[Xtreme512]

some says yes but as i said i need to confirm it.

 

[HAWX]

Mine one is Echelon edition, running Win10 64 and I couldn't install 8.1 WHQL drivers of U7 or Windows 10 U7 driver :/
 
But luckely Windows 10 driver for the U7 Echelon is working very good. All Windows 7 drivers for U7 Echelon were trash. This one is working properly. Only thing about this is that when you change the sampling rate or bit depth, just stop the player and any other sound, and then continue. If you don't do that it will sound tiny and very quite.
 
My other problem is right at the moment U7 Echelon with Windows 10 Echelon drivers is that it sounds like hmm OK I will try to explain it.
 
When I put something classical or some songs which has not too much instruments or effects in it they all sound good. But when I put some track with lots of intruments and effects let's say a rock song, especially in the clutteret part I feel that there is too much. Let me say in that way. Normally I see an improvement int these parts because card handles these parts better than onboard. Dedicated card seperates the intruments thus makes these parts more pleasant. But in my case with Echelon Windows 10 drivers I feel the opposite :/ But other thing is that I have been using it only for 2 days. Could it be better in time because it needs break/burn in:?
 
If somebody could comment the U7 Echelon's audio quality wih Windows 10 driver and compare it to WHQL driver with U7 or U7E I would be happy Because if you feel the 8.1 drivers are better I will try to find a workaround to install these drivers but I don't want to to be honest. I'm afraid that it might cause some problems :/
 
EDIT: The problem is because Windows 10's resampling. I used the native asio drivers and remembered WHQL days immediately Use the method on here and playback quality is now very good: http://www.asus.com/microsite/essence/tutorialpage/Foobar2000-ASIO.html  And set buffer length to 50ms.

 

[Xtreme512]

HAWX that is absolutely a driver issue, not your headphone/speaker or the U7 device. As we heard that kind of issues before due to crappy drivers which asus engineers made for that device.
 
Earlier posts say that 8.1 WHQL U7 (non-echelon) Driver (the only best driver for this device) works on W10 and some say it doesnt. So thats a bit weird lol

 

[Kitmellow]

Update: My Xonar U7 impressions/Review moved 

 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/xonar-u7-7-1-usb-soundkarte/reviews/15421

 

[Idiotpod]

TLDR: V-moda M-100 + Xonar U7 gives low distant echoing sound with no bass and nothing seems to help.

 

Just wanted to start with that I was referenced here by a reddit user. =) 

 

I recently bought me a couple of V-moda M-100 that I love so far. I've been plugging them straight into my laptops (MSI GT72 2QE Dominator pro) headphone jack resulting in good sound. 

And then, since I'm also a gamer who like the occasional BLOPS 3 game, I bought an Asus Xonar U7 for the virtual 5.1 and 7.1. I've mainly read good things about the U7...

 

What I was expecting: Slightly better sound, but most importantly 5.1/7.1 for FPS.

What I've got: Low volume (about 30-40% of going straight into the laptop), sounds are distant (Like in a big big room) with weird echos. The bass is almost non-existant (Which is very maddeing since M-100)

 

In the Xonar U7 Audio center I've got sample rate @ 192 khz with 24 bits. There is no change to the above problem if I change it to 44.1 khz and 16 bits or any other combination. I've also tried Low, mid and high gain without any better result. No environment efffects fixes the problem. Surround makes it sound like listening in a church with a bad stereo for 50 skr/4-5$.

I'm powering the U7 through a USB 3.0 and connecting my headphones straight into front of the U7. Windows 10 64 bit OS and installation of the Asus-program.

It is also in headphone-mode.

 

My references have been:

 

*Black ops 3 (Game) 

*Black Desert (Game)

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV9fqP8IS3E Flim and the B.bs - Tricycle)

*A couple of FLAC albums (In Flames, Muddy Waters, Hendrix, Daft Punk, Meshuggah and Amy Winehouse)

 
Is this all I'm getting out of the Xonar U7? Might it be defective?

