ASUS Xonar Essence STX, SNR up to 124dB

[Monkeywoman]

" ASUS just released an audio precision report of its latest product Xonar Essence STX. (read Page 2 for report details)

According to ASUS, the yet-to-be-release audio product Xonar Essence STX is “world’s first onboard headphone amp 600ohms headphone with <100dB THD+N”. What’s more, Xonar Essence STX isolated power sources for headphone output and normal audio output. The whole card is using Nichicon capacitors which is called “fine gold”. We don’t know the release date of the card, but it will become another expensive enthusiast audio product.

Craving for the clearest audio source to support your precious headphone and speakers? Then let Xonar Essence STX amaze you. Being the world’s first audio card to achieve 124dB in signal-to-noise ratio, and capable of driving headphone with highest impedance under lowest 100dB distortion, your only concern will be hard to stop the heavenly music playback from Xonar Essence STX.

Designed in Essence
Perfectly sealed by improved EMI shield, Xonar Essence STX’s analog output path generates the purest audio ever from a sound card -124dB signal-to-noise ratio and 0.0003% distortion.

Fine-selected Components
With premium-quality digital-to-audio converter and audio-specific capacitors selected, Xonar Essence STX provides <10~90kHZ frequency response and 124dB dynamic range for your unlimited pleasure.

Shines your beloved headphones
Drives up to 600ohms headphones with less than 100dB distortion, the built-in headphone amp supports every available headphone in the market with unbelievable audio quality. "

source; http://en.expreview.com/2008/10/20/a...-to-124db.html

[ABXG]

That is one beastly card. I hope ASUS continues making sound cards so that I will for ever be free of Creative products.

[GAR]

Looks nice, but its still using the same chip, requires the pci-e bridge and the extra power connector

[Jamesrt2004]

sooo going to get this with the Z5500's

[RealTelstar]

Cool i also would like to get rid of creative... and i play with headphones

[BieBiep]

sooo going to get this with the Z5500's

Blasphemy.

[Zaskar]

No Optical out? WTH?

[BieBiep]

No Optical out? WTH?

It's for HEADSETS.
Only headsets need this kind of accuracy, since they have no built-in amp nor any other enhancers.

You probably wouldn't even notice this on big speakers since most of the sound is lost when it enters your ears

On another note, CAN THEY BE PUT IN SLI? YES PLEASE!

[SuporterPoli]

When will this be on the market,how much will it cost and the most important thing will it be better at gaming than a XtremeMusic?

[Lestat]

On another note, CAN THEY BE PUT IN SLI? YES PLEASE!

i'm sorry what! ?

[Ch@pS]

On another note, CAN THEY BE PUT IN SLI? YES PLEASE!

I fell off my chair, you are getting the hospital bill, very lol!!!!

[Frodin]

i'm sorry what! ?

The card has mono output only, s you'd need to SLI them for stereo.
Too bad it needs an external power connector.

[cadaveca]

You mean stereo? headphones are not mono...

[MrToad]

You mean stereo? headphones are not mono...

That one went right over your head, didn't it mate? :P

[BababooeyHTJ]

I really hated my Xonar Dx. It sounded like a bowl of Rice Krispies. I have my doubts about this.

[NapalmV5]

oh crap! not another sound card

looks intriguing gotta get it

love the through-hole caps

[XSAlliN]

It's for HEADSETS.
Only headsets need this kind of accuracy, since they have no built-in amp nor any other enhancers.

TPA6120A2

A capable Headset needs an capable amp to go with that. Older Xonar models or worthless without it. Worthless for an audiophile, but Average Joe is happy with On Board Sound so there's no point for upgrade in his case.

[Cybercat]

Looks awesome!

[joshd]

Yeah... like many headphones can resolve 124db anyway. O.o

XSAlliN: the whole point with this (and the claro halo) is that they have headamps on board. Depending on how good they are, a dedicated one may not be necessary.

[bullet2urbrain]

Fine-selected Components
With premium-quality digital-to-audio converter and audio-specific capacitors selected, Xonar Essence STX provides <10~90kHZ frequency response and 124dB dynamic range for your unlimited pleasure.

anyone??? 90kHz?

