Review on ASUS XONAR SE 5.1 Channel 🔊 Hi-Res Sound Card with Windows 10 Compatibility by Richard Cuneo

I lost my Realtek Sound Manager when updating my PC motherboard. Win7 does not offer any balance controls or sound shaping tools. Without them, a simple set of audio drivers is a coherent statement at best. I created my PC sound from scratch. WebSearch found a free utility called Viper4Windows that offers a range of high quality audio processing tools. Viper's interface is simple but works well. Later, when I watched the film, I discovered that his lip and voice movements were out of sync. I found that this desync was caused by real-time overhead related to my audio shaping options. So I bought a Xonar SE sound card. The card gives almost no boost. But it sounds great and completely solved my lip sync and voice sync issues. The system tray icon provides quick access to the Xonar Audio Center. Most audio center presets/shaping apps are ridiculous but the equalizer works well. I ended up creating two equalizer presets, one for music and one for movies. I use film settings to filter out low-level noise and rumble to noticeably improve speech clarity. I've attached a picture of the equalizer settings. You can change any setting by clicking above or below the current level. Settings are changed in fixed increments, 5 increments per horizontal line. These special settings bring out the full power of the lowest frequencies, slightly roll off the mids (to avoid muddy bass), and slightly boost the high-mids (to improve vocal clarity). My Xonar-SE worked fine. within 14 months, then died suddenly. The 3-year warranty was rendered useless as ASUS charges at least $25 to send an RMA. I bought another Xonar SE card - this time I used it.