 

[Kitmellow]

  TLDR: V-moda M-100 + Xonar U7 gives low distant echoing sound with no bass and nothing seems to help.

 

Just wanted to start with that I was referenced here by a reddit user. =) 

 

I recently bought me a couple of V-moda M-100 that I love so far. I've been plugging them straight into my laptops (MSI GT72 2QE Dominator pro) headphone jack resulting in good sound. 

And then, since I'm also a gamer who like the occasional BLOPS 3 game, I bought an Asus Xonar U7 for the virtual 5.1 and 7.1. I've mainly read good things about the U7...

 

What I was expecting: Slightly better sound, but most importantly 5.1/7.1 for FPS.

What I've got: Low volume (about 30-40% of going straight into the laptop), sounds are distant (Like in a big big room) with weird echos. The bass is almost non-existant (Which is very maddeing since M-100)

 

In the Xonar U7 Audio center I've got sample rate @ 192 khz with 24 bits. There is no change to the above problem if I change it to 44.1 khz and 16 bits or any other combination. I've also tried Low, mid and high gain without any better result. No environment efffects fixes the problem. Surround makes it sound like listening in a church with a bad stereo for 50 skr/4-5$.

I'm powering the U7 through a USB 3.0 and connecting my headphones straight into front of the U7. Windows 10 64 bit OS and installation of the Asus-program.

It is also in headphone-mode.

 

My references have been:

 

*Black ops 3 (Game) 

*Black Desert (Game)

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV9fqP8IS3E Flim and the B.bs - Tricycle)

*A couple of FLAC albums (In Flames, Muddy Waters, Hendrix, Daft Punk, Meshuggah and Amy Winehouse)

 
Is this all I'm getting out of the Xonar U7? Might it be defective?

 
Hello welcome to the HEAD-FI forums!! Forgive me for bringing up something that might seem so juvenile, but what you describe (if it is as glaringly as bad you said) seems like a poor connection with the headphone jack.  The echoing sound without any effects turned on is a symptom of this poor connection/contact, along with absent or very subdued sound frequencies.
 
Have you tried slowly inserting your headphone's jack at different depths (for example not all the way in) to see if there is a "sweet spot" that makes the sound come through so it is present at all frequencies your source is playing? 
 
Any modern 3.5mm headphone's jack should have a 3-pole connection (2 black notches on the jack) with no problems with almost all sources. Headphones with in-line mics have 4-pole connections (3 black notches). 4-pole 3.5mm jacks usually come in two configurations, one that's a more modern universal standard, and one that's made for early portable players which make them incompatible to the universal 4-pole 3.5mm standard input without an adapter. But I have no reason to believe that is the problem for you since the U7 should accept both 3 pole and the modern 4 pole configuration. 

 
Worst case scenario is you try plugging in other headphones or earphones to see if they sound more less like they should. But obviously, make sure that you have all of your effects turned off in your driver panel first.
 
 
 
Edit: In case you were wondering, the sample rate and bit-depth settings in your driver panel will not effect this issue and are completely unrelated. However, as a friendly tip it is recommended that you change the sample rate to match the content you are currently playing or listening to so that your soundcard is not forced to resample every time and introduce measurable artifacts (if you want the absolute best sound quality).
 
Since most content both games and online/videos/music are CD quality (44.1kHz) it's best to leave it at that setting in your driver, unless you are specifically listening to FLAC files or similar with over 44.1kHz sampling. Your bit depth setting however, can be left at 24-bit to ensure the highest dynamic range without needing to compromise to 16-bit.

 


Just checked all of the headphones! None of them have 4 contacts, only three. =) 

 

[HAWX]

  Update: My Xonar U7 impressions/Review moved 

 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/xonar-u7-7-1-usb-soundkarte/reviews/15421

Good review.
 
