Price: MSRP of $89 USD
Availability: November 27 2007
Manufacturers Part#: Xonar U1
Warranty: 3 Years through Asus



Introduction

The PC audio landscape has changed drastically over the last year. New products have literally blown away previous standards and a few new companies have joined the current line up of manufacturing heavy weights. One notable addition is ASUS, a company known for high quality hardware for the enthusiasts. Yet, they have never made audio devices up until recently with the release of the Xonar . With the release of their formidable Xonar line of sound cards ASUS became a serious contender in the PC audio industry and offered yet another choice for audio enthusiasts who are looking for state of the art audio hardware. We previously reviewed the Xonar D2 PCI solution and we were more than impressed with the sound quality and features provided.

Now we have the new Xonar U1 USB Audio station to audition and review. Many PC users do not want to open their systems or spend high amounts of money to get great sound quality and high end features. This audio device is clearly aimed at the discerning audio enthusiast who would like to add modern audio technologies to their PC laptop or HTPC. The U1 is packed with many features for the price. One of the more interesting features is the fact the unit is external and this prevents EMI and RFI from entering the sensitive audio circuitry. This supposedly keeps the audio clean and clear. This unit can be plugged in, software loaded and you’re ready to enjoy your sound in minutes. The U1 is also a very quick and efficient upgrade for the Windows Vista user by offering hardware accelerated sound quality back to the Vista gamer. Unfortunately, those of us that have begun to use Vista know that many sound options were lost with our upgrade. Also, this compact solution has the ability to quickly add high end audio technologies to HTPC users. Simplicity itself is the idea behind the U1 and it looks like it has the hardware potential to back it up.

A little note should also be added here because if you were doing a Google search for this sound "station" you will probably end up with some hits for a different ASUS product; the U1 ultra portable laptop. While it may be in the same "ultra portable" vein, the U1 sound card is what this review will be all about. So, let's get this show on the road!!