery)4. Drivers and Gaming5. Partnered up with audiophile grade headphones6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

I must admit, I don't often spend time with budget oriented audio equipment, especially mainstream USB driven DACS and amplifiers. There is no doubt in my mind however that the Asus Xonar U7 Echelon Edition can dramatically upgrade your audio experience, even with a relatively inexpensive pair of headphones. Compared to the onboard audio on most motherboards the Xonar U7 is a significant improvement.

Part of this review today focused on pairing up the £80 Xonar U7 Echelon with a pair of £2,000 Grado PS1000 headphones and a raft of 24 bit high definition audio FLAC files. As crazy as this sounds, we did want to thoroughly test the capabilities of the little USB driven audio DAC/amplifier and even measured the merits against an expensive Astell and Kern (player) / ALOAudio (amplifier) pairing.

Surprisingly, the Asus Xonar U7 Echelon was able to impress me, even after a direct A-B with the £1,200 amplifier/player pairing. Sure, it doesn't sound quite as open, or transparent as the portable high end configuration, but for a measly £80 it is extremely difficult to find fault with the Xonar U7.

Our review highlights that the source material is just as important as everything else in the audio chain. If you have been happy downloading poorly ripped MP3's online then it really is about time that you opened up your mind (and ears) to a wealth of 24 bit audio tracks available on HDTracks and Linnrecords.

The Xonar U7 Echelon Edition earns our WORTH BUYING award, it is a quality product priced modestly to target a wide audience. If you appreciate audio performance and yearn for something better than the sound processor built into a motherboard, then this really should be your first stop.

You can buy from Amazon, for £80 inc vat, over here.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

Pros:

• Superb performance.
• Software is very capable.
• powers from the USB port.
• 24 bit / 192Khz playback possible.
• native support for OSX.
• new ‘Camouflage' finish is fingerprint friendly.

Cons:

• some driver install issues.
• no lovely driver panels in OSX.

Kitguru says: At £80 it is difficult to find fault, especially if you want an inexpensive upgrade to nasty onboard audio

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