Actually I'm listening the card from RCA port and I changed only 1 band in the eq which was 64. I felt it was a bit much, but after your results I'm conviced that's bacuse of the cards behaviour. (But now I use asio while listening my files, you can't use the Eq using asio)
 
But the main thing I am stuck is that "Card lacks definiton.." Well it might be true but I have read many reviews and users opinon about U7 and they were saying this card is almost same as Essence STX level. Some users said this is better than Titanium HD. And this leads me to think about your settings while listening the card. And I want you to do these simple things and do a minor listening test again. I believe you will see improvements immediately.
 
1) Best driver for the U7 is that, as statet many people on this forum, the WHQL drivers If you are using Windows 7, first unistall the current software, restart, and then install Version 7.0.11.19, U7 driver for Windows 7 (then restrat again) If you have Win 8.1 look comments on page 39 sent by Xtreme512. 
 
2nd) Well 1st one might not make a diffrence but this one is definitelly will. Use U7's native asio drivers to avoid Window's resampling. Resampling to higher usually makes the sound more smooth but takes some of the crispness on highs and reduces the lows. So that's why I believe your findings are affected from these issue. To skip the Windows resapling (you can find more information on that on google etc.) you can use Xonar U7's native Asio drivers, using foobar or winamp. This will send your datas directly to U7, but beware you won't hear Chrome and etc while listening you music files. You need to stop your playback and restart the Chrome. It's not really practiacal, but since you are a serious listener who wants to see the card's full potential, bit perfect playback is very important.
 
Asus's guide on their site: http://www.asus.com/microsite/essence/tutorialpage/Foobar2000-ASIO.html
 
After setting up set change the buffering rate. That's 100ms by default but I had random playback stopping etc. I set buffer lenth to 50ms and haven't had issues so far. 
 
I was finding the card not that good untill I tried asio, you can check: post #572. You can test the DSX using asio but I don't if it has native asio support or not:?
 
 
 

  HAWX that is absolutely a driver issue, not your headphone/speaker or the U7 device. As we heard that kind of issues before due to crappy drivers which asus engineers made for that device.
 
Earlier posts say that 8.1 WHQL U7 (non-echelon) Driver (the only best driver for this device) works on W10 and some say it doesnt. So thats a bit weird lol

Dude my problem is solwed using native asio, skipping Windows ! I think the Windows 10's resampling is ****tier than Windows 7. Thx

 

[Kitmellow]

  Good review.
 
Actually I'm listening the card from RCA port and I changed only 1 band in the eq which was 64. I felt it was a bit much, but after your results I'm conviced that's bacuse of the cards behaviour. (But now I use asio while listening my files, you can't use the Eq using asio)
 
But the main thing I am stuck is that "Card lacks definiton.." Well it might be true but I have read many reviews and users opinon about U7 and they were saying this card is almost same as Essence STX level. Some users said this is better than Titanium HD. And this leads me to think about your settings while listening the card. And I want you to do these simple things and do a minor listening test again. I believe you will see improvements immediately.
 
1) Best driver for the U7 is that, as statet many people on this forum, the WHQL drivers If you are using Windows 7, first unistall the current software, restart, and then install Version 7.0.11.19, U7 driver for Windows 7 (then restrat again) If you have Win 8.1 look comments on page 39 sent by Xtreme512. 
 
2nd) Well 1st one might not make a diffrence but this one is definitelly will. Use U7's native asio drivers to avoid Window's resampling. Resampling to higher usually makes the sound more smooth but takes some of the crispness on highs and reduces the lows. So that's why I believe your findings are affected from these issue. To skip the Windows resapling (you can find more information on that on google etc.) you can use Xonar U7's native Asio drivers, using foobar or winamp. This will send your datas directly to U7, but beware you won't hear Chrome and etc while listening you music files. You need to stop your playback and restart the Chrome. It's not really practiacal, but since you are a serious listener who wants to see the card's full potential, bit perfect playback is very important.
 
