Xonar U1 External USB Audio Station User’s manual R
E3858 Third Edition V3 April 2008 Copyright © 2008 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. All Rights Reserved. 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”).
Contents Contents....................................................................................................... iii Notices........................................................................................................... v Safety information....................................................................................... vi Trademarks................................................................................................... vi License........................................
Contents 8. Troubleshooting and FAQs........................................................... 39 [Troubleshooting]............................................................................. 39 [FAQ] iv ..........................................................................................
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.
Safety information • Before installing the device on a motherboard, carefully read all the manuals that came with the package. • If the device is broken, do not try to fix it by yourself. Contact a qualified 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.
1. Introduction 1.1 Package Contents • Xonar™ U1 Audio USB dongle • Driver Support CD (including Portable Music Processor™ Lite utility) • S/PDIF TOSLINK optical adaptor *1 • Array Microphone *1 • Dolby Demo CD • Quick Start Guide 1.2 System Requirements • IBM compatible PC with one USB1.1 (or higher) compatible port for the USB audio device • Microsoft® Windows® Vista/XP(32/64bit)/MCE2005 • Intel® Pentium®4 1.
1.3 Specifications summary Category Item Description Audio Controller and Codec Audio Chipset ASUS UA100 USB Audio Chip Bus Interface 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 3.
Software Utility Portable Music Processor Lite Audio Performance Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (silence, A-Weighted): 100dB Output Dynamic Range (-60dB, A-Weighted): 96dB Converts digital music content or CD audio into regular MP3/WMA files with Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker (w/ Pro-Logic II), and Smart Volume Normalization processing (Windows Media Player 10 or above is required) Cross-talk (10Kohms, 1KHz) Accessories -104dB Frequency Response (-1dB, 48KHz): < 20Hz to 20KHz Output/Inpu
2. About Hardware 2.1 Xonar U1 Audio Station R 4 3 1 No Item Description 1 Microphone jack Connect your external PC microphone to this 3.5mm jack for voice input. Built-in high-quality Microphone pre-amplifier. Line Input jack Connect analog devices like MP3 players, CD players, music synthesizers and other line-level sound sources to this 3.5mm jack for audio recording or processing. Headphone/Front Output jack Connect your headphones or 2/2.1 channel speakers to this jack.
3. Installing the Xonar Hardware 3.1 Installing Xonar U1 Connect the USB connector to any USB 2.0 port on your notebook or PC as the following drawing shows.
4. Installing Software 4.1 Installing the Audio Station Driver 1. After you have installed your audio station, turn on your computer. Windows automatically detects your audio station and searches for device drivers. When prompted for the audio drivers, click the “Cancel” button. 2. Insert the driver installation CD into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. If Windows AutoPlay mode is enabled for your CD-ROM drive, the CD starts running automatically.
4.2 Installing the PMP Lite software (Portable Music Processor™ Lite) 1. From the installation CD menu, select the option to install the PMP Lite software. 2. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation. After the installation is complete, click Finish. 4.3 Uninstalling or Reinstalling Software 4.3.1 1. Uninstalling Software Select the corresponding uninstallation program, under the “All Programs” section of the Start menu.
2. Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. 3. Double-click the “Add/Remove Programs” icon. 4. Click the “Change or Remove Programs” button. 5. Select each program you would like to remove, and then click the “Add/ Remove (or Change/Remove)” button. 6. In the InstallShield Wizard dialog box, select the “Remove” option. 7. Restart your computer when prompted. 4.3.2 Reinstalling Software 1. Before you reinstall any software, it’s recommended to uninstall the existing software first. 2.
5. Connecting Speakers and Peripherals 5.1 Connecting Digital Speaker Systems (Home Theater) The Xonar U1 supports Dolby Digital Live technologies, which transcode any audio, including games and music, into industry-standard Dolby Digital surround bit-streams. This makes playback through your home theater system possible, creating an immersive and impressive cinema surround sound experience.
5.2 Connecting speakers 5.2.1 Connecting 2/2.1 Channel Speakers 2 Speakers R 1 2.1 Speakers R 1 No Item Description 1 Headphone Jack Connect the 2/2.1 speaker set’s 3.5mm plug into this Headphone jack.
