ASUS D2 User Manual

Xonar D2

7.1 Channel Audio Card 192KHz/24Bit DuplexHDTM

®

Featuring Dolby

and DTS® Technologies for Home

Entertainment

RMAA 6.0.5 Test Guide and Results

Revision: 1.1 Date: Aug. 10, 2007

ASUS Xonar D2 Audio Card

RMAA6.0.5 Test Guide V.1.1

The Xonar D2 driver CD includes RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) v.5.6, popular software intended for testing the quality of audio equipment, be it a sound card, portable MP3 player , consumer CD/DVD player, or a speaker system. However, the latest RightMark Audio Analyzer v6.0.5 is available now. This document describes the test guideline wit h RMAA v6.0.5 and the complete test results by updated X onar D2 driver package (8.17.20 or later), which improves RMAA MME test quality inherently limited by Windows to faithfully present Xonar D2’s hardware quality. The measurements are conducted by playing and recording test signals, and using frequency analysis algorithms. The following provides a step-by-step loop-back test guide for your Xonar D2 audio card.

1. Setting Up Xonar D2 Audio Card

Open the Xonar D2 Audio Center. Use the settings below:

1. Select the sample rate you will be using with RMAA test (here we set 48KHz for testing 48KHz/24bit signals).

2. Set analog output to 2-speaker mode (to get rid of any channel processing over RMAA stereo signals in the driver)

3. T urn off all sound effects including Dolby, D TS, 7.1 speaker shifter, EQ, Environment, etc. A quick way to do so is to enable the “Hi-Fi mode” button in the Audio Center.

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ASUS Xonar D2 Audio Card

RMAA6.0.5 Test Guide V.1.1

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4. Go to the Mixer Recording page and select “ AL T” as the recording source . Click “Reset” to make sure the recording volume is on the default highest level (0dB). This is actually a high-quality onboard loop-back path from the Line-out directly to the Line-In. This allows you to get realistic output and input quality ratings for the Xonar D2 audio card.

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ASUS Xonar D2 Audio Card

RMAA6.0.5 Test Guide V.1.1

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Note: Yo u may al so ch oose to use an external 3.5mm line cable as follows (as short as possible) to connect the Front-Out jack to the Line-In jack for loop-back testing. In that case, please select “Line In” as the recording source on the mixer page. However, this

external cable may cause unexpected performance drop depending on its cable quality.

3.5mm Line Cable

ASUS Xonar D2 Audio Card

5. Click “Reset” on the playback volume mixer page to keep the volume setting on default.

6. Turn the master volume to the MAX level (0dB)

RMAA6.0.5 Test Guide V.1.1

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2. Configuration and Test with RMAA

Start RMAA and follow the setup procedure below.

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1. Select the playback device as “[DirectSound]ASUS Xonar D2 Audio” (or [MME] ASUS

Xonar D2 Audio) and recording device as “[MME] ASUS Xonar D2 Audio”. (Please also

mind that NOT to select “ASUS Xonar D2 Audio Converter”, which is for ALT and PMP

purpose.)

ASUS Xonar D2 Audio Card

2. Select 24bit and 48KHz for the test signals. (If you change the format here, please remember to go back to set the SAME sample rate output in the Xonar D2 Audio Center. Please mind that Xonar D2 currently supports 44.1K, 48K, 96K, and 192KHz. 88.2K,

176.2KHz, and 32bit(float) tests are not supported.)

3. Click the General test options in RMAA and make sure “ Analyze noise and distortion only

in 20Hz-20KHz range” (audio in-band for human hearing) is selected.

RMAA6.0.5 Test Guide V.1.1

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4. It’s recommended by RMAA to ignore the two tests: “Frequency response (swept sine)” and “Total harmonic distortion (set of tones)”, which are for speaker test primarily.

5. Click loop-back playback/record test button

6. Check that the Adjusting level window shows that the levels are OK (the level meter will be green). Begin the test by clicking the “Start test” button.

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