ASUS Xonar Essence STX thread.

[ROBSCIX]

These cadr have been showing up in various places for sale on the net. Good idea to start a thread about comments and questions related to them.
Any current owners, or owners in waiting?

[flopper]

Waiting.

about the opamp, since you can replace them, is needed/wanted/desired to do so for an average listener?

[ROBSCIX]

The card has great sound quality right out of the box. I have been testing it for over a month now and it is a spectacular soundcard. If you want to change the opamps that is up to you but you do not need to change them.

[flopper]

ok thx.

Card will be shipped 17 of jan here.

[koc]

Looks like this card the best solution for gaming headphones

[ROBSCIX]

The initial impression of this card @ Head-Fi have been all top notch. I have been gaming with it for almost 2 months now and have been enjoying it very much.

[dexman]

hi robscix. i'm been eyeing this soundcard since first info was released and i'm having a little dilema, especially after reading your impressions at Head-Fi. do you think i should go for 'Essence' or some stereo amplifier like HK 3490. i could just use optical out from my motherboard, in that case i wouldn't need a discrete sound card, would i? i don't care about game effects. i use both speakers and headphones (HD 555), so im kinda leaning towards stereo amplifier, which would come handy in future speakers upgrade.but i'm afraid that headphone output wouldn't be as good as on the essence and the price is twice as much. what do you think?

[Bradan]

i think if your just using hd 555, the stereo amp would be fine.

this is kind of geared towards high end, high impedance headphones. hd 555 = 50ohm and the essence is capable of 600ohm headphones.

I thin you'd be happy with the receiver.

edit:
id advise against onboard + sound card for the sake of no conflicts

[Bradan]

The STX has a front panel connector. Can someone tell me whether the front panel headphone connector is from the headphone amp part of the STX, or is it just an normal line out?

x2

I'd like to know as well
(I'd assume it would be amped)

[Bojamijams]

Its amped.

[Bradan]

Its amped.

I actually have a set of ah-d2000 ordered.

How much of a difference is there to be had between my audigy 4 SE (Close to Xonar DX)?

[Budwise]

Would it be a noticeable difference moving from an X-Fi Xtreme Music to this? The PCI interface of the Xtreme Music is starting to become a problem because the only PCI slot in my system is right above my GTX 295 and I seem to be getting some feedback through my HD 595's. I do alot of gaming, mostly RTS, but would it be a gaming downgrade and a music upgrade or what?

[dexman]

it would be a gaming downgrade if you were a hardcore FPS gamer. i doub't you're gonna notice any difference while playing RTS. i don't have this card yet, but from what i have read music performance is above any X-Fi based sound card. will it be noticeable depends on your speakers/headphones too.

[flopper]

Got the card.
first impressions, why is my music sounding so different?

[ROBSCIX]

..different in what why?

[flopper]

sound is different, clarity, space,.
using sennheiser 570 currently.
some songs sounds awful actually, as the recording bitrate isnt up to it.
guess I start to look at flac.

drivers cant be loaded from asus as the server seems to be out of order.
No issues with current ones except in BF2, where the eax did make fps stutter.

[ROBSCIX]

Yes, the STX has a very open sound stage and teh clarity and detail is great if you have good media. When you have a good soundcard, the detail and clarity can show the limits of poorly encoded or low bitrate files.

[flopper]

As far, the sound is really good, I also had fun adjusting using the EQ, never did such before as there wasnt much of a point to do that.
I get my sennheiser 600 soonish, I got a deal for ones at a good price.
I had my eyes on those for 5 years ever since I listen to them.

The sound is really clear.

[ROBSCIX]

The Essence STX has become a hot topic for Headphone guys. People have been comparing this card to DAC's and other external gear worth many times more then it's price. There is also alot of upgrade options through opamps..the card already has some great capacitors onboard. As for you cans, I like Sennheisers they are great sounding headphones..

[ROBSCIX]

Could someone please tell me the exact length of this card?

Exact dimensions off the box: App. 168 *107mm (W*L)

So that would be 107mm

Hope this Helps.

[WhiteFireDragon]

i'm thinking about about getting this card because it's the only one i know of that also has a video output. if i don't game at all, would this be a good choice to plug the HDMI into my monitor? i also have a set of logitech z-5500 so how am i going to plug the speakers in this card?

[ROBSCIX]

i'm thinking about about getting this card because it's the only one i know of that also has a video output. if i don't game at all, would this be a good choice to plug the HDMI into my monitor? i also have a set of logitech z-5500 so how am i going to plug the speakers in this card?

The Essence STX card does not have a video output. You might be thinking of the HDAV 1.3 Deluxe -that card has full HDMI support.

[flopper]

fit in my 1x pcie top slot on a ud5 board.

found you could set 24bit in foobar and windows mixer. LOL
sounds even better now.
was a bug when I set that, with reboot the driver worked again.

[dexman]

And I still haven't completely made up my mind whether I should get that card or the STX...

I guess the HDAV 1.3 Deluxe would be too long to clear my RAM, though.

you can use any pci-e slot you want. its compatibile with pci-e x1,x4,x16

[ROBSCIX]

The Essence STX is a small card.
The HDAV 1.3 is larger and also has the daughter board if you want to go with the Deluxe model. The daughter board can go in any slot though.