ASUS XONAR U3 User Manual

Xonar U3

Mobile Headphone Amp USB Soundcard

User manual

E7803

Second Edition (V2) October 2012

No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes, without the express written permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (“ASUS”).

Product warranty or service will not be extended if: (1) the product is repaired, modied or altered, unless such repair, modication of alteration is authorized in writing by ASUS; or (2) the serial number of the

product is defaced or missing.

ASUS PROVIDES THIS MANUAL “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ASUS, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF USE OR DATA, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS AND THE LIKE), EVEN IF ASUS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY DEFECT OR ERROR IN THIS MANUAL OR PRODUCT.

SPECIFICATIONS AND INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MANUAL ARE FURNISHED FOR INFORMATIONAL USE ONLY, AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE, AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY ASUS. ASUS ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR ANY ERRORS OR INACCURACIES THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS MANUAL, INCLUDING THE PRODUCTS AND SOFTWARE DESCRIBED IN IT.

Products and corporate names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered trademarks or

copyrights of their respective companies, and are used only for identication or explanation and to the owners’ benet, without intent to infringe.

Contents

Notices ......................................................................................................... iv

Safety information ....................................................................................... v

Trademarks ................................................................................................... v

License ......................................................................................................... v

1. Package contents ............................................................................ 1

2. System requirements ...................................................................... 1

3. Specicationssummary ................................................................. 1

4. Card Installation .............................................................................. 3

5. Driver installation ............................................................................ 3

6. Hardware introduction .................................................................... 4

7. Connecting speakers ...................................................................... 5

8. Xonar Audio Center......................................................................... 7

8.1 Xonar Audio Center GUI .................................................... 7

8.2 Main Setting ....................................................................... 9

8.3 Mixer/Volume ................................................................... 17

8.4 Effects .............................................................................. 19

8.5 Karaoke / Magic Voice ..................................................... 21

8.6 VocalFX ............................................................................ 22

8.7 Smart Volume Normalization ........................................... 25

8.8 DS3D GX2.5 and DSP Modes ......................................... 27

9. Troubleshooting and FAQs .......................................................... 29

iii

Notices

Federal Communications Commission Statement

This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:

•

This device may not cause harmful interference, and

•

This device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation.

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

•

Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

•

Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

•

Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

•

Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

Canadian Department of Communications Statement

This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise emissions from digital apparatus set out in the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian Department of Communications.

This class B digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003.

Australia statement notice

From 1 January 2012 updated warranties apply to all ASUS products, consistent with the Australian Consumer Law. For the latest product warranty details please visit http://support.asus.com. Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure. If you require assistance please call ASUS Customer Service 1300 2787 88 or visit us at http://support.asus.com

Safety information

•

Before installing the device on a motherboard, carefully read all the manuals that came with the package.

•

To prevent electrical shock hazard or short circuits, switch off the power supply

before installing the device on a motherboard or connecting any singal cables to the device.

•

If the device is broken, do not try to x it by yourself. Contact a qualied service

technician or your retailer.

•

Before using the product, make sure all cables are correctly connected. If you detect any damage, contact your dealer immediately.

•

To avoid short circuits, keep paper clips, screws, and staples away from connectors, sockets and circuitry.

•

Avoid dust, humidity, and temperature extremes. Do not place the product in any area where it may become wet.

•

Place the product on a stable surface.

•

If you encounter technical problems with the product, contact a qualied

service technician or your retailer.

This symbol of the crossed out wheeled bin indicates that the product (electrical and electronic equipment) should not be placed in municipal waste. Check local regulations for disposal of electronic products.

Trademarks

Xonar and ASUS logo are trademarks of ASUSTek Computer Inc. “Dolby” and “Dolby Digital Live”, “Dolby Pro Logic IIx”, “Dolby Virtual Speaker”, “Dolby Headphone” are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. EAX and A3D are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. Microsoft, DirectSound3D, Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

License

Dolby Master Studio driver is manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories.