5.3 Connecting headphone / microphone Connecting headphone R 1 2 No Item Description 1 Headphone Jack Connect your headphone directly to this jack. 2 Microphone Input Jack Connect the microphone’s 3.5mm plug into this Mic-In jack for voice communication, recording, or karaoke. Connecting Microphone / Array Microphone R R 1 No Item Description 1 Microphone Input Jack Connect the microphone’s 3.5mm plug into this Mic-In jack for voice communication, recording, or karaoke.
To use the bundled array microphone: When using the bundled array microphone, make sure that you position your mouth to the correct side of the microphone, as the following picture shows. Otherwise, the microphone may not receive your voice well. 5.4 Connecting Line-In Audio Sources R 1 No Item Description 1 Line Input/Microphone Jack Connect the 3.
6. Xonar U1 Driver Guide 6.1 Introduction to the Xonar U1 Audio Center GUI 1. After the driver installation is complete and your computer has been rebooted, you will find the Xonar U1 Audio Center’s icon in the system tray on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Double click this icon to open the Xonar Audio Center utility. If the icon could not be found in the system tray, go to the Windows Control Panel and double click the “Xonar U1 Audio Center” icon. 2.
No Item Description 1 Display Area This display area shows the 10-band signal meter, volume level, and the status of the Dolby technology, EQ, and DSP modes. Note: this area just displays information, but is not used to alter settings. 2 Menu Open/Close Clicking this button will move the display area and reveal the configuration area below. Clicking it again will move the display area back down. 3 Master Volume This rotary knob controls the master playback volume.
6.2 Main Setting 6.2.1 Sample Rate The Sample rate determines the number of audio samples per second that the Digital-to-Analog Converters (DAC) and S/PDIF digital interface will output. The Xonar U1 audio card can support sample rates up to 48KHz. Even if your setting differs from the audio source’s sample rate, the Xonar U1 engine will do super high fidelity sample-rate-conversion with a double floating-point filter.
6.2.2 Analog Out/Speaker Test 1 2 No Item Description 1 Analog Out The Analog Out setting is used to match your actual speaker setting, such as headphones, 2 speakers (or 2.1). Xonar U1 will play the channels and does the proper 3D/Dolby sound processing accordingly. Select the correct speaker/ Headphone type for your connected speakers/ Headphone. 2 Speaker Test Click this button to show the speaker test window in the right pane.
6.2.3 SPDIF Out/DDL Xonar U1 is capable of outputting Dolby Digital Live, which are real-time encoders that transcode any audio, including games and music, into industry-standard Dolby Digital bit-streams on-the-fly. This is ideal for playback through a home theater system, creating an immersive and impressive cinema surround sound experience. It enables a single digital connection to carry high quality Dolby Digital surround audio from your PC to digital speakers and AV Receivers.
6.2.4 Audio Channels (For Vista only) This setting only appears in Windows Vista. Vista will deliver the audio channels to the audio driver according to this setting, no matter what the original audio content is or how many channels they have. Therefore, you need to set this in accordance with your audio content before you play it. Please note that this setting is synchronized with Vista’s system speaker configuration and changing the setting during playback will cease the audio playback program.
6.2.5 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter The 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter has the following major features: • Expanding/upmixing audio to 7.1-channel surround sound • Virtualizing 7.1 surround sound over any set of speakers • Shiftable virtual speaker positioning allows you to adjust the best sound field easily without moving physical speakers and wires 2 4 3 5 1 6 8 7 No Item Description 1 Shifter enable/disable Click this check box to enable the 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter.
6.2.6 Dolby Pro-Logic IIx Dolby Pro-Logic IIx is a 7.1 surround upmixing technology and is widely used in home theater systems, TVs, game consoles, and car audio systems. It can expand stereo audio, such as MP3, CD, and TV programs into immersive 5.1 or 7.1-channel surround. 3 5 4 1 2 6 No Item Description 1 Dolby Pro-Logic IIx enable/disable Click this check box to enable Dolby Pro-Logic IIx. Clicking the text bar will switch the right window to the Pro-Logic IIx page for manual adjustments.
