[Kitmellow]

  @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.

 
Yup clearly. 

 
Considering that I want to use the U7 with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 across different machines, is there a driver suite that won't butcher the U7's performance for those OS's or can I still install this Windows 7 driver on them?
 
Edit: I noticed that Windows 8 and 8.1 have official WHQL drivers on the site, so I am guessing those will work fine with Windows 8?
Windows 10 still does not have a certified driver yet...

 

[HAWX]

Actually I wasn't using any dsp effect etc. but I set the sampling bit depth to 96-24. But I have songs from all over the place, if I needed to adjust to each song's sampling rate I must change it every 5 minutes So my problem was with Windows 10's resampling mostly on 44-48 to 96. Well there is a very small difrence actually, but it affects overall representation.But asio solved my problems luckly  But If I launch my resampler (installed in foobar) in asio mode it works which is good, even in asio mode. So some dsp effects might work installed in the foobar as well, but anyway that's another topic..
 
@Kitmellow I tried Windows 7 and  Windows 8.1's WHQL drivers to install but no luck it says system is not compatible even I try compability mode, on my U7 Echelon. But When I tried Windows 8's WHQL driver it worked. I think It might be better than native U7 Echelon Windows 10 driver, but I don't know. By the way If you are using for loudspeakers like me, I recommend you to use RCA port. 3.5mm port does not sound good on mine as well. I remember I was sad when I hooked it up there first because of the sound I got ) I hope you find better overall listening from card with this drivers But Asus making me sick for drivers as well

​
 
And you might already seen it but here is a review which shows cards components benchmarks and compares it to DSX but just in a small phragraph  http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/asus-xonar-u7-usb-soundcard-review.209326/
 
 
 
 
For all the  U7 Echelon owners running Windows 10 , try Windows 8's newer WHQL driver for U7, not Echelon. It Works on Win 10, (But no Sonic Radar)
 
And Every U7 Echelon driver for Windows 7 sucks big time in terms of audio quality. I tried everyone on 32 and 64 version, they all suck unfortunately, avoid using them. I wrote about them in the past but Asus didn't fix them on Windows 7 :/ post #462 post #464

 

[Kitmellow]

@HAWX I think you might be mistaken thinking I have a Xonar DX 

 
The review you linked is a comparison to the Xonar DX, not my DSX... the DSX is a lower-end and cheaper model than the DX which doesn't require an extra power connector that the DX requires. The DX is a good soundcard and should perform a little better than the Xonar U7, but without the amplifier and being an internal card.
 
 
 
Here are my updated results after "downgrading" to the older WHQL Windows 7 driver...

 
Listening to several intrumental FLACs and vocal tracks, the overall fullness characteristic sound of the U7 is still present (which is good). However, the low mids and even higher mids had more airiness to them instead of being as sweet and as mellow sounding.
 
This contributed to a better sense of space of separation between sounds/instruments. The difference is kind of subtle in the context of the fullness of the sound, but nevertheless it still affected female vocals and especially male vocals so they sounded somewhat more realistic with a certain lightness and finesse where it wasn't very apparent before.
 
The bass by comparison was still on the warmer side of things except the slightly boomier nature seemed to be more punchy-ish and a little more textured. Though I admit it was difficult to tell at times. 

 
 
On to RMAA again:
 

 
Now the numbers in RMAA might not tell much of a difference besides the THD sweeps and most notably, the much bigger IMD discrepancy, but the graphs are where things start getting interesting. These frequency response graphs are at 48kHz 24-bit. The left graph is the new result the right graph is the older one from loading my saved results. You can clearly tell the signature has smoothed out eliminating the random sickled-shaped dip and even reducing the low bass slightly.
 
 
But wait until you see this... The left side are the new results and the old results on the right side.
 

 
 
 
I'll just let the charts speak for themselves at how much distortion I was getting
 
Moral of the story: never trust Asus drivers

 

[HAWX]

Actually I don't know both cards but in the review it says DS performs only better in multi chanel compared to U7. So If U7 is better than DX it will be better then the DSX naturally
 
 
Results are striking. I think I'm gonna send Asus new email about this. And I will think twice before buying sound cards which requires drivers to work..
 
Edit: Did you get the card for 140$? I think It's quite expensive for U7. U7 is 86$ in amazon right now. I bought it about 90$ converting my purchase to dollar.

 

[Kitmellow]

Hmm... I might have forgotten to mention the prices for me are in CAD since I live in Canada, so $140 with taxes is kinda standard because the economy isn't doing so good...

