I hope so. And about sending e-mail to Asus I actually sent a good one
"Hi,
First of all I would like to thank Asus and all of the people worked on the Xonar U7. It's a superior soundcard for it's value compared to most soundcards in the market. I'm writing this to help the Engineers/Developers at Asus to see some problems and highlight what could be causing it. I will try to use clean and formal language to improve understandability.
About my 1st problem, there is no upmixing option whereas U7 does.
I bought U7 Echelon Edition about 4 months ago. I was willing to buy normal U7 but only option to get U7 is via internet in Turkey. So when I saw U7 Echolon Edition I was not sure to buy it because my plan is to use it for only music purposes. But the man who said U7 Echelon Edition is basically the same with U7. Only Echolon Edition has camouflage with updated drivers. I compared specs from Asus's original site and I didn't see any difference so I bought U7 Echelon Edition.
When I plugged my 5+1 system to card I was quite disappointed. I tried every option in Sonic Studio Pro but there is no chance to upmix the sound to 5 channels. Therefore sound I get from my sistem is really weak compared to my old entry level Creative sound card which had an option to upmix the sound. My old Creative sound card was giving the same sound (which goes to front channels) to rear channels and and mono sound from center. It's pretty basic but It's a must option in 5+1 or 7+1 cards. To give another example, Internet Explorer does the same thing. (Actually I'm sure Asus Engineers knows this far better than me aboutu mixing but I'm still shocked how U7 Echeolon and U5 doen't have this feature.. ) Yes, we have Dolby Home theatre option, but it colours the sound and makes some sounds and instruements artificial and it's not good for music. Xonar U5 doesn't have Dolby option which means it's impossible to upmix the standart stereo music to 5 channels which is really frustrating for spesifically 5.1 and 7.1 designed sound cards.
I've made a research about this problem and found that original U7 has an option to upmix the musics under "Xear Sourround Max" If I remember. It's a must have option for people who have more than 2 channel speaker systems. This option must have been natively in U5 and U7 Echelon Edition also.
I think Asus should give Sonic Radar and upmixing option to both U7 and U7 Echelon Ed. I could understand that Sonic Radar is given to Echelon Ed. exclusively for marketting purposes at the beginning. (Trying people to upgrade their normal U7's to U7 Echelon Ed.) But right at the moment everybody thinks U7 Echelon Ed. is better one.( In my case it's not, because the fact that lack of Sonic Studip Pro's abilities makes it inferior ) Therefore giving both features on both cards will provide flexibility for customers like me in Turkey and maybe some others in diffrent countries..
I've tried to solve the problem by installing normal U7's driver on my U7 Echelon edition, but installation was canceled during hardware check. If It allow me to install normal U7's software on my Echolon Ed. the upmixing problem should have solved. Therefore I want to ask Driver developers If they can do something about it. You can add Upmixing option to U7 Echelon Ed. in Sonic Studio Pro or you should allow us to install U7's driver on Echelon Ed. which would be really nice because U7's driver's offers also additional options like cut off frequency If I remeber right. I won't be bothered If I loose Sonic Radar. U7's driver offers also cut off frequency If I remeber right.
To sum up, I want the options on Xonar U7, in my Xonar U7 Echelon Edition. Actually If I had an option to select between Xonar U7 and Xonar U7 Echelon Edition at that time, I would go for the Echelon Edition because of it's looks.. They should be equal in my opinion.
My 2nd Problem is sound fading issue. This problem really annoys me when I use the Sonic Studio Pro.
When I listen some songs which have heavy bass or high level noise parts volume level drops. It's like card is pushing too hard, or happens the time when you boost the bass in low end sound cards. I saw the similar problem on some forum site, http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/213735-xonar-ds-sound-volume-fading-out-issue.html . However this doen't apply to Xonar U7 Echelon Ed. 's software. If I turn the volume down on Sonic Studio Pro, and turn up from my 5.1 system problem still exists. By the way I tested my music file (lossless), I know my speakers are fine (I've tested in my older card), my all settings are flat, I've tested the song from diffrent players like winamp and foobar. Actually problem occurs when I listen through my headphones as well. But when I switch to Dolby option, fading and fluctuating issues doen't occur in my both headphones and my speakers. So problem is definitely related with Sonic Studilo Pro from what I understood. Some songs which is easier to hear the problem: Fred V ft. Grafix ft. Etherwood - Forest Fires (Massappeals Remix) (after0:38), Celldweller - The Sentinel, The Crew OST - Heavy as a Feather ( in the last part)
To solve that issue, I've tried quite few things, like downloading latest and even older softwares from Asus's site(64 bit and 32 bit versions), lowered the volume from my card, lowered the volume from windows (which does the same thing). But when I saw the Windows mixer I thought something is wrong. The green bar which goes up when the noise increases in the song, was not increasing. It was already fully increased to the level selected in the Sonic Studio Pro(mostly 100%). But when I select the Dolby option, I can seethe green bar is moving according to music. It goes to full sometimes but not all the time like when the Sonic Studio Pro is selected. And I found 2 temporary solutions:
-1st lower the volume from your music player e.g. from Winamp or foobar until you make enough space for green bar in the Windows mixer. But this problem will solve when you are listening from these music players that you lowered the volume. You should do the same thing on every game's settings..to get rid of problem..
-2nd Lower the volume from mixers on the Sonic Studio Pro. Go to Sonic studio Pro, channel mixer, and lower all the channels. In my case I dropped them to -12. This also puts enough space between green bar and the sound level selected from Sonic Studio Pro (So idea is the same). I don't like this option because even though I turn up the volume from my speakers to compensate, it's almost like the same, but strangely
, I don't get the same energy and joy from sound. I normally use the card at 85 constant, and change the volume from my speakers. I guess afer lowering the channels impacted that but I guess that's deep topic.
-3rd Strangely, If I select diffrent bitrates from Sonic Studio Pro during music playback, sound becomes low, even though it's same in Sonic Studio Pro and Windows Mixer, and in Sonic Studio Pro. And sound becomes cleaner and there is no fading or fluctuating issue. But when I stop the playback and play other song, sound levels become higher, causing the fading and fluctuating issue again.
I believe Asus has become a brand for quality products and stands back their products. I'm looking forward to return from Asus. I am willing to help Developers/Engineers at Asus about the problem I stated. You can ask spesific parts of my writing If you didn't understand some parts. I can speak/write Turkish and English. Thank you. "
And unfortunatelly I got a mixed return
"Dear Customer,
it's our pleasure to help you solve your problem.
If you still have any technical issue, please feel free to contact Asus technical support team at http://vip.asus.com/VIP2/Services/TechQuery .
Thank you.
Kind Regards,
Asus Technical Support Team"
I mean cmss3d is very good for gamers using headphone but I use creative g500 5.1 system for gaming so no need cmss3d. Other than that, creative software can be buggy sometimes especially when it comes to bitperfect playback, after sometme cards sample rates will be locked and restart required. U7s software is good as far as I see.
