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?
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?
Waiting.
about the opamp, since you can replace them, is needed/wanted/desired to do so for an average listener?
4670k 4.6ghz 1.22v watercooled CPU/GPU - Asus Z87-A - 290 1155mhz/1250mhz - Kingston Hyper Blu 8gb -crucial 128gb ssd - EyeFunity 5040x1050 120hz - CM atcs840 - Corsair 750w -sennheiser hd600 headphones - Asus essence stx - G400 and steelseries 6v2 -windows 8 Pro 64bit Best OS used - - 9500p 3dmark11 (one of the 26% that isnt confused on xtreme forums)
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.
Last edited by ROBSCIX; 12-31-2008 at 10:22 AM.
ok thx.
Card will be shipped 17 of jan here.
4670k 4.6ghz 1.22v watercooled CPU/GPU - Asus Z87-A - 290 1155mhz/1250mhz - Kingston Hyper Blu 8gb -crucial 128gb ssd - EyeFunity 5040x1050 120hz - CM atcs840 - Corsair 750w -sennheiser hd600 headphones - Asus essence stx - G400 and steelseries 6v2 -windows 8 Pro 64bit Best OS used - - 9500p 3dmark11 (one of the 26% that isnt confused on xtreme forums)
Looks like this card the best solution for gaming headphones
Gaming rig;
ASUS RAMPAGE IV BLACK EDITION
I7-4390K
G.SKILL Trident X 16GB 2400
Intel 530 240GB
2x Asus GTX780
Corsair AX1200
HP ZR30w 30
Win 8.1 pro
Sound rig;
Auzen X-Fi H.T. HD --> Yulong D100 MKII --> D-7100
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.
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?
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
Hardware
- Core i5 750 @ 3.6Ghz (180x20)
- Scythe Zipang 2
- 4x2Gb DDR3 (1080@7-7-7-16, 1.65v)
- Gigabyte P55-UD2
- EVGA GTX 260, Corsair 550VX, mATX case
Audio/Video
- Samsung LN32A550 32" 1080p LCD
- Asus Xonar Essence STX
- Denon AH-D2000
- Sony STR-DE197 -> Polk Audio M10
Desktop Picture
Hardware
- Core i5 750 @ 3.6Ghz (180x20)
- Scythe Zipang 2
- 4x2Gb DDR3 (1080@7-7-7-16, 1.65v)
- Gigabyte P55-UD2
- EVGA GTX 260, Corsair 550VX, mATX case
Audio/Video
- Samsung LN32A550 32" 1080p LCD
- Asus Xonar Essence STX
- Denon AH-D2000
- Sony STR-DE197 -> Polk Audio M10
Desktop Picture
Its amped.
Computer: i7 2600k @ 4.7Ghz | Asus P8P67 Evo | Corsair LP 16gb 1600CL9 | Silver Arrow | Essence STX | Crucial m4 128gb | Silverstone Raven 3|
Video: 2x Sapphire 6950 Toxic 2gb @ 6970 Switch @ 880 / 1350 | Asus VG248QE |
Audio: ODAC+O2 => JH|13 Pro | STX => ATH-AD700X / Audioengine A5
Hardware
- Core i5 750 @ 3.6Ghz (180x20)
- Scythe Zipang 2
- 4x2Gb DDR3 (1080@7-7-7-16, 1.65v)
- Gigabyte P55-UD2
- EVGA GTX 260, Corsair 550VX, mATX case
Audio/Video
- Samsung LN32A550 32" 1080p LCD
- Asus Xonar Essence STX
- Denon AH-D2000
- Sony STR-DE197 -> Polk Audio M10
Desktop Picture
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?
7820X | Asrock X299 Taichi XE | Gigabyte 1080 Ti Xtreme | 32GB Memoriez | Corsair HXi1000 | 500GB 960 Evo
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.
Got the card.
first impressions, why is my music sounding so different?
4670k 4.6ghz 1.22v watercooled CPU/GPU - Asus Z87-A - 290 1155mhz/1250mhz - Kingston Hyper Blu 8gb -crucial 128gb ssd - EyeFunity 5040x1050 120hz - CM atcs840 - Corsair 750w -sennheiser hd600 headphones - Asus essence stx - G400 and steelseries 6v2 -windows 8 Pro 64bit Best OS used - - 9500p 3dmark11 (one of the 26% that isnt confused on xtreme forums)
..different in what why?
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.
4670k 4.6ghz 1.22v watercooled CPU/GPU - Asus Z87-A - 290 1155mhz/1250mhz - Kingston Hyper Blu 8gb -crucial 128gb ssd - EyeFunity 5040x1050 120hz - CM atcs840 - Corsair 750w -sennheiser hd600 headphones - Asus essence stx - G400 and steelseries 6v2 -windows 8 Pro 64bit Best OS used - - 9500p 3dmark11 (one of the 26% that isnt confused on xtreme forums)
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.
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.
4670k 4.6ghz 1.22v watercooled CPU/GPU - Asus Z87-A - 290 1155mhz/1250mhz - Kingston Hyper Blu 8gb -crucial 128gb ssd - EyeFunity 5040x1050 120hz - CM atcs840 - Corsair 750w -sennheiser hd600 headphones - Asus essence stx - G400 and steelseries 6v2 -windows 8 Pro 64bit Best OS used - - 9500p 3dmark11 (one of the 26% that isnt confused on xtreme forums)
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..
Last edited by ROBSCIX; 02-05-2009 at 09:40 AM.
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?
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.
Last edited by flopper; 02-06-2009 at 04:33 AM.
4670k 4.6ghz 1.22v watercooled CPU/GPU - Asus Z87-A - 290 1155mhz/1250mhz - Kingston Hyper Blu 8gb -crucial 128gb ssd - EyeFunity 5040x1050 120hz - CM atcs840 - Corsair 750w -sennheiser hd600 headphones - Asus essence stx - G400 and steelseries 6v2 -windows 8 Pro 64bit Best OS used - - 9500p 3dmark11 (one of the 26% that isnt confused on xtreme forums)
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.
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