Asus's guide on their site: http://www.asus.com/microsite/essence/tutorialpage/Foobar2000-ASIO.html
 
After setting up set change the buffering rate. That's 100ms by default but I had random playback stopping etc. I set buffer lenth to 50ms and haven't had issues so far. 
 
I was finding the card not that good untill I tried asio, you can check: post #572. You can test the DSX using asio but I don't if it has native asio support or not:?
 
 
 
Dude my problem is solwed using native asio, skipping Windows ! I think the Windows 10's resampling is ****tier than Windows 7. Thx

 
Hey, thanks for the feedback man!

 
There's certainly many possibilities and variables that might cause these differences in sound and other people's reviews, even though it's the same product. For example, there are instances where different batches of products behave differently, and how at times "review samples" may be handpicked for their best performance from the manufacture to give away for sites or reviewers to review, and are not representative of the quality of the same product that you buy from your local store like I have.
 
Some people may be confused about the results I came out with, but it's just my most honest review of how my specific Xonar U7 performed... 

 
On the surface, I really wanted to like this U7 very much as it had all the features and flexibility I wanted, but beneath that with all the testing and trials I've done, it didn't really turn out to be what I expected for $150 compared to my $50 DSX. I suppose I expected it to sound somewhat similar and maybe even slightly "better" whatever that meant... 

 
 
Besides preferring the sound of my DSX overall, in subjective listening tests, I thought my Samsung Galaxy S5 still sounded better than the U7 playing the same tracks since it had a better sense of balance, texture, thickness/fullness and quickness that sat between the characteristics of the DSX and U7. I would say that the U7 and the DSX are polar opposites of each other in sound presentation despite both being relatively neutral. The rise of distortion in the charts in the bass region is probably what shifted the tonality of the U7 a bit too much for my liking.
 
Even by plugging in some 8 ohm computer speakers and later a boombox with Aux In to the U7 headphone jack, the sonic imaging was a bit scattered-sounding on complex tracks where as when I plugged them into the DSX, the overall presentation (bass, mids, treble) tightened up and the treble especially was more alive with realistic attack where as they sounded a bit dull (but not recessed at all) on the U7. Again, I can't confirm if this has to do with possible poor (high) output impedance on the U7, but the fact that the U7 didn't pair as well to several different earphones/headphones as they did on my DSX or even my Galaxy S5 wasn't so great for me. 

 
 
I was using the same driver you listed and I have been for the last week or so. I have also uninstalled twice, but there was no determinable difference to me between using the Windows 8.1 driver and the 7.0.11.19 for Windows 7. If I recall correctly, the measurements were more less the same with each driver. Both even had identical stero crosstalk numbers, so I do doubt it's driver related.
 
I agree that resampling done by any DAC is a bad thing indeed, but like I mentioned before, as long as you match your sound device's sample rate to the sources (music) you are playing with Windows, it's confirmed that there won't be any resampling to degrade the sound, which is something I do already, including during the RMAA testing. 
 
Even other audio enthusiast sites like hydrogenaudio (http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Bypassing_Windows_Mixer), say there's questionable or minimal benefit in running ASIO or other interfaces outside of reducing input lag for producing. For convenience reasons also I can't justify running Foobar2000 in ASIO/exclusive mode. Especially considering that you can't really multitask when running exclusive mode and that your driver wont function so you can't have any EQ like you said. In my opinion, good sound quality is supposed to be provided as is, and within the natural mixer environment of Windows. After all, that's what companies get paid to design around. 

 
But honestly, it's whatever makes people happy, because I can't tell if anyone who has the Xonar U7 might have an actual better sounding and measuring one than I do. 

 

 

[Idiotpod]

   
Hello welcome to the HEAD-FI forums!! Forgive me for bringing up something that might seem so juvenile, but what you describe (if it is as glaringly as bad you said) seems like a poor connection with the headphone jack.  The echoing sound without any effects turned on is a symptom of this poor connection/contact, along with absent or very subdued sound frequencies.
 