 
I feel a lot more confident about the U7, but I still have some reservations about the "weaker" amplifier and the high measured output impedance which I read varies from 17-20 ohms according to some posts from Hydrogenaudio and this Russian review site (http://personalaudio.ru/detail/asus_xonar_u7/?CODE=asus_xonar_u7&PAGEN_2=3).
 
Most of the things I plug into the headphone jack sound okay, besides those with an inline mic, which I have to use an additional 3.5mm adapter with.
 
After the driver change, the U7 still sounds a bit on the warm/smoother side of things but with quite transparent mids now. I still don't know if this is because of a poor damping factor between the gear I use or that fact that the U7 is supposed to sound a little on the warmer/smoother side to begin with.
 
I am slightly on the fence with the U7 but I guess it's still better than my DSX. The extra features I don't use like the 7.1 are nice for futureproofing... 

 

 

[Mojabragas]

I recently downgrade from windows 10x64 driver to windows 8x64 whql, because I couldn't install 8.1 whql because it said wrong platform.
I notice no difference, maybe a lack of punch.

 

[Kitmellow]

It's a difference that you're unlikely to notice unless you are aware of this issue, that's for sure. The scaling bass distortion with the wrong drivers can bleed into the mids that you may or may not notice very much depending on the headphones you use. 

 
And you might actually prefer sound before downgrading because you've gotten used to liking the warmer sound. But, when the output measures like it does from my post above without any EQ applied, it just shows how much the Xonar U7 with the wrong drivers is lying to you, not giving a flat presentation that a soundcard of this class is capable of.
 
I've not tested the regular Windows 10 64-bit drivers, but in my experience using anything other than the WHQL drivers, the measured bass response distortion starts to scale and gets worse at anything under 1K hertz.

 

[Mojabragas]

So is there a difference between whql win8 and whql win8.1?

 

[Kitmellow]

Hmm.. well It shouldn't really be a concern because like you said: only one of them is compatible with your OS.

Choose the newest one that is WHQL certified that installs properly.

 

[Xtreme512]

Guys, Ive been thinking, when I install windows 10 as there are no clear information about which driver to install for best sound quality (like the WHQL version in win8.1), Im planning to use the card on usb1.0 mode (switching usb mode physically under the device) and let native windows 10 drivers drive the card.
 
My thought is that, as I do not ever use any asus driver feature like EQ and other stuff, and also im not sure which asus driver to use for w10, this idea is pretty interesting. I only use flex bass for bass management and ASUS ASIO drivers. For ASIO it will be a trade off for me. But for bass management, I see that windows has it too and it exactly looks like ASUS's flex bass.
 
Now my question is, is it wise to do that? I mean will it affect the sound quality of the hardware?
 
Thanks.

 

[HAWX]

@Xtreme512 I must have said earlier but Windows 8's U7 WHQL driver (updated WHQL I guess, one of the WHQL is newer) worked on my Windows 10 U7Echelon. It has the cut off frequency option (It looks like older one and interface and options are the same). It provides best sound quality like other WHQL drivers. There are no native WHQL driver for W10 unfortunately :/ Asio sometimes stops working but not a big deal. Just wait some seconds and replug U7.

 

[Xtreme512]

thanks for your reply. thats great to know, after all i got one solid option now. but i still seek some answer to my previous question as it sounds pretty interesting to me.

 

[AtrafCreez]

Kit Hi,
I am a no nothing about audio., but having spent at least 50 hours online , also various Head_Fi forums, googling and wasting time with ASUS I still have no answer.
Reading about the Asus Xonar u7 2 or 3 years ago i bought one not knowing that my motherboard had an Asus internal anyhow.....I did see a large difference though with my speakers and Sennheiser headphones.
At a later time i had to re-install Windows 7 and then the Asus software would not install, each time it said "plug in the Asus xonar 7u"  but it was plugged in.
Asus support was horrible the whole forms to fill out and then they still offered no solution.
I tossed the Asus Xonar in a drawer.
Having in the last 2 years bought Sennheiser wireless RS 180  and the newer RS 195  I was reading on the forums that I would have a better audio quality by using the available Optical connection rather than the analog connection I use.  (I have no AV reciever, amp or the such just a desktop pc) my PC has no optical connection (checked) everything outside the USA often has 117% taxes added on.
So I figured to use the optical connection on the Asus Xonar u7 but trying again to install they  write the same message : "Connect the Xonar before proceeding with instalation"  What should I do??  

 

[HAWX]

Man you are sure you are trying to install right edition? Maybe your one is the Echelon edition:?
If you are doing it right and still have that message I have no idea.

 

[AtrafCreez]

Thank You for replying. No its not Echelon !