4.5times human hearing???

<10Hz? uh? headphone driver going that low accurately? very few.

[joshd]

anyone??? 90kHz?

4.5times human hearing???

<10Hz? uh? headphone driver going that low accurately? very few.

And hence why audio with sample rates above 44.1kHz is not really necessary.

[n-sanity]

anyone??? 90kHz?

4.5times human hearing???

<10Hz? uh? headphone driver going that low accurately? very few.

It actually makes the biggest of differences!
No headphone driver can really go below 40ish hz (most state 20hz-20khz but do your research and you'll realize its more then 10db below at those frequencies), to do that you need a >7" driver. I've Paradigm 9se MK3's with 2 8" glass-composite drivers and a huge port at the bottom tuned to 32hz; i can benefit from this card, but still not to the fullest

The real treat here is the SNR. My power amp has 122db snr and is class a... so i definitely can make use of the Asus Most receivers / amps are a good bit below 100db though, so for mainstream people there's little use in this

And as for the sampling rate, anything less then 192khz and you can hear the difference with a good setup ($3000msrp++).

Regarding the 90khz ceiling... there's also use in that! Although most humans can't hear even 20khz, the are some supertweeters that produce more then 100khz; although we can't hear them, constructive and destructive interference from those waves alters other waves around you, and some things resonate at those frequencies thus altering their sonic behaviour That tiny bit of difference (perhaps even smaller then the gain from using premium cables, [if going even smaller is possible:P]) is sought after by enthusiasts and crazies with boatloads of cash alike!

Props to asus. Of course many audiophile cards (no, not x-fi, the real stereo and recording cards) have already beat them to the punch (albeit in a different pricerange entirely)...

[bullet2urbrain]

It actually makes the biggest of differences!
No headphone driver can really go below 40ish hz (most state 20hz-20khz but do your research and you'll realize its more then 10db below at those frequencies), to do that you need a >7" driver. I've Paradigm 9se MK3's with 2 8" glass-composite drivers and a huge port at the bottom tuned to 32hz; i can benefit from this card, but still not to the fullest

The real treat here is the SNR. My power amp has 122db snr and is class a... so i definitely can make use of the Asus Most receivers / amps are a good bit below 100db though, so for mainstream people there's little use in this

And as for the sampling rate, anything less then 192khz and you can hear the difference with a good setup ($3000msrp++).

Regarding the 90khz ceiling... there's also use in that! Although most humans can't hear even 20khz, the are some supertweeters that produce more then 100khz; although we can't hear them, constructive and destructive interference from those waves alters other waves around you, and some things resonate at those frequencies thus altering their sonic behaviour That tiny bit of difference (perhaps even smaller then the gain from using premium cables, [if going even smaller is possible:P]) is sought after by enthusiasts and crazies with boatloads of cash alike!

Props to asus. Of course many audiophile cards (no, not x-fi, the real stereo and recording cards) have already beat them to the punch (albeit in a different pricerange entirely)...

Okay.

1 Person so far, that has posted, and You took way more time to write an explanation that I knew already,

As someone said above, Nyquist theorem and all that crap, Sampling rate, bandwidth yes we all know the ins and outs of Acoustics and Audio but really someone mentioned a Z5500 set, the majority of the consumer world isnt going to be hooking these up to a setup of $3000+

Most will be going to a basic midrange lacking HTIB setup

Hence my shortened sweetened post about ridiculous specs that 95% of the market will never notice a difference.

Cheers

[nfm]

oh crap! not another sound card

looks intriguing gotta get it

love the through-hole caps

Cool, as far as I recall you don't really like nichicon muse caps, it should take you few min to desolder and put black gates without ripping pcb. Let me know how this with opa637 + mods compares to prelude .

[Aerou]

quick question:
Right now I am listening on a Audiotrak Prodigy HiFi w/ BB OPA2107AP and Sennheiser 555 on it. Would there any increase in analog sound quality with this card (even with swapped OPAMPs)?