ASUS has outed its latest soundcard, together with a partnership with audio manufacturer Sennheiser, and the two companies reckon their Xonar Xense system is the perfect match for demanding gamers. Consisting of the ASUS Xonar Xense One audio card and the Sennheiser PC350 headphones, the setup includes first person shooter-optimized surround sound, Dolby Headphone 5.1 and Xonar GX2.5 support, and 6.5mm studio jacks rather than regular 3.5mm sockets.
The promise is that having been developed in parallel, the soundcard and headphones will bring out more detail than “random audio card/headphone combinations”. Whether that’s true or not remains to be heard; what we do have are hard specs.
The ASUS Xonar Xense One has 7.1 channel surround sound support (with a splitter cable included in the box), analog and digital inputs, and connections for front-panel audio ports. Meanwhile the Sennheiser PC350 headphones support a 10 – 26,000Hz frequency range with less than 0.1-percent distortion and have a boom microphone. No word on pricing; we’re waiting to hear back from ASUS.
Update: ASUS tells us the bundle of both Xonar Xense soundcard and PC350 headphones will retail for around £210 ($320).