Despite onboard motherboard audio advancing in leaps and bounds, we still think that a dedicated sound card is a worthy inclusion for those who really care about their audio. Obviously the sound outputted by your system is going to be highly reliant on the speakers or headphones you use, but there’s no point pairing a $350 set of cans with a low-end motherboard audio codec. With a street price exceeding $300, the new Asus Strix Raid Dlx is obviously targeted at the upper end of the audiophile spectrum, and demands a quality set of speakers or headphones to go with it.
The Dlx is actually the flagship model in a range of three new Strix cards from Asus, and it’s got the best specs of the lot. Asus claims a Signal to Noise ratio of 124dB… which just happens to be identical to Creative’s Sound Blaster ZxR, which is a similarly priced proposition. It does so by using top-notch components along with some of the most interesting EMF shielding we’ve seen. The ESS ES9016 D/A Converter is the same one found in some of Pioneer’s dedicated home theatre amps, while Nichicon capacitors are used throughout. The chip that does the audio-processing is the Cmedia CM6632AX, which is rated to deliver 192kHz/24-bit audio. Interestingly this was initially designed as a USB 2.0 audio processor, but it’s been moved onto a PCIe card in this product.
One of the biggest issues faced by soundcards is the fact they live inside a box pulsing with electromagnetic interference. This is why many audiophiles recommend an external sound solution (this author uses a Marantz amplifier connected via HDMI for this very reason). However, Asus has gone to great lengths to solve this, starting with a large EMI shield that covers most of the card. More intriguing is the use of a four-layer PCB – one layer carries the analog signals, which is then separated by two grounding layers from the final digital and power layer.
Sound outputs on the card come in the form of six 3.5mm stereo minijacks, one of which serves double duty as an SP/DIF output. There’s also one last plug that connects to the Raid controller, a large dial that controls volume and four other settings – bass boost, mic volume, EQ and Virtual Surround. Installing the drivers for this setup was pain-free, a nice surprise, and the ability to tweak everything on one screen is welcome.
As expected, sound quality was fantastic when paired with a pair of $399 Audio Technica ATH-A900X headphones, and the headphone amp had no problems driving them. We couldn’t hear the merest hiss of interference, even at high volume, and the virtual surround effect was especially noteworthy. However, sound quality when connected to speakers had one issue – there’s no LFE cut-off point for the subwoofer, which could be an issue if you have a quality sub without its own LFE dial.
While we still think an external amp is the way to go, if you’re looking for a relatively affordable high-end solution that fits inside your case, the Strix Raid Dlx knocks Sound Blaster’s ZxR off its perch. Just bear in mind they demand to be paired with similarly expensive headphones or speakers, and many people will probably find the next model down to sound basically identical.
This is the new king of discrete soundcards for gamers, though you’re going to have to shell out more than you might like for one.