6.2.7 Dolby Headphone Dolby Headphone creates a stunning multi-channel surround experience over ordinary stereo headphones for playing 3D games, watching 5.1 DVD movies, and listening to music. Dolby Headphone produces surround sound cues so realistic that you will believe you are listening over speakers in a well-controlled studio. Dolby Headphone can also improve listening comfort and reduce "listener fatigue" from long listening over headphones.
6.2.8 Dolby Virtual Speaker Dolby Virtual Speaker technology simulates a 5.1-speaker surround sound listening environment from as few as two speakers. Dolby Virtual Speaker also creates a wider two-channel environment during playback of stereo CDs and MP3 content, and when combined with Dolby Pro Logic® IIx processing, delivers a virtual 5.1-channel surround listening experience from any high-quality stereo source.
6.3 Mixer/Volume The mixer page is designed to control the volume for playback and recording on the Xonar U1. In addition, the Xonar U1 also provides a high-quality digital monitoring function for hearing the recorded audio from the speakers. You can also process the input signals with all playback sound effects such as Dolby technology. 6.3.1 Playback Volume 6 1 5 4 3 2 No Item Description 1 Playback Volume Tab Click this button tto show the playback volume page.
6.3.2 Recording/Monitoring Volume 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 No Item Description 1 Recording Volume Tab Click this button to show the recording volume page. 2 Source/Path Name This shows the source name for each volume control slider, including: MIC: recording from microphone Line-In: recording from Line-in jack for external audio devices WAVE: recording from digital wave audio you are playing on PC (Note: Windows Vista doesn’t support WAVE recording.
5 Recording Volume Slider Drag this slider down to decrease the recording volume; drag up to increase the recording volume. The tool-tip reveals the percentage number from 1 to 100 in terms of the full scale level. 6 Left/Right Balance This horizontal slider controls the volume between the left and right channels.
6.4 Effects 6.4.1 Environment Effects Environment effects can be used to create realistic listening experiences that mimic different environments. There are a total of 27 environment options, which can be applied to all 2D sound sources, like music. 1 2 3 No Item Description 1 Default Environments These four buttons activate Bathroom, Concert hall, Underwater, and Music Pub environments, respectively.
6.4.2 10-Band Equalizer The equalizer can modify the audio output for different frequencies, and be used to compensate for deficiencies in your speakers/systems. There are 12 default patterns and you can also make your own settings. 3 2 1 4 5 6 No Item Description 1 Default Equalizer Options There are 12 available equalizer patterns. Click one to apply it. 2 User Defined You can click this button to apply your own defined parameters saved in the pull-down menu.
6.5 Karaoke/Magic Voice The Xonar U1 provides powerful features for VOIP and Karaoke, including Magic Voice, Microphone Echo, Key-Shifting, and Vocal Cancellation. Magic Voice is a great feature for disguising your voice (using monster/cartoon/male/female effects) for VOIP and online gaming applications. Microphone Echo can generate natural echo effects on your singing voice just like a karaoke machine.
6.6 Mic Array It can reduce environmental background sounds and noises as well as keeping your front side voice input as clean as possible. 1 No Item Description 1 On/Off Check the box to enable or disable array microphone.
6.7 Smart Volume Normalization Smart Volume NormalizationTM (SVN) automatically keeps all music or video/TV audio output at a constant level to reduce manual adjustment hassles inherent with sound sources of different loudness. It allows you to listen to various content, like MP3, TV program, DVD video and even games with consistent sound level. The following graph shows how different signals 1 & 2 will become the same level (for example, 10dB below full scale) after you turn on SVN.
2 3 1 No Item Description 1 SVN On/Off Click this button to enable SVN. This button is outlined blue when active. 2 SVN Display When SVN is enabled, “Smart Volume” will be lit up at the bottom of the volume meter and the volume meter will show the level. 3 SVN Blue Light When SVN is enabled, the master volume knob will be illuminated by a blue light. It will be lit red if the volume is muted.