Have you tried slowly inserting your headphone's jack at different depths (for example not all the way in) to see if there is a "sweet spot" that makes the sound come through so it is present at all frequencies your source is playing? 
 
Any modern 3.5mm headphone's jack should have a 3-pole connection (2 black notches on the jack). Older jacks of headphones made for early portable players may have a 4-pole connection (3 black notches) that make them incompatible to the universal 3-pole 3.5mm standard input without an adapter. But I have no reason to believe that is the problem for you. 

 
Worst case scenario is you try plugging in other headphones or earphones to see if they sound more less like they should. But obviously, make sure that you have all of your effects turned off in your driver panel first.
 
 
 
Edit: In case you were wondering, the sample rate and bit-depth settings in your driver panel will not effect this issue and are completely unrelated. However, as a friendly tip it is recommended that you change the sample rate to match the content you are currently playing or listening to so that your soundcard is not forced to resample every time and introduce measurable artifacts (if you want the absolute best sound quality).
 
Since most content both games and online/videos/music are CD quality (44.1kHz) it's best to leave it at that setting in your driver, unless you are specifically listening to FLAC files or similar with over 44.1kHz sampling. Your bit depth setting however, can be left at 24-bit to ensure the highest dynamic range without needing to compromise to 16-bit.

Hi Kitmellow, thank you for the welcoming! 

For some reason, if I put the headphones 3.5mm halfway in - I get the sound I wanted... Thats pretty darn weird, why would I get the wanted sound with half the connectors? :O Hahahahah
I've tried a bunch of phones so far by the way, I didnt mention it in my original post tho(Sorry!). But about 5-6 different headphones, all from a couple mid-fi philips, my V-Modas, Momentum On-Ear, 2 pairs of In-Ears and a couple of sony on-ears. =) 
 
 
I'll still send it back for a new one, since this one is defective and I don't want to risk it getting more defective since it's already there. 
 
Thank you Kitmellow!

 

[Kitmellow]

 
Hi Kitmellow, thank you for the welcoming! 

For some reason, if I put the headphones 3.5mm halfway in - I get the sound I wanted... Thats pretty darn weird, why would I get the wanted sound with half the connectors? :O Hahahahah
I've tried a bunch of phones so far by the way, I didnt mention it in my original post tho(Sorry!). But about 5-6 different headphones, all from a couple mid-fi philips, my V-Modas, Momentum On-Ear, 2 pairs of In-Ears and a couple of sony on-ears. =) 
 
 
I'll still send it back for a new one, since this one is defective and I don't want to risk it getting more defective since it's already there. 
 
Thank you Kitmellow!

No problem! 

 
If only many other things in life were solved this easily... right? 

 
Hope you get your new U7 soon and see you on Head-Fi in the future! 
 
We will be here if you run into any other issues and stuff.

 
 
 
 
@HAWX, so I looked over the drivers once again and I installed the slightly older official "WHQL" version of the 7.0.11.19 this time and I realized this version did not have the Sonic Studio Pro interface.
 
I ran some quick tests on RMAA and it appears that the distortion on the bass area and the frequency response curves have improved drastically and was basically halved with this particular driver.
All I can say to Asus is: 

 
 
I will post some images and update my review later when I do some more listening tests.
 
It appears as if Asus doesn't know how to make very good drivers. Which is something I let my guard down on, despite the fact that I'm already using the Asus Uni drivers (Third party drivers) for my Xonar DSX because the original drivers were kinda crud. 

 

 

[raoultrifan]

  For some reason, if I put the headphones 3.5mm halfway in - I get the sound I wanted... Thats pretty darn weird, why would I get the wanted sound with half the connectors? :O Hahahahah
I've tried a bunch of phones so far by the way, I didnt mention it in my original post tho(Sorry!). But about 5-6 different headphones, all from a couple mid-fi philips, my V-Modas, Momentum On-Ear, 2 pairs of In-Ears and a couple of sony on-ears. =)

 
If your headphones are having 4-contacts (microphone included) then it's "normal" to have this issue, because of the way output plug of U7 was designed. Same thing happens to myself when I listen to my Apple Beat Solo2 headphones and same thing happens to more others. A headfier told me he placed an O-ring on headphones plug and this solves the issue, unless you want to unplug it a little bit every time.