1. Package contents

Check your ASUS Xonar U3 external USB audio card package for the following items:

• ASUS Xonar U3 external USB audio card

• S/PDIF TOSLINK optical adapter x 1

• Driver / User Manual CD x 1

• Quick Start Guide x 1

2. System requirements

To ensure a successful installation of the Xonar U3 external USB audio card, your computer must meet the following requirements:

• IBM compatible PC with one USB1.1 (or higher) compatible port for the USB audio device

• Microsoft® Windows® 7 / Vista / XP(32/64bit) / MCE2005

• Intel® Pentium® 4 1.4GHz or AMD Athlon 1400 CPU or faster CPU

• 256 MB DRAM system memory

• 60 MB available HDD space for driver installation package

• CD-ROM drive (or DVD-ROM drive) for software installation

• High-quality headphones or powered analog speakers to enjoy the ultra-high

delity sound of the card

3. Specicationssummary

Category Item Description

Audio Controller and Codec

Bus Interface

I/O Ports

Audio Chipset ASUS UA100 USB Audio Chip

USB Bus USB 2.0 and 1.0 Full-speed compatible

USB Audio Class USB Audio Device Class v1.0 compatible

Analog Output Jack & Digital S/PDIF Output Combo

Built-in Headphone

Amplier

Analog Input Jack: 3.50mm mini shared jack *1 (Line-In/Mic-In)

(continued on the next page)

3.50mm mini analog and digital combo jack*1 (Headphone/Speakers/SPDIF output)

98dB SNR >1.1Vrms full-scale output voltage for >32 ohms load

Frequency Response (-3dB/48KHz): 20~20KHz for 32ohms

1ASUS Xonar U3

Category Item Description

Play music. Idle: LED on

Mute: LED off

Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Virtual Speaker, Dolby® Pro-Logic IIx, Dolby® Digital Live

Normalizes the volume of all audio sources

into a constant level

Virtual 7.1speaker positioning

Modies the sound of your voice, for VOIP and

online chat applications (Windows XP)

Music Key-Shifting and Microphone Echo effects (Windows XP)

Outlook Features

Driver Features

LED indicator

Operation System Windows® 7/Vista/XP(32/64bit)

Dolby® Technologies

Smart Volume

Normalizer™

Xear 3D™ Virtual

Speaker Shifter

Magic Voice™

Karaoke Functions

Other Effects 10-band Equalizer/27 Environment Effects

3D Sound Engines/APIs

EAX® 2.0&1.0, A3D® 1.0, DirectSound® HW & SW, OpenAL generic modes

S/PDIF Digital Output PCM, Dolby Digital

Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (silence, A-

~100dB

Weighted):

Audio Performance

Accessories

Output THD+N

(1kHz -3dBFs)

Cross-talk (10Kohms,

1KHz)

Frequency Response

(-1dB, 48KHz):

Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage

S/PDIF optical adaptor*1, Driver CD*1, Quick Start Guide*1

<0.005%

-104dB

< 20Hz to 20KHz

2.0 Vrms / 2.0 Vrms

*Specicationsaresubjecttochangewithoutnotice.

2 ASUS Xonar U3

4. Card Installation

Connect the USB connector to any USB 2.0 port on your notebook or PC as the following drawing shows.

5. Driver installation

After installing the Xonar U3 external USB audio card on your computer, you need to install the device driver that enables the Xonar U3 audio card to work with Windows operating system.

The version and content of the support CD are subject to change without notice.

To install the device driver:

1. Insert the ASUS Xonar U3 support CD into your optical drive. If Autorun is

enabled, the ASUS Xonar Card Driver screen appears automatically. Go to step 4. If Autorun is not enabled in your computer, perform step 2.

2. Click My Computer on your desktop and double-click the optical drive icon.

3. Double-click the setup.exe icon located on the optical drive.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation. Read the

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT in the process and make sure that you understand and accept it before continuing the installation.

5. When the installation nishes, you may be prompted to restart your computer.

You can choose to restart the computer later if desired.

3ASUS Xonar U3

6. Hardware introduction

Xonar U3 external USB audio card layout

1. Light indicator

Description Status

Play music (not Mute) LED on Play music (Mute) LED off

Idle (not Mute) LED on Idle (Mute) LED off

2. Headphone & S/PDIF-Out port

3. Mic & Line-in port

4 ASUS Xonar U3

7. Connecting speakers

For Analog Spakers

2 Speakers

2.1 Speakers

For Digital Speakers

SPDIF Out

Plug the optical TOSLINK adapter into the S/PDIF-Out port. Then, connect your decoder’s S/PDIF In port to the optical adapter with a TOSLINK optical cable.

The TOSLINK optical cable is purchased separately.

5ASUS Xonar U3

Connecting headphone / microphone

Connecting Line-In audio sources

6 ASUS Xonar U3

+ 26 hidden pages