6.8 DS3D GX (for Vista Only) and DSP Modes Xonar U1 is introducing an innovative technology –DirectSound 3D Game Extensions v1.0 (DS3D GX 1.0)- to restore DirectSound 3D Hardware acceleration mode and its subsidiary EAX effects on Windows Vista for 3D games. Unlike some proprietary API like OpenAL, DS3D GX doesn’t require games to support OpenAL API. All existing games compatible with Microsoft DirectX and DirectSound 2D/3D will be supported with DS3D GX technology.
No Item Description 1 GX Mode DirectSound 3D Game Extensions mode to support EAX and DirectSound 3D Hardware extensions for lots of DirectX/ DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista. 2 Hi-Fi Mode This mode is set for Hi-Fidelity playback, where all effects will be cleared to keep the original digital data and analog output quality as high as possible. 3 Music Mode This mode is set for Music playback. 4 Movie Mode This mode is set for DVD Movie playback. 5 Game Mode This mode is set for Games.
7. Portable Music Processor™ Lite Software Guide 7.
3 1 2 No Item Description 1 Main Setting page Default page to setup and start the music conversion 2 PMP Music page This page will display the converted music files saved in the “PMP Music” folder 3 Software Update This button is used to check online for upgrades to the PMP software and download it for upgrade (make sure your computer is connected to the Internet before you click the button) ASUS Xonar U1 35
7.2 Converting music in “Main Setting” Page Click the main setting page to start the PMP Lite music conversion process. 5 4 1 3 2 No Item Description 1 Select Music Sources Step 1 is to prepare the music sources that you are going to convert. You can select 2 music source folders which can be multiply checked: 1) My Music – This path is locked and refers to C:\ Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Music.
2 Conversion settings Step 2 is to set the conversion settings you would like. There are three tabs for different settings: 1) Format: select MP3 or WMA to be the converted format you would like to have.
7.3 Find Converted Music in “PMP Music” Page The default conversion destination folder is C:\Program Files\ASUS PMP Lite\PMP Music\. You can easily click the PMP Music page to find the converted music library. The new file name will be copied and suffixed with the data rate and DH (ie. Dolby Headphone) or DVS (ie. Dolby Virtual Speaker) if the effect is applied. For example: Original file name: ABCD.mp3 Converted file name: ABCD_192K_DH.
8. Troubleshooting and FAQs [Troubleshooting] The Xonar U1 driver could not be installed on my PC. Instructions: 1. Make sure that you have plugged the Xonar U1 into USB port. 2. Check that the Windows hardware device manager has discovered a USB audio device. If no device is found, try scanning for new hardware or restart Windows. 3. Remove the Xonar U1, plug it into another USB port, and try again. The PMP Lite software could not be installed on my PC. Instructions: Check the following points: 1.
I can’t hear any sound from my analog speakers Instructions: 1. Make sure that you have connected speakers properly and have powered on your speakers 2. Make sure that the device master volume or the software player has NOT been muted on the Xonar U1 Audio Center. 3. If you are using Dolby Digital Live encoder through the S/PDIF output, the analog output will be muted to get rid of the interference between your digital speaker system and analog speakers or headphones. Please check if this is the case.
Why couldn’t PMP Lite convert some music files successfully? Instructions: 1. Make sure you have installed Windows Media Player 9 or above version, and MP3 encoder in your PC. (following the pop-up downloading information to finish the installation. To download free MP3 encoder, go to: http://www. elecard.com/download/#freeware/ ) 2. PMP Lite supports MP3, WMA, WAVE, CD source formats. 3. PMP Lite can’t support DRM protected content. 4. Currently PMP Lite only support common 16 bit audio sources.
[FAQ] Q1: Does the Xonar U1 support Windows Vista? Answer: Yes, the Xonar U1 driver package does support Windows Vista and most key features are available. Q2: Why does the Xonar U1 support Dolby technologies? Answer: Dolby is the ONLY brand and technologies recognized by the CE industry and available on a wide range of audio equipment. Xonar includes these features to make your PC a powerful media and entertainment center. Q3: Why do I need Dolby for PC games? Answer: 1.