 

[Idiotpod]

   
If your headphones are having 4-contacts (microphone included) then it's "normal" to have this issue, because of the way output plug of U7 was designed. Same thing happens to myself when I listen to my Apple Beat Solo2 headphones and same thing happens to more others. A headfier told me he placed an O-ring on headphones plug and this solves the issue, unless you want to unplug it a little bit every time.

Just checked all of the headphones! None of them have 4 contacts, only three. =) 

 

[Kitmellow]

 


Just checked all of the headphones! None of them have 4 contacts, only three. =) 

 
Wait lol! Before you return it, he's right. If your headphone has a microphone combo (which I didn't know it did), your headphone jack is split into 3 black notches (called a 4-pin 3.5mm) so it can have a small chance of not working depending on the design of the source jack.
 
Generally, your modern standard 4-pin 3.5mm should be fine with most sources but again, the U7's jack seems to be designed differently and not accept a modern configuration 4-pin 3.5mm at all. 
 
I didn't realize this would be a problem because I haven't actually tried a headphone with a mic combo on the U7 yet so I pulled out my fairly recent $20 earphones that I used for traveling (on the airplane) with in-line mic and indeed got this problem. 
 
Edit: I can't really think of anything that would solve this without DIY or buying an adapter. If anyone else has opinions on an easy fix, please share! 

 

 

[Idiotpod]

   
Wait lol! Before you return it, he's right. If your headphone has a microphone combo (which I didn't know it did), your headphone jack is split into 3 black notches on your jack (called a 4-pin 3.5mm) so it can have a small chance of not working depending on the design.
 
Generally, your modern standard 4-pin 3.5mm should be fine with most sources but again, the U7's jack seems to be designed differently and not accept a modern configuration 4-pin 3.5mm at all. 
 
I didn't realize this would be a problem because I haven't actually tried a headphone with a mic combo on the U7 yet so I pulled out my fairly recent $20 earphones that I used for traveling (on the airplane) with in-line mic and indeed got this problem.

Wow, just tried another pair of headphones with an old 2-striped cable to my fathers headphones - worked PERFECTLY.
But since there are no replacement cables for my V-Modas that are thin enough to fit the jack in the headphone, I still have to return the U7.
This feels like a bit of a miss from Asus since there are quite a lot of headphones that are made with cellphones in mind these days.
 
 
By the way, do you think this mics adapter would be able to fix the problem since it splits the channels into 2 x steroes?
http://s3.pji.nu/product/standard/800/2671684.jpg

 

[Xtreme512]

@Kitmellow You were using bad driver suite, now you see at last Ive been mentioning it many times, asus engineers did a very bad job with newest drivers. There is only one driver for this device that will run the card at its best and it is the WHQL non echelon drivers as I wrote earlier posts with full number. And newest driver suites lack serious features like lfe cut off frequency.
 
@HAWX So basically you might using some effects without knowing. because when you select playback option as WASAPI exclusive or ASIO, it will not only send the datas to the card directly but also bypass all the DSP effects and such. And i dont think the reason was the windows sampler as if you left it on the musics sample rate, windows wont resample at all. and there is a common mistake that windows sampler is bad actually it was bad back in the windows xp, vista era. But yes Im using ASIO too sometimes WASAPI Exclusive when playing surround tracks.
 
 
I moved on to this device from my xtreme music. Im using ATH-A500X monitors and creative G500 surround speakers, and the overall sound quality is improved considerably in all areas at my end. Some said my Galaxy S5 has better sounding and bla bla. But no, in reality this card is really really good piece of hardware, you just need to know how to use it. And for people says otherwise, I dont blame you, I blame asus engineers.