ASUS Announces Xonar U7 MKII

Upgrade the sound on your laptop or even desktop with the Xonar U7 MKII and you'll get true 7.1- channel surround sound, dedicated and precise volume control at your fingertips, and an on-screen overlay for a competitive edge in FPS (first-person shooter) games. Xonar U7 MKII is a USB sound card and headphone amplifier, play movies, music and games in high fidelity with up to 192kHz/24-bit output. 

The compact package size allows you to take it anywhere along with your headphones/headset. Inside features the Cirrus Logic CS4398 digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and exclusive ASUS Hyper Grounding technology, to push high-quality sound into your headphones with 114dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

Those of you who still love your existing surround-sound home theater amplifier, but it doesn't have HDMI inputs, here is your solution. You could use the analog outputs (two RCA and three 3.5mm stereo), or go digital for the best possible quality using the SPDIF output. 

Once hooked up, the dedicated volume control can be placed in an easy to reach position for precise control. Sonic Radar Pro is a powerful sound utitlity bundled to give you control over individual channels, equalization (EQ), and displays on-screen information while gaming to help you locate your enemies faster.

You can also check out ROG Centurion for true 7.1-channel surround sound built into the headset, or ROG Strix Wireless for total freedom without cables.