{"video_id":"Onc9uJvjLMU","title":"ASUS Xonar U3 USB Headphone Amp & Sound Card Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2012-05-07T14:53:29Z","duration_s":379,"segments":[{"start_s":7.319,"end_s":14.559,"text":"today I have another ASUS oxar rather Zonar product to unbox this is the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":11.84,"end_s":21.0,"text":"mobile headphone amp USB sound card so ASUS's claim is that this can power up","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":16.72,"end_s":24.08,"text":"to 150 ohm headphones which should","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":21.0,"end_s":27.519,"text":"basically cover anything out there as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":24.08,"end_s":29.56,"text":"far as gaming headsets go so this is a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":27.519,"end_s":34.239,"text":"gaming oriented product and they are saying that can pretty much power any","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":31.239,"end_s":39.68,"text":"gaming headphones and it is a great replacement for onboard notebook audio","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":37.28,"end_s":42.96,"text":"so there is the USB device itself you know what let's go ahead and get it open","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":40.76,"end_s":47.199,"text":"up here and then we will talk about it in a little bit more detail actually you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":44.64,"end_s":52.8,"text":"know what no let's do the back first okay audio chipset is uh proprietary","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":49.92,"end_s":58.879,"text":"ASUS one it uses USB 2 okay out look features has an LED","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":56.199,"end_s":63.039,"text":"indicator play music and idle LED on mute is Led off","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":60.48,"end_s":66.88,"text":"okay cool operating systems Windows 7 and vist and XP Dolby Technologies","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":65.32,"end_s":71.799,"text":"including Dolby headphone Dolby virtual speaker Dolby prologics and Dolby","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":69.439,"end_s":76.799,"text":"Digital live so Dolby headphone means that you can use this sound card in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":74.56,"end_s":80.759,"text":"order to power your regular stereo headphones in Virtual surround okay so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":79.4,"end_s":85.64,"text":"that's a sort of a preference thing whether you like it or not but you'll","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":82.64,"end_s":88.24,"text":"have the option analog output Jack and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":85.64,"end_s":94.72,"text":"digital spiff output combo so it has a 3 and2 mm mini analog and digital combo","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":91.439,"end_s":97.52,"text":"Jack cool built-in headphone amp with up","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":94.72,"end_s":101.28,"text":"to 98 DB sound to noise ratio signal to noise ratio sorry I always say sound to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":99.04,"end_s":105.84,"text":"noise ratio but I know it's not right okay for 32","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":105.96,"end_s":111.159,"text":"ohms cool okay so you actually have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":109.04,"end_s":114.52,"text":"three different gains that you can select in the software so you can tweak","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":112.6,"end_s":119.159,"text":"it depending on what kind of impedance the headphones you're using happen to be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":116.56,"end_s":123.6,"text":"analog input jack is a mic in okay so you can use this for your microphone as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":120.799,"end_s":126.52,"text":"well as for your headphones okay driver features you can just sort of look at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":125.32,"end_s":132.68,"text":"that you guys can pause if you really want to read that okay actually no some of these are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":129.84,"end_s":136.12,"text":"important so the 3D yep normalizes the volume smart volume normalizer k Magic","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":134.64,"end_s":141.92,"text":"voice that's kind of neat modifies the sound of your voice for VoIP and online chat","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":138.64,"end_s":144.879,"text":"applications hello I'm Linus okay that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":141.92,"end_s":149.56,"text":"not very good but whatever gx2.5 enables the latest eax audio so that's eax","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":147.2,"end_s":154.12,"text":"5.0 and audio performance so there's your audio performance specs right there","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":153.12,"end_s":159.08,"text":"what else we got here system requirements really 256 Megs of RAM Al I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":157.12,"end_s":164.56,"text":"can't run this on like my uh my Pentium one okay package contents okay what else","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":161.76,"end_s":168.64,"text":"we got here some not English headphone amplifier so extra base punches and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":166.519,"end_s":174.12,"text":"sound details by fine tune headphone amp circuit okay whatever that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":171.319,"end_s":179.959,"text":"means what they're trying to say is that using a headphone amp even a small USB","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":177.28,"end_s":185.48,"text":"powered one like this and using a a sound card even a USB one like this is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":183.04,"end_s":189.56,"text":"going to be worlds better than whatever you're using on your notebook now the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":187.84,"end_s":196.08,"text":"exception might be notebooks that actually have high-end onboard sound","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":192.28,"end_s":198.0,"text":"although those are few and far between