Asus has announced their first ever sound card that promises to "transform almost any PC into a high-quality digital home media center." The Xonar D2 is a 7.1-channel audio card based on the AV200 audio chip with built-in sound-enhancing technologies from Dolby and DTS. It features a signal- to-noise ratio (SNR) of 118 db for both audio in and out. It also packs some new tech that offers "outstanding" game audio quality. The card comes with a special application called “Portable Media Processor" that works with the onboard ALT (Analog Loopback Transformation) circuit to provide almost lossless analog recording audio quality from digital music files.

“As users increasingly use their PCs to enjoy music, movies, and gaming, great audio is key to delivering an outstanding entertainment experience,” said Greg Rodehau, PC Market Segment Director, Dolby Laboratories. “The ASUS Xonar D2 sound card delivers a powerful suite of Dolby technologies that create highly immersive listening environments from virtually any content or playback device being used.”

Source