I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":196.08,"end_s":204.28,"text":"have been an advocate for a very long time of using Sound Solutions that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":201.0,"end_s":207.28,"text":"aren't total totally horrible so the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":204.28,"end_s":209.0,"text":"Zonar u3 aims to achieve that on the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":207.28,"end_s":212.879,"text":"notebook side I would not necessarily recommend using this on a desktop","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":210.959,"end_s":217.239,"text":"because that is not the intended purpose but for a notebook you can expect to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":214.92,"end_s":220.48,"text":"have a significantly better experience so you can output to a variety of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":218.64,"end_s":225.439,"text":"different things including look at this you can output SPI if out to uh an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":222.68,"end_s":230.159,"text":"amplifier or rather a receiver you can connect headphones and microphone you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":227.48,"end_s":234.879,"text":"can connect a line in audio source and you can configure what all of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":232.599,"end_s":239.799,"text":"these are doing through the driver we also have included a USB extension cable","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":237.64,"end_s":243.64,"text":"so this is going to allow you to not plug it directly into your notebook say","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":241.28,"end_s":246.879,"text":"you have a notebook that doesn't have um enough space around the USB port so you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":245.519,"end_s":250.64,"text":"got other things plugged in you can't fit sort of a bulky connector like this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":249.159,"end_s":255.0,"text":"well you can use the extension cable to just run it a little ways away so let's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":253.04,"end_s":260.799,"text":"have a look at the u3 itself it's fairly straightforward I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":257.639,"end_s":262.04,"text":"think there we go it's got two things on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":260.799,"end_s":266.84,"text":"the top that look like speakers but they're not okay it's got a cap which","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":265.16,"end_s":271.72,"text":"stays connected which is kind of handy because you don't want to lose it okay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":268.8,"end_s":276.52,"text":"it's got a split ring keychain attacher thing here so in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":274.28,"end_s":282.199,"text":"theory that will also help you to not lose it there are is your headphone jack","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":279.12,"end_s":282.199,"text":"as well as your microphone","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":282.36,"end_s":288.759,"text":"jack hold on just a moment so what makes this better than","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":287.039,"end_s":292.28,"text":"your onboard audio in all likelihood your onboard board audio is using an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":290.56,"end_s":295.44,"text":"inferior audio chipset because that's one of the specs that Joe average","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":294.0,"end_s":299.479,"text":"consumer doesn't care about when he's shopping for a notebook so they tend to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":297.199,"end_s":302.919,"text":"cheap out on it uh the other reason is that it is separated from the rest of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":301.72,"end_s":309.759,"text":"the components that are inside your notebook so there's all kinds of fan spinning and electrons moving around and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":307.44,"end_s":314.88,"text":"high frequency switching going on that causes all kinds of absolute havoc on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":312.759,"end_s":318.8,"text":"audio equipment which is designed to operate best we want designed to operate","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":316.68,"end_s":321.44,"text":"best but is limited to operating best when there are very few sources of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":320.319,"end_s":325.759,"text":"interference so I would say you're going to get the best performance out of it when you actually take it and plug it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":324.319,"end_s":329.319,"text":"into this and get it as far away from your notebook as possible one of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":327.919,"end_s":335.12,"text":"other reasons is they use what they're calling X grounding in order to reduce","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":333.24,"end_s":340.759,"text":"even further the interference that can be caused by the PCB design itself so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":339.28,"end_s":343.68,"text":"that's good as well one last thing I wanted to also mention actually this is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":342.52,"end_s":347.759,"text":"on my deck here you know you don't have to look at that so there's three different modes there's viip mode","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":346.36,"end_s":353.319,"text":"there's gaming mode and there's excite mode and basically those are just you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":349.6,"end_s":355.919,"text":"know zero boost to the noise Audio Level","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":353.319,"end_s":360.8,"text":"then there's a 9 D boost which also includes amplifying some of those higher","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":357.84,"end_s":365.199,"text":"range sounds you know the the footsteps for U FPS Gamers and then","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":363.36,"end_s":369.199,"text":"finally the excite mode I think is more for viewing videos so it's a little bit","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":366.88,"end_s":372.16,"text":"louder so and is great for you know explosions and all that kind of good","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":370.639,"end_s":375.88,"text":"stuff so thank you for checking out the unboxing video of The Zone ru3 don't","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":374.319,"end_s":380.319,"text":"forget to subscribe to L Tech tips from unboxings reviews and other computer","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":377.44,"end_s":380.319,"text":"videos","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"today I have another ASUS oxar rather Zonar product to unbox this is the mobile headphone amp USB sound card so ASUS's claim is that this can power up to 150 ohm headphones which should basically cover anything out there as far as gaming headsets go so this is a gaming oriented product and they are saying that can pretty much power any gaming headphones and it is a great replacement for onboard notebook audio so there is the USB device itself you know what let's go ahead and get it open up here and then we will talk about it in a little bit more detail actually you know what no let's do the back first okay audio chipset is uh proprietary ASUS one it uses USB 2 okay out look features has an LED indicator play music and idle LED on mute is Led off okay cool operating systems Windows 7 and vist and XP Dolby Technologies including Dolby headphone Dolby virtual speaker Dolby prologics and Dolby Digital live so Dolby headphone means that you can use this sound card in order to power your regular stereo headphones in Virtual surround okay so that's a sort of a preference thing whether you like it or not but you'll have the option analog output Jack and digital spiff output combo so it has a 3 and2 mm mini analog and digital combo Jack cool built-in headphone amp with up to 98 DB sound to noise ratio signal to noise ratio sorry I always say sound to noise ratio but I know it's not right okay for 32 ohms cool okay so you actually have three different gains that you can select in the software so you can tweak it depending on what kind of impedance the headphones you're using happen to be analog input jack is a mic in okay so you can use this for your microphone as well as for your headphones okay driver features you can just sort of look at that you guys can pause if you really want to read that okay actually no some of these are important so the 3D yep normalizes the volume smart volume normalizer k Magic voice that's kind of neat modifies the sound of your voice for VoIP and online chat applications hello I'm Linus okay that's not very good but whatever gx2.5 enables the latest eax audio so that's eax 5.0 and audio performance so there's your audio performance specs right there what else we got here system requirements really 256 Megs of RAM Al I can't run this on like my uh my Pentium one okay package contents okay what else we got here some not English headphone amplifier so extra base punches and sound details by fine tune headphone amp circuit okay whatever that means what they're trying to say is that using a headphone amp even a small USB powered one like this and using a a sound card even a USB one like this is going to be worlds better than whatever you're using on your notebook now the exception might be notebooks that actually have high-end onboard sound although those are few and far between I have been an advocate for a very long time of using Sound Solutions that aren't total totally horrible so the Zonar u3 aims to achieve that on the notebook side I would not necessarily recommend using this on a desktop because that is not the intended purpose but for a notebook you can expect to have a significantly better experience so you can output to a variety of different things including look at this you can output SPI if out to uh an amplifier or rather a receiver you can connect headphones and microphone you can connect a line in audio source and you can configure what all of these are doing through the driver we also have included a USB extension cable so this is going to allow you to not plug it directly into your notebook say you have a notebook that doesn't have um enough space around the USB port so you got other things plugged in you can't fit sort of a bulky connector like this well you can use the extension cable to just run it a little ways away so let's have a look at the u3 itself it's fairly straightforward I think there we go it's got two things on the top that look like speakers but they're not okay it's got a cap which stays connected which is kind of handy because you don't want to lose it okay it's got a split ring keychain attacher thing here so in theory that will also help you to not lose it there are is your headphone jack as well as your microphone jack hold on just a moment so what makes this better than your onboard audio in all likelihood your onboard board audio is using an inferior audio chipset because that's one of the specs that Joe average consumer doesn't care about when he's shopping for a notebook so they tend to cheap out on it uh the other reason is that it is separated from the rest of the components that are inside your notebook so there's all kinds of fan spinning and electrons moving around and high frequency switching going on that causes all kinds of absolute havoc on audio equipment which is designed to operate best we want designed to operate best but is limited to operating best when there are very few sources of interference so I would say you're going to get the best performance out of it when you actually take it and plug it into this and get it as far away from your notebook as possible one of the other reasons is they use what they're calling X grounding in order to reduce even further the interference that can be caused by the PCB design itself so that's good as well one last thing I wanted to also mention actually this is on my deck here you know you don't have to look at that so there's three different modes there's viip mode there's gaming mode and there's excite mode and basically those are just you know zero boost to the noise Audio Level then there's a 9 D boost which also includes amplifying some of those higher range sounds you know the the footsteps for U FPS Gamers and then finally the excite mode I think is more for viewing videos so it's a little bit louder so and is great for you know explosions and all that kind of good stuff so thank you for checking out the unboxing video of The Zone ru3 don't forget to subscribe to L Tech tips from unboxings reviews and